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Brown Girls Grinding with Loren LoRosa · We Talk Back

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to We Talk Back Podcast, a production of iHeartRadio
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: and the Black Effect Network.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: We're just two unapologetically Black women with an opinion who
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: talk back.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: What's up, y'all? Thank you for tuning in for a
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: new episode of We Talk Back, a show dedicated to
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: you dreamers and chasers. It's your co-host, AJ Holiday. What's up, Tim?
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: Hey, y'all. It's Official Tim Vam. I love y'all.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Thank y'all for tuning in again. We got a guest
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: with us today, Lauren LaRosa. Do her introduction. I know
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: you got it.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so why you ain't let me do it? Okay,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: you know I be writing nice little introductions for the guests, okay?
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: All right, y'all. So listen, today's guest is simply a
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: brown girl grinding, okay? A former news producer for TMZ,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: also on-air talent for over seven years. Also for the
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: past year, y'all have seen her as a recurring guest
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: host on The Breakfast Club with Charlamagne Tha God and
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: DJ Envy. And again, she's a producer. She's a model.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: She's an actress. She's dominating and documenting her journey. through
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: the world of entertainment via lifestyle vlogs on her self-produced
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: YouTube channel, Lauren LaRosa TV. And at the end of
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: the day, it's Lauren LaRosa. You like that?
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: Yes, I love how you brought it all together. At
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: the end of the day, it's new, too. So you
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: did your research. How y'all doing? I'm so happy to
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: be here. I'm so happy to be with girls that
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: talk back because maybe y'all be talking back. Maybe like,
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: shut up.
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: Yes, we do. How was y'all weekend?
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: It was good. It was cool.
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: What'd you do?
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: I didn't really do much of nothing. I went out.
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: I had some friends in town. I newly got a
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: place here in Jersey. So just, like, letting people know
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: that I'm here and, like, popping out a little bit, like,
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: dinners and stuff like that. Nothing too, too crazy.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: No? What about you, AJ?
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: I've been sick. the fuck what is happening you sound
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: better yeah then I saw this post on social media
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: how everybody's sick so apparently there's something going around and
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: only place I've been to was the grocery store it's like.
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: A cold but it feels like a flu Yes.
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: No, no. I called AJ Saturday. I was like, hello.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: I was like, I think I'm on it too, you.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: I was like, can I speak to AJ?
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: Like, God damn, bitch, what's wrong with you?
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Girl, I'm sweating right now. Like, I really need like
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: a fan and an ice pack. I'm so hot, but
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: it's coming out. That's my weekend.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: Y'all, let me tell y'all about my weekend.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: So one of my good friends, she was having her
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: twin babies christened this weekend in Atlanta. So I went
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: down to celebrate the babies and go to the christening,
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: and it was such a good time. And at the
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: end of the church service, my friend pulled me to
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: the front. She was like, I want to get the
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: pastor to pray for you. So I went to the front,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: and the pastor, like, it was two of them that
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: was praying over me. And both of them took that
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: holy oil and went like, put it in their hand, right?
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: And they laid hands on my head, right? And they
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: was mashing it in. I feel like the pastor was
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: trying to make me go down, but I was like, I'm.
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: Not going down.
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: I'm not going down. I'm not going down.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: So he was just mashing that holy oil right into
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: my legs. Baby, by the time I got out of church.
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: Was the lace moved back? Because the oil moving.
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: Baby, I was lifted.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: I was lifted in the spirit and so was my lace.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: My shit was so high up. I was like, oh, Lord. Oh,
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: my God. It looks so bad, y'all. And I just
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: had to walk around talking to everybody. How did you
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: enjoy the service?
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: Lace just standing up.
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: Well, that's why it looks so good today because it's
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: been prayed over. Yes.
• 3:42
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I had to take that thing up and put
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: it back down.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: You wanted to push it back anyway, so there you go.
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: God said, let it be looking like it's from the couch,
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: and that it is. Okay?
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: It look good. Okay?
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: Would have never known.
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: Thank you. Thank you.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: I feel like they did that on purpose. They was
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: trying to see if that was your hair or not.
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: It was two men, too. Hands right there. I was like, oh,
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: thank you, God.
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: I know they was praying, too. Yes. Yes.
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: So hopefully them prayers come true. Amen.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Amen.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: So our first segment of the show is called Stupid
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Internet News. I don't know if you've seen it or
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: heard it before, but it's just our sins of the
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: week where we discuss everything dumb that's going on in
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: the world or everything that's good. So let's get into it.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Let's talk about Chris Brown and All-Star Weekend. Did y'all
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: see that over the.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: Weekend, Chris Brown going off? I saw that you had
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: a post recently about Chris Brown.
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: Girl, I'm still getting notifications that people are so angry
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: at me.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: Girl, they gonna be mad, girl. They always mad. Oh,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: can I cuss on her? Yes, bitch. Cuss the ass out, too.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: How about that?
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: They like, fuck her. That's why she didn't get the
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: Breakfast Club job now. People was on there saying that?
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: That was big, man.
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: That's like the lightest of the comments. But when you
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: talk about anything Chris Brown, especially if you're not saying
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: send him to hell and do rid of him, people gonna,
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: you know what I mean? That's gonna happen. I saw it, though,
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: and I was like, we still arguing about Chris?
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: Like, that's my whole point.
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: Right, right.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: So what happened over the weekend, for people who don't know,
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: Chris Brown is slamming the NBA and claiming he was
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: disinvited from the league's annual NBA All-Star Celebrity Game due
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: to his past domestic violence controversies. The R & B
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: singer posted several screenshots of emails on his Instagram story
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: early Saturday morning, which appeared to be sent by the NBA. Now,
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: do we feel like it's about Rihanna still? Because that
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: shit old as hell.
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: I think it's about all of everything.
• 5:42
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: Like, you got Rihanna, you got Karrueche, who had filed
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: police reports. You have just everything that has followed him since. Like,
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: he's just been, like, the bad kid in school since
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: the Rihanna stuff. He can't shake it. So, I think
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: brands are afraid to touch him. I mean, it's just
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: how it is.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: That's what I think, too, because, I mean, here we
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: have Dr. Dre has a whole award named after him
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: at the Grammys, and he's a known woman beater.
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: I feel like Dr. Dre's stuff never really stuck, though. Yeah. Like,
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: to be honest with you. Like, I think because Mishale
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: had that whole, like, what was it, like a docu-series
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: or something like that?
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: It was never as public as Chris Brown's situation.
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah. I think that the age groups matter, too, because, like,
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: social media and all that stuff was a lot bigger when,
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: even though it's even bigger now when the Chris Brown,
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: Rihanna stuff happened. And I also think Rihanna is, like,
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: she was then and is now the girl. And as
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: sad as this is, it's like, I think when Black
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: women are, like, beaten, bruised, and were battered, the world
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: already cares to a certain extent, and not really. But
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: if you're not, like, a Meg Thee Stallion or Rihanna, like,
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: if this was any other woman, like, people don't even
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: talk about Karrueche.
• 6:49
  Speaker 5: Mm-hmm.
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: You know what I mean? So I think with Dr. Dre,
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: he kind of got able to, like, move around it
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: because the women weren't, like, big household names. He was.
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: So basically, Dr. Dre beat the right bitches is what
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: you're saying?
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: I mean, that's what it looks like. Like, no, for real, though.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: Or from a time where bitches got beat.
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: Right. And there was a lot of stuff, I think, too,
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: during their time. I mean, think. We know because of
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: the music, the lyrics, like everything. A lot of stuff
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: during their time was excusable for what they were like. Like,
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: we talk back now, hence your podcast. So it's a
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: little bit different now. These days, like, it wasn't the same.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: And we fight back because... Beat who?
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: We shoot back over here.
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: We shoot first.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: But I think it is whack for all these different
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: organizations to initiate these invitations to Chris Brown only to
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: pull him back because this is not the first time
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: it's happened. I can't recall offhand. the last time, but
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: I've definitely seen this type of shit happen with him before.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Like he said, just leave him alone. He'll go wherever
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: he's appreciated. You know what I'm saying?
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: That's when Ruffles came out and Ruffles was like, get
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: somebody else to do it that we ain't had nothing
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: to do with that like and it look even crazier
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: because like y'all not even standing one of the brands
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: gotta stand on something and one of y'all are not
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: neither one of y'all are standing on anything so now
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: it looks like y'all scared to be like oh we
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: don't want to sit next to him but y'all don't
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: want to sit next to him it's like pick a
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: side and.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: Y'all be having too much fucking air in that bag
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: of chips why is there much.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Air in the bag let's talk about that that.
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: We only eat the cheddar ruffles anyway right.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: The sour cream and cheddar is the only one we
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: fuck with. And y'all only put 10 chips in the bag.
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: Get it together.
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: Nah, but the world ain't never going to let Chris
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: Brown let us down. And like, it's okay. Like, right.
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: Some people are forever going to feel like that man
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: deserves hell. And if that's how you feel, that's how
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: you feel. And if you don't, you don't. But when
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: it comes to the brands, I never want us to
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: think that these brands give two shits about us. Particularly us.
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: But especially once you've got a little tainted version of us.
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: They're going to protect their business. I don't care how
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: black the company team looks or whatever. Business is business.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: See how quick everybody jumped off that P. Diddy train.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Got the hell up out of there.
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: We don't drink Deliano more.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: I never drunk it. I like D'Ussé.
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: I never drunk it. I like the Reposado.
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: Y'all didn't drink it?
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: I like D'Ussé.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: I mean, if niggas had it in the section, I
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: would drink it, but I wasn't ordering it.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: First choice.
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: It was owned by a black man.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: But was it? But really, was it? Because you got
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: finesse out of your whole brand.
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: If it were yours. What we got left? We got D'Ussé.
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: We got the BET award.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: No, we don't have none of them things. BET is
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: not black owned. Nor is Duse for real. because uh
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: he was just in a whole thing with um who
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: owns Duse ultimately um Louis Vuitton right like the whole
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: like the whole you know conglomerate yeah so you know
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: these are partnerships so if you're not good for the
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: brand a lot.
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: Of times though a lot of times though um Because
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: I think with the situation with Diddy, it made people
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: be like, oh, this is what I'm talking about. Black
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: people don't know how to do business. And then they
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: had the conversation about Jay-Z and him being a capitalist.
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: And I think people need to understand the two of like,
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: you got to scale up before you can completely own it.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: You wouldn't be able to put Do Say out the
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: way that it is if Jay-Z primarily owned it. But
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: we don't have a lot of private label Black-owned companies
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: that can help them scale. So it's like, what the
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: hell is he supposed to do? So everything is only
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: going to be black owned to a certain extent. They
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: got mad at, remember Honeypot?
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: They got mad at her when she sold.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: They got mad at, what's the purple brand? We get mad,
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: but it's like, yo, how are we supposed to scale
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: the business to be able to like run it back?
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: I don't know.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: I feel like that's one of the things, I know, right?
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: But that is one of the things they never wanted
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: us to learn, especially like during slavery and shit, like
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: the science of business. Because anytime a black person creates
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: something and it gets so big, they come in with
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: this number you can't deny, right? And you sell. The
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: thing with Honeypot is like, you start looking at the
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: ingredients on shit before and after. You know, after it's bought.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: I'm not sticking that up in my coochie no more.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry. Because we already know y'all been fucking with
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: the hair products for how many years? You got black
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: women with cervical cancer and all that type of shit
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: going on. Like, we have to be concerned about those things.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: And if we are the ones that put your product,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: you know, at the top, you do owe some type
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: of loyalty. A little bit. You know what I'm saying? Like,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: I understand, like, the partnerships. Black effect. You know, in
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: partnership with iHeart, a lot of people talk the shit. Oh,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Charlamagne don't own this.
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: Yes, he does.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: He owns 51%. Right? So it's still his business. But
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: in order to get as big as you want to get,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: you do have to partner with these bigger, bigger companies.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: But at some point, I don't know, some point we
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: got to take a stand and we got to be
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: able to put other people in places. It's not today
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: with some of these brands.
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: Child, we don't take a stand against nothing but Krishan
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: and Bruce Aydin.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: We collect the deep motherfucking out there.
