Andra Day

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
R and B Money.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
We are.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Take BLOCHI. We are the authority on all things R
and D ladies and gentlemen. My name is Tank Valentin
and this is the rmy Money podcast. This sorry on

(00:28):
no Things R N B Oh. Yeah? Is it in
your soul?

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Yeah? You feel it? Can you can you feel it?

Speaker 4 (00:43):
Can you feel it?

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Is you?

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Multi talented man? How can you write? Can you sing it?
Can you act it? Is it jazzy? Is it?

Speaker 4 (00:54):
Can we tap.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Into that to the renaissance? Yeah? Doesn't make you rise?

Speaker 4 (00:58):
Doesn't make you.

Speaker 5 (01:07):
Thank you?

Speaker 4 (01:08):
Man?

Speaker 1 (01:11):
You're like you're like so cool. Like your energy is
like it's like the best energy in terms of how
you make people feel welcome, how you make people feel
like you care, how you make like it's like certain
people have that, you know what I mean, where it's

(01:33):
like this nurturing kind of instinctive like you're not it's
just you, you know what I mean? Like like even
your in your essence when you walk by and your smells.

Speaker 4 (01:45):
I dont want to hang out of her house.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
It does smell good.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
I'm like, what is that essence where I just kind
of want to, you know, hang out of her house,
Like it's some beads at your house. Yeah, there's a
felt you know, there's a jaguar somewhere.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
There's definitely the palasanto and the candles.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
And.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
It's just for me, like that's how I was raised,
you know what I mean, And those things like kind
of just defined my childhood from it being my grandmother,
my great grandmother, my mother, my cousin, my uncle, my
great all in all in one house. I felt that
I felt that energy and that love and that spirituality,
and you just you carry that with you everywhere.

Speaker 5 (02:30):
Thank you. That's listen, no.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Matter what you got on jeans, right now, you got this.
It's the whole.

Speaker 5 (02:34):
I also have a broken ail.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
I would like to start this whole thing by just
admitting it so I don't have to hide my hands.

Speaker 5 (02:38):
I was thinking about doing the whole.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Podcast because because the thing is that you know what
I mean, or just to hit you with what I mean. No,
I did, bro, that's so random to say that. I
was literally with rants the other day and I'm terrible,
I'm trash.

Speaker 5 (02:56):
He's like, you play.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
I was like, no, I was a ballerina, but you
know what I mean, drop a little three you know
what I mean.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Drop a little ballerina that would drop a little tree.
Listen the terminology lets you further know that's not really
her thing. Yeah, I drop a little thing.

Speaker 4 (03:10):
Shot exactly down, mom.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
So no, no playing ball. That just they betrayed me today.
So this is where we're at.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
So you said you you you're a ballerina.

Speaker 5 (03:26):
I was. Yeah, I danced for like twenty two years.

Speaker 6 (03:29):
I was. I danced for twenty two years.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
That's how talented people thought. I didn't. That's how talented
people say. It's a miss stint in my life for
a year. I doubt I don't. I don't understand that
it is.

Speaker 5 (04:00):
A Fortnite the.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
London, England. They know who I am. Okay, fortnit it back?
Do you use it?

Speaker 5 (04:22):
Do you you know? I have it for a while.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
But I actually did decide on this album cycle I
do want to incorporate dance more. I miss it, you
know what I mean, Like it's like exercise regular for me.
I enjoy it, but dancing is what it's still a
passion of mine.

Speaker 4 (04:35):
I would love Yeah, I am definitely to.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
See you on stage doing that, Like I would love
to see a performance with that incorporated. Like always like
like like my daughter she modern, yeah, all of that,
all of that from Harlem School of the Arts, professional
for more or like all of that, she has all

(04:59):
of that. I'm like, we have to use.

Speaker 5 (05:01):
All of it. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, like.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
Singing Pink on stage doing all of their so Lacey,
it's crazy.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
So it's interesting too, because I think we're kind of taught,
especially in music. It's like you have to do it
a certain way. But I also feel like now it's
like the wild West, you know what I mean. I
look at even this album and like all the art
and the stuff surrounding it, the activations, I look at
it as like installations, right, our installations. So I'm like, yeah,
of course you can incorporate dance, and it doesn't just
have to look like this and be a routine with

(05:34):
you know, certain costumes. It can be more interpreted, it
can like play with the music a little more.

Speaker 5 (05:38):
So I agree.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
I think using everything is actually a lot more engaging
and interesting for the I like stuff like that, So
I want to like give that to people.

Speaker 4 (05:45):
You know what I'm saying, I'm gonna need you to do.

Speaker 5 (05:50):
Okay, chop you go ahead, because absolutely not Okay.

Speaker 1 (05:59):
I was going to say no to you. Don't have
to say that.

Speaker 3 (06:04):
You know.

Speaker 5 (06:09):
The energy and your big time.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
I would love I would love for you to dance
in the piece.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
Yes for me, Yes, I definitely plan on doing that. Yeah,
so you're going yes, that's a yes for sure?

Speaker 1 (06:20):
Yeah for for me? For me?

Speaker 2 (06:23):
Oh really, okay, I would do that. Yeah, that would
be a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
I think that would be crazy. I have just the thing. Okay,
it's so opposite, but it would be so dope.

Speaker 5 (06:33):
Oh, I love that.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
I can see you visualizing it to be money.

Speaker 5 (06:36):
So I already knows what happened, gone, and.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
I got your permission already. He has all the dance
sh it in his head. I can't my body.

Speaker 5 (06:49):
Yeah, yeah, you can bring your elbows together.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
Even I didn't know either, just now, can you?

Speaker 2 (07:04):
I could definitely bring my albols together. I'm not buffing on. Yeah,
pretty pretty tested.

Speaker 6 (07:11):
Okay, it's very easy.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
I didn't know I couldn't do it. Can you do it?

Speaker 5 (07:25):
That's crazy?

Speaker 1 (07:25):
These niggas.

Speaker 5 (07:26):
You feel bad?

Speaker 1 (07:27):
Right, there's no drug testing, R and B music.

Speaker 4 (07:32):
Okay, no rules.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
From trying to stay young. Let's do this. Let's go
back to the beginning. I start thinking, let's go the
beginning San Diego Southeast Southeast. That's so like, listen, listen, listen,
it ain't sweet. I've been Nick Cannon is down, Mitchie
Slick is the home I'm going on. Yeah, I'm surprised

(07:59):
you can come in green today.

