Ledisi

Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Ledisi spends her new album's release day with Questlove Supreme. Ledisi reveals the challenges she has faced as a self-made DIY artist that works in multiple genres as well as stage and screen. However, after years on the grind, Good Life is a fitting title for the artist's newest project. Ledisi describes this album while recalling a journey of talent and tenacity.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. Ladies and gentlemen,
Welcome to Quest Love Supreme. Neil's Quest Love. We have
Teams Supreme with us. This is a morning episode of
Quest Love Supreme. So it would be very interesting to

(00:20):
see how the energy is this morning.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Because you know how you doing.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Tries you ready to go?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
That's an instant Jiff b there. I think it's Kiff.
It's not Jif. Steve is Jip. Jip is a peanut butter.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Bro yo man before Money died.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Before he passed, he told me it was Jiff.

Speaker 4 (00:49):
Hey man, it's just like the thing.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Come on, man, draw draws. I get it all right,
all right, I'll roll with the mob.

Speaker 5 (01:00):
Call the creator of the gift.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
The creator of the gift, like he was one of
the early people to die in the pandemic. But the
last thing we did together some awards thing, and I
asked him.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
I didn't even ask him, he says Jiff. I was like,
how do you know? I was going to ask you?

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Like I get asked this one hundred times a day.
But then he also said I should have said.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Gift, but yeah, or used a jay if he wanted it.
I get it. It's above him now, so you know
he's not here, so he's above us now. He's oh god,
all right, So Bill, how you doing? Man?

Speaker 3 (01:41):
I just I just googled it said. He called it
a gift with a soft g. Choosy developers, he said,
choose Jiff. This was, of course, a play on the
peanut butter brand Jeff's line.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Choosy mothers, choose Jeff. That's all.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
And the Internet never lies, So I'm going gift. I'm fine,
by the way, thank you very much for asking.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Well, and thank you and Steve. Yes, I'm good, Fante.

Speaker 4 (02:06):
I'm good, Man, I'm good. Been working. Men just did something,
but it said, yeah, what are you working on? I
don't know how much I'm a livinged to say, so
I let William Bill.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
I'll explain what it happened once. Tell us.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
What it happened was Sponte and his producing partner Zoe
have created a jam for the children that will air
sometime in September by very famous, fantastic artist on this
films today. But we're not allowed to say who that
person is other than it's gonna be awesome.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Wait, Fante wrote an Elmo jam. Yeah, I've been right,
I've been writing.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Anyway, ladies and gentlemen, I will say that our guest today,
what's an understatement to say that she is a monster talent,
as talented as they come. Uh, she's an unworldly singer,
one of the you know, there's there's people that ooze
with charisma, and I mean I've probably have been. Yeah,

(03:09):
I think we're our careers are borderline neck and neck.
So since the roots have been.

Speaker 6 (03:15):
Years older, but that's okay.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah, but like I just started late.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Okay, so our guest started when she was two years old. Okay, anyway, Yeah, no,
I'll say that, even if my memory serves me correct,
whenever the Roots would come to the Bay Area, I
believe that this person has been kind of a presence
in the entirety of my career. And even from the

(03:41):
first moment we've laid eyes on her, like just absolute charisma,
Like she owned the stage and that's that's something that
you can't find anywhere pretty much in entertainment.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Like that's a special gift.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
As of now, as we speak, her eleventh album, entitled
Good Life, has just been released. By the time it
gets on the air, it should have been out by then.
So in addition to a Grammy Award winning music career
in multiple genres, he's also an actress of stage and screen,
don't forget, an author, an educator, and an advocate for others.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
And this is a long time coming.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
So welcome to QLs today we have let usy welcome
to question.

Speaker 6 (04:22):
Thank you so much. What that means a lot just
hearing you talk about me because I see you DJing
all the time. You know, I would always go to
your shows. That's like one of my favorite things.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
I know. This is the thing.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
As long as we've known each other, like, we've never
had a moment to really just chop it up like
in every real way. So this is almost like our
first real, in depth conversation, even though you know, again
it's it's been several decades.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
And you know this is a long time coming.

Speaker 7 (04:55):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
Well, I'll ask you because you know today's is the
what I say, the birth day of your new album.
Do you still get excited about these things as if
it were like your children out in the world, or
like you still get like butterflies and anticipation and excitement

(05:15):
of presenting it to the world.

Speaker 6 (05:17):
I am so nervous right now, but I really every
single time. But I think this one even more so
because of the growth. I never chase relevancy. It's not
my thing. I love growth and perseverance in history more
than anything, and so me, I'm always adding colors to

(05:40):
my version of whoever I am in that era and
hoping for people to see another side of myself that
I never get to show. So this is another side
and kind of full circle, coming back to the root
of feel good music, like when I started, you know,
so this one, I'm kind of grown and I don't

(06:03):
care what people think anymore. I just want to put
feel good out there. I think we needed it. I
needed it, And what I'm nervous about is, after three
years of work, is it enough? You know?

Speaker 1 (06:18):
Yes, I'm so glad you said that, because right now
we're going through a cycle. I mean, you'll be maybe
the fourth or fifth artist that we've interviewed in which
their product is kind of a direct result of whatever
they learned from the pandemic. This restart thing, like it

(06:40):
happened with Brittany, with Brittany Howard and also with Green
Bailey Ray.

Speaker 6 (06:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
Yeah, Like you're seeing these artists who kind of had
either a pivot or a transformation, or they got to
know themselves better. They have a lot of self work
and the creativity that normally went on their product before
twenty twenty is not the same way as it is now.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
So would you say that for you? That's also the case.

Speaker 6 (07:09):
I think I'm a chameleon every album, though I've always
been different every project. I think I did a complete
pivot by doing Lettucey sings Nina when I'm an R
and B. You know me as an R and B artist,
but I've seen classical and opera and in French and Italian,
but I never get to show that in R and B.

(07:29):
So to me, it's like for me, it's how I feel,
And a lot of it has to do with ownership,
being my own under my own label and doing my
own thing, so I've never had that. The pandemic only
pushed me forward to be more active in socially active

(07:51):
online and talking to people. Before I was more like
just putting stuff out and going away. This is new
for me, actually talking to people more.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
Wait, so you're not an engager, No, I try to be.

Speaker 6 (08:06):
I've gotten better. Twenty twenty taught me that I have
my own podcasts. I started talking more to my friends privately,
but then I'm like, I might as well put this
out and show people that I'm talking. You know, no
one knows and knew anything much about me, but you
seeing me around, you know what I mean. I'm like
the the oh let Usy said the show, what is

(08:27):
she doing here?

Speaker 5 (08:28):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (08:29):
Well, you know what, I would have thought the opposite,
because when you're.

Speaker 6 (08:32):
On stage, that's another thing you do.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
But when you're on stage, you do this like zero
to one hundred in two seconds. And you know, I'm
not even trying to blow smoke up your ass or anything,
but literally like charisma, connecting with the audience, talking to
the audience, engaging them, telling jokes, yeah, talking about your life.

(08:57):
Like that's a hard thing to do. Like I avoided
it all costs, you know what I mean. I hide
behind a drum set. I hide behind turntables and the
internet and all these things like where you have to
be out there. And I just naturally thought there was
one show I saw where I was like, I will
be none surprised if you know, you get an OPRAH

(09:18):
platform just the way that you were doing one on
one with your your audience. But that's weird to hear
that in your personal off stage life that you're you're
saying you're an introvert sort of or worth I'm a little.