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: Get off our timeline. Sick of y'all.
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: And listen, after she put that tattoo on my face,
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: I was like, Lord, I just, Jesus.
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: How'd she move in with him? He in jail.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: I don't want it.
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: She moved back into the crib. I don't know. I
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: don't know what that looks like. But her and that
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: baby moved back into the crib. And once that happened,
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: I said, I don't know what type of... What is
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: over there? The way he be busting down the.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: He's an Aquarius.
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: I never want to be that. I never want.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: Those are demons.
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: I just met one of those. Girl, get away.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: I just met one of those. It's crazy to say.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: I just met one of those.
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: It's like I can see the demon. Like, damn.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Get away.
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: Get away.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: Now, did y'all see over the weekend this mother, she
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: was excited that her daughter was embarking on her business
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: as a waxer. And she was like, I'm teaching my
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: child generational wealth. And she done had 24 clients. And
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: then we see this image of this young baby over
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: a woman's vagina. And the vagina is blurred out obviously,
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: but This lady went to jail yesterday. They arrested her
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: for sexual child abuse or child abuse.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Child neglect.
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: I don't want to say sexual. Child neglect. How do
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: y'all feel about that? Do y'all feel like that was
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: actually child neglect?
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. I felt like it should have happened before it happened.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: I was not hoping because I... I find it so hard.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: As much shit as I talk, I do have a
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: tough time super condemning people, right? So I try to
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: play devil's advocate sometimes. This is a situation where I
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: cannot play devil's advocate because at what point she just
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: didn't have the wherewithal to know that that's child abuse.
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: She was ignorant. I don't feel like it was a
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: sexual act of any sort.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: I just feel like she was an ignorant mom who
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: thought this was her trying to give her child.
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: Some education so she could make money for herself. That's
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: what it seemed like, right?
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: But how old was the baby?
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: Five years old, working a seven-hour shift.
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: That's child labor laws.
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: I think the hardest... But not even the shift. It
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: was hard to see the little girl... with the, like,
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: this in between the spread legs. Like, I just feel
• 14:26
  Speaker 4: like there are certain things that you're, as a kid,
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: as a baby, that just shouldn't, you shouldn't be exposed
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: to right away. But I don't know about y'all and
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: how y'all grew up. I mean, my mom doesn't have
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: any wax or no.
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: No.
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: I keep forgetting I can say certain words on here.
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: My mom was having me waxing Okuchis and nothing like that.
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: But I was the oldest in the household. And I'll
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: be watching this girl. She writes letters to the oldest black,
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: like their older black daughters or whatever. And she talks
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: about how like you're, I don't know if this was
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: the oldest child or not, but she talks about how
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: you're exposed to stuff so early. And it's because like
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: your parents are here trying to get you ready because
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: the world, you know, they just throw so much shit
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: our way. But it takes away from you being a child.
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: A baby is five. She should be cocoa melanin, not
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: like waxing people's melons for real. Like that shit is
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: crazy to me. It was hard to watch.
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: I agree.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: Especially, like, you don't even really understand your own anatomy
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: yet at five years old, so to be looking at
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: some adult woman's vagina, like, it's just a lot.
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: It's too much.
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: You still saying private parts. And don't forget that people
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: are fucking predators, right?
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: That's what I was trying to interject.
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: You randomly waxing these people?
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Exactly. That's what I told Tam earlier. Like, what if?
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: Because I feel like, for whatever reason, we.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: Think women are exempt from being predators when they are apex.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: Predators, a lot of them.
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: Okay?
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: So.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: You have women in the community who probably have violated
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: little girls before. Now they know this particular wax parlor
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: has five-year-olds giving wax jobs. Why would I not go
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: get waxed by this five-year-old if that's the type of
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: shit I'm into? Her mom put her in danger.
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: Her mom put her in danger.
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: Bro, wax is hot. Because if it was a man-
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: So many variables here. It's like, are you slow?
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: If it was a man doing it, like a man
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: letting his son do that type of shit, the world
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: would be in uproar.
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah. You're right. Wouldn't they know? Because I feel
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: like people got mad at.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: No, for real.
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: I feel like men... People got mad when Boosie was
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: talking about how his son was young and had like...
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: What was it? The son got hit or whatever. But
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: there were so many people that were like, I mean, shit.
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: At least you know he not gay. They were rationalizing it.
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: It's a little different with them.
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: Let me tell y'all something.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: This makes me think of a childhood story of mine
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: where I got... I got a spanking for this and
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: I shouldn't have gotten a spanking. So I remember the
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: see and say that we had as a kid. Did
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: I tell this story already?
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: No.
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: But you remember to see and say you pull the
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: string and it'd be like, hee haw. It'd be pointing
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: at whatever animal and it'll spin around.
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: Y'all remember that?
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: No, Lauren. No.
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: See and say.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: It was like a little toy and it'd have like
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: an arrow to have animals all around it. And you
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: pull the string and it'll spin around and it'll stop
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: on the animal.
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: And when the string goes in, it'll make the animal sound.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay.
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: The eighties. Anyway. So I used to love that toy.
• 17:09
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: And my mom was, I think we were getting dressed
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: to go somewhere. She had me already dressed, and she
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: was in the bathroom getting dressed, but she left the
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: bathroom door open. And I was just sitting on the
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: floor playing with my CNC. And I looked in the bathroom.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: She wasn't clothed yet. And I saw a string hanging
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: out of her. And I was like, oh, shit, my
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: mama is a CNC.
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: So I went up to her.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: I went up and pulled that string, baby, and then
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: whatever was in there flew.
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: Out on me and I was dead. I started hollering.
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: How old were you?
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: I was like four or five years old and I
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: thought my mama was a CSA.
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: And I got popped because then she had to change
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: my clothes.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: She's like, I can't even use the bathroom by myself.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: And then I think that was the, she started locking
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: me out the bathroom. I didn't get that.
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: Did that, did that, did that haunt you in your
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: experience when you started using?
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: Yes. I won't even use them.
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: I won't use them. I'm so sorry.
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: I won't use them.
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: I'm so sorry.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: What is happening? That really happened. My mom is a CSA.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: You're so fucking crazy, man.
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: At least that's all you peeped in the bathroom and saw, though.
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: At least it wasn't, like, you know.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: Waxing your mama.
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: My mama was like, come wax me.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: That's definitely some precious shit. I'm sorry. All I thought
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: about was Monique and precious. Like, what are you doing
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: with your child, man?
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: Why couldn't a mom just, like, put the LLC in
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: her name or, you know, like, some regular, like, regular
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: people stuff? Like, why... Why do we always.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: And then put it on the internet.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't have been mad at if she was doing
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: armpits or lip. I wouldn't have been mad at that.
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: Eyebrows.
• 19:02
  Speaker 4: It's the heat, though, or the wax that a five-year-old does.
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah. It's crazy.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: And then you put it online because she thought she
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: was right. She really thought she was right.
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: She thought it was fly as hell.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: She did.
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: She thought it was fly.
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: My baby made $ 750 today. Well, how much your baby made?
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: That's how she was.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: All right, y'all. Listen. Have y'all been following this who
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: the fuck did I marry story on TikTok? This girl,
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: her name is Tessa Risa, Risa Tisa, or some shit
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: like that. Risa Tisa. I watched all 50.
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: I keep seeing it.
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: I didn't watch it. So I've been seeing people talk
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: about the fact that people are watching 50 parts of
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: a TikTok story, but I didn't go watch it. Is
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: it worth the watch?
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: She talks.
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: Everybody seems to think so.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: It's like, yes, because it's informative. And some people may
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: be experiencing this shit right now. You know what I'm saying?
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: And like at the house confused. Because when you're in
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: a relationship with a pathological liar, with a narcissist, sometimes
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: you think you tripping. You know, so it could help
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: a lot.
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: So what's the premise of that? Like what happened?
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: Let me give y'all a little quick little rundown. So
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: she met this guy on a dating website during COVID. Okay.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: She met him like that March, I believe. So COVID,
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: we went in lockdown like February. Now they're in Atlanta.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: Atlanta ain't never really locked down. But anyway, so people
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: were still slinging dick at the beginning of COVID.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: And um so boy when COVID happened let me just
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: say this I was trying to figure out how I
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: was gonna fuck through a shower curtain I really was
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: like trying to figure out how I'm gonna.
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: Do this.
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: So I had a boyfriend then so I was cool
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: I was I was trying to figure out how I
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: was gonna not end up with.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: A baby y'all made it through well obviously y'all didn't
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: make it through COVID if you trying to find we
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: made it no we made it.
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: We made it through COVID but We gonna get it today.
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: We gonna get it to your shit.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: So apparently this guy had matched with her on two
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: different sites. This was already the first red flag, y'all.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: He matched with her on two different dating websites under
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: two different names. Like one of the websites, it was
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: a variation of his other name. She found that this
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: dude was a twin later on, all type of little
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: weird shit. But he just kept giving her to run
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: around about buying a house and buying her a new car.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: And just like a super duper, like if the nigga
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: mouth was moving, he was lying. Like that's just the
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: gist of the whole thing. And so now TikTok has
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: found the guy. Right. His name is Legion. And when
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: I like that's his nickname. So when I hear Legion,
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking Legion of Demons.
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: Right?
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: So, this is who you sleeping... This is who you
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: sleeping next to. And she would say how he can
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: quote the Bible and all that because his father was
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: supposedly a pastor.
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: It's always those ones.
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: His daddy really wasn't a pastor.
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: It's always those ones. If they quote the Bible and
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: they willing to do... What's that when you don't have sex?
• 22:02
  Speaker 5: Oh.
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying?
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: Abstinence?
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: Abstinence. If they willing to be abstinent, they quote the
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: Bible right off the bat.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: What?
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: So, he ain't.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: Trying to fuck.
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: He crazy.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: She said if he willing to sustain, he's a demon.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: That is wild.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: That's the red flag, okay?
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's 50. No, I wouldn't watch all 50.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: I would do every other one, right? But if you
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: want the full context of the story, because you see
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: people in the comments like questioning her about shit she
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: had already done. disclosed earlier on. If you watched the
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: whole series, then you'd know what was happening. I'm sick
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: in the house. I watched it just because I just wanted...
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: This is a particular story I just wanted to know
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: about because I felt like, damn, why the hell did
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: I put my last relationship story on TikTok? Because that
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: means she's blowing up. I would have got monetized first, though.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: She tripping.
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: Right. Well, it ain't too late.
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: Girl, no.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: My shit is a movie. That's where mine's going at.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: because some of the things she was saying, some of
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: the shit she was saying, like she said, she was
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: at work one day and he just calls her out
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: the blue. And this is after he, they got married
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: and all of that within months. Okay. She had gotten pregnant.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: She had a miscarriage, all the shit. He called her
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: at work one day and was like a black, some
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: dude just pulled up at your house and he's in
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: her house.
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: So they ended up, uh, quarantining at her place. Um,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: Some dude just pulled up, like calling her while she's
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: at the nail shop, like just disturbing her peace. Because
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: a narcissist never wants you to relax. Like they want
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: to keep you on edge and keep like questioning your reality.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: So this is the type of shit he was doing
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: to her. Like just playing mind games. The nigga was homeless.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: Just a real.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: A real character. I don't know. I think it's a
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: mental illness. Come to find out the life he was
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: portraying to her, his twin brother was actually living. He
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: lied to her and said he was a VP of
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: his company. He drove a BMW company car. All this
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: weird shit. He was paying for pussy on apps. It
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: was a mess. Okay? It's a mess. But this happened
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: between 20 and 21. And she's in recovery mode. So
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: her putting the shit on TikTok... is like her therapy.
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: A form of healing.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So I get it. I get it, girl. Okay.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: But she knows.
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: So hold on. So all this happened. She left him.
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: She left him. And now she on TikTok talking about it. She,
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: is she date? Like why? Like, so she's putting it
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: out there. Like, is she trying to get money back?