Speaker 5 (08:00):
No, look, there are a lot of colors out there though.
For sure. That's definitely yes.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
So when when did you discover or when did someone
discover just kind of identify that, you know, you had
something something different.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
I mean I went I think actually when I was
fairly young. I was like about six years old. I
think I started dancing when I was like five, so
that was first. But my parents discovering that I could sing,
I was like six years old. I was just singing Whitney.
I think I was singing a Whitney song and that
just they told me. They just remember me singing the
song and being like, oh, she kind of sound like

(08:38):
you know what I'm saying, Like she's hitting the notes,
she's doing you know what I mean. But my father
actually has a really nice voice, and so does my mother,
but my mom's too shy, and you know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (08:46):
My dad, he was in the service you know what
I mean.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
So that was like the first time, and then I
went to a performing arts school starting in the sixth grade.
It was like six to two senior year actually, same school. Yeah,
same school the whole time. It was actually really cool
just because like you know, you use the word nurture,
and they did. They really nurtured just the creative arts.
It was a performing arts school, so we did shows,
we did plays, you know, I learned I did jazz,

(09:09):
vocal production, and classical and danced there as well too.
So it was at a fairly fairly young age six
and then really kind of dove into things when I
was like around ten eleven.

Speaker 6 (09:19):
So did you decide to go or did your parents
let you decide to go to performing arts school or
was that something that was sought after?

Speaker 2 (09:25):
I think it was always So I went to it's
what's called a feeder school. I went to a school
called Valencia Park. Shoutout a VP, but I went to
a feeder school. It was like a few feater schools
in San Diego, Zamorano, Oak Park. Valencia Park was one
of them. Oh fair well, and so it was just
kind of always a known thing. I always loved dancing.
I always loved performing and I heard I knew about SEPA,

(09:48):
My parents knew about SEPA School for Creative and Performing Arts,
and so it was kind of natural. I went to
Valencia Park and it was a feeder school for that
performing arts school. I did dance at VP as well too,
and so it's always.

Speaker 5 (09:58):
Been a thing.

Speaker 2 (09:59):
I don't know, I can't really pinpoint a moment of
like this is I'm gonna do this, you know what
I mean? It just has always been always. My parents
have always loved music, They've always loved the arts. So
I just think like it was always there was never
really a plan b EXCEP. For one time, I wanted
to be a palaeontologist and then they were like you
should keep singing, and I was like all right, I know.

Speaker 1 (10:19):
I just was.

Speaker 5 (10:23):
Dinosaurs. I was just like, oh my god, this is amazing.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
Do they have dinosaurs in San Diego?

Speaker 5 (10:28):
They have a great they have a great zoo.

Speaker 4 (10:30):
I was like, amazing zoo.

Speaker 2 (10:32):
They But did you know your mind, like when you're young,
I'm idiotd my mind go on tangents. I'd be like,
I'm a lawyer, you know what I mean. But and
I just like dinosaurs. But then they were like, well,
mainly you're just gonna have to dig through a bunch
of dirt to find these skeletons. I was like, oh, yeah,
you're right, I'm gonna just sing and I'm gonna singing dance,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
That's the only other thing you've ever wanted to do well.

Speaker 5 (10:53):
When I was that age, you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (10:55):
Now I have, like there's a lot of companies and
a lot of things that I'm doing and want to
do so Andvies became one of those things, producing movies, writing,
co directing.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
Yeah, but you were in like it's like my daughter
the same way, like getting this space where it's almost
like early college where you're where you're like you're hyper
focused on that thing. Like, yeah, I was supposed to
go to a school, you know, uh performing our school,

(11:25):
but they didn't have a football team.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
Mine didn't either. But because we didn't have a football team,
you were allowed to play for other schools in the area,
Like you could choose. So if I wanted to play for.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
In high school, yea and high school, yeah.

Speaker 5 (11:38):
That's like Lincoln Park, I could play for Lincoln.

Speaker 6 (11:41):
It was two man niggas walking around smoking cigarettes with
church for me to go to school to the arts.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
I was like, I want to say, that's completely inaccurate, but.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
Right, I don't know what y'all doing.

Speaker 3 (12:02):
I was.

Speaker 4 (12:05):
No football.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
You can pick though, at least in California. I didn't know. Yeah,
in California it's like Maryland.

Speaker 6 (12:12):
So if you go it was if you go to
a school of the yards, the un lets, you pick
what high school you want to.

Speaker 1 (12:17):
Play sports for everything.

Speaker 6 (12:19):
Yeah, so we'll still get the experience, okay, because you
don't you know, you can't be with the band niggas
and the hoop team.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
It can't be all. Yeah. I just needed a different experience.
My high school was horrible, fire shooting. We played football
in basketball was like y'all gated No, we was gated up.
They had it was east Side High the front of

(12:46):
the school, no front of we had. We had chains
on the door so you can get out of one door.
But you know what I'm saying, you knew what that was. No,
it was different. But see I was also the church kid,
so you know what I'm saying that all the people
was like, you know they love me. You know what
I'm saying it was like blessings.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
That the one door.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
Protect right protector in these church that say protect They
needed me because I was the prayer royer. So at
what point do you say it should be a profession,
because even as you're being groomed in this space, it's
still just you know, it's still just love at this point,

(13:31):
you know what I mean, It's still just.

Speaker 5 (13:33):
It's still it's definitely love.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
But I think the school that I went to, you
know what I mean, it was singing at home, singing
in church, singing in school, like and but it was
such The school was amazing, honestly, you know, you really
got familiar with putting on a stage show.

Speaker 5 (13:48):
It was Broadway focused. That was amazing.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
And I have friends, amazing friends. A good friend of my,
Shandra Prophet, made it all the way to Broadway. She's
in The Lion King, you know, and so so it
was kind of really geared toward that. And you got
to see the whole production, and you got to do
the music and the dancing and you know, learn the lines.
But the kids did also the production. They did behind
the scenes, you know what I mean, They were the
lighting tesests. Yeah, it was really it was really like

(14:11):
all encompassing. So so the school kind of geared you
toward doing that as a profession, you know. I think
for me, it was just like do I want to dance?
Do I want to do Broadway? Or do I want
to And I think around the age of sixteen, I
was really clear that I was like, now I really
want to be a recording artist, Like I want to
write my own music. I want to I like the
idea of creating and kind of forging my own path,
you know what I mean. So, plus, I was like,

(14:33):
I'm not gonna lie to you. I was like, how
much do you get paid not being a principal on Broadway?
I was like, I'm good. This is R and B money, right, Yeah, No,
So it was cool. I love like it was just
the passion of creating things, making things and just you know,
I just loved, you know, the work of so many
artists and that really inspired me. And so I'm like, okay, cool,

(14:54):
they're writers, those people are making their music there, you
know what I mean, And that's that's what I want
to do.

Speaker 6 (14:58):
This It was about like sixteen, any things that you
were connected to in San Diego that kind of gave
you an inkling of what the business was.

Speaker 5 (15:07):
M that's a good question.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
Things that I was connected to, oh you know, but
again it was still more theater based. Like there was
a there was a theater that I would do during
the summertimes. It was called like Theatre Noir, and there
was this director and he would just put on shows.

Speaker 5 (15:23):
He did Fame.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
I did Fame there, I did uh Boogie Knights, which
is just kind of like a Medley show. I met
some managers. I went to a few studios. I actually
used to record with a few producers out there. Actually,
if you know San Diego is on Peter pan Av
If you don't Skyline, I don't know Peter. That's good, no,

(15:49):
But uh yeah, so I don't know, you know, I
don't know that there were things that gave me an inkling.
I was just very I was obsessed with it, you
know what I mean. So I feel like I was
looking up stuff all the time.