Speaker 6 (09:31):
Bit of both, but more so introverted, really shy stage though.
It's I think of the audience more so. I don't
think of myself. I think of them and making time
and moments to come to the show and entertain them
and be honest and authentic because I wouldn't want to
pay for that and then put myself in their position.

(09:54):
But what would I if I'm sitting out there watching
you guys? I want to be like this, you know
what I mean. I want feel something. So if I'm
standing there like glue, just letting it dry, just boring.
So I always think of put myself in the audience's position.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
Well, look, so if you are shy in your personal life.
And this is something I'm just discovering maybe in the
last two or three years and talking to artists like
on this platform and also just interviewing them in general.
I think a lot of the general public is rather
shocked that some artists might have anxiety, social anxiety, that

(10:31):
sort of thing. And so I'm often finding out that
they have to sort of psyche themselves up, like a
half hour before going on stage or like transform into
a new character, that sort of thing like so what
is your process to get out of your social shyness
of non stage life into like what is your process

(10:51):
like an hour before the before showtime?

Speaker 6 (10:55):
A lot of breathing High Hills does it for me.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
I love wearing, so you become a new character that
I love.

Speaker 6 (11:05):
High heels, I love makeup. I just love this becoming
grown woman like energy. It's so good for me. It
says I belong, It says I'm worthy, it says power,
and inside my heart is racing. I'm still afraid. But
I recycle the fear into win and gather tell them

(11:29):
about who you are, where you come from, the music,
the root, everything, it's not it's bigger than me. But
all of that gives me power to just execute the stories.
We're storytellers, we're creative, so we gotta It's not about us,
It's about what we're trying to ignite and inspire other people.

(11:49):
They want to feel something. So I go back to that,
and but the high Hills six it ashow hold. I
can get it off even one.

Speaker 3 (12:00):
Keeping clothes again the first the first guest to go
and grab their shoessal.

Speaker 6 (12:07):
I will fight you.

Speaker 5 (12:08):
That is not a way.

Speaker 6 (12:09):
What that is my uncles? Oh your ankles so much fun.
That's a whole performance and notes. Yeah, yes, ma'am ninety's
Warrior ninety minutes. I love a good hell. It makes
me taller. I'm five five. I need some y'all are.

Speaker 1 (12:27):
Tall short, all right, so noted, I will be writing
crocks for.

Speaker 6 (12:37):
I have some nice make her some nice high crocks. Me.
You have some heels with cracks.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
They actually have platform crocks.

Speaker 6 (12:46):
But have some, but they.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
Don't they don't go beyond size fourteen.

Speaker 6 (12:50):
So you know, I don't know. I need.

Speaker 5 (12:55):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
It's happening, but I'll produce it.

Speaker 6 (12:58):
Down in two years as well. Do it as long
as I can watch those hips.

Speaker 2 (13:04):
Yeah, let to see.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
I thought you were born in the Bay Area, but
I found out I was wrong.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
He tell us where you were born.

Speaker 6 (13:16):
I'm originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, and my family comes
from the Holly Grove area. I don't have an accent
because I moved when I was twelve years old to
the Bay Area, so it's raised in Oakland, East Oakland.
But when I get mad, my accent comes out really
nicely bit bad. It gets round.

Speaker 5 (13:40):
A new Ornan's accent.

Speaker 7 (13:43):
Wait, can I ask the question of mirror that I
feel like we might have to skip because I need
to know where lettu see anee by day came from.

Speaker 6 (13:50):
It's a year but where my mom named me. It
comes from a Ochoca song a year but word God,
my mom loves year of a music and would sing it.
And that's where the name. It means to bring forth
is let us see and aniba day means to bring luck,

(14:11):
so bring forth, bring luck. And so that's my real name.
My mom and dad named me. They were kind of
hippies and uh that was their thing, you know. So
that's where my name comes from.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
Do you remember what was your first musical memory.

Speaker 6 (14:29):
My mom would sing at this park across the street
with her band, and she had this big afro and
bell bottoms, blue jeans, bell bottoms in a green shirt
and some big hoops, and she had this tambourine but
she would hit it with her hip all the time,
and I just love every time her hip would move her,

(14:51):
she'd sing the audience would just I just saw them
go crazy. I didn't know what that meant, but the
sound of her voice always would do something here. So
that memory always, I always remember that before I go
on stage. But that was my one of my first
memories of music. The other one is the A track.

(15:12):
The band would record to the A track and it
would sit in our room. We had a shotgun house
to just go straight ahead and in the living room.
The band would record in the living room and my
mom would record her vocal part with the A track
in our bedroom, which was the next room. So I
would stare at the A track and watch my mom

(15:34):
record on the edge of the bed. And then when
they pressed play and her voice came out of it,
I was just blown away. And that's when I like
those two memories. That's when I wanted to sing.

Speaker 4 (15:46):
Did your mother does she like make records of you're
recording artists?

Speaker 6 (15:49):
Or did she just sing? And she was a recording artist.
She had her own band called car Nova in New Orleans.
They had their own band. It was interracial race bass
player guitar. My stepdad played drums. That's why I started
on the drums. That's why I love watching drummers. That's
why I became a fan of me. And I would

(16:14):
watch the way drummers set up their snares. It slanted,
is it low? Is it below their knees? Like every
little technical thing. So I started on the drums and
I would watch them perform rehearse in our bedroom. But
we were too young to go in the club, so
they would have the car close to the side door
so that my mom can babysit while performing, so she

(16:37):
would do double duty. So I'm a kid from that
kind of era where they did a lot of performing
and recording at the same time. But she had her
own band lead singer, and her and the bass player
would write songs together all the time.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
Wow, I know you're probably obsessed with Darwy Jones if
you're trying to figure out drummer angles, because.

Speaker 2 (17:01):
I'm still trying to figure that out right, that's set up.

Speaker 1 (17:05):
It's crazy, Okay, are you still drumming now?

Speaker 6 (17:10):
Like? Do you can paradiddles on a pad when I
get nervous or things like that? But not Nah. The
band always trying to make me play, but I won't
play it. I told you, I get a little nerdy
on certain times and that's one of them. I don't
want to play in front of it. I know, like
an African beat and a James Brown beat. That's all
I know right now.

Speaker 2 (17:32):
You don't think your audience would go crazy if you
just suddenly started.

Speaker 5 (17:39):
It was a little especially for afrobeats.

Speaker 6 (17:42):
Let's go. You think I can do it?

Speaker 2 (17:44):
I mean I know you can do it. You know
you can do it.

Speaker 6 (17:48):
I'm in practice. If you're there, definitely not doing it.

Speaker 2 (17:52):
Do you own a drum set?

Speaker 6 (17:54):
No, I think when we get a bigger house, i'll
get one. But right now, I'll wait. I have a
I have a road. It's right there.

Speaker 2 (18:01):
I'm sending you a drum set.

Speaker 6 (18:03):
Really what?

Speaker 1 (18:05):
Well, yeah, you're also helping me because you know I'm
a hoarder and yeah, the less less boxes I have.

Speaker 6 (18:12):
Well, if you send it, I'll practice and then i'll
play and record.

Speaker 1 (18:15):
I'm not bullstitting you. I'm trying to get rid of
these boxes. I'm giving you a drum set.

Speaker 6 (18:19):
So well, thank you. I appreciate it. I love the doms,
you know what, My monitor's mirror, the rim shot, the
snare and the kick and my vocal. That's it. That's
all I have in my my monitor ears. Everyone's like,
you're crazy. I'm like, I need to beat Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
I know this, No, this, this is great. I encourage
this highly. I encourage What was the first album that
you owned?