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: No, she just, just, just to help other women is like,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: That's some real traumatizing shit. So she's saying like, I'm
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: just now being able to verbalize what I was going through.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: Like my family didn't even know what I was going through.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: Like she was saving face, like acting like everything was
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: cool when her mom came in town. Like, you know,
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: because we have this thing where you're supposed to keep
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: your business to yourself and your relationship. I'm not one
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: of them because I'm telling everybody all the fuck shit
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: you did, bitch. Because when I need somebody to hold
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: me accountable to not fuck with you no more, my
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: friends won't do it. Would you be going back, though?
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: Would we all be going back?
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: But we give each other grace. You know I'm going back.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: You know I'm going back for that day.
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: I'm not the give grace friend. That's why I'm sitting
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: here like, why does this sis have to have known
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: that there was a restaurant number in there before the
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: 50 TikTok uploads?
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: I think you should keep your dumb bitch shit to
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: yourself sometimes. You know, until you're really ready to leave. Sometimes.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: It just depends on... I've never dealt with a pathological liar,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: per se.
• 25:45
  Speaker 4: So where it's like so bad that you like, I
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: know this nigga. Like he is no way.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: Had her looking at $ 700, 000 houses. Talk about, he got
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: a cash down payment because he played arena football.
• 25:55
  Speaker 4: Bitch.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: You never Googled arena football salary.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: They don't make no money.
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: So none of that shit was true.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: Nothing. His entire life was a lie, but the way
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: I'm a pet detective. And if any of our listeners,
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: if y'all dealing with somebody and you just got a
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: little inkling in your mind, as they gain who he
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: say is sending to me, I'm going to find him.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: I'm going to find all the shit about him in
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: 24 hours.
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: Because there's all these apps and all these platforms. Now,
• 26:21
  Speaker 4: I'm just saying, like, how does this not, like, when, like,
• 26:23
  Speaker 4: the first lie started to crumble, it's like, how you don't,
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: I don't know. I'm a little too crazy for somebody
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: to lie to me that deep and that long. It
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: just wouldn't fly with me.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: I'm not easily finessed.
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: But she probably just wanted to have somebody. It was COVID.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: She was probably lonely. This man was dicking her down.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: I'm sure they was having raw sex.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she got pregnant.
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: Raw penis confuses you.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: And she said he was paying.
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: Raw penis fucks the membrane up. It do. I get it.
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: Insane in the membrane when the raw penis fucks up.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: She said he was paying all the bills initially. Paying
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: all her bills initially.
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: Oh, okay.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: So she said she really got blinded by that because
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: her money was her money. And this is all, this
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: is what we be saying we want, right?
• 27:04
  Speaker 4: Mm-hmm. Then sometimes- He didn't take her to Applebee's.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: No, their first date was definitely Cheesecake Factory.
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: Okay?
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: That's the thing. Reflex. They met. Look, he got her
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: on the very first date. And this is all I'm
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: going to say about it. So- I'm going to stop
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: talking about it anyway. So the first date, she said
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: she was on the way to meet him to the
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: SheSick factory and her fucking tire blew out. She called
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: him and said, hey, I just blew out on the
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: side of whatever, 285, whatever. He came, took her to
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: her tire shop, bought her the tire. The pussy is
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: in the bag. Like, you come, you don't even know
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: me yet.
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: Like, you come see me. I had one of those before.
• 27:48
  Speaker 4: He was a pricey and he was fucking hell. Honestly,
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: I might cry right now.
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: It's about to be they season too it's about to
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: be Pisces.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: Season Pisces men are fine it.
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: Was such a good time over there it was such
• 28:03
  Speaker 4: a good time over there and he just they just
• 28:05
  Speaker 4: be knowing what to do and how to talk to
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: you and like they do shit like that like oh
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: first day I'm talking to you my car breaks down
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: would you need a new car here cause my girlfriend
• 28:16
  Speaker 4: not gonna be riding around with in a Uber and
• 28:19
  Speaker 4: then it's like oh I love him and then it's
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: like Everything changes. Now he's hell. He don't answer the phone.
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: He goes days without talking to you. He's fucking the
• 28:27
  Speaker 4: shit out of you and that just stops. And it's like, whoa,
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: now I'm outside your mom's house.
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: Why you being weird to me?
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: And then once you outside the mom's house, why you
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: being weird to me? He still don't pick up the phone.
• 28:42
  Speaker 4: Then he just calls you next week like, hey babe,
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: what you doing? You want to go here? Like nothing happened.
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: And you just like.
• 28:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I want to go. And you can't understand why
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: it's like that. I used to call mine Jurassic Park
• 28:56
  Speaker 4: because it's hell when you get there, but it just
• 28:58
  Speaker 4: seems so attractive. Y'all literally sweating right now.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: They be programming the coochie for sure. Them goddamn Pisces.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: And Pisces men are so fine.
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: I had to block mine.
• 29:10
  Speaker 4: They are.
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: I had to block them.
• 29:15
  Speaker 4: I'm not good at blocking and keeping you there.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: Right no i had to do it this time because
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: i was gonna continue to fuck that man if i
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: didn't i said 2024 no more i can't do it.
• 29:29
  Speaker 4: I said at the top of 2024 my friend said
• 29:31
  Speaker 4: we leaving all the toxic niggas behind i said who
• 29:33
  Speaker 4: i'm taking.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: All my niggas. I don't want no trouble.
• 29:36
  Speaker 4: Just in case I need somebody to call, I'm going
• 29:38
  Speaker 4: to just, you know, keep them to the side. But
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: they got to come on over a little bit.
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: Shame.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: All right, y'all.
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: We're going to have a commercial break and we'll be
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: right back with Lauren LaRosa.
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: Stay tuned.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: All right, Lauren LaRosa. You are relatively young, right? I
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: want to talk about, or can we talk about your
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: time at TMZ and how you even ended up there?
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: Because I was like, damn, did she go straight from college?
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: So I actually, I did, but I didn't. I graduated
• 30:08
  Speaker 4: from Delaware State University. Shout out to my HBCU in 2014.
• 30:12
  Speaker 4: And then I moved to LA. I was there for
• 30:15
  Speaker 4: about six months and then I couldn't afford to be
• 30:16
  Speaker 4: there anymore. So I moved back home. And then I
• 30:19
  Speaker 4: was at home in Delaware working for about a year
• 30:23
  Speaker 4: or two. And then I went back to LA and
• 30:25
  Speaker 4: then I started working for TMZ. So it was my
• 30:27
  Speaker 4: first consistent entertainment job after college, but it wasn't right
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: after college. And I started from like the bottom, like of,
• 30:37
  Speaker 4: and I hate when I say that because no shade
• 30:39
  Speaker 4: to the tour guides, but it's not the newsroom whatsoever.
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: I was giving tours around Hollywood. You making like $ 15
• 30:45
  Speaker 4: an hour, working two to four hours a day. So
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: I had, like, three jobs. Like, you know, this is me, like,
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: out of college. I had a great marketing job in
• 30:54
  Speaker 4: Delaware and, like, was doing entertainment stuff on the side.
• 30:56
  Speaker 4: And my family was like, yeah, you're doing well. You know,
• 30:59
  Speaker 4: just keep doing that cute little entertainment stuff. So when
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: I decided to leave that job and go full force,
• 31:05
  Speaker 4: they were like, what the fuck? Like, why would you?
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: Leave something good to go full force. Do tours.
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: They couldn't. Until my mom could turn on the television
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: and actually see me on TV. And it's crazy because
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: she's a dreamer. Like she has a background in fashion.
• 31:19
  Speaker 4: She moved to New York to do design and all
• 31:20
  Speaker 4: that stuff. But she's also like a very, she's a
• 31:23
  Speaker 4: money person. So she couldn't understand me working for free,
• 31:25
  Speaker 4: working for not a lot of money. Especially when I
• 31:28
  Speaker 4: had the degree, my degree is in marketing. I had
• 31:30
  Speaker 4: a great job. I was doing marketing for Barclays and,
• 31:32
  Speaker 4: you know, I was doing a lot of things. She
• 31:34
  Speaker 4: couldn't get it until she could turn on the TV
• 31:36
  Speaker 4: and see me. And even then it was still kind
• 31:38
  Speaker 4: of like, this is cool, but like, where is it?
• 31:42
  Speaker 4: Where are we going?
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: Where the money at?
• 31:45
  Speaker 4: Right. So I was giving tours for like a good
• 31:47
  Speaker 4: two years before they even really started considering me for
• 31:52
  Speaker 4: a newsroom, like job, like producing news and being on
• 31:56
  Speaker 4: the show more consistently.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: All right, so last year, Angela Yee left the Breakfast Club,
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: and she said that it wasn't healthy working in this
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: male-dominated space.
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: Was it like that for you at TMZ?
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: Maybe.
• 32:11
  Speaker 4: Not to take away from what Angela Yee went through,
• 32:13
  Speaker 4: but my experience at Breakfast Club made me realize how
• 32:17
  Speaker 4: much I was in hell at TMZ. I remember my
• 32:22
  Speaker 4: second day there at Breakfast Club, I text all of
• 32:27
  Speaker 4: my friends from TMZ that still work there right now
• 32:30
  Speaker 4: and was like, the environment that we have been working
• 32:33
  Speaker 4: in for all of these years is not okay.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: It's hostile.
• 32:35
  Speaker 4: It is very dark. It is very draining.
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: It is very, you know, it's a news desk environment.
• 32:41
  Speaker 4: And I don't know if you guys have ever been
• 32:42
  Speaker 4: in a newsroom. that is like any newsroom, whether it's
• 32:46
  Speaker 4: TMZ or not, is very like, because there's something always happening.
• 32:50
  Speaker 4: You're yelling, you're talking, you love somebody, you hate them.
• 32:52
  Speaker 4: That's just our industry in general. But, and I don't
• 32:56
  Speaker 4: have anything to compare it to. I never had anything
• 32:58
  Speaker 4: to compare it to until I went to Breakfast Club
• 33:00
  Speaker 4: and got to, you know, work with them for some time.
• 33:02
  Speaker 4: And when I did, I was just like, whoa. Yeah.
• 33:06
  Speaker 4: So I, not only did I experience like, you know,
• 33:09
  Speaker 4: it being a male dominated space, but you got to
• 33:11
  Speaker 4: think about it like, I'm very young in my career
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: at the time when I start there. Black, at the time,
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: you had Vin, who was on air, Raquel, who was
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: on air, and then me. Charles, you know, who's there,
• 33:24
  Speaker 4: but Charles is EP, so he's kind of removed a
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: lot from certain things sometimes, even though he's in the
• 33:29
  Speaker 4: day-to-day conversations and tries to support as much as he can.
• 33:32
  Speaker 4: Charles gets so much shit.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: Is that the guy with the dreads?
• 33:37
  Speaker 4: He's had to hold me down in certain situations, so
• 33:39
  Speaker 4: I never give him too much shit, but I always
• 33:42
  Speaker 4: make the joke that, like, during Black History Month, like,
• 33:43
  Speaker 4: we count him half the time because, you know, it
• 33:45
  Speaker 4: just depends on where he falls. But it's all love. But, like,
• 33:49
  Speaker 4: so I had that support when I came in. And
• 33:52
  Speaker 4: as a tour guide, you got to be on the show.
• 33:54
  Speaker 4: So I was on the show a lot even before
• 33:56
  Speaker 4: I got on the news desk. But, like, you know,
• 33:58
  Speaker 4: my texts were real quick. I'm in and out. They're
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: barely listening to me. Ben had to repeat a lot
• 34:02
  Speaker 4: of what I was saying most of the time for
• 34:03
  Speaker 4: people to even hear me. And then I would leave.
• 34:06
  Speaker 4: Once I actually got on the news desk, And that's
• 34:10
  Speaker 4: a whole different beast because now you're, you're a part
• 34:12
  Speaker 4: of a group of like maybe 10 people who are
• 34:14
  Speaker 4: breaking news for the world and controlling the conversation around
• 34:17
  Speaker 4: entertainment news for the world. I'm the only, at this
• 34:20
  Speaker 4: point now, Van has gone. And then Raquel decided to
• 34:25
  Speaker 4: leave as well too. It's just me. So not only
• 34:28
  Speaker 4: am I the only black person on the news desk,
• 34:30
  Speaker 4: I'm the only black woman on the news desk. So
• 34:33
  Speaker 4: I'm up against number one, um, black entertainment and black news,
• 34:37
  Speaker 4: in my opinion, not being valued the way that it
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: should have been for it to drive so much of
• 34:41
  Speaker 4: their website and their content. I'm up against being new
• 34:45
  Speaker 4: in the room and in the space and not feeling
• 34:47
  Speaker 4: like I had that much power for a very long time.