Speaker 6 (15:57):
And because I asked you that, because going to school
of the arts, right, and I think people feel as
if from putting their kids in these types of schools,
obviously you learn the arts, yeah, but then at some
point you got to learn the business.

Speaker 2 (16:12):
Business Yeah, the business was definitely on the ground, like
that was experience, you know what I mean. I feel
like there were things in San Diego, but there were things.
There was just some things that when you want to
be a part of this your whole life, you know.
But again, I'm looking at it from the other side, right,
things are so different now. But it was like a
record label is the best thing to have, and you've
got to get a manager and you gotta you know

(16:32):
what I mean. So it was like trying to find
people in San Diego, and I had like a manager
out there, but he was kind of an unofficial manager,
you know.

Speaker 5 (16:39):
And so I don't know.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
It's kind of funny because figuring it out on the
ground kind of you have good experiences like I won't
I feel like it made my skin a little bit thicker, sure,
but then you also have experiences that you're like, I
don't want my kids to go to and I don't
want you know what I'm saying. Like, so, but that
was it was just I always wanted it. So it
was like wherever I have to go, you know what
I mean, and whatever I have to do. I would

(17:00):
kind of try to get money together to travel up
to La as much as I could, you know, to sing, and.

Speaker 5 (17:05):
You know, I was telling people.

Speaker 2 (17:06):
I was like the thing at a certain time was
like you get into a party and then you got
to meet somebody famous, so you can get them you're down,
you know what I mean, Like that's what you would think,
you know what I'm saying, Or printing CDs and I
would sell them on the beach in San Diego or
like you know.

Speaker 5 (17:19):
So it's just whatever I did the whole thing, that's why.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
Yeah, oh yeah, definitely. And I put on like shows
I did something at it's actually the Grove in Anaheim.
I remember at the time I was opening for it
was like San Diego. So I was opening for Polladanda
and Baby Bash like that whole exactly.

Speaker 1 (17:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:40):
So, and I had to put everything together, had to
do the booking. I was kind of like my own
promo person and was hoping to meet people through that.
Put together the background singers and the show and the
track and the all of the promo materials.

Speaker 5 (17:52):
And you know.

Speaker 2 (17:52):
So it's like it's really when I try to recap it,
it's really like it's there's a lot of tentacles. It's
really nebulous because it was just like, cool, if this good, I'm.

Speaker 5 (18:00):
Gonna go do that.

Speaker 1 (18:01):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (18:01):
It's probably a long way around, but.

Speaker 1 (18:03):
Well no, it's it's actually like you didn't skip. You
just didn't skip. No steps, no steps. Yeah, it's some
little steps.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
Soon steps and then going to like you know, they
used to have the like modeling agencies and the acting agencies,
the John Robert Powers and what's the other one, what's
the Casablanca or whatever.

Speaker 1 (18:22):
It's just a cattle call people.

Speaker 2 (18:24):
Yeah, when you're young, you just this is this. Every
opportunity felt like the opportunity and the big shot.

Speaker 1 (18:30):
Did you ever go there?

Speaker 6 (18:31):
Yet?

Speaker 1 (18:34):
I got convinced. I got convinced to go to one thing.

Speaker 5 (18:37):
Mm hmmm.

Speaker 1 (18:38):
I stayed for five minutes. I was like, I hell no, broke.

Speaker 4 (18:47):
I did not close.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
I was just like auditioning, you know what I'm saying,
for for parts. But it's like like a couple of
auditions I walked in to. You know, of course it's
a big call, and I'm like when I see the
big call and I see all these people, I'm like, no,
I can take that. But then but then you see
an a lister walk in, You're like, what you doing?
I'm going on for that party? Like I remember, I

(19:14):
can't remember who it was. They walked Oh my god,
who was it they walked in and I walked out.
I cannot remember who it was. It was. It was
somebody though it was it was like why I wanted
to get an autograph. I want to take a picture,

(19:37):
but we're here for the same spot. So rather than
like lose my cool, I'm gonna just get on out
of here because I know, damn well, yeah. I think
the thing I went to is like he supposed to
be in the background of something, and I was eighteen.
It was like, you're going to be in the background
of some independent movie.

Speaker 6 (19:58):
We're gonna pay you forty dollars.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
I would go to these audition things are like great,
now all you have to do is pay us seven
hundred dollars for pictures.

Speaker 1 (20:07):
And I was trying to.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
Be like, I think I have seven dollars, Like it's
just everybody. It's like again, when you're young like that,
it's just like every opportunity seems but.

Speaker 6 (20:18):
It also separates who really wanted and who doesn't. I
didn't want to be that, you know what. I mean,
it was just another that at that particular moment for me,
was just a hustle.

Speaker 1 (20:27):
I didn't want to sell more drugs. You know.

Speaker 6 (20:30):
Prison wasn't where I wanted to be. So I'm like, okay,
I gotta stop selling dope. I'm gonna go out here
and think I'm gonna be an actor in the back
of somebody's movie.

Speaker 5 (20:38):
Right, that's real. And that was the thing at the
time too, You're right. It was for modeling. Acting.

Speaker 2 (20:42):
That wasn't my focus. But I thought, well that could
be a way into me. I can meet somebody and
you know what I mean. So it's just all all connected,
you know what I mean? But now, oh yeah, I
wrote a song called is It Love?

Speaker 5 (20:55):
Is it love? That makes you feel this way? She
love Love Love Love. Yeah, it was a song I wrote.

Speaker 6 (21:04):
I was.

Speaker 5 (21:04):
I was probably like I was, oh, you know what.
That was the first solo song I wrote. I think.
I was like, well, you were in sixteen. I was
about to be seventy.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
When I was sixteen, I was in a group with
like like a few homegirls in high school and we
were called Intimate, Intimate, Intimate Yeah, now, yeah, so we
had our little groups. We wrote some things together, but
the main one I wrote was that that is it

(21:35):
Love was the first one that I wrote, and I
was also in actually very very briefly, but it was
like they weren't really I think the group was kind
of disbanding at the time.

Speaker 5 (21:43):
But I had auditioned that one of their members was
leaving for the group. Remember the R and B group
isis back in the day.

Speaker 2 (21:47):
Yeah, yeah, so they one of their members had had left,
and so they were auditioning people and then I ended
up getting the part. But we never really did anything
because I think they were kind of disbanding at this point.

Speaker 5 (21:57):
But yeah, like I said, I was down. I was like,
I was do it, you know what I mean, Like
your first.

Speaker 1 (22:02):
Sound way better than mine. Your first song sounded.

Speaker 2 (22:08):
Great, that was definitely ABC.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
That is not giving a b C. That is like
we should do that, now give it.

Speaker 5 (22:19):
But I didn't know. I wasn't in love. I was like,
this feel right? Is in love?

Speaker 3 (22:23):
Right?

Speaker 1 (22:23):
Yeah? I wasn't.