Speaker 6 (18:47):
First album? My own Thriller, Purple Rain was there? Those
two was what I had, But.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
Thriller was allowed to listen to Purple Rain.

Speaker 6 (18:56):
I snuck it in.

Speaker 2 (18:57):
Okay, I'm just gonna say, sneak it in.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
I think I think we've had one guest on the
show that was like freely allowed to listen to Prince
in their childhood, Like Prince wasn't contraband after the.

Speaker 6 (19:11):
Movie, they let it go because we had saw the movie.
It's a rap, you know. The Thriller was the one
that was the that.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
Was okay, what about your first content?

Speaker 6 (19:23):
I didn't you know my during my time, we couldn't go.
It was run DMC, a fresh vest. It was, yes,
we couldn't go. I couldn't go. My parents wouldn't let
us go. So I have my little General Electric radio
and I would just play the cassette on the porch
and just listen like that and pretend like we were there.
But I didn't go to a concert until I was

(19:46):
in college and the first concert, yes did never had
never been a concert. My first concert was Dian Reeves
opening for George Benson in Sonoma somewhere. It was a date.
This guy took me on a date. That's I got
to go to a concert. Crazy, right.

Speaker 1 (20:07):
It's funny you said that because for some reason three
days ago, what was the song about Grandma better Days? Yeah,
I don't know why I had this need to hear
that song, like it was always on radio when I
was in high school.

Speaker 5 (20:27):
Really, oh god.

Speaker 1 (20:29):
That was like I forgot there was a time in
which like Diane Reeves had like the number one song
on Power ninety nine, like and that was the thing
that also.

Speaker 4 (20:38):
Likely record and also kind of a Piano in the
Dark by.

Speaker 8 (20:42):
Brenda Roshrenda Russell Yeah, yeah, era, well that still gets
played on like Piano the Dark has this travel to
well I don't call it yacht rock radio, but whatever,
like yeah, yeah, wherever when you're in CVS at three
in the morning.

Speaker 7 (21:01):
That's one of the best albums of all time, the
Russell album.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
It is tell us about your your musical development, Like
do you have any siblings or is it just you?

Speaker 6 (21:12):
I have an older sister, a younger sister, and on
my dad's side, I have I have eleven and I
think I'm twelve. I'm twelve in there in that mix.
I know you're interviewing, but I wanted to ask you
about when we did the VH one Anita.

Speaker 2 (21:28):
I'm gonna get to that. I'm gonna get that.

Speaker 6 (21:30):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
That is all right, all right, let's just have it now,
all right, I'm trying to rap up to this. You know,
the thing for me is, as an artist, the two
things that I look forward to most in life is
when someone puts me onto an album that will later

(21:54):
like change my life and all that stuff. So, I mean,
I've had that a few times, you know, like Jill
handing me her record, Oh shit, Fonte handed me his
you know, the the Little Brother album or record blow
or whatever. But the only thing that tops that for
me is when I witnessed a star is Born moment

(22:20):
and to see what transpired that day. Now we're doing
VH on'es uh.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
It's not women who rockets, it's is a divas. Was
it Divas?

Speaker 6 (22:33):
I think I can't remember. Yeah, I think it was
Divas R and B Divs.

Speaker 1 (22:40):
And I've told many stories of whenever I'm put in
those situations in which you got to curate a bunch
of artists.

Speaker 2 (22:48):
That's the first.

Speaker 1 (22:48):
Time, like, but even before Hip Hop fifty, that's the
first time I had to learn that it's not just
about music, but you also have to manage artists in
general personalities, personalities which I didn't know. Now the first
half of the story kind of isn't mine to tell
all the pieces of the jinga fell down with seconds

(23:11):
left on the clock and or when I say seconds
left on the clock, I mean, you know, in TV world,
one should at least thoroughly kind of you know, at
least have three a minimum of three hours of working
out kinks and whatnot. I mean, we probably had all
of twenty seven minutes before we started taping, and.

Speaker 2 (23:34):
You know, we have a giant, gaping hole of.

Speaker 1 (23:38):
Space left that needed to be filled, which is who's
gonna now sing sweet love? You know you did it
in such Now I realize that, Yeah, you're telling the
truth about your shyness because you kind.

Speaker 2 (23:53):
Of very don't.

Speaker 1 (23:54):
Was Sondra there as well or was it just you?

Speaker 6 (23:57):
No, it was me and Sindra. Yeah, because I had
done a tribute ever on television.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
That was like, right, first, first, correct me if I'm wrong.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
What were you initially there for Aaron Jones, Karen Jones. Yes,
what I do remember was I didn't go to you first.
I think I went to Sundra.

Speaker 6 (24:15):
No, Marcia, right, Oh, you went to Sundra to talk
to her?

Speaker 1 (24:20):
Yes, right, I mean, well she was there in proximity
because she was also like, were you there to watch
the rehearsal?

Speaker 6 (24:27):
Yeah, we were trying to watch rehearsal, and then we
got kicked out of a room and we went back
to our dressing room and stayed out of the way,
which is what I love to do.

Speaker 2 (24:36):
Because I'll wait all I'm going to say.

Speaker 1 (24:40):
The only thing I'm going to say, I don't know
if I ever shared this part of the story. So again, yes,
the initial plan for that moment was in motion, like
both artists were on stage and verse and the parts
and whatnot.

Speaker 2 (24:54):
And then this is the craziest.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
Real moment of all time I've ever witnessed an artist
due and I'm respectfully recapitulating the story, So.

Speaker 7 (25:03):
You are so respectful right now, I can't even understand
the story.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
Look after I'm losing my mind.

Speaker 5 (25:09):
I'm like, I need to get a less respectful remix.

Speaker 1 (25:10):
Yes, story, I know that we're about that, but I've
already been roasted by another artist, by her other group members.
I was the wicked boy, and I had nothing to
do with it.

Speaker 2 (25:23):
You know. Again it's it's above me.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
But anyway, the whole point was that there was a
moment right after the bridge in which the song started
to go rogue, and Anita Baker decided that this moment's
not going to go down. She literally like, so go
after the bridge of Sweet Love, like, and she's walking
down the stairs, she's singing. Then she puts her coat

(25:46):
on and she's still singing the song. And then we
get to the chorus and she's putting a pocketbook on
and then she's like walking down to the audience.

Speaker 2 (25:54):
You know, we're camera blocking and all that stuff.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
Yo, She sang the last of those ad libs, walked
out the door, hailed the cab, and it went straight
to the airport.

Speaker 5 (26:09):
Like but that was rehearsal though, right, that was I
mean it.

Speaker 1 (26:13):
Was it was camera blocking for a show we were
gonna shoot in two hours, like the average person would
have been like, hey, stop the song, guys. I appreciate this,
but I cannot do this. I'm leaving goodbye. She didn't
do that, like she literally sang the song and then
like the way mister Rogers like puts a sweater on,
and she put her coat on.

Speaker 5 (26:34):
You see, did you see?

Speaker 6 (26:36):
No, I wasn't in the room. We were kicked We
were kicked out way before the song even started.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
Yeah, it was a lot of drama.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
And but seriously, when I think at what point she
ye had govern her mouth like this, like she put
her pocketbook on and all that stuff, and but still
doing it for Bata swing and and she was like
in the vest of you. She left the theater still

(27:03):
singing with the microphone in the rest of you. And
then she walked out of the hammersteam Ballroom, and I'm
looking at Nelson George like, wait, what's going on here?
But the way she left, I've never seen a person
with a cordless microphone.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
Walk out the building, start on the stage, walk in
the audience, then walked the rest of you. Like that's wow.