• 34:49
  Speaker 4: I felt like that. So I didn't know how to approach,
• 34:51
  Speaker 4: you know, when I wanted to push back on certain
• 34:53
  Speaker 4: things and like whatever for the show, it was cute.
• 34:55
  Speaker 4: Like I felt, you know, on the show, I could
• 34:57
  Speaker 4: say and do certain things because that's what they wanted
• 34:59
  Speaker 4: for the show. But in real life, when we're day-to-day
• 35:02
  Speaker 4: working with each other, there were things that were being,
• 35:04
  Speaker 4: that were happening that I didn't feel comfortable with speaking
• 35:06
  Speaker 4: up about to a certain extent. Just bringing ideas to
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: the table and just watching stuff happen and not even
• 35:13
  Speaker 4: news related, but just like with the people that I'm
• 35:15
  Speaker 4: working with and colleagues and, you know, these little microaggressions
• 35:19
  Speaker 4: and things that I started to see and understand that
• 35:21
  Speaker 4: I think Vin, he did a really good job of
• 35:25
  Speaker 4: making things funny and making things fun, but shielding me
• 35:28
  Speaker 4: from a lot of stuff. And I, and he, it
• 35:31
  Speaker 4: was from day one. Like even when I didn't know him,
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: like I remember I walked in and he was like, Hey,
• 35:36
  Speaker 4: I'm Van. What's your name? Like he took the time
• 35:38
  Speaker 4: to come over.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: Van is one of the nicest guys.
• 35:39
  Speaker 4: It wasn't super. I love, I love Van so much. Like,
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: because he just always, even before he really knew me,
• 35:46
  Speaker 4: he always looked out for me. And I didn't understand
• 35:50
  Speaker 4: how much of a, kind of like a, a privilege
• 35:52
  Speaker 4: to have a black man in a space like that,
• 35:55
  Speaker 4: that understood how important it was to do that was
• 35:58
  Speaker 4: until he wasn't there anymore. And then I was like,
• 36:00
  Speaker 4: oh shit. So like now I got, so now I
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: got to fight and it's just me and it's just whatever.
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: So I went through a lot of different stuff. Like
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: there were times, there's so much stuff that didn't make
• 36:08
  Speaker 4: it to air that like, sometimes I wish it didn't
• 36:11
  Speaker 4: make it to air because I think that it would
• 36:13
  Speaker 4: have started a conversation internally and externally that on a,
• 36:16
  Speaker 4: like a major scale that was needed just about like
• 36:19
  Speaker 4: black women in like major media spaces. Black people in
• 36:23
  Speaker 4: spaces where they are the only Black content, Black news,
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: Black celebrity. When the Kanye West, Kyrie Irving stuff was happening,
• 36:35
  Speaker 4: mind you, this is my first time too being exposed
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: to like, like I grew up in a hood and
• 36:39
  Speaker 4: like when I, my school was inner city school. So
• 36:41
  Speaker 4: I was the majority in my school. I went to HBCU.
• 36:44
  Speaker 4: I was the majority. My workspaces all of my life
• 36:47
  Speaker 4: have always been the only places that I wasn't the majority.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: I was the minority.
• 36:51
  Speaker 4: So this was my first time working in space where,
• 36:54
  Speaker 4: you know, I'm working with people that are like, you know,
• 36:56
  Speaker 4: there's a bunch of different religions and like whatever. And
• 36:59
  Speaker 4: when the Kyrie Irving stuff happened, I remember it was
• 37:01
  Speaker 4: a culture shock for me because a lot of what
• 37:04
  Speaker 4: was happening. And like, even with Nick Cannon, when he
• 37:07
  Speaker 4: said those comments that he said, I remember a lot
• 37:10
  Speaker 4: of the things I'm like, I grew up hearing some
• 37:12
  Speaker 4: of that in my household and that's what I was taught.
• 37:15
  Speaker 4: I didn't know that it hurt people. I didn't know that,
• 37:18
  Speaker 4: you know, to a certain extent, certain things weren't okay.
• 37:20
  Speaker 4: Like I had no idea. And it was the same
• 37:22
  Speaker 4: thing with our stuff. Like I had to teach certain
• 37:24
  Speaker 4: people why you don't ask me about how long my
• 37:27
  Speaker 4: hair took the braid down every single time I get
• 37:28
  Speaker 4: my braid done. Like I'm not a, I'm not a
• 37:30
  Speaker 4: science project, bro. Like I, there was so much that
• 37:33
  Speaker 4: we had to like teach each other. And I was
• 37:35
  Speaker 4: just like, Oh shit. Like this is real. So, but
• 37:38
  Speaker 4: there was no protection. It was just like me. And
• 37:40
  Speaker 4: I didn't realize until I left again, how much that
• 37:43
  Speaker 4: fucked with me, like on a day to day. So
• 37:47
  Speaker 4: I encountered that, but, and again, I don't want to
• 37:49
  Speaker 4: take away from Angelique's experience, but when I walked into
• 37:52
  Speaker 4: the breakfast club, that time that I was there, I
• 37:55
  Speaker 4: was like, I wish that every day of my work
• 37:57
  Speaker 4: life when I was at TMZ felt like this. I
• 37:59
  Speaker 4: could have been so much better of an employee. I mean,
• 38:02
  Speaker 4: I did my thing, but it would have been so different.
• 38:05
  Speaker 4: I felt happier. I would have felt like, even in times,
• 38:09
  Speaker 4: because when you're talking topics and culture and all this stuff,
• 38:13
  Speaker 4: some of this stuff get very heated. We're not going
• 38:15
  Speaker 4: to all agree, whether we all look alike or not.
• 38:18
  Speaker 4: But although I felt safe and comfortable to disagree, it
• 38:21
  Speaker 4: took me time to get to that point at TMZ. Like,
• 38:25
  Speaker 4: it was a lot of times where, like, I didn't
• 38:26
  Speaker 4: really understand myself as an asset in that room. And
• 38:29
  Speaker 4: I didn't know, like, they using the fuck out of me.
• 38:32
  Speaker 4: I mean, like, when Van got fired, I had never
• 38:34
  Speaker 4: hosted any of the shows by myself. Mind you, TMZ
• 38:38
  Speaker 4: is in L.A.
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: L.A.
• 38:39
  Speaker 4: Is number one market for television. TMZ is, you know,
• 38:42
  Speaker 4: they're huge at what they do. So to be on
• 38:44
  Speaker 4: those platforms on television is a major thing. The day
• 38:47
  Speaker 4: that Van got fired, the next day, they say, hey,
• 38:51
  Speaker 4: do you want to host TMZ Live?
• 38:52
  Speaker 5: Mm-hmm.
• 38:53
  Speaker 4: And I was like yeah okay and it didn't dawn
• 38:58
  Speaker 4: on me until I'm hosting in the seat y'all niggas
• 39:01
  Speaker 4: only got me here because y'all on page six looking
• 39:04
  Speaker 4: like racist people right now because of the conversation that
• 39:07
  Speaker 4: was surrounding it me if I had known like it's
• 39:11
  Speaker 4: not like I was oblivious or green but I think
• 39:13
  Speaker 4: I was just so in the this is just work
• 39:16
  Speaker 4: this is just what I do this is how they
• 39:17
  Speaker 4: use me I'm just happy to be here that I
• 39:19
  Speaker 4: just like went with it until I host it and
• 39:22
  Speaker 4: my Twitter went crazy. People were like, who the hell
• 39:25
  Speaker 4: is this Black girl? Why would she come and host
• 39:26
  Speaker 4: after what they did to Van? Van had to get
• 39:29
  Speaker 4: on Twitter and be like, this is my sister leave
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: her alone but and i was like oh shit like
• 39:34
  Speaker 4: i'm the pawn right now like so once i realized
• 39:37
  Speaker 4: that i'm like okay bet y'all wanna play let's play
• 39:41
  Speaker 4: Y'all need me. I need y'all. I'm an asset. I
• 39:44
  Speaker 4: don't agree with this. I don't agree with that. I'm
• 39:46
  Speaker 4: going to do this. I'm going to do that. And
• 39:48
  Speaker 4: y'all need me. So we'll see where it lies. And
• 39:50
  Speaker 4: there were so many times I would call my manager like, yeah,
• 39:52
  Speaker 4: I'm probably going to get fired today. like what's what's
• 39:54
  Speaker 4: what's next for us because i didn't sure told them
• 39:57
  Speaker 4: off today on.
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: Air that uh that uh exchange you and harvey had
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: after the the kenosha um shooting the little boy kyle
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: rittenhouse had gotten uh where he got off he didn't
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: get convicted um the exchange you and him had that
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: day is that kind of what led up to you resigning.
• 40:15
  Speaker 4: No And that was early in the game. Like that
• 40:18
  Speaker 4: was like right after all of the protest stuff that
• 40:21
  Speaker 4: happened and kind of, you know, coming off all the
• 40:23
  Speaker 4: George Floyd stuff. There have been way more heated. Like
• 40:26
  Speaker 4: imagine being the only person that is willing to talk
• 40:30
  Speaker 4: back when George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery got killed. And
• 40:33
  Speaker 4: having to teach them about, we put up a Juneteenth
• 40:36
  Speaker 4: post and we put, I keep saying we, I'm so
• 40:39
  Speaker 4: used to being there. I remember they had put up a,
• 40:41
  Speaker 4: they were prepping a Juneteenth post to go live on
• 40:44
  Speaker 4: the website because everybody was so black and all that
• 40:46
  Speaker 4: during that time, right? And they wanted to use the
• 40:49
  Speaker 4: American flag as a part of the art for the
• 40:51
  Speaker 4: Juneteenth post. And I had to get on the phone
• 40:54
  Speaker 4: and say, yo, what y'all trying for, the race war? Like,
• 40:57
  Speaker 4: the whole point of Juneteenth is the fact that we
• 40:59
  Speaker 4: don't feel welcome here. Like, why would you use the
• 41:01
  Speaker 4: American flag, which is a part of the Constitution that
• 41:04
  Speaker 4: we feel like has still enslaved us and we're celebrating
• 41:06
  Speaker 4: the date that we found out that we ain't got
• 41:07
  Speaker 4: shit to do with that. Like, y'all not getting it?
• 41:10
  Speaker 4: And they were like, oh, you're being too emotional. I
• 41:13
  Speaker 4: had to call Charles. When I called Charles, Charles didn't
• 41:19
  Speaker 4: fully understand it, but he heard me out. And once
• 41:21
  Speaker 4: I explained it, he was like, you're right. We're going
• 41:23
  Speaker 4: to change it. Send me the correct flag and correct
• 41:26
  Speaker 4: colors and we'll make sure that.
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
• 41:27
  Speaker 4: Having to do stuff like that on and off air
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: by the time of the Dylann Roof stuff had become
• 41:32
  Speaker 4: so normal to me. And I thank God for that experience.
• 41:34
  Speaker 4: It was tough in the beginning. Like, I remember I
• 41:37
  Speaker 4: was like crying every day. Like, I was like, it's
• 41:41
  Speaker 4: just the pressure of it. Like they're literally making you
• 41:43
  Speaker 4: speak for every black person in the world. And it's like,
• 41:45
  Speaker 4: you never feel like you can get it right. You
• 41:47
  Speaker 4: know how real this shit can get if you say
• 41:49
  Speaker 4: something wrong, but not even just saying and doing things wrong.
• 41:51
  Speaker 4: But like, you know, I really come from a place
• 41:53
  Speaker 4: where like my friend is really getting beat up by
• 41:55
  Speaker 4: police before this shit was cute to talk about on Instagram.