Speaker 4 (22:26):
Exactly.

Speaker 5 (22:26):
I was like, you know my favorite I'm gonna put
this in here. Yeah you know.

Speaker 1 (22:30):
So yeah, so you're going through all these progressions, of course,
not skipping any steps in anywhere to get it? When when?
When is when it? Where's your discovery?

Speaker 2 (22:52):
Yeah, so that was I actually started working with this
manager that which was I will I say names it
was actually you listen.

Speaker 5 (23:02):
It was a terrible experience, but still some good things
came from it.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
And so I won't I will say that, but I
do say that because I always like to remind people
like those experiences can happen, but they don't have to
take you out, you know what I'm saying. So, so
my my big break actually really came through Stevie Wonder
that he's kind of like like I look at him
as like my godfather when it comes to the business
and singing.

Speaker 5 (23:22):
Yes, didn't get expensed.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
So you were in l A at this point though
you no.

Speaker 2 (23:35):
No, no, I was still in San Diego at the time.
I was just commuting back and forth, you know, It's like,
and so I was working with this manager and he
happened upon actually Kyle Miller Morris who was his wife
at the time, with Stevens all the time, and they
were just in a pastry shop, he says, And I
had come up to La to sing. I was singing
in front of a couple of songs that I wrote,
you know what I mean. It was kind of like

(23:56):
a retro soul vibe to it, and I was singing
a couple of songs I wrote at a rip mall
and Malibu. I look, we was just still there and
in front of like some shoe store, and so he
just had some clips to that.

Speaker 5 (24:06):
So he played it.

Speaker 2 (24:06):
For her while she was in there, and then she
revealed to him after she saw it. She was like, well,
I'm actually Stevie Wonder his wife.

Speaker 5 (24:11):
I love this. I want to play it for him,
you know.

Speaker 2 (24:14):
So she played it for him and he actually really
liked it, and so they orchestrated a call, which I'm
in San Diego.

Speaker 5 (24:19):
Let me tell you something.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
I'm in San Diego sitting my mother's entire apartment.

Speaker 5 (24:24):
It was definitely smaller than this room.

Speaker 2 (24:25):
I was like, I was like, it's about the size,
and this would have been luxury lower the roof closing
the walls. That's like my mother's spot. So I was
sleeping on her futon and it was just like a
tiny little apartment behind seven.

Speaker 5 (24:35):
To eleven, next to a dumpster, you know.

Speaker 2 (24:37):
And then I'm sitting there on the phone with Stevie
Wonder like, hey, and he's like talking about a certain
type of song he wants to write and asking me
about my music. And he was asking me like detailed
stuff like wow, you know, I think he loved that
it had like the sort of retro soul and jazzy
or feel to it, and so we would ask me
things like how come they're only two minutes long? And
I love that he clocked that because I loved some
of the records that I love from Billie Holliday and

(24:58):
people back in the day were sit order, you know
what I mean, And I love it was just a taste.
And then he talked about this song that he wanted
to do with me. He also asked me what my
sign was and went into that for a while. And
then my mother was like, do the dishes, and I
was like, I'm actually super busy right now, I'm on
the phone with Stevie.

Speaker 5 (25:13):
So for me, yeah, no, I still.

Speaker 2 (25:21):
So she did not believe me, and right, yeah, and
I got exactly but no.

Speaker 5 (25:29):
So that was really so.

Speaker 2 (25:31):
But to that point, it didn't end up working out
at the time, and what I was told was that
they didn't like you.

Speaker 5 (25:37):
You weren't good enough.

Speaker 1 (25:38):
You know.

Speaker 5 (25:38):
The conversation wasn't good enough us? Okay, you know what
the music?

Speaker 2 (25:41):
Yeah, that's what I was told from the person I
was working with at the time. So I didn't find
out until a year later when my idea was up
with that manager. They held onto my information, Kai and
Stevie and they reached out to me again and were like, hey,
we hope you're not still with this person, And they
explained to me what happened, which is that he told
them like they have to pay something like fifty thousand

(26:02):
just to just to meet me in the studio, you know.

Speaker 5 (26:04):
What I mean.

Speaker 2 (26:05):
So I didn't know about that. I just thought I
wasn't good enough, and it is what it is, you
know what I'm saying. So I say that because that's
why I say, like things like that don't have to
be the end, you know what I mean. Like, so
they actually introduced me to my producer who did my
first record, and so that's the rest of us kind
of like history from there. Yeah, so very grateful.

Speaker 1 (26:21):
God, Yeah, I just that's just that's the unfortunate part
of this business. Just sometimes we just we go through
things like that with people who just have very heartless
individuals in this business, and you know, I attribute it
to them just not having any talent, not having any gifts. Yeah,

(26:43):
and so when it becomes a thing where you'll do
anything for money, like you that's the thing, you'll do
anything to people, Yeah, you know.

Speaker 2 (26:50):
And I think sphere, I think it's really truthfully, at
the root of it is a fear based you know
what I'm saying, Like you just don't you have to
get yours by any means necessary, and you don't think
you'll ever have something or you don't you got to
hold on to it because you're scared if you lose it,
and all this stuff as well. I think it's definitely
like a fear thing, you know what I'm saying, Like,
which I think is what kind of like makes me

(27:12):
have empathy, you feel me Like, I go, all right, cool,
I could sit and be mad at this person and
be like but I'm like, you know what, You're just scared,
you know what I mean, And that's where you're operating from.
So I hope you God willing, you know what I'm saying,
by his grace, I hope you find a way.

Speaker 5 (27:23):
Out of that, you know what I mean. Yeah, So I.

Speaker 7 (27:28):
Haven't take that however you want to.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
Squashing, I don't wish you well, that's a balance, I

(28:06):
get it. That is our balance.

Speaker 5 (28:09):
That's why this works. I like exactly.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
You know what I'm saying, understand you, right that. So
they introduced your producer, who does your first single, your first.

Speaker 2 (28:30):
Album, first album? So that was Adrian Gerbitts was his name.
He was a producer. He was a very unknown producer
as far as I knew here out of London, you
know what I mean. He was an English dude, and
so it was just you know, he just he loved
my voice. He was passionate about it, you know. And
and then and so we did the record together. And
then from there I was introduced. We did kind of

(28:50):
the label circuit and we're like, you know, doing the
kind of this meeting with the labels.

Speaker 5 (28:55):
Everybody was doing this with no no a lot of
the time.

Speaker 2 (28:58):
Yeah, I know, he was. He was more hands on
with this. But and then from there I was introduced
to Rafael Sadik, who also like produced, So it was
Adrian Gravitz and Rafael Sadek that produced my first record.
So yeah, it was cool. It was you know, things
were happening. I was like, okay, can you know what
I mean after all this time, like.

Speaker 1 (29:12):
Rafael still ain't done no record for me.

Speaker 5 (29:15):
Let's okay, let's put it on wags right now.

Speaker 2 (29:17):
Ray, I would have really love to do a record.

Speaker 5 (29:23):
No, he's amazing. Yeah, he's really amazing.