Speaker 6 (27:26):
It sounds accurate though, Yeah, m h.

Speaker 1 (27:35):
James James James boys and hang on, hang on, wait wait,
Dame Steak.

Speaker 2 (27:41):
James, Yes, were you with us for VH one? Divas
Anita shut up? Uh, I think I do something from
old man brain. I think you know, James, that you're
just afraid to I think I remember hearing about this.

(28:05):
Was that not playing keyboards? Who else would play keyboards? Yeah?

Speaker 6 (28:10):
I don't know either. I can't.

Speaker 2 (28:13):
He wasn't in the loop like that. It was you
were definitely there.

Speaker 5 (28:15):
It was a long time ago.

Speaker 2 (28:16):
Maybe it was Omar. Yes, Oh yeah, I do remember that.
Wait what I feel like I'm having.

Speaker 1 (28:23):
I'm feeling like I'm having a little boy that cried
wolf moment. I'm telling him the way that you would
need a baker left the stage. I've never seen someone
walk off the stage still singing.

Speaker 2 (28:35):
Grap her coat, still singing her pocketbook.

Speaker 1 (28:39):
Sheoot a stick of gum and literally ad libbed herself
into a cab, went to the airport, and I asked
Nelson George, I'm like, wait, what happened?

Speaker 2 (28:48):
And he was like, she went home, And I'm like,
she was a luggage like she literally I do remember that.
I do. I do remember that when you.

Speaker 6 (28:58):
Asked when they said the room started buzzing around that
she left. Yes, and we were backstage going what's going on?
And they were like, no, Anita Baker left. I was like, what,
I wanted to meet her? Why did she leave? She
coming back though? Right? They were like, no, she's not
coming back. They're trying to call her. So I and

(29:21):
when you came to my room to ask me about
singing it. When you finally showed up, I was like,
why is chues Love coming to my room? What I do?

Speaker 5 (29:30):
And I thought it was the trouble I was.

Speaker 6 (29:32):
I didn't do anything, and then you came in and explained,
we need But this is the thing I didn't tell
you is that after you asked me, I called ab
Queen Anita Baker and said, can you police come back?

Speaker 2 (29:49):
We would love it.

Speaker 6 (29:52):
Even after you asked me, because I felt, you know,
I love honoring our grades no matter what. And if
you asked me to do their song, I always call
them and say, hey, I'm gonna be performing your song.
That's just something I do. But I felt weird a
little bit, so I called her and said, hey, are
you all right? Just checking on you. She was like,

(30:12):
I'm fine, going home. I was. She didn't she didn't
tell me what went on. She didn't say anything. She
just said baby. I said, well, they're asking me to
sing your song and I was hoping you would sing it,
and I thought you were singing it with another artist.

(30:33):
I would love for you to she and I hope
she wasn't thinking that you put me up to that.
That was just saying please come back because it's VH
one and it was you know, and she was like,
do a great job, honey, You're gonna be great.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
But I do.

Speaker 6 (30:52):
And that's all I heard. And I didn't ask her
what went on. It was none of my business to know.
My job was trying to get her to come come back.
And because I knew a whole nother generation wanted to
see that because she hadn't been on television along and
it was a big event to see that.

Speaker 7 (31:11):
So hey, ps, just real quick because I know he's
going to try to get out of here like Peter
on The Family Guy, James Poyser, can we get your
commitment to being a guest on Quest left the premium
the next two months?

Speaker 6 (31:21):
Please?

Speaker 2 (31:21):
So she meet Homer Simpson.

Speaker 7 (31:23):
Homer Simpson, I'm sorry, you're right wrong guy.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
How much your pain?

Speaker 1 (31:37):
James do an episode already?

Speaker 2 (31:42):
Fred Havin. He was.

Speaker 3 (31:44):
He was in his sam ash basement. Remember I love you?
Let us.

Speaker 2 (31:51):
Wait? Can I ask a.

Speaker 3 (31:52):
Question about the needed Baker thing? Were James? At any
point did the band look at each other and be like, where.

Speaker 2 (31:59):
The need a go? Was that?

Speaker 3 (32:01):
Or it is just like it didn't matter.

Speaker 2 (32:02):
It was just she was gone. No, I'm gonna tell
you why.

Speaker 1 (32:06):
Because the thing is the way that the stage was
built kind of like a pyramid thing, and I'm at
the top.

Speaker 2 (32:13):
And what was supposed to happen.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
Is these two, these two were supposed to saunter down
these long ass stairs left and right, singing together.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
There's this sort of rosy ending to this thing.

Speaker 1 (32:29):
And the whole thing was that when I think Sondra
was next to me and I asked, I see Sondra,
I think she said or someone from your team was like, oh,
let's you knows that song like the back of her hand.

Speaker 2 (32:41):
She will kill that Baker fan.

Speaker 6 (32:44):
She's also one of my greatest mentors and friends. I
love it. Maybe there might be things, you know to me,
every artist has a thing, they had their cork and
what they need and require to be comfortable. I don't
know what the situation was I'm just saying, and everybody
got a thing, they got quirks.

Speaker 5 (33:03):
You know, you wasn't even going there with this conversation.

Speaker 6 (33:06):
What was your I wanted to know for Emir doing
that kind of show, the mass it was so massive
with so many women, like it was R and B
and soul that night, you know what I mean. It
was huge for me, and I wanted to ask him,
having that control over that kind of playlist and all
these artists in one room, what was that like for you? Well,

(33:30):
you answered it, But that's why I wanted to bring
it up, like, because that was the first time I said,
come out of being the drummer to being like a conductor.

Speaker 2 (33:41):
Run whipping bag. You want to know something funny though, Well,
you know something funny.

Speaker 1 (33:47):
That was the second most stressful moment of a night
because I had another situation backstage with a Mota legend whom,
like drummers will all always get no pun intended the
short end of the stick, mainly from singers who now
I understand that if there's certain insecurities lying under, usually

(34:12):
when a person wants to micromanage tempo or that's not right,
there's another issue at hand, you know, that that's not
about the song's too fast or you're playing it too slow.
So you know, I was dealing with another drama with
a motown legend that she browbeat me, and she did

(34:33):
it something so smooth, like I'm drumming behind her and
at one point she's so on.

Speaker 2 (34:40):
She sings something, sings the chorus and turns around says
kill you.

Speaker 6 (34:46):
Oh no, a mirror R and B is a whole
nother beast. It has you know this samir is so different, right.

Speaker 1 (34:56):
So no, just to let you know that, like that
situation with the needle was sort of like that was
in second place. There's something else I was dealing with.
It taught me to be careful what you asked for.
And also I'll say that surviving that prepared me for.

Speaker 2 (35:10):
Hip hop fifty.

Speaker 6 (35:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:13):
You know I've told our listeners that, uh, you know,
I've lost the body part uh because of the stress
of that. But that's also that's also me not you know,
advocating for myself and volunteering to be a whipping boy.

Speaker 2 (35:27):
But I.

Speaker 5 (35:30):
Said, that's what I said.

Speaker 2 (35:32):
The main one I told you all my tooth fell out.

Speaker 7 (35:39):
We all smoke and drink, so we be forgetting the camera,
you know, with our brother.

Speaker 5 (35:48):
But you know, we just still.

Speaker 2 (35:53):
And we can put this to bed. Let me put
the cheery on top.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
And say that you came out with twenty seven minutes left.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
You ran through that song.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
And it was the most beautiful thing ever, even to
the detriment of not seeing that magic moment happen. What
that taught me was one I said to myself, like wow,
like I rarely see an artist that's like ready for
their close up, and for me, that was the stars
born moment, because like you were trending number one when

(36:29):
that aired, and it was a whole nother comment. It
was as if people just discovered you for real, and
it was such a moment where I was like, that's
that's the way it was meant to be.