• 41:58
  Speaker 4: My brother, my mom was going to, you know, showing
• 42:02
  Speaker 4: up to court cases where police wouldn't show up because
• 42:04
  Speaker 4: my brother resisted arrest, but y'all fucked him up. So
• 42:07
  Speaker 4: of course he resisted arrest. You know what I mean?
• 42:08
  Speaker 4: Like this is real for me. It's not just a
• 42:11
  Speaker 4: segment on a new show for me. So I took
• 42:13
  Speaker 4: things a lot more personally than they did and it
• 42:15
  Speaker 4: would get on my nerves and they wouldn't understand it.
• 42:18
  Speaker 4: So we had been through so much shit. Like the
• 42:21
  Speaker 4: pivotal points for me when I was like, yo, how
• 42:24
  Speaker 4: much more mentally are you going to put yourself through anywhere?
• 42:28
  Speaker 4: Not even just here was when we had the conversations
• 42:31
  Speaker 4: about Kanye and Kyrie Irving and We had had, I
• 42:36
  Speaker 4: tried to handle it in a way where, like, I
• 42:38
  Speaker 4: understood where they were coming from, right? Like, there were
• 42:42
  Speaker 4: people that I was working with at TMZ whose grandparents
• 42:45
  Speaker 4: were a part of, like, a lot of, like, the, like,
• 42:49
  Speaker 4: the anti-Semitic comments and, like, the genocide, like, just the
• 42:52
  Speaker 4: different things that they had been through. It's real close
• 42:55
  Speaker 4: for them. Like, literally their grandparents. Like, I have a
• 42:57
  Speaker 4: friend who was telling me about her grandmother and losing
• 42:59
  Speaker 4: her grandmother and all that stuff and why Kanye hurt
• 43:01
  Speaker 4: her or whatever. And I took that and I listened
• 43:04
  Speaker 4: to it. But I also felt like on the other
• 43:06
  Speaker 4: side of things, there were some things that were happening.
• 43:08
  Speaker 4: And my point to them was as a platform, we
• 43:11
  Speaker 4: have a responsibility to be fair and not lean off
• 43:13
  Speaker 4: of emotion. And the people in power here right now
• 43:16
  Speaker 4: are not being fair. It's all very personally, emotionally driven.
• 43:19
  Speaker 4: And we're human. So I understand why it's happening. But like,
• 43:23
  Speaker 4: you know, as a person that's here, I just want
• 43:25
  Speaker 4: to put that on the forefront before we have any
• 43:26
  Speaker 4: of these conversations. That shit went out the window when
• 43:29
  Speaker 4: the conversation started, right? And I was just like, bro,
• 43:32
  Speaker 4: I got to get to a place in my career
• 43:34
  Speaker 4: where I can say I'm not OK with something and
• 43:37
  Speaker 4: walk away from it. And as long as I sit
• 43:39
  Speaker 4: up under this brand and just be the black girl TMZ,
• 43:43
  Speaker 4: I'm never going to be able to do that. Like,
• 43:44
  Speaker 4: I got to build audience. I got it's going to
• 43:46
  Speaker 4: be tough. You got to build it anyway. But I
• 43:48
  Speaker 4: got to do it because, like, I'm sitting here right now. Like,
• 43:51
  Speaker 4: are y'all fucking serious? Like, y'all want to talk about
• 43:54
  Speaker 4: the fact that Kyrie didn't apologize the way you wanted
• 43:58
  Speaker 4: him to or use the words you wanted him to.
• 43:59
  Speaker 4: You know what I mean?
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: It's bullying.
• 44:03
  Speaker 4: Words, terminology, approach when it comes to me. And I
• 44:07
  Speaker 4: have to just think of it as a cultural difference
• 44:09
  Speaker 4: and go on and love y'all anyway. I'm not trying
• 44:11
  Speaker 4: to hear that shit, like, at all. Like, those are
• 44:13
  Speaker 4: conversations that I wish made it to air that got cut,
• 44:16
  Speaker 4: of course. And in those instances, though, I was just like, okay.
• 44:20
  Speaker 4: I can only do this, but for so long, it's
• 44:22
  Speaker 4: a great learning experience. But I got to get to
• 44:24
  Speaker 4: a point where I built a platform in the name
• 44:26
  Speaker 4: enough where, nah, we're going to have these conversations we're
• 44:29
  Speaker 4: going to really have, and I'm going to be able
• 44:30
  Speaker 4: to call it out afterward and not be in fear
• 44:32
  Speaker 4: of what might happen to me if I do it.
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: Child, listen. I couldn't do it. I worked a corporate job,
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: and one of my biggest things was being able to
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: do something where I can be myself. That's the podcast world.
• 44:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 44:47
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: But I've definitely been the only black girl. That's why
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: my ass got laid off because I'm the youngest, no
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: kids and black. They get your ass up out of here.
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: So I definitely understand. I couldn't do it because I
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: was I was plotting on beating people up in the
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: garage after work plenty days.
• 45:04
  Speaker 4: I was able to be myself, though. It just was like.
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: No, I've never not been myself. That's the problem.
• 45:09
  Speaker 4: When you can't.
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: No code switching. So you be yourself. You show up
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: and you make it to places. You can make it
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: where you want to be at being yourself for sure.
• 45:19
  Speaker 4: That though at first I was raised that way but
• 45:21
  Speaker 4: I didn't know that like I was raised to like
• 45:23
  Speaker 4: nah you get in the room you say what you
• 45:25
  Speaker 4: said like you don't ever sit in the room and
• 45:26
  Speaker 4: don't say nothing but the more that I started to
• 45:28
  Speaker 4: work in these mainstream media spaces it's just like you
• 45:31
  Speaker 4: don't say that and then I come from fashion fashion
• 45:34
  Speaker 4: couture fashion you don't say shit about nothing so I
• 45:38
  Speaker 4: was trained to like get on and get along like
• 45:41
  Speaker 4: you know what I mean like eventually by the world
• 45:43
  Speaker 4: like the world will break especially black women the world
• 45:45
  Speaker 4: gonna teach try and remind you every day of why
• 45:47
  Speaker 4: you gotta like Shut up and assimilate.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's I found that interview you just did recently
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: with Vivica Fox. Interesting. Speaking about like going along to
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: get along because you touched on the Taraji P. Henson
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: thing with Vivica Fox. You know, everybody saw Vivica Fox
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: reaction to what Taraji P. Henson was exclaiming about the
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: industry and not being paid what you're worth, blah, blah, blah.
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: And Vivica Fox says she didn't experience or didn't doesn't
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: have that same experience. And then in the interview with you,
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: she was talking about like how this is a business
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: of relationships. I agree. Relationships is worth more than money.
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: So once you start burning bridges, you know, TMZ could
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: be a bridge that you didn't give a fuck about burning. OK,
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: but depending on what you're trying to do in the industry,
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: you have to maintain relationships.
• 46:35
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: So do you think that she I don't want. you
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: was in her house doing interviews. So I don't know
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: what type of relationship.
• 46:41
  Speaker 4: I have a question.
• 46:43
  Speaker 3: Do you think, right.
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: Do you think she is one of the, like, There's
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: no way you didn't understand as Vivica Fox.
• 46:51
  Speaker 4: Are you asking me if I think she's a get.
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: Along, get along type person?
• 46:55
  Speaker 4: I don't, I don't think that. I don't think that.
• 46:57
  Speaker 4: I think that because me and her, we had a
• 47:00
  Speaker 4: conversation prior to that interview because, and wait, I just
• 47:04
  Speaker 4: want to say when it comes to TMZ, I ain't
• 47:06
  Speaker 4: done nothing that, like I have not done or said
• 47:08
  Speaker 4: anything that I have not done or said to her.
• 47:11
  Speaker 4: to them and while I was with them so I
• 47:13
  Speaker 4: don't believe that a bridge is burned they do get
• 47:14
  Speaker 4: a little emotionally upset when you leave because they want
• 47:17
  Speaker 4: you to stay there but you know that'll be fine
• 47:21
  Speaker 4: but when it comes to Vivica Fox like me and
• 47:23
  Speaker 4: her had a really great like even though that was
• 47:27
  Speaker 4: my first time meeting her that like personally I felt
• 47:31
  Speaker 4: like I was in the home of a big sister.
• 47:33
  Speaker 4: We had a really good big sister, little sis conversation about,
• 47:37
  Speaker 4: you know, her life, her career, dealing with the controversy
• 47:40
  Speaker 4: of like just everything. I was telling her how new
• 47:42
  Speaker 4: it was for me to be on a platform like
• 47:43
  Speaker 4: the Breakfast Club and like the tax is strict to you.
• 47:47
  Speaker 4: The reviews, everything, you know, is different when you're behind
• 47:50
  Speaker 4: a brand like a TMZ. And she kind of, you know,
• 47:52
  Speaker 4: we talked about that. And then I asked her, you know,
• 47:55
  Speaker 4: do you want to talk about the Taraji stuff? Because
• 47:57
  Speaker 4: I didn't want to make her uncomfortable because of the
• 47:59
  Speaker 4: respect that I have for her. And the conversation that
• 48:01
  Speaker 4: we had around it prior to, I think that I
• 48:05
  Speaker 4: got a chance to understand her a little bit differently
• 48:07
  Speaker 4: than the people that just watch these clips. And the
• 48:09
  Speaker 4: way that I felt walking away from it is not
• 48:11
  Speaker 4: that she's just happy to be somewhere, happy to be working.
• 48:13
  Speaker 4: But number one, she came from a different time. Like
• 48:15
  Speaker 4: when I looked at the career that she had during
• 48:19
  Speaker 4: the time that Vivica Fox was the girl, there was
• 48:21
  Speaker 4: just her and maybe like Halle Berry. Like there weren't,
• 48:25
  Speaker 4: like there weren't, I don't think, I can't, But I
• 48:31
  Speaker 4: believe Vivica Fox is a little bit older than you though, correct?
• 48:34
  Speaker 3: Maybe at the same age. Maybe a little bit older.
• 48:39
  Speaker 4: Okay. So for me, when I saw that, I remember
• 48:42
  Speaker 4: asking her like, do you feel like your experience was
• 48:44
  Speaker 4: something that was a little bit different because the time
• 48:47
  Speaker 4: that you came along is kind of like you were
• 48:50
  Speaker 4: the go-to for so much stuff. So you had a
• 48:52
  Speaker 4: little bit more different leverage. And then also too, on
• 48:54
  Speaker 4: top of that, I think that we have a little bit,
• 48:57
  Speaker 4: a lot of bit more of a privilege to be
• 48:59
  Speaker 4: able to see, like she might've thought she was leveraging
• 49:01
  Speaker 4: her situation and maybe it worked out for her for
• 49:04
  Speaker 4: what she needed. But I think now we get a
• 49:07
  Speaker 4: chance to really see what leverage looks like for real,
• 49:09
  Speaker 4: for real. And we trying to run it up differently.
• 49:12
  Speaker 4: And Taraji is a part of a different world of like, nah,
• 49:16
  Speaker 4: you going to give me what you're supposed to give me.
• 49:18
  Speaker 4: And I think it's the same thing when you talk
• 49:19
  Speaker 4: to your grandmother about your career decisions versus your mom
• 49:22
  Speaker 4: or versus your sister. And I, cause for me, I
• 49:24
  Speaker 4: would never describe, and I'm not, I don't, I'm not
• 49:26
  Speaker 4: doing this to age Vivica, but the older black women
• 49:30
  Speaker 4: in my family, I would never describe those women as
• 49:33
  Speaker 4: like they sit down and they shut up and they
• 49:35
  Speaker 4: do whatever needs to be done because they're strong women. They,
• 49:38
  Speaker 4: they've been through things. They put things on their back.
• 49:40
  Speaker 4: They've done the work, but their way of we talk
• 49:43
  Speaker 4: back was different. And that's how I look at her.
• 49:45
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 49:46
  Speaker 4: So like when she said, I didn't go in like,
• 49:49
  Speaker 4: you know, maybe do it the way that Siraji did
• 49:51
  Speaker 4: by talking about things or whatever. I caught my team.
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah. I see.