Speaker 2 (29:24):
Yeah, he's so cool too, Like he's really He let
me sit in there and mix the record too, you
know what I mean. I had some people mixing it.
But I can be huh. I can be quite controlling
sometimes I'm working on me, but so I need there's
just details that I wanted to hear. So he let
me sit in there with his mixed engineers Jerry Bobby Campbell,

(29:46):
uh Ari, and we just kind of mixed the record
and worked together, and then he worked on songs with
music weal two. So yeah, he's amazing. He's definitely someone
I'm always gonna work with. He did music with billy
billy music with musical too.

Speaker 1 (29:59):
And what was the call out from the first album?

Speaker 5 (30:00):
What was the first track? Yeah, oh, the first thing.

Speaker 2 (30:05):
Well, it was a song called rise Up Yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
Put your Order in three Booth, which I would tell.

Speaker 2 (30:17):
You was not on the album originally, by the way,
that was a very that was a last minute addition
to the record.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
Yeah, I wrote that the album was done already.

Speaker 5 (30:24):
It was done, completely done.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
Yeah, and so, and I had been doing the whole
I was actually really I think tired, Like you said,
no skip steps, you know what I mean. So by
this point I was just like, oh my, I'm with
the label now and I'm going to these sessions and
writing all these songs, but the album is done and
I'm not loving what we're coming up with and all
the things.

Speaker 5 (30:41):
So I forgot.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
I had done a session with this lady named Jendall
Sevio and we did Rise Up. And so when I
was in the meeting with Warner, they were like, hey,
you know, we love it, blah blah blah, but we
really want to play you a song. And I was like,
they were like, you wrote it. I was like, well,
let me hear it. Put it on the love put
it on it. I mean, let me if you said
I wrote I was right because I was like at

(31:11):
this point, I was like side eye and everybody. So
and they played it and I was like, oh, it
like kind of just quieted the room for a second.
I was like, yeah, no, it was just very very apparent.
I was like, this absolutely has to be on the album,
absolutely has to be the first single. They tried to
go in and do do the drums remix and get
the big DJs, the and all the stuff to put
the stuff on there, you know, but I was just

(31:33):
the whole time was just kind of like, ya, I
think the song is like what it is, you know
what I mean, Like, I think the song is like
this is who I am, and so it just nothing
ever worked, nothing ever sat properly. So it just what
it what exactly what we made it to be is
what ended up out there and what people heard.

Speaker 1 (31:47):
I have one question about it. Each other, Yeah, well.

Speaker 5 (31:53):
It just felt better. I mean, what what was the
thing is that? Because I wanted to.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
Time it comes on, I'm like, you know what each other.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
I had this thing that I was really like, I
wanted to play with vowel sounds, and I wanted to
do I don't like the feeling of like no no
either that or I was just like really like wold
and but I just I like playing with vowel sounds,
and so I'm like, you know what if I just
twist this vowel a little bit, or twist certain things
and it feels better like that. The other part is

(32:27):
I'm like, if I really love the performance of something,
you know what I mean, like the feeling of the
performance of it, and I'm like, I'll try to reapproach it. Yeah,
but I'm like, it's probably just gonna have to have
that mistake in there if I'm really like, I can't.
I can sing it better, but I can't get that film. Yeah,
I can't get that feeling.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
But that's not a mistake, that's feeling.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
Yeah, it was a feeling, and I think at the time,
so I was very much I was like, I just
want to sing and things that sound weird, not that
it's for weird sake, but just because, like you know,
I just hate being limited, like this is how I
sing and I have to sing this way. And I'm like, yeah,
but I'm I'm feeling like changing the place I'm singing
from or so I'm experimenting with stuff like that.

Speaker 5 (33:01):
Honestly. Yeah, I had to ask, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (33:03):
So rise Up just goes crazy. Yeah, it just goes.
It goes crazy. Like my daughter Jordan at her graduation,
she that's the solo she sang for her graduating class.
I cried a little bit, you know, I cried crazy,

(33:27):
you cry crazy. I cried enough, But it was but
it was just like the song and that the moment,
like all of these things, the song is such a
defining moment for so many moments, like not skipping the steps.

(33:47):
Do you feel a sense of like finally, when when
this record becomes because this is a different level of
hit record.

Speaker 4 (33:57):
Yeah, yeah, different level global.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
It's global, it's it's on TV. Yeah, it's American Idol,
it's it's everywhere. Yeah, that's not a normal hit record.
That is a phenomenon.

Speaker 5 (34:14):
Wow. Yeah I got the I got.

Speaker 1 (34:19):
The account to prove it.

Speaker 5 (34:23):
I really know.

Speaker 2 (34:24):
Yeah, yes I did. Actually Actually, to be honest with you,
that's what I always tell people.

Speaker 5 (34:28):
I was like, I really you know what I mean.
It's not just like fake humble tip.

Speaker 2 (34:32):
It's just like like we freestyled it right, which sounds like, okay,
a flex But it was one of those things that
I realized like like when we freestyled, not the whole thing,
but like most of it, like rise up, do it
a thousand times again. It was just she was playing
these chords and it's like it's just simple chords, simple
four chords, you know what I mean, repetition whatever. And
I was like, I literally prayed. I prayed when I

(34:53):
was in the car, and I was like, God, I
don't even want to be here, to be honest with you,
you know what I mean. I was like, friend, it
had been diagnosed with cancer, like you know, just weren't
happening in the career, and it just felt like such
a long time, and like I think it was the
first time. I started to be like, is this not
going to happen, Like, you know, I don't know what
else to do. I don't know, you know. And so
I just prayed and I was like, Lord, just you speak,
you know what I mean. I don't want just like

(35:13):
you inhabit the space you speak and let whatever come out.
So she started playing these chords and I just started singing,
and a lot of the song I have it.

Speaker 5 (35:19):
I'll find it at some point, I'll find it. I'll
send it to you.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
A lot of the song came out just in that
first kind of like playing around take and so I
would tell people, I'm like, yeah, I did write it,
but like it was definitely you know, the moments where
you're clear you're a vessel, you know what I'm saying,
And you're like, okay, so that's why you know the
song doing what it did. I I will say, like, yes,
it felt like yes finally, but it also felt like

(35:43):
whoa that I didn't expect you know what I'm saying
like that, I did not anticipate it. I didn't anticipate
it doing what it does for people, or like being
the anthem for Black Lives Matter. I didn't anticipate it,
Like I'll put it like this, I didn't anticipate it
being like life changing and saving. Like when we do
tours and we do like meet and greets, right, I

(36:05):
always tell my team because they'd be like, Andrew, you
know what I'm saying, meet and greets, Like we got
to get out of here. But I'm like, my nigga,
who do I rush the nigga who's like parent was
diagnosed with cancer or the nigga who just tried to
kill herself, you know what I'm saying. Like, I'm like,
so it's like I get a lot of that and
it's amazing where you would think it would depress you.
It just re reminds me of like the power of music.