Speaker 6 (36:40):
Honestly, I was scared to death and I because I
didn't have time to do what I normally do prepare, overthink,
I know, overthink, and I just did it. Marcia Ambrosius
did it too, and I was happy to have her
there as well to help sing part of the other part.

(37:01):
But you were like so happy. I was honored to
finish out what you had started and do my best,
but I was freaked out, but I did try to
get a B back. I did. I didn't know what
was going on. I was out the dark, out of
the room. Still don't know what happened, but I'm just.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
Having euros up here.

Speaker 6 (37:21):
Your face though that night, well that's why I wanted
to ask why it was So how was it for you?
Because your face was you wore out.

Speaker 2 (37:31):
Yeah, I didn't know about meditation. Job.

Speaker 6 (37:34):
You did a wonderful job. I have to.

Speaker 5 (37:36):
Say, y'all, is this the BT Award twenty eighteen?

Speaker 6 (37:39):
Oh it was VH one.

Speaker 5 (37:40):
So you didn't say Anita Baker sweet love?

Speaker 6 (37:42):
A couple of times I did, but I didn't do
I did it first with a mirror.

Speaker 7 (37:46):
That was making sure because I know people are listening,
They're like, how which one is?

Speaker 5 (37:49):
I want to find it't not that.

Speaker 6 (37:50):
So that was the first tribute I had ever done.
I do a lot of tributes, but that was the
first one on a big platform like that. It was
all R and B people, soul, R and B. The
lineup was incredible. I couldn't believe I was there.

Speaker 5 (38:06):
I was still rmb das.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
Yeah. So did you notice a paradigm shift after that?

Speaker 1 (38:10):
Moment, Absolutely tell me about it, because I still maintained that,
you know, one, you trended the entire night it was
on and just reading all the comments, like people were
really engaged with how you handled it and they loved it.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
So what happened after that moment?

Speaker 6 (38:29):
They were my shows got bigger, more people started wanting
to know more about me. But I wasn't really social,
like I said earlier, we didn't have enough of that.
I didn't even know what trending was. I was too
busy surviving as independent artists, you know. But I noticed
in the club environment more people were coming out to

(38:51):
my shows after that, and there was a level of respect.
But I also got called to do more tributes, so
it kind of opened the door for that, which I
was like, what is going on?

Speaker 1 (39:04):
Yeah, You've done a lot besides Anita Baker. Who are
your north stars in terms of you know, who you
look to as far as like your your vocal idols.

Speaker 6 (39:13):
Or like I wanted to be an opera singer. So
Leontine was one of the biggest uh Dinah Washington because
there would be no Aretha without Dinah. She was a
big influence for Aretha and then of course Aretha Franklin
because she could sing, She sunk, sung everything, and I

(39:36):
love uh. My mother was a huge influence. It starts
at home for me. She had the most beautiful soprano voice.
And when she had cancer in the throat, and she
survived and and won, but she her voice got lower.
She was worried and said, Mama, you gonna sing. You
could sing an out good old alto and tenna. You'll

(39:56):
be fine, you know so. But she's one of my
biggest inspirations, is my mother, because without her, I wouldn't
have been introduced to all these other vocalists. And I
love Patsy Kaine. She's another big voice, storyteller. We forget
country is like not that everybody's having that country talk.
I've been on it. My mom listened to Willie Nelson

(40:17):
and Bob Dylan. I was like, Mom, why they can't
really sing. She's like, it's the stories, you know. She's like,
the stories are the thing. So I was the nerdy,
weird kid that liked all the opposite. I didn't start
at the church. I got the church stuff later when
we moved to Oakland and I met the Hawkins and
Darryl Coley, and.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
Learned that church.

Speaker 6 (40:39):
My mom did. She was in their choir, so we would.
I would visit here and there. But I wasn't a
church I'm not a church girl. I loved the nerdy.
We were raised Catholics, so we were Mama me more.
You know, we didn't do all the squalling. I learned
all of that because Tremaine said, come on, baby squall.
And my mom grew up Baptist, so I heard her voice.

(40:59):
That's where I got it from. Do you know what
I mean? I'm the Yeah, she taught me how to
do my first squaw. She was in the studio. You go,
like the squaw all that you asking and I ain't
doing that now.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
But wait, if you know what Jamaine. Have you ever
met Lynette Stephen Hawkins?

Speaker 6 (41:21):
Oh, absolutely met her as well.

Speaker 1 (41:23):
She like, man, like, just listen to all that records,
like you never see pressed on any of them.

Speaker 6 (41:28):
So she had her own church. So they're really quiet,
you know, they're nerds like well, I can't say like us,
but yeah, I guess they like us, right you can, yeah,
I can't, okay, but yeah, they're really quiet. But you
know people who were loved the music and they keep
it there. They love being private as well. Not all

(41:49):
of us like to be in the front.

Speaker 1 (41:52):
I'll say that the number one scene that I really
regret that I had to drop what in Summer Soul was?
I mean, yes, they taught me off the ledgend I
put O Happy Day in, but really there was there.
There was a solo between uh Tremaine Walter and Lynette

(42:12):
when they were teenagers, when they were you know, like.

Speaker 2 (42:18):
Nineteen years old. So that's one of the scenes I
had to drop.

Speaker 6 (42:21):
You know what I wanted to say about someone's soul,
Luther Vandross is a huge influence. Why didn't you put
Luther such a good question?

Speaker 2 (42:31):
Because Luther was ace an eighteen year old.

Speaker 7 (42:35):
Nobody air quotes, nobody taped it, didn't it a little singer?

Speaker 2 (42:40):
And they were like, well, we're running out of tape.

Speaker 1 (42:43):
So you know that that local Harlem band with Luther
Vanros and Phonsie Thornton and practically Luther's whole entire crew
from listening to my brother oops they yeah. They also
the weird thing was the same the same people that
shot A Summer of Soul, we're also the same people

(43:04):
that shot the pilot of Sesame Street, and so to them,
Luthor was just like Luther was the first musical guest
on Sesame Street because of the band he was in
singing about the number twenty.

Speaker 2 (43:18):
I searched tying Low. There was no good footage of
Luther at all.

Speaker 1 (43:22):
The last time we had a singer of your caliber
or your vocal prowess, I'll say that's one of the
unfortunate episodes in which the audio didn't work. Are that
you're talking about, Well, you're saying it. I was just finally,
So I'm gonna ask again. I want you to not

(43:46):
not to spell a myth, but the way that singers
have these very specific requirements for their their vocal to
be open. I'm very cynical, and I believe that's psychosomatic.
But I've heard like Fante clap back every now and
then by saying like, no, that's real.

Speaker 2 (44:06):
But he explains me what is the deal.

Speaker 1 (44:09):
With like with the artists that are you know, they
can't have air conditioning on because they're voice up.

Speaker 6 (44:17):
This is real it Your vocal cords will clam up
from the cold air. I have gotten sick. I remember
singing what was it called Biscuits and Blues in New
York whatever that is where.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
I want some biscuits and blues.

Speaker 6 (44:38):
But it's closed now. I literally the air conditioning was
right here, blowing into my face as I'm opening my mouth.
It just dried my vocals out, and you can hear
as I'm singing the show, my voice slowly go away cracks.
Everything I said, can you turn the air off? They

(44:59):
wouldn't turn it off because it was too It was underground.
It was a club in New York on Broadway, but
I can't remember the name of it. But it's gone now.
It just took my vocals out and we had to
stop the show. It's better when it's warm, it keeps
it fluid. I don't want to sound gross, but you
need it to be in there. You need water, you

(45:21):
need moisture, you need you need your vocal courts. They're
really thin and they have to flap. You should know that.