• 49:56
  Speaker 4: Whatever. Right. I think that it's just, it's a very
• 49:59
  Speaker 4: sensitive topic, right? Because you have people who are emotionally
• 50:01
  Speaker 4: tied to what Taraji is doing. We've watched her forever.
• 50:04
  Speaker 4: We love her forever. And a lot of us go
• 50:05
  Speaker 4: through the same stuff. But I think that it's one
• 50:08
  Speaker 4: of those conversations where you have to realize that like
• 50:10
  Speaker 4: everybody has a different place in the fight. Vivica Fox
• 50:12
  Speaker 4: doesn't have to be the voice, the Martin Luther King
• 50:15
  Speaker 4: of it, right? She could be the person that's sitting
• 50:17
  Speaker 4: at home that you call for the bail money when
• 50:19
  Speaker 4: Martin Luther King, you know, is writing that letter from
• 50:21
  Speaker 4: Birmingham jail. And I'm not trying to say that she's
• 50:24
  Speaker 4: Martin Luther King or anything like that for the people listening,
• 50:26
  Speaker 4: but all I'm saying is that when I talk to her,
• 50:28
  Speaker 4: from what I took from it is... just because she
• 50:31
  Speaker 4: didn't do it the same way or she doesn't say
• 50:33
  Speaker 4: that's my experience it doesn't mean that she didn't have
• 50:35
  Speaker 4: an experience of some sort that she had to sort
• 50:38
  Speaker 4: out figure out and that changed things for the Taraji
• 50:40
  Speaker 4: to come I don't think that she did a good
• 50:42
  Speaker 4: job of saying that and I want to be very
• 50:45
  Speaker 4: honest in saying that her biggest thing with me in
• 50:47
  Speaker 4: that conversation about that topic was she wanted to protect
• 50:52
  Speaker 4: Taraji she didn't want to talk too much about it
• 50:54
  Speaker 4: because she felt like Seeing Taraji break down the way
• 50:57
  Speaker 4: she did and then everything that came after that TMZ
• 51:00
  Speaker 4: clip and how the world pinned them two against each other,
• 51:03
  Speaker 4: she felt like she was, like, it piled on to
• 51:05
  Speaker 4: whatever Taraji is obviously going through. And she said to me,
• 51:08
  Speaker 4: she's been through enough. I don't want to pile on.
• 51:10
  Speaker 4: Our experiences are different. So... It was kind of disheartening
• 51:13
  Speaker 4: for people to not get that through the interview. But
• 51:15
  Speaker 4: I also feel like, to people's defense, I don't think
• 51:18
  Speaker 4: she really gave it all of the color I just
• 51:21
  Speaker 4: gave y'all. And I wish she would have, but that
• 51:23
  Speaker 4: was her choice not to. But I don't look at
• 51:25
  Speaker 4: her that way. Nothing about, baby, Miss Vivica A. Fox,
• 51:29
  Speaker 4: nothing about her. Have y'all ever met her in person?
• 51:34
  Speaker 4: She is queen when you talk about it. Y'all need
• 51:36
  Speaker 4: to have her on here. She's like, you not getting
• 51:38
  Speaker 4: around her. I promise you, she's very strongly... not just
• 51:43
  Speaker 4: happy to be anywhere. You're happy to have her like that.
• 51:46
  Speaker 4: And everything about her exudes that, you know, the way
• 51:49
  Speaker 4: we were brought up where it's like, baby, I am woman.
• 51:51
  Speaker 4: Like who?
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: God, God, I get that energy from her.
• 51:55
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean? Yeah.
• 51:56
  Speaker 4: So I think, so no, to answer your question, I
• 51:59
  Speaker 4: don't think that about her. I think that people are
• 52:01
  Speaker 4: picking it up that way. I also think people like
• 52:03
  Speaker 4: to just fuck with her as well too. Cause she
• 52:04
  Speaker 4: gives y'all, y'all can't sit with me. So people love
• 52:07
  Speaker 4: to remind her, like now we sit next to you. Right. Right.
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: And then she was, it looked like she was going
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: through airport security or something when they were asking these questions.
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: It wasn't like she had a lot of time to
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: explain herself. I felt like it wasn't, you know, she was.
• 52:20
  Speaker 3: She didn't.
• 52:21
  Speaker 4: I mean, those clips are quick. Like you get a
• 52:23
  Speaker 4: TMZ clip, you get a good two minutes, two minutes, 50,
• 52:25
  Speaker 4: depending on what you're saying. She's signing autographs coming out
• 52:27
  Speaker 4: of the building. They clip quick clips, but I don't
• 52:30
  Speaker 4: think that the world really gets to feel what she's
• 52:32
  Speaker 4: trying to say. Cause she's not going in depth about it,
• 52:34
  Speaker 4: which for me is like, that's just going to make
• 52:36
  Speaker 4: it worse. But I don't know. I hope that my
• 52:38
  Speaker 4: interview ain't make it even worse.
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: No, I don't.
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: It didn't.
• 52:42
  Speaker 3: It didn't.
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: The original TMZ at the airport. I really didn't. I
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: didn't really feel any type of way about what she
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: said then. But once I saw the interview with you,
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: it gave a little bit of more definition. But like
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: you said, not enough. Like your explanation of the behind
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: the scenes conversation was, Like, I definitely don't... I'm not
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: calling her the op at all. I don't see that
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: Vivica Fox, that type of woman. I definitely think she
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: is for the people. But she was definitely trying to
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: keep it cute.
• 53:14
  Speaker 4: She was definitely trying to keep it cute. I think
• 53:16
  Speaker 4: her keep it cute is like... I think it could
• 53:19
  Speaker 4: be a little detrimental. In my personal opinion, it could
• 53:21
  Speaker 4: be a little detrimental to her because... for her to
• 53:23
  Speaker 4: be such a legend and an icon and to have, like,
• 53:26
  Speaker 4: when I say, like, I was only there for but
• 53:28
  Speaker 4: so much time, but I just felt like, wow, like,
• 53:30
  Speaker 4: you know, she's a big sister in TV you need,
• 53:32
  Speaker 4: for real, because she would have been in this shit, like, on, like,
• 53:35
  Speaker 4: a real high-level, best of the best, count her coins,
• 53:39
  Speaker 4: get her money, and she's living peacefully right now. I
• 53:43
  Speaker 4: think it does a disservice to, you know, like, just
• 53:46
  Speaker 4: our legacy as brown girls on our grind, and that's
• 53:48
  Speaker 4: what I want those conversations to be. That's why I'm
• 53:50
  Speaker 4: so excited to be able to sit down with her,
• 53:51
  Speaker 4: because I don't think that there's, like, a place right
• 53:53
  Speaker 4: now that gives us, like, that conversation of, like, nah,
• 53:56
  Speaker 4: that's your big sis for real. Like, if I'm going
• 53:58
  Speaker 4: to be honest, it might hurt you a little bit.
• 54:00
  Speaker 4: And when I was at Breakfast Club, for some reason,
• 54:02
  Speaker 4: I felt like I kept getting thrown into those type
• 54:03
  Speaker 4: of conversations. And I was learning so much about myself
• 54:07
  Speaker 4: in them. Like, when we did the Ebony Kid, when
• 54:08
  Speaker 4: we did the Carrie Champion, when we did, you know, like,
• 54:10
  Speaker 4: so many other conversations, I was like, I like this space.
• 54:14
  Speaker 4: I feel like a lot of people need to hear this. Like,
• 54:16
  Speaker 4: for real, for real. People need these, like, chokehold conversations
• 54:20
  Speaker 4: for real.
• 54:25
  Speaker 3: So I have a question.
• 54:26
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: Vivica was at one point at the height of her career, honestly,
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: she was dating 50 Cent. And people said that like
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: that affected her brand in a negative way. And then
• 54:36
  Speaker 2: we know that Carisha was connected to Diddy and she's
• 54:39
  Speaker 2: kind of been quiet. Do you feel like the man
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: that you're connected to can diminish your brand if shit
• 54:45
  Speaker 2: goes south?
• 54:47
  Speaker 4: A hundred percent. A hundred percent, because as successful as
• 54:51
  Speaker 4: Vivica Fox was and as iconic and legendary as she
• 54:54
  Speaker 4: is now, y'all remember when Cuban Link, 50 Cent's girlfriend,
• 54:57
  Speaker 4: came out and tried to play with her a little
• 54:59
  Speaker 4: bit and the world had to remind the world, like, no,
• 55:02
  Speaker 4: this is Vivica Fox. Stop playing. She had a career
• 55:04
  Speaker 4: for real. She's not just somebody's girlfriend. That is a
• 55:07
  Speaker 4: perfect example of, yes, that can happen, because how would
• 55:10
  Speaker 4: you ever even allow Vivica Fox to be put in
• 55:13
  Speaker 4: that conversation of, oh, you was just his past girlfriend.
• 55:16
  Speaker 4: I'm here now. But when you're a woman and you're
• 55:20
  Speaker 4: attractive and you're doing all these things, I don't know
• 55:22
  Speaker 4: what it is, but, like, when you attach to a man,
• 55:24
  Speaker 4: it overshadows so much. And it can lift you up
• 55:27
  Speaker 4: and put you in certain conversations and, you know, Carisha
• 55:30
  Speaker 4: Diddy at the Met Gala and all that fine stuff.
• 55:33
  Speaker 4: But at the same time, disattaching the wrong way. Every
• 55:37
  Speaker 4: time she speaks about 50, they're like, oh, my God,
• 55:39
  Speaker 4: here she go again. She's miserable. She wants him back.
• 55:42
  Speaker 4: And it's like, no, she's doing the same thing 50 do. Absolutely.
• 55:44
  Speaker 4: She knows that putting... Her show and the conversation with
• 55:47
  Speaker 4: his show, it's marketing. But she gets the bitter ex-girlfriend.
• 55:50
  Speaker 4: 56 gets marketing genius, like 100%. And it makes it
• 55:54
  Speaker 4: tough when you're trying to date. Because people be like,
• 55:56
  Speaker 4: I get told right now so much, oh, you need
• 55:57
  Speaker 4: to have a celebrity relationship. And I'm like, I mean.
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: I like real niggas.
• 56:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah. That's number one. And they be weird. The celebrity
• 56:07
  Speaker 4: people be weird. They don't be like the real for real.
• 56:10
  Speaker 4: But then also too, it's like, even if I did
• 56:12
  Speaker 4: like a celebrity enough to do it or, you know,
• 56:14
  Speaker 4: just whatever, I'm always nervous about how that will affect me.
• 56:18
  Speaker 4: I don't want to just be someone's girlfriend. I hate that.
• 56:20
  Speaker 4: And she, she talked about that too. She didn't go
• 56:22
  Speaker 4: into detail in the interview, but Vivica Fox was talking
• 56:25
  Speaker 4: about how she had to literally take a step away
• 56:27
  Speaker 4: from Hollywood at the height of her career to and
• 56:30
  Speaker 4: rebrand herself again and remind people I'm a serious actress.
• 56:34
  Speaker 4: She had to go to theater. She had to go
• 56:36
  Speaker 4: back to her roots of us, the Black people who
• 56:38
  Speaker 4: had been supporting her forever and go back to theater
• 56:40
  Speaker 4: and sell out shows and get agents and different people
• 56:43
  Speaker 4: to come to those shows because all people wanted to
• 56:45
  Speaker 4: talk to her about was her love life, who she
• 56:47
  Speaker 4: was fucking and who she was dealing with. And because
• 56:49
  Speaker 4: she had played the cute, sexy, powerful girlfriend and, you know,
• 56:54
  Speaker 4: all that for so long that that's where she lived
• 56:56
  Speaker 4: and she didn't like it and she knew she could
• 56:58
  Speaker 4: do way more but she had to fight all over
• 57:00
  Speaker 4: again to regain it. Men don't go through that. Michael B.
• 57:03
  Speaker 4: Jordan ain't had to go back to theater since.
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: We were young. Why do y'all think that is, though?
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: Why do y'all think that happened to Vivica Fox in
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: that way? Because, I mean, we talking about 50 Cent.