(36:27):
Which I believe is at its core. I believe it
was designed to be healing. But I get people all
the time it's like, wow, I was literally going to
kill myself. I listened to your song. I did, and
I'm like, wow, you know what I'm saying, Like, or
I just or I was had the bottle of pills,
or I had this, or I'm going through depression, or
I lost a family member or I had one family.
Say this woman she was diagnosed with cancer. We were

(36:48):
on stage and we brought her up and so we
just had the audience. We just prayed over her. You know.
She did end up passing away, and then her family
was like, oh, you know, her request is that you're
there during her dying moment.

Speaker 5 (37:00):
And so it was like me, her and her family,
and I.

Speaker 2 (37:01):
Was like, like, you know, it's one of those things
that you're like, you guys, I really don't you know
what I mean. I feel like this feels very intrusive,
and I don't, but you're just reminded like it's not
about you. They just want what they believe that spirit is,
you know what I'm saying, like, And so I definitely
did not anticipate it doing what it did, and I'm
super super grateful.

Speaker 5 (37:18):
Yeah, yeah, amazing record. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
I was just when you said, like, who do I rush,
It's like, yeah, rush, Yeah, I'm so connected.

Speaker 5 (37:29):
You're like, sorry, I'm busy. We have to you know
what I mean.

Speaker 2 (37:31):
I'm like, spot, it's hard because this person has been
waiting since they heard the song, you know what I mean,
to come to this show for however long, the year, whatever,
and has this heavy, heavy story and that's what they
want to get off. And so it's hard to be like,
I don't have time to hear your life change, you
know what I mean. I'm like, it's you just got
to make time. You gotta figure it out, you know
what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (37:52):
And I think because a lot of times we're on
the other side of it, we're so we're so used
to just just ring and bing the vessel and just
doing what we're called to do that we never really
get to stop and and kind of visualize and understand
the effects of what we do, like to really have

(38:14):
those conversations, like I really just I just make it
a point to just just stop and talk to anybody,
you know what I mean, just see where it's going
and it's like he said, some of the craziest conversations,
some of the craziest connections. And then for me, like
Jai'll tell you, like I've never met a stranger, I'll
just treat connection.

Speaker 5 (38:34):
I can see that, and I like that.

Speaker 1 (38:37):
We'll just talk till we figure out some common ground.

Speaker 2 (38:40):
When I first met you all those years ago, that's
I was like, you were so nice. It was actually
me and Ed Sheeran. I don't know if you remember
that night, no way, it was before he blew up.
It was crazy, you know, he was docular. Yeah, he
was doing his circular singing dah da dada, and all
the ladies in the audience was like, oh my god,
this white boy ginger. It's like my brawls off and
throw it.

Speaker 5 (39:00):
It was crazy. Yeah, the night was nuts, and you
were just so kind and so cool, and I.

Speaker 1 (39:03):
Believe it was that that was a time to We
used to have a time at Army.

Speaker 5 (39:09):
Yeah, it was so fun. It was so fun. It
got crazy when he went to the Key Club too.

Speaker 1 (39:16):
I remember so many nights. I remember we saying jeousy.
One night, it was a Grammy night. I think it
was we say the Grammy Knights, Lonnie, I think texts
he Joousy. I remember when Brandy sang and all the
dudes and was in the corner hugging each other like
it was just like they were funning over Brandy, like Brandy,

(39:38):
like Christopher Williams. You know what I'm saying, pull it
up on the motorcycle. God knows what his book bag.
You know, I said, don't touch my bag, nigga, shout
out Christopher Williams. He is not a game. I gotta

(39:59):
get here on it. But that time, it was like,
you know what a time.

Speaker 4 (40:02):
And I said, one of the steps.

Speaker 2 (40:04):
You know what I'm saying, It's one of the steps,
Like I think that, and it's like very fond memories.
So it was a long journey, but I'm they're all
fond memories, you know what I'm saying. So like and
meeting you for the first time too, because I was
just a big fan of your voice and your music
and it's like, wow, he's just so cool. You know,
that felt like another step, This is my big opportunity,
you know, Yeah, yeah, I know it was. It was
actually that experience was amazing. So yeah, that was actually

(40:24):
when I first met you is there.

Speaker 1 (40:26):
Tour after that? Is? Did we do we go straight
on a world tour?

Speaker 2 (40:29):
Like after we after we dropped the album? Oh, actually,
how fast? I don't remember how quickly. My memory is terrible.
I don't remember how quickly we went on tour after that.
I think it was fairly quickly. Actually after we released
the Yeah, no, we started touring pretty immediately. But my
first tour was opening actually for Lenny Kravitz, which I
thought was just like, so, yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:55):
Some tequila.

Speaker 6 (40:59):
Listen, So it's gonna be it's gonna be one of
the nights I'm gonna easy to just keep coming back, could.

Speaker 5 (41:04):
You right hand?

Speaker 1 (41:12):
Flat?

Speaker 2 (41:13):
No, it was actually, well, it's funny. Touring with Lenny
was an amazing experience. A he was just really amazing
and it was just like mister sir Kravitz.

Speaker 5 (41:22):
But yeah, it was great.

Speaker 2 (41:24):
Touring with him just because it was a great experience
learning a lot watching him. Also what was really interesting
too was just to see like his audience. You know
what I'm saying, It's a really really I had no
idea who was going to show up and who would
be in the audience each city we showed up, you
know what I'm saying, So it was like really interesting
to be surprised by like the diversity and like the
group of people in his audience. I was like, Okay,

(41:44):
this is really interesting, Like you know, he's like tapped
something here, and so it was just I mean, he's
a legend, and so it was just great watching him
how he manured with his band and with you know
what I'm saying, like and he runs a tight ship
in a great way, and then he puts on a
great show because of that, you.

Speaker 5 (41:57):
Know what i mean.

Speaker 2 (41:57):
Like, but the first time, I'm not gonna lie to
the first night I was tricked on that tour because
the first night I got to it was Toronto. Toronto
was the first date and that was the first time
I had been to I think it was the first
time I had been in Canada. But I get in
my hotel room and I'm like, nigga, I opened the
door and I close it back cause I was like,
oh shit, like I accidentally opened the wine cellar, you

(42:18):
know what I'm saying. I went, so I got to
had to go back get the key and doll stuff,
and they were like, no, that was your room. I
opened it up. I was like, no, the wine cellar
was just a huge middle section. My room was massive.
I was like, this is the biggest thing I've ever
been in in my life.

Speaker 5 (42:32):
It was so huge.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
It had multiple rooms with a pool table and an
entertainment room and it had a whole wine nigga. I
was like, is this Did they accidentally give me Drake
sweet Like? I was like, this is so nigga. I
was like, what is going on? And then we get
to the first day of tour and they had this
huge spread and they was like all of this charcouterie
boards and seafood and you know what I'm saying, like everything.

(42:54):
It was like so amazed. I was like, yo, tours
lit like I don't know what Michael Jackson was talking about.

Speaker 5 (42:58):
That shit fire Like amazing. You know, I love tour.
But next tour day I was like it was me
in a roach in my time at the hotel.