Speaker 2 (45:28):
Come on with the I don't sing.

Speaker 6 (45:31):
You yell yeah, I've heard you many times.

Speaker 2 (45:36):
No, But it's just I don't know.

Speaker 1 (45:40):
There's certain I'll look at the writers of singers and
you know some things I'll know like, okay, well they
need lemon and honey and dad whatever.

Speaker 6 (45:52):
But yeah, I get it too.

Speaker 1 (45:54):
So do you have a warm up process before you
get on stage or yeah.

Speaker 6 (45:59):
I don't talk it all. I do the Celine Dion thing.
My room is at eighty eighty degrees like Luther and.

Speaker 5 (46:07):
The sweat stole.

Speaker 6 (46:08):
Yeah, the sweat is good. I sing all the high notes. Knows,
he knows. It just feels good. It makes you ready
to go.

Speaker 7 (46:17):
It's funny fun They do be sweating, and it'll be
hot when I go see him sing on stage, that
might be.

Speaker 6 (46:22):
And then I have a steamer. I steam my vocal cords.
See that's heat, and it's making it loose and everything opens,
all your chests. It's kind of like when you put
vapor rub all over and it goes. That's how you
want your vocal cords to stay open. So it is
a real thing for me. The good ones, the real
singers do that kind of stuff. The one that sing

(46:44):
like classical. They don't like all that because by the
time you're on the stage too, it's freezing cold, so
you might as well stay warm. So that's what I do, okay,
And I don't drink a lot of liquids, and I yeah,
the steaming is incredible. I also opera singer turned me
onto the CITRONTI. That's really good. But I love that.

Speaker 3 (47:11):
You transitioned to theater like all your theatrical work, both
in solo shows and kyliner change and blah blah blah blah.
What was the impetus behind that? Why so why go there?

Speaker 6 (47:21):
To survive? To pay bills? In the Bay Area, before
I became an artist, that you know is let us see,
I was waiting tables and working at a place called
Beach Blanket, Babylon where you wear these big hats. I
auditioned when I was eighteen years old, right out of
high school, and I was going to college at the
same time working in theater. And luckily with theater, I

(47:44):
learned how to reach past four rows and not just
perform right here. Now I can fill the whole room
with my voice and all that because of theater. But
I had to do it to pay bills, to survive.
I was waiting tables at the same time. After my
thea gig, I leave at eleven thirty and go rush
to my gig. That everybody would go see me underground

(48:06):
at Cafe Denor with one hundred people in the room,
so they would wait for me for two hours, and
I would rush there after doing the theater gig with
full makeup on, so that I can pay bills, do
what I love and do what I need to do
at the same time. So did you finish school? Huh?

Speaker 5 (48:22):
Did you finish school?

Speaker 2 (48:24):
No?

Speaker 6 (48:24):
I did not.

Speaker 5 (48:25):
Where'd you go?

Speaker 6 (48:26):
I went to cal State Heyward and I studied at
UC Berkeley in the summers during high school. So, because
like I said, I'm a nerd, loved all that classical
music there. That's where I studied. But yeah, I never
finished because I had to survive, had to pay bills
and be I left home at eighteen. Like I said,

(48:47):
I left home at eighteen and took care of myself
and school and waiting tables. But theater was I love
acting because I did it in high school and to
be able to do cabaret shows. And then I was
going to quit the music industry because I had been
in it for as independent artist for two years and nothing.

(49:08):
I just kept spending all my money and when I
was quitting, I only had two suitcases in a house
that I got a commercial off of doing a Sprint commercial.
At the time when Sprint existed, all Sprint it hasn't
Sprint back in the day, but I'm the same time,
I miss on my side and I got you.

Speaker 2 (49:26):
Hello, what year was this?

Speaker 6 (49:28):
It was like around two thousand and man, was it
two thousand and two?

Speaker 2 (49:35):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (49:36):
Okay, okay, thousand and.

Speaker 6 (49:37):
Two or three after two thousand and three. Yeah, because
Feeling Orange had came out after that.

Speaker 7 (49:43):
You didn't have to audition for that. They found they
just knew you, they knew your voice, and they were like,
I was.

Speaker 6 (49:46):
Still I was teaching during the day sometime middle schools
and going carrying instruments around. I mean, I was trying
to make money. You're on your own. But I would
also audition for voiceovers to do children's books and children things,
and I ended up getting that Sprint commercial that way
through someone who, hey, what a friend of mine needs

(50:09):
a voice for this. I didn't know what it was for.
I just sang it, and then the little check start
rolling in.

Speaker 5 (50:14):
I was like, oh, I know.

Speaker 6 (50:19):
There, you know that's that's that's how I mean. My
living was teaching and waiting tables and it's crazy, and
doing gigs late at night and cabaret shows.

Speaker 7 (50:33):
People act like the first time they saw you on
screen acting was the I want to say the Nina
short that you did the women, Oh yeah, yeah right
with a shout out to Lisa Cortez and Gabby Sabe.

Speaker 5 (50:46):
Right who were behind it before.

Speaker 7 (50:48):
Years Yeah, talk about that. I wanted you to talk
about that because I was like, did that come first?
And then the Nina album? Like you and Nina got
some things going on?

Speaker 6 (50:55):
Well? The first uh, Gabby was inspired by my Nina
Simone tribute that I did with Black Girls Rock. So
that was the second time I ever been on television,
was doing another tribute and I came in saying I
want to be Peaches. I was like, I gotta do
the Peaches part. And they could have kicked me out,
you know what I mean, But I was like, I

(51:16):
knew what part I wanted to sing, and it was me,
Jill Scott, Marsha Ambrosius, and Kelly Price. So I sang
Peaches and then Gabby said the writer and Gabby and
a couple of producers they were saying they were inspired
by that and they wrote me into that short and
they always wanted me to play that role. Later and

(51:37):
years later, I would meet Gabby just in passing with
Lee Daniels hanging out and she said, I got a
part for you, and that was the role in the
four Women short that we did. It was amazing. Gabby's
a great director.

Speaker 5 (51:55):
That debut too at a black Star shout out to
me or too dope.

Speaker 6 (51:58):
I loved it.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
So, speaking of which, can you talk about the moments
that led up to you playing Maheleia Jackson and remember
me and what that was like?

Speaker 6 (52:10):
By the way, thank you. I said no to that
role a couple of times, but.

Speaker 2 (52:14):
The I love Why did you say no? Initially?

Speaker 6 (52:18):
Because I had did it in Selma, you know, the
little snippet I did, and I wanted to so many
other people were doing it, so I didn't want to
be a part of that, you know, the Mahela thing,
because I already did it, and uh, I wanted there's
another role I wanted to do one day. So I

(52:39):
was just waiting for a bigger debut, you know. But
I love the director so much, Erica, Erica, the producer,
to I mean, the whole team, Erica is amazing. I
just wanted to be a part of it. After I
met them, we met on a zoom and I said,
that's it. I got do it and ended up doing it.