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: We ain't talking about, like, some rinky-dink-ass dude. So, why
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: do y'all think that even happened to her? Like, why
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: did her career, like, seemingly dwindle some after her relationship
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: with 50 Cent I don't understand it was.
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: That moment when she was on stage when it was
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: an award show and 50 Cent was performing and Vivica
• 57:31
  Speaker 2: was up there with them little shorts on as a
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: pretty much a background dancer for 50 Cent I think
• 57:36
  Speaker 2: that was when all the shit changed for her honestly
• 57:40
  Speaker 2: yeah it's been a lot of stuff about that relationship
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: that I didn't really I guess.
• 57:43
  Speaker 4: Because I was like younger I didn't pay attention to
• 57:45
  Speaker 4: but like it was something like she like when they
• 57:47
  Speaker 4: when she wanted like to talk to him um like
• 57:50
  Speaker 4: I guess when she was shooting her shot she like
• 57:51
  Speaker 4: showed up at his house or something like that to
• 57:54
  Speaker 4: like there was like a couple different.
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: Things so she has 10 years older than him also
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: yeah and so I.
• 58:00
  Speaker 4: Think maybe it was the maybe the approach but in
• 58:03
  Speaker 4: my opinion I feel like the world loves to put
• 58:06
  Speaker 4: black women in this space of like reminding us you
• 58:10
  Speaker 4: like don't forget okay all the.
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: Time this is all cute you're doing good but not
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: too much not too much okay remember you need us
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: we don't need you and with black men even though
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: black men go through what they go through i had
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: this argument all the time with black men about black
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: men have a certain it's it's like even though the
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: world perceives them a certain way and you know.
• 58:34
  Speaker 4: They can't be looked at as aggressive they love them
• 58:36
  Speaker 4: or whatever whatever If you are a black man with
• 58:40
  Speaker 4: power and money and influence and you look good.
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: The white people lend to you.
• 58:46
  Speaker 4: Even though they're trying to control you with puppet strings,
• 58:49
  Speaker 4: they lend to you a little bit different than they
• 58:51
  Speaker 4: do a black woman. As a black woman, if you
• 58:52
  Speaker 4: look good and you're powerful, you can't do one.
• 58:56
  Speaker 3: Of the two.
• 58:56
  Speaker 4: You can't actually be talented and be fire and look
• 59:00
  Speaker 4: good and smart and be dating somebody pop and it's like,
• 59:03
  Speaker 4: oh no, that's just his girlfriend. right like that's just
• 59:07
  Speaker 4: all it is.
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: I seen some white people on X called Meghan Markle
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: lazy I'm like what like what constitute her being lazy
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: because she's a mulatto mixed black woman like what what
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: did she do to be lazy to y'all She's the fucking,
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: she's royalty at this point.
• 59:28
  Speaker 4: She's from where she's from. That's why it's.
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: Like, she doesn't deserve.
• 59:32
  Speaker 4: To be a royal. She just lays on her back
• 59:34
  Speaker 4: and be with that man. And that's her career. And
• 59:36
  Speaker 4: that's her life. So what? Yes.
• 59:39
  Speaker 3: Like what's she.
• 59:39
  Speaker 4: Supposed to be doing? Because the real housewives of New York,
• 59:43
  Speaker 4: don't white women is living great.
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: And all a fraud.
• 59:48
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: Let's be clear.
• 59:50
  Speaker 4: Anyway.
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: So in a world where like my truth is, I
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: talk about this all the time. My truth, this, my truth,
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: like everybody's truth is the truth. Like how important is
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: it to you as a journalist? Because even with just
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: a podcast, like we are essentially journalists. How important is
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: it to you to make sure that you're being, that
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: you're reporting the truth?
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 4: Oh, it's all like, it's that or nothing for me.
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 4: Even now, so like with Brown Girl Grinding, we do
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 4: a lot of content that causes engagement and conversations. And
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 4: our biggest exclusive that we're going to really hone in
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 4: and focus in on this year are the interviews. Because
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 4: I just feel like it gives a different voice to
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 4: news than just me posting a tweet or whatever. But
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 4: if I'm following a story... The way that I've been
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 4: brought up in this through my bootcamp at TMZ, oh,
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 4: it's factual or I'm not even touching it. There are
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 4: certain things that people will reach out to me and
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 4: be like, oh, why you not talking about this? Why
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 4: you not covering it? Unless I'm about to do something opinion-based.
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 4: And I think some stuff doesn't deserve an opinion. Some
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 4: stuff deserves facts, factual review. I'm not touching it because
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 4: as a journalist, like who's really doing this, that's all
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 4: I have is the fact that you'll be able to
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 4: fact check what I said. And it's true. But also
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 4: just in like, if you look at a TMZ and
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 4: the business model there, they have built their brand and
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 4: you can't get around them because it's truthful. It's vetted.
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 4: And they're the first to tell you about it. So
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 4: now you go to them knowing you trust them. All
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 4: I have as a journalist, like right now I'm literally
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 4: working for myself. Like I am every single day getting
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 4: up and doing something for myself that is causing income, conversation,
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 4: brand building, whatever, a hundred percent. I don't work for
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 4: anyone but myself, even when I work with other brands.
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 4: It's a new space for me. But at the end
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 4: of the day, I want to be a person that
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 4: people look at and they trust and they're like, oh,
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 4: she's talking about it. It's something to pay attention to.
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 4: If she's putting facts out for the first time, we
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 4: can trust what she's saying. The minute that you do
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 4: that and it's not truthful or you plan around with
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 4: your platform from the world that I'm trying to build in,
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 4: people can't, like, we don't even know where to go now. Like,
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 4: we don't know if it's vetted. We don't know if
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 4: it's real. And there's so much bullshit and fake stuff
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 4: on the internet too. And because I'm solely, I'm just
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 4: social media based. Like, I don't have a website. I
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 4: don't have my own TV show yet. So all I
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 4: had is to be like that one person in the
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 4: world of all this noise that can bring you some
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 4: truth and some insight and some in-depth conversations. That's where
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 4: I'm leaning with it. So it's 100%. It's truthful, factual, fact-checking,
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 4: or nothing at all.
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: So all your feelings are out when you're reporting on
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: the news. It's nothing personal ever.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 4: No, that's not always true because I'm human. So you
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 4: would you want it to be that way when you're
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 4: reporting certain things. But because you're human, you're your human
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 4: bias is always going to come in to a certain extent.
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 4: I do try and be as neutral as I can.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 4: And I'm learning to be better at that because I
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 4: think a lot of times when I do lead with emotion,
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 4: depending on what it is, it's because I feel like
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 4: a lot of times I'm speaking for people that might
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 4: not ever get the seat that I'm in. Like you
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 4: might not get to talk to Ebony K or you
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 4: might not get to talk to a Vivica Fox or
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 4: you might not, you know, get to, if there's like, I,
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 4: I forget which school shooting it was. That's so sad
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 4: that there's so many of them, but probably like a month,
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 4: like two months ago, there was a school shooting that
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 4: happened and I was going back and forth with law
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 4: enforcement sources, just, you know, reporting things as they were
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 4: coming out. And I remember one of the public information
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 4: officers called me and was like, what platform are you with?
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 4: And I was like my own brown girl grinding. And
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 4: he was like, you should be working somewhere. Like you're
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 4: so like on it. Like every single time they release something,
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 4: when I saw it somewhere else, if I didn't report
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 4: it first, I called and said, Hey, I just want
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 4: to confirm this before I go with it. You know?
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 4: And he was like, we really appreciate that because these
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 4: families are impacted by the news and the media and
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 4: people don't understand that. And that was like such a, like, okay,
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 4: I got this, you know, like I could do this
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 4: for me on my own because I removed myself from
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 4: it and I was factual. But at the same time,
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 4: I don't know what it's like to lose a kid
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 4: to a school shooting, but in being sensitive to that,
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 4: I do want to put a little emotion in it
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 4: when I'm reported on it. But you just got to
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 4: know when the right time is. So like the Chris
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 4: Brown reacting or me reacting to the Chris Brown situation
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 4: that you brought up earlier, that's all me. That's all opinion.
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 4: That's my emotion. That's how I feel. But if I'm
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 4: talking about something that is like an actual, you know,
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 4: something that like the facts are there, I can't get
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 4: around it. And I'll make a, I might still give
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 4: my opinion, but you'll know when the switch happens. Mm-hmm.
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: Like the only, don't, she said the only Taylor we
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: recognize is Taylor Port, bitch. I said, what? What Taylor? Y'all, y'all, y'all.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 3: I recognize our producer. Our producer Taylor.
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: That's the only Taylor. Fun size T.
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 4: Because black people want to act like we've been.
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: On this Taylor for a long time.
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 2: No, the hell we haven't.
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 3: Absolutely not.
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 2: We don't shake it off in Taylor Port and that's it.
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 2: like I'm gonna try to stop playing.
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: Teleport is straight trash but you know.
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 4: It though you done had a little sippy sip everybody
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 4: has drank some.
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 2: Teleport they got it at church I won't mess with
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 2: that shit.
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: That's what y'all be getting at church during commune that
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: damn teleport.
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 4: I wish but even that though there was a lot
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 4: of factual stuff in the full video like I took
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 4: actual facts and reports or whatever but then you got
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 4: you got you got your little.
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah what do you do you consider yourself a millennial
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 2: are you a millennial yes i don't even i don't
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 2: know i guess yeah so when people be saying all
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 2: that stuff i don't know how the age bracket.
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 3: Were you born before 97 yes i.
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 4: Was born in 91 yeah oh okay so yeah yeah
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 4: she's definitely a millennial okay cool.
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: So what do you believe are some of the most
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: pressing issues facing millennials today? And how do you approach
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: covering these issues in your reporting?
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 4: I think race, gender wars, politics, but not just like
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 4: making people go out and vote. I think making people
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 4: actually understand.
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: What the fuck is going on?
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 4: Like on a- Yeah, but what's going on and doing
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 4: it in a bite-sized way as a person that, like,
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 4: I don't have a political background, but, like, I have
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 4: to go and vote. I have to know certain things
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 4: just to be a person, civil person in the world.
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 4: So I think that that's, like, an issue, too, that there's, like,
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 4: a big fallout between all these smart people who know
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 4: everything and can, like, get on CNN and be analysts and, like,
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 4: the everyday person who really needs to go and vote
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 4: for their prosecutor locally. Like, those things, I think... the
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 4: world of like business and business, like creation and branding
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 4: is also like an issue with us. I don't really
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 4: have too many friends who work regular jobs. All my
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 4: friends are creatives or like own their own businesses. Even
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 4: my friends who do work regular jobs, their regular jobs
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 4: are requiring them to know what's going on in the
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 4: pulse of creativity, especially if they black. If you black
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 4: and you working for these big corporations, baby, they want
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 4: you to sing, rap, act, dance, do an Excel sheet
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 4: with numbers, all of that. Yeah, social media, all of that.
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 4: So because you come in and you are the culture
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 4: in these rooms, So I think that that's also a
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 4: big thing as well, too, is, like, us just understanding
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 4: and navigating, like, financially, like, as a business owner, where
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 4: that can put you, being able to, like, partner with
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 4: these organizations. I guess that's called capitalism, like, us understanding
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 4: how we can use that to better ourselves. Because I
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 4: think our generation of people are so, like, fuck the man.
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 5: We don't fuck that job you know what I mean
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 5: I built my own table and yeah I want all
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 5: of us to be building our own tables but the
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 5: table gotta get bigger and it gotta scale in order
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 5: for us.
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 4: To really do this shit for real for real and
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 4: we need a lot of us in those rooms that
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 4: are like at the head of the LVMHs you know
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 4: so I think that that's also something big and podcast
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 4: mics with men I think that that's a big issue
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 4: facing millennials as well so.
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: Y'all saw that pose? These sound like gaslighting me. Toxic masculinity.
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: this is my last question this is in reference to
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: like social media and because i've had a i read
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: an article that said most millennials that you know they
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: get 45 percent of their news from social media so
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: we have platforms like x for example which you know
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of independent journalists on x whether this
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: should be true or not it's up for you to
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: have discernment and decipher so how do you see the
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: role of social media shaping modern journalism practices.