Speaker 1 (43:06):
I was like, road, that's for you, bro.

Speaker 2 (43:12):
The first day had me up. I was like, I've
some trouble right now. That second day was very clear.

Speaker 5 (43:17):
I was like, what is all.

Speaker 1 (43:18):
That I've been in rooms?

Speaker 3 (43:19):
Right?

Speaker 2 (43:20):
I don't take my sweat, I'm not sleep standing up
in the middle of the room. I stood like to
be like, Jay, is the day room exactly. I was like,
day room, but these bad bugs are gonna last for
a couple of weeks.

Speaker 1 (43:34):
I'm like, yeah, I'm not sleeping in here.

Speaker 5 (43:37):
We're the same when the coups of that, oh, we're
definitely I'll go back for that.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
Because they got a book hotels, Correc got a book
hotel all the time, and I'd be.

Speaker 1 (43:43):
Like, I'm like, bro, it's fine, it's the days in,
but it's the upgraded version, upgraded days.

Speaker 4 (43:49):
In the day.

Speaker 5 (43:53):
Wait, what's the days in? What's the upgraded days in?

Speaker 4 (43:56):
I don't know, hotel.

Speaker 5 (43:57):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (43:59):
So as you walk you just know it's chicken.

Speaker 5 (44:01):
I feel so bad. I feel bad.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
They walk into a room and they could look around
and they look at me. They they'd be like, we're
not staying here. Don't even drop a bag, We're leaving immediately.
I just yeah, dirtiness, it's more you.

Speaker 5 (44:11):
Travel, you just be like, bro, niggas are dirty. Bro,
planes are dirty.

Speaker 6 (44:16):
Some cities you go to they don't have free stars.
You know, many times a promoter has said that to
me on the phone. You're right, yeah, and I'm like, yeah,
so how far is the nearest four.

Speaker 4 (44:28):
Or five stars city?

Speaker 6 (44:30):
Right, let's the contracts running four stars are better.

Speaker 2 (44:36):
So you were like, what's the nearest city so we
can read route the day and give me a two
hour commute time.

Speaker 5 (44:41):
Because I'm like, no.

Speaker 1 (44:42):
I remember plenty of nights where because you know I sleep.

Speaker 5 (44:46):
In the suv. I was sleeping the suv before I.

Speaker 1 (44:48):
Was big South.

Speaker 4 (44:49):
Oh yeah, yeah, in two thousand, two.

Speaker 1 (44:55):
Thousand, and I remember many nights, God rest his soul brother,
Window was sleeping in the chair in his room. In
the chair. Yep, I can't get in that bed.

Speaker 5 (45:04):
I'm not doing it. No way, I'm not doing it.

Speaker 1 (45:05):
I'm not doing me. I'm but nig in sept I
can't know there we got in the morning.

Speaker 5 (45:20):
I'm not mad at you, because that's why you sound
the way you say.

Speaker 2 (45:23):
You prioritize sleep. I was like, they gonna get this
twenty four hour no sleep performance. I was like, I
am not getting in it because some things last a lifetime.
You never know, you know what I'm saying. I'm like
something some bikes. Yeah, I'm not mad at it.

Speaker 1 (45:41):
I wouldn't. I didn't get spoiled they.

Speaker 5 (45:45):
Would have started with the Roach Hotel, I would have
been good. You know what I'm saying. But I was like,
I know, but.

Speaker 1 (45:50):
I also started as the background singer too, so I
wasn't part of the A group. I was part of
the B group, So you know what I'm saying. It
was definitely motel life where you just walk out of
your room outside. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (46:01):
You're right, You're right yet so.

Speaker 1 (46:02):
For me, it was just like, okay, this is no.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
There's a little bit of that in me too, because
there are moments now that I think about it, I
was like, yeah, there were moments like we just started out.
I would literally be asleep on coats on the airport floor,
you know what I mean. So yeah, that's something I
would never do that, would never do that. Now, I'm
not gonna lie. I'm terrified, you know what I mean.
People's feet, but.

Speaker 5 (46:23):
Everyone has their everybody it has Yes, I don't know, like.

Speaker 1 (46:28):
Like you were a big questions give me.

Speaker 5 (46:36):
You know.

Speaker 1 (46:40):
You dropped the bottom.

Speaker 5 (46:46):
I feel you a little bit. I feel you all
that definitely.

Speaker 1 (46:59):
Okay, so you go crazy on tour. Is the movie
next or the movie comes after your next project?

Speaker 5 (47:07):
Uh no, the movie came right after.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
So this is actually the album that we're releasing is
only my second album, Like it's just been such a
long time. So the movie actually came like after we
did the whole album, so like, and we did a
couple of tours too. I did a solo tour as well,
and then we toured with Leon Bridges and so yeah,
we did a few tours and festivals and we did
the whole circuit, you know what I mean. It was
an amazing experience, and it just because of the nature of

(47:31):
Rise Up, it honestly just kept going and kind of
does keep going.

Speaker 5 (47:34):
Like I tell people, this sounds so bad, y'all. I
don't even know.

Speaker 2 (47:37):
I'd say this, but Rise Up is sometimes I feel
bad because I'm like, Okay, I gotta, We're just we gotta.

Speaker 5 (47:45):
We just donate, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (47:46):
And we gotta donate because I'm like, Rise Up will
stream and it's amazing because the song has that power
and it's oftentimes people are like I need this to
get through this moment or yeah. But like during the
Black Lives Matter movement in the march, if there's a
huge crisis that happens. Oftentimes it was Skyrocket because it
just becomes the song of them are feeling bad. I'm like,
I feel like this is like a war weapon, like

(48:07):
I need to do something with this. So it lasts
kind of The Psycho lasted quite a long time. And
then so once we kind of really finished, and I
really decided in myself too, I was like, Okay, I'm
grateful for this, but I really want now.

Speaker 5 (48:21):
I want to start working on new music.

Speaker 2 (48:23):
I'm in that place, you know, And what I wanted
to do this time was like I wanted to produce
more on this project, and I wanted to I loved
my touring band, like they're my family. They've been with
me since the beginning. And there's something about them, you
know when you find those players that you're like, they're
so genius, but you're also comfortable enough to like, yeah,
you're connected, they understand you. It's instinct like, and you're

(48:46):
comfortable enough to fail around them. Does that make sense?
Like I always tell people I don't play. I wish
I did. I want to learn. I'm working on it, actually,
but I don't play, you know what I mean? So
everything is guesswork for me? You know what you want
to hear I do, so it's all my you know
what I mean. And they're really like tapped into that.
So I was like, okay. And then we know, like
in the business, like we work in the music industry,

(49:06):
and the people who are treated probably the worst are
usually musicians, you know what I'm saying. So I was like,
and dancers, absolutely, and so I'm like, well, I'm tired
of kind of fighting for them, so I just want
to bring them in the studio, make them producers, you
know what I'm saying, because they all have great years,
they're really visionary. So I was like, that's what I'm
gonna do. I'm gonna just build this next record, and
it's just gonna be us in the studio producing, doing

(49:28):
what we do on the road, you know what I'm saying,
and like, and so it definitely took a lot more
time than I had anticipated, but it was worth it,
you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
Like you're saying, this is going to be your second
this is the second. Start counting the years, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:42):
It's been seven it's been since I released my last record.