(53:02):
It was amazing to dive into Mahelia. We had so
much in common, like being from New Orleans but transported
into another city and then coming trying to come back
to pour into New Orleans, and it was just amazing
role to sing, but it was it was enormous because
you have you have to sing gospel music and they

(53:24):
don't play at all, you know what I'm saying. So
it wore me out. And then I had to gain
a little weight because the director wanted me a little
you know. She said, Mahellya, it was bigger. And when
I saw Summer and Soul, I said, oh wow, I
had never seen her like you know that you gave

(53:45):
us her and I was and I was so happy
my heart. I was like, there she is. And I
before I did even sell my visitor a grave, like
I said, I told you, I honored ancestors. I was
in New Orleans. I said, I want to know more
about her, was researching and I went to a grave
and visitor and thanked her. And then that's when I

(54:06):
got Selma. And here she is again. Like the answers
is to me, they call I, let stuff happen to me.
I just do the work and get out the way.
That's why I got Nina, That's why I got all
these tributes. They just happened, and I don't ask for them.
I say no to all the time. I say no, no, no,
and then you have to do the work. Finish, finish.

Speaker 5 (54:29):
The work is their favorite experience.

Speaker 7 (54:31):
I just wanted to know, because you did mention a
couple of times that you've been called to honor a
few times. But I just got to know, like, was
there a favorite experience and why.

Speaker 6 (54:41):
My two favorite tributes I've ever done is Shaka and
it It. It's still Shaka, that Shaka tribute. People are
still talking about it. You can go online now.

Speaker 5 (54:55):
No, I've seen it live. I just forgot because I smoke,
but I.

Speaker 6 (54:57):
Got it that that was years ago and it's still amazing.
That was my favorite only because she was the first
person to bring me back out of quitting the business,
meaning she was the first, one of the first artists,
her and Rachelle Farrell. But Shaka let me open for
her and gave me a gig, and that's what made

(55:19):
me want to come back after meeting her, cause she's like,
you can't quit there's no quitting, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (55:25):
Just pussy talk about that real quick, Like, what was
the decision that led up to that?

Speaker 6 (55:30):
Well, the industry kept saying, you're not pretty enough, you're
not good enough, You'll never make it. Then I went
ahead and did it myself. But I was spending so
much money and didn't have the knowledge that I needed,
and we didn't have internet.

Speaker 4 (55:44):
Then, to elaborate more on that, like being an independent
R and B artist, Like speak about because R and
B generally, I mean, anybody you know R and B
is a money game, you know what I mean? Talk
more about just independently, Like what was it like being
an R and B artist.

Speaker 6 (55:59):
I came out at a time where you know, it's
about who you know and who's going to give you
the leg up. I didn't have a leg up. I
would do Black Lily here and there. People would come
out and see me, and they didn't like the way
I look. Industry people. Yes, I did back Lily and
invited a couple of industry people. They said, well's just

(56:21):
the start.

Speaker 7 (56:23):
I remember when you came to those phrenology sessions too.

Speaker 6 (56:28):
I went, I hung out with a mirror in the studio.
That was so much fun. You know what I learned
from you a mirror. I learned from you about simplicity
and more about what hip hop does, why the space
is so important. And I never forget it. I said,
Amir said less do less, just more, this is more
And when that was my first time hearing that, and uh,

(56:51):
and I carried it. I still carry it with me today.
But anyway, those things, I would hope to meet people
and they would help me or do a gig with me,
or for me, or endorse me. But really I just
had to keep endorsing myself. I had to spend my
own money to get a publicist, and my own money

(57:11):
to word of mouth. I would chop up flyers. Back
in the day when we had Kinko's, I would do
programs and make up my own flyers and pass them out.
Because we didn't have internet. I would go to the
flea markets. I would go to the record stores when
they had record stores, Please take my CD on consignment.
That's what I was doing. Me and Sundra, we would

(57:33):
call and beg people, Hey, give us a leg up,
help us out. That's what I had to do. Now
you get to go online. Sing a song. If they
like you and you have enough followers, then boom, you're relevant.
That's why I stopped chasing that game. The long term
for me is if I can get five people, I'm happy.

(57:53):
If I get ten people, I'm happy more and more
or artists, I got all the legends, they're on my side.
I gracefully. I did it in God's timing and not
trying to push things to happen, because every time I pushed,
it wouldn't happen. But I always had to honor them
first and say thank you, here's let me sing the

(58:14):
song and honor you, and then it brought more people in.
That's the only way. And all the things you saw
me on is because somebody believed in me. It'd be
one person in the room.

Speaker 5 (58:25):
In a should be here.

Speaker 6 (58:27):
This is the only person knew me on Black Girls
Rock for That for Women was Faverly Bond and Kim
Verse all the other people. They didn't have a clue
of who I was, but they knew me from being
an independent artist. And I know a lot of artists
I'm gonna be honest here that saw me and could
have helped me, and they didn't.

Speaker 7 (58:47):
I was about to ask you how you do how
did you maintain your not being angry? Now these people
are singing your praises and they're like, yeah, I've been
known that it was great?

Speaker 5 (58:54):
How do you do that?

Speaker 2 (58:55):
Is this also why you advocate?

Speaker 1 (58:57):
Because I know that you work with Naris and the
Grammys or artists and you play a major role into that.
You've had a hand in these new categories. People don't
know like you're behind that. Is this why you also
into that area?

Speaker 6 (59:12):
Because the Recording Academy came out saw my independent show,
said why aren't you a member? Come be on a
panel for Grammy You the Youth. I saw that they
were helping the elders with advocacy with a Grammy museum,
and I was blown away because I didn't want to

(59:34):
be the industry thing. I didn't even want to be
signed to a label. I did it to survive because
I was gonna quit. But when I did, it opened
another kind of door. So when I went in the
Recording Academy, all I focused on, not the Grammy. I
focused on the youth. I went to Grammy Youth, did
all the panels and talked about my journey, rejection, recycling,

(59:59):
rejection and fear into winning. Just complete your work and
do your best work. And if you get five people
loving you, those five will talk about you and it'll
bring more people. And I told them about focusing on
their craft and all that. I love advocating because that
was me. That's how I got to study classical music.

(01:00:19):
My mom couldn't afford the violin or the piano lessons
or the classical lessons. She had to Someone came to
our school said we have free programs, and that's why
I joined. So I'm that person now, you know.

Speaker 7 (01:00:35):
Let me go back to my question originally, So have
you always been that person? Or did that take some
self work because that moment and knowing that you've done
all this work and now, like I said, people are
now like.

Speaker 5 (01:00:47):
Let us see, I've been known, I've seen you. I
say you there like you know, like.

Speaker 2 (01:00:51):
Being hose didn't want me.

Speaker 4 (01:00:52):
Now I'm hot holes all on me.

Speaker 5 (01:00:53):
There we go, tell me about that.

Speaker 6 (01:00:56):
See. This is the part why I love being from
New Orleans because we are prideful people. We know we're dope,
but we don't have to brag about it. We remember
what happened, but we don't have to bring it up,
because what we do is just take the energy and
refeel it. It's a faith thing, it's a honor your

(01:01:18):
parents thing. Don't cut up embarrass them exactly. Come on,
Miror you know, I, me and your sister are good friends.
So it's like we we just do our classy work.
I just follow the lead of the ancestors. But on
the side, yeah, we talking, but I don't want to
talk about it in here.

Speaker 5 (01:01:40):
With human in that way. I'm sorry.

Speaker 6 (01:01:42):
I am very human you too. But a lot of
people could have helped, but they didn't. But it wasn't
for them to help. That's how I look at it
every now that I to see it unfolding. It's supposed
to happen this way. I'm supposed. I have so many
strong relationships advocating than I do in my own industry,

(01:02:03):
just being an artist, from artists to artists. When you
do be of service, it's the best gift for your
career ever ever, so it comes back to you.

Speaker 2 (01:02:15):
Mm hmm mm hmm.