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 4: I talked about this at a panel I did during
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 4: Grammy weekend. I think that it's going to make it where,
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 4: you know how like the, I always think of myself
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 4: as like a rap artist. Me too. You don't have
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 4: no like mixtape or nothing. But just like in terms
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 4: of career, the way that you have to position yourself
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 4: when you are talented, The way that social media is
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 4: already changing news media, how people receive it is the
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 4: same way when people started stepping away from labels and saying,
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 4: I want to be independent. I just want a distribution deal.
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 4: It's literally going to be that eventually. But the issue
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 4: is that you have all these people who are on
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 4: social and they can tweet whatever they want, do whatever
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 4: they want and present things as facts and it not
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 4: be fact. Right. Or it be an augmented fact.
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 4: Through AI or through personal opinion, emotion, whatever. And a
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 4: lot of times these people are not vetted journalists. They
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 4: don't have the background to even understand how to check
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 4: a source, how to... Like, you know, there's a lot
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 4: that goes into this nuance of reporting news and being
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 4: a news personality. And just a person that drives conversation
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 4: around culture in general. So I think what we're going
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 4: to see is that eventually... the CNNs and all that stuff,
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 4: it's happening already. They're going to be trying to keep
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 4: up with the people that become the faces and the
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 4: names on the TikToks and the Twitters and the Instagrams
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 4: and the, you know, like in that space, Don Lemon,
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 4: who got fired from CNN, announced that he's doing the show,
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 4: but he's doing it on X.
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: Tucker Carlson.
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 4: Tucker Carlson. So many people have just, they X'd out
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 4: the middleman and they get the distribution through platforms and
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 4: sponsors and advertising to make it bigger and to scale larger.
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 4: So I think, That is going to become the new normal.
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 4: And the people that are early on it are going
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 4: to become the breakout voices. That was a big part
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 4: of me leaving my job, just seeing that that was
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 4: a thing and knowing that I could do it. It's
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 4: not easy. It is very tough because it takes a
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 4: lot of consistency. It takes a lot of finance as well.
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 4: You got to have a good partner, good backing. I'm
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 4: looking for all that. If y'all out there and y'all like,
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 4: y'all fuck with her, I want to throw some dollars
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 4: my way to help this scale up. I'm going to
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 4: grind this scale up. But I think that eventually it's
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 4: going to be a rise of creators and content creators
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 4: who are telling news and putting stuff into the world.
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 4: And it won't even be traditional. They won't just sit
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 4: and report it. It's going to be so many different ways.
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 4: And those platforms will be the go-to over like a
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 4: TMZ or CNN or whatever. And the best platforms will
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 4: see that and start to change and pivot. Like I
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 4: even noticed at TMZ since I left things that they're
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 4: doing differently. Like even the way that they're going, like
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 4: I knew leaving what I needed to do in order
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 4: to be still keeping myself right next to them. Like
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 4: I'm not as big of a platform, but they don't
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 4: have my voice. They don't have, there's a lot that
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 4: I knew I left with. So I used what I
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 4: knew that they weren't doing to structure what I wanted
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 4: to do so that I could still kind of, you know,
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 4: be right there at it. But I'm like, oh, they
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 4: waking up a little bit. Like, they hitting social media
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 4: as soon as the stories are publishing and, like, all
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 4: that stuff. They weren't social media first. They were website first.
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 4: But the website's still there. So a lot of platforms
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 4: are going to come around. But that's what it's going
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 4: to be. Like, your lead news person is going to
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 4: be such and such of X. And, you know, like,
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 4: what academics is doing, but, like, a more vetted version
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 4: of it that you can really trust. And not just
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 4: him screaming at his phone at, like.
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: Hiding out in his fucking basement somewhere.
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 3: I got one more question for you, Lauren.
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 2: What advice would you give someone, a young person trying
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 2: to get into journalism and they're just starting out and
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 2: they're afraid and they don't know what to do?
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 3: What advice would you give them?
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 4: I always tell people to start where you are. So
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 4: don't wait until you got the job, you moved out
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 4: to the state that you want to move to or whatever.
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 4: Start where you are, interview your friends, interview the people
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 4: that are doing something around you. Get good at like
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 4: knowing how to like produce. If you're starting where you
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 4: are and you're putting out content, you're developing ideas and
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 4: angles and all that, you're learning how to produce and
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 4: that there's no way you can live and breathe in
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 4: this space and not be a producer also. That's number one.
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 4: Number two is to like really just understand what is
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 4: the story that you want to tell. That won't come instantly.
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 4: I'm just now realizing within this last year that where
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 4: I think my voice is strongest and lending myself to
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 4: that and building a brand around it. It will take time.
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 4: So don't be afraid to try things. Don't be afraid
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 4: to get on different platforms. If it's not the job
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 4: you want, like people be like, should I start in
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 4: local news? It's so boring. It's not the shade room.
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 3: Hell yeah.
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 4: It's a job. It's going to put you on camera.
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 4: It's going to teach you things. There's so many different
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 4: tools that you need. Like you need to, there's so
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 4: many different things you need to know how to do.
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 4: on and off camera that you don't learn it until.
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 3: You do it.
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: Post-production and stuff like that.
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 4: Yes. Like when I'm a personality and I'm navigating new spaces,
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 4: like Breakfast Club was new, new for me. Like I
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 4: had never been on a platform for that long of
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 4: a time where like I'm a full blown personality. And
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 4: the first day I was there, I remember thinking like, okay,
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 4: today was cool. But as a producer, what were the
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 4: things that I didn't do well that would have made
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 4: the producer's job easier when it comes to making the
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 4: show good? Like, what did I realize? I realized like, yo,
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 4: they really good as hell at what they do in
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 4: real life. I don't think people give it to Charlamagne.
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: Yes. They're good at well-oiled machines.
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 4: Right. Bro, like they just be like, like off the top, like,
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 4: So like, you know, I was like, okay, comebacks. I
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 4: thought my comebacks were cool for the TMZ room, but
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 4: that's a bunch of people who are like, you know,
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 4: it's different when you with the culture. So like, you know, just,
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 4: but having that producer hat and having had it for
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 4: so long at TMZ and understanding what makes people go,
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 4: I started looking at myself like, okay, what can I
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 4: really lean into here to make this shit? I got
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 4: to run it up while I'm here because I might
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 4: not be here forever. I got to run it up.
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 4: So it's important to get all that so don't turn
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 4: down anything learn as much as you can start where
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 4: you are put the stuff out if you're telling me
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 4: that you are a TV personality and I can't find
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 4: you on social doing anything TV personality wise in 2024
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 4: you're not a TV personality if you're a producer and
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 4: you can't send me a reel or there's nothing out
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 4: there that I can see you're not a producer but
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 4: the minute that you start putting stuff out there you
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 4: are regardless of people believe it or not so just
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 4: get started start.
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: Start where you are.
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 2: Well, thank you, Lauren, for joining us, man. This was
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 2: such an excellent interview. You're such a great guest. We
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 2: definitely want to have you back for sure.
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 4: Yes, man. Call me whenever y'all need me. I'm talking
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 4: back all the time. So just call me. Plug all
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 4: your shit, though.
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: Period.
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 4: Yes. Make sure y'all go and follow me in the brand.
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 4: So I am Lauren LaRosa everywhere. L-O-R-E-N L-O-R-O-S-A everywhere. That's YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Everything.
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 4: So on YouTube, we are documenting behind the scenes. We're
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 4: blogging the experience, but we also now have the Brown
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 4: Girl Grinding interview series, which we kicked off this month
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 4: or yeah, it was this month. We kicked off this
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 4: month with Vivica A. Fox and we have some really,
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 4: really great Brown Girls on the Ground entertainment, like some
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 4: really good names that you guys are going to enjoy
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 4: coming there. But Warner Bros. everywhere. And then the brand
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 4: is Brown Girl Grinding. B-R-O-W-N.
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: Girl.
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 4: Common spelling. Grinding. Grinding. common spelling as well too follow
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 4: us i tell people that brown girl grinding is like
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 4: the group chat like we have conversations over there we
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 4: argue we get lit together we have a good time
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 4: but it's home it's family and we're building out a
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 4: space where you can get news exclusives talk back segments
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 4: all of that just a good good old time and
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 4: we do it like real cute like for the ladies
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 4: in a place with style.
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 3: And grace.
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: Sounds lit Thank y'all.
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 4: For lending the platform to me. I appreciate y'all for
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 4: having me.
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: We appreciate you. Millennials are creating contemporary Black history in
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: real time, which involves actively engaging in actions, movements, initiatives
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: that contribute to the advancement, recognition, and celebration of Black culture.
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: So building connections within the Black community and beyond is
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: crucial for amplifying voices. sharing experiences, and fostering solidarity. Our
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: partners at AT & T Dreamin' Black are fully aware
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: that Black history isn't static. It's happening right now.
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 2: Our guest today, Lauren LaRosa, she definitely touched on that,
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 2: how Black millennials are becoming entrepreneurs and launching businesses and
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 2: creating innovation solutions. She definitely was talking about how our parents,
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 2: you know, our parents would work for 20 years at
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 2: one job and stay with that job. And now millennials,
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 2: we are challenging ourselves traditional business models. And she also
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 2: talked about collaborations with bigger brands and how to scale
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 2: your business. So that was definitely dope. Some black millennials
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 2: that I can think of that are definitely pushing the
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 2: culture forward right now.
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 3: Pinky Cole.
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 4: She has Slutty Vegan.
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 3: That's huge. Yeah.
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 2: A vegan plant-based burger restaurant, you know, and she's, it
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 2: started in Atlanta and now it's a change. She's moving
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 2: all over the country and she was like time nominated
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 2: for times top a hundred people.
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 3: Then you have Everett Taylor.
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 2: He's the CEO of Kickstarter, which is a crowdfunding app
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 2: that has collected millions and millions of dollars for entrepreneurs
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 2: who are trying to get their creative ideas off the ground.
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 3: So that's huge.
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, Charlamagne, now God, with the Black Effect Podcast Network,
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: our network.
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 3: Period.
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: Okay, he has brought together some of the biggest voices
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: in Black media to spread truth. OK, we talked about
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: truth a lot on this episode. So Black millennials are
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: able to share their stories and perspectives on multiple podcasts
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: across the network. Charlamagne is the founder and creator of
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: this network, the Black Effect Podcast Network, which stands as
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: the first podcast network tailored specifically for Black listeners. OK,
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: we ain't trying to exclude nobody, but yes, for us
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: by us. Bringing together diverse and trusted voices within the
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: culture and fostering a platform for representation and connection where
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: Black millennials can share their stories, like I said.
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 2: So before we go, let's discuss how me and you
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 2: and we talk back, how we can continue to.
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 3: Support Black creators and amplify our voices.
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: We don't keep talking. We're going to keep talking back. Okay.
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 2: I think we got to keep bringing on good guests
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 2: from all different walks of life, you know, different entrepreneurs,
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 2: women who are like, we just did the segment with
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 2: women who are happily married, different people in STEM.
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 3: You know, I don't know shit about STEM. So, you know,
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 3: Things like that.
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 2: I think that's a dope way that we can definitely
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 2: amplify our voices and push the culture forward.
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 4: Absolutely.
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: All right. So y'all to learn more about AT &
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: T and their initiatives with AT & T Dreamin' Black,
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: y'all visit AT & T. com Dreamin' Black to learn more
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: about the visionaries AT & T Dreamin' Black is honoring
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: and celebrating this month and how you can enter to
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: win by sharing your story. Black Effect podcast demonstrates commitment
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: to underrepresented voices in media and beyond under the belief
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: that connecting changes everything. Y'all listen, if you enjoyed this episode,
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: y'all tune in every Thursday on the iHeartRadio app, wherever
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: you get your podcasts at. This is your co-host, AJ Holiday.
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 4: Kick it, Tam.
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 2: Y'all, it's official Tam Bam. I love y'all once again. Y'all,
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 2: thank y'all for tuning in. Remember to speak now.
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: And never hold your peace.
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 3: Or your voice.
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 4: Ever.
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.