Speaker 6 (01:02:17):
Absolutely, I was as you.

Speaker 4 (01:02:20):
About one of your you know, people that haven't helped,
but just one of the people that has a REX rideout. Yes,
one of your on all your albums. I just see
him as like, you know, someone you've always worked with,
and I just want to talk about you guys creative
partnership and how it was developed over the years.

Speaker 6 (01:02:36):
Well, when I was gonna quit, we were outside his
garage talking and I said, that's it. You know. We
met on doing My Sensitivity with Bonnie James. Verve had
a tribute for Luther Vandross they were doing and that
was the one song that Bonnie James had agreed to
have me sing on and he was actually telling me
how to sing, which was trippy, but I did whatever

(01:02:59):
he asked because that was the session. And when they
found out they came to when Rex came to a
live show, He's like, oh my god, I'm so sorry.
We were telling you how to say but then we started.
I told him, you know, in private, I'm quitting this
industry is too hard and I don't think I fit
in with everybody. I'm gonna go teach and be comfortable there,

(01:03:22):
get a freaking health insurance, you know what I mean.
Chill out. And he was like, don't quit. You know,
I'll help you with better signing with a label, just
to get in and start somewhere. Because they are interested
in you. Verb was and here's a jazz label at
the time, interested in the R and B singer. I said,
I'll only do it because I'm like anti be entrepreneur,

(01:03:47):
you know, own your stuff. But I was like, well,
I gotta survive. Okay, I'll try it. He said, just record,
just record, So we started recording together. We did a
whole bunch of songs and Verb went crazy and wanted them.
And the first song that I wrote was all Right.
When I was on doing Carolina Change. I wrote it

(01:04:08):
and I was recording in this box on my bed
with my microphone because I didn't have anything to cover
the mic. So it was singing this life get mad,
you know what I mean, trying to riet on the bed.
I was such a techy because I interned there's a yeah,
exactly techy. So I was trying to record it right

(01:04:29):
for Rex, so I would send him my vocals and
all that, you know, back in the day, and all Right,
blew up. Just it was the first song that came
out that people got it. I told the truth. I
don't know if I this is rough out here, you know.

Speaker 7 (01:04:46):
I was wondering that if people walk up on you
and ask you because you you talk about relationships and
self love and strengthen so much.

Speaker 5 (01:04:53):
And I'm like, do people walk up on you a lot?
And is that?

Speaker 7 (01:04:55):
Is that a lot of pressure to how do you?
I just I didn't need them advice quick girl.

Speaker 5 (01:05:00):
Because I'm in a situation.

Speaker 6 (01:05:02):
You know. No, they don't do that, but they do
tell me how a song has gotten gotten them through.

Speaker 5 (01:05:08):
Okay, that's a little easier, all right.

Speaker 6 (01:05:11):
It is the one they love those songs the women.
I gravitate towards women a lot. That's just what it is.
But yeah, that's I don't get the therapy questions.

Speaker 4 (01:05:23):
Okay, good, speaking of therapy. Nice segue. What was she
like in real life? Because I watched y'all Love Fixed
My Life and well, I mean it used to come home.

Speaker 6 (01:05:36):
He is who she is on that show in person
direct and I met her. She was the first time
I met her, she said, oh, you have daddy issues.
You need to fix that.

Speaker 5 (01:05:50):
Hello. I just said hello.

Speaker 2 (01:05:51):
I just said he.

Speaker 6 (01:05:54):
You, But in front of a whole group of people.
That's just how she is. She's direct, you know, and
she's like, you got to fix this and that.

Speaker 4 (01:06:06):
I love her and also I want to ask you
as well, doing Black Love with your husband? What was
Oh no, yo, yeah, what was the experience like? What
was the aftermath?

Speaker 2 (01:06:19):
Y'all?

Speaker 5 (01:06:19):
Did Black Love?

Speaker 3 (01:06:21):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (01:06:21):
Man, that was We did it during the pandemic. I
always been a fan of the show. They've always asked
me to be on it, and I didn't respond because
I feel like, you know, those parts of my life,
like I said, I'm private, I love, I want to
stay married. I don't know about y'all. You know Coston,
Philly though he is from Philip He's amazing too. But

(01:06:47):
I'm glad we did Black Love because you know, people
got to see another side of me, you know, and
uh and see who I'm with and it was great.
But there I love Tommy. Tommy is incredibly good people,
the good people. So yeah, we did that show. And
that's all I'm gonna say.

Speaker 1 (01:07:05):
Tell us to the plans for the Good Life Tour
that's coming up that you're about to do.

Speaker 6 (01:07:09):
Yes, I'm going on the twenty seventh city tour with
the great Raheem Devine is coming with me the Good
Life Tour BJ the Chicago do it a couple of
dates when Raheem can't do it and I'm just looking
forward to it the band. We did our final rehearsal
last night and it just sounds so good and it

(01:07:32):
feels good. So I'm excited about it. I hope. I'm
trying to see if these hills gonna work, but we
that's the ones.

Speaker 2 (01:07:39):
I want to.

Speaker 6 (01:07:40):
See what happens. But I'm looking forward to it. I'm
gonna do a lot of a mixture of the old
and the new, the well my classics and the new,
a lot from the new album, so I'm really looking
forward to that.

Speaker 7 (01:07:51):
I feel the thing I was gonna say the single
delt too oh you like Yeah, I love it, Thank
you Good Life.

Speaker 6 (01:07:59):
That was a great project to work on. It was hard,
but I'm happy it's out and uh again with Rex.
I got DJ Camper on it again. I'm working with
Camper and the sell you No Dreams new producers No
Dreams God and Joshi. I've never worked with them before
that I think one of them is from London.

Speaker 2 (01:08:19):
And also Brown.

Speaker 6 (01:08:22):
Butcher Brown. We did a song called quality Time that
I wrote with Corey.

Speaker 5 (01:08:30):
These are That's what I was thinking.

Speaker 6 (01:08:32):
To and I wrote quality Time together on the Butcher
Brownton I've been always wanted to work with her. We've
known each other for about five six years, but we
never could find a song. So I got one. I
think this is the one we should get together. I
love writing with songwriters. I love sharing on this show too.

Speaker 5 (01:08:49):
I love our little Quest Love Supreme Extensions.

Speaker 6 (01:08:51):
I know we got to go on here.

Speaker 2 (01:08:53):
Thank you for doing this with us, Thanks.

Speaker 6 (01:08:56):
For having me. Thank you, I finally get to talk
to you.

Speaker 1 (01:08:59):
I know a right longtime company on behalf of Aya
and I'm baby Bill and Chudie, Steve and Fron Tigelow and.

Speaker 2 (01:09:09):
The Great Letter see Quest Love.

Speaker 1 (01:09:11):
We're signing off and we'll see you on the next
go round of Quest Love Supreme.

Speaker 2 (01:09:16):
Thank you for your support. Thank you for listening to
Quest Love Supreme.

Speaker 3 (01:09:20):
This podcast is hosted by a Mere Quest Love, Thompson,
Liyah Saint Clair, Fante Coleman, Sugar, Steve Mandell, and myself
unpaid Bill Sherman. The executive producers are Meir just walked
into the Goddamn Room, Thompson, Sean g and Brian Calhoun.
Produced by Brittany Benjamin, Jake Payne and Liah Sainclair. Edited
by Alex Conroy. I know Alice Conrad, producer for iHeart

(01:09:42):
by Noel Brown.

Speaker 2 (01:09:45):
West.

Speaker 1 (01:09:45):
Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio. For more
podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.