Speaker 5 (49:47):
It's been nine years.

Speaker 2 (49:49):
Yeah, And we did we did do three movies in between,
so it wasn'ttive.

Speaker 5 (49:54):
No, well you know what's so funny? So funny? No, no,
I want no no.

Speaker 2 (50:01):
But when she do, you know, when she don't pull
up on me, we will be right back here talking
about it.

Speaker 5 (50:11):
But no, she's so.

Speaker 2 (50:11):
But it's funny because in the beginning of my career
they asked me. They were like, you know, they ask
you crazy questions. Who do you want to model your
career after. I'm like, y'all, come on, bro, like just
you know, like it feels like a weird question to answer.

Speaker 5 (50:23):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (50:23):
Maybe I was just arrogant at the time, but I
was like, I don't like that, you know what I mean, Like,
let's just I can tell you artists I like.

Speaker 5 (50:28):
But they were like, we really need to know, we
really need to talk. It's okay.

Speaker 2 (50:31):
So I was like, and one of the people I
named was Shade, and they were like, well, she only
releases some records like every seven years, every nine years,
every whatever. And at the time I was like, no, no,
we're going to release more records. I just you know,
I like the vibe.

Speaker 5 (50:42):
I like, what no. Nine years later exactly, So it
just happened that way.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
Is that. Of course, I know you take your time
making music, but also is that kind of a testament
of the success of that first record, Like you said,
that record has not come to a close. And from
a business standpoint, you've you you as a writer and
a producer. If you know that language, you continue to

(51:09):
do very well. So it's not like you have to rush. Yeah, thing,
is that part of it?

Speaker 2 (51:15):
I think I think that. I definitely think that's a
part of it. Like I said, the cycle was really long,
and it does all right. Yeah, there's a little bit
of like not feeling like I have to rush, like
I want to take my time to and I'm like
that I really I am a perfectionist, which is terrible sometimes,
you know what I'm saying, because you can really self
sabotage that you really can be in your own way,

(51:36):
and that is a balance that I'm trying to learn.

Speaker 5 (51:38):
Like be precious but not too precious, you know what
I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (51:40):
Because so it does afford you time, not as much
time as I've taken, but but it does afford you
to Also, I just have ADHD I get distracted.

Speaker 5 (51:51):
Everything's interesting, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (51:52):
Everything I keep staying at that curtent. I'm like, why
is that one different from the rest of them?

Speaker 1 (51:56):
You know what I'm saying, Well, we're still working on
that right over.

Speaker 5 (52:00):
I was like, you know it turn over, but I
like it. I like the variation, you know. No, so
there was like taking at the.

Speaker 1 (52:06):
Track at all.

Speaker 2 (52:15):
I was like, I want to kidding right, no, but yeah,
So it definitely does afford you time, but also the
time in between the record because I'm so hands on,
you know which, like I said, I'm really learning too
in my life. I'm like, all right, cool, this is great,
hold on to this. This is a detriment, like grow
from it, move on, you know what I mean. But
I'm also like it was also the movies, Like, so

(52:37):
we I started the record, we started producing the record
and writing in twenty seventeen, and then I got the call.

Speaker 5 (52:48):
I got the call.

Speaker 2 (52:51):
At the end of twenty seventeen about like, hey, we
want you to do Billie Holiday.

Speaker 5 (52:55):
And I was like, the hell are y'all talking about?

Speaker 1 (52:57):
You just got the call?

Speaker 5 (52:59):
Yeah? They had, Like no, I hadn't at this point yet.
I did.

Speaker 2 (53:02):
I ended up auditioning for it, but they just got
a call to meet with Lee, you know, because his
team and everybody was like, she's the perfect person for it,
which makes me laugh so much to this day because
my response was like, what are you talking about?

Speaker 5 (53:13):
I just love Billie Holiday. I'm not an actress, you
know what I mean?

Speaker 6 (53:15):
Like they know about that, that that call you went
on earlier, that that model.

Speaker 5 (53:21):
Saw my stuff on John Robert Powers on the pictures
that I right, I pay some for the pictures. I
was like, I'm gonna go another way.

Speaker 2 (53:33):
But yeah, so so I think that it took a
long time because we ended up doing that movie and
then we've shot i think two other movies on the
in between, so that definitely took a lot of time.

Speaker 5 (53:44):
COVID hit, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (53:45):
It's just like the timing of everything was crazy, and
you're right, like Rise Up still does its things, so
you know, it's definitely I'm looking at my team now.

Speaker 5 (53:53):
There's definitely more pressure. Now, my god, look can.

Speaker 1 (54:00):
Do you? I mean, I mean we just can't glance
over you know, over Billy. It's hard to glance over
that when you were nominated for an Oscar. You want
to that golden globe that you you won that yeah,
you won that Grammy Grammy. Yeah, uh, a celebration. Celebration

(54:25):
of course you were, as you say, because I'm not
an actor. As you just say, said that that is so.

Speaker 5 (54:35):
Wrong.

Speaker 1 (54:37):
It's not even close to not You're not you. I
don't know what you were thinking at the time, but
when you got in front of that camera, Jesus.

Speaker 5 (54:48):
Christ, thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (54:50):
Well at the time, I was not though. If they
would have shot the movie at that time, you would
have been like.

Speaker 1 (54:54):
Jesus, so, how long did you so you went to prep?

Speaker 2 (54:58):
I did, Yeah, definitely, so so I once I actually
agreed to do it because Lee and I were both skeptical.
You know, his team's telling him you got to meet
with her. He's like, why would I meet with her?
She's not an actress. My team's like, I mean, I'm like,
I'm not an actress. Why But I was like, you
know what, the long way around, not skipping steps to say,
you know what, Lee Daniels is a good person to know.
I should probably just meet him, you know what I mean, Like,
definitely not going to do this movie, but why not?

Speaker 5 (55:20):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (55:20):
If I want to do music or play some music
or whatever, something like that let's just let me just
chop it up with him real quick and just see,
you know what he's talking about. So we met and
it was just like, I'm such a huge fan of
Billy Holliday, So I like that she's really probably one
of my foremost inspirations and she is actually I'm just like.

Speaker 5 (55:38):
But so I really really love her.

Speaker 2 (55:40):
So meeting with him and his passion he was he
was a fan of ladies sings the blues, that was
his thing. And so once he discovered more about Billie
Holliday and her fight with strange fruit, like most people's
idea of her is that she was a godmother of
jazz music, right, you know what I mean. She was
probably the most famous jazz singer you know at the time,

(56:00):
and and she was a tragic drug addict, which is
not the case, you know what I mean. Those things
were true in her life, you know, but she was
hunted and so like I knew that as a study
of her because I became familiar with her when I
was like eleven years old, and I just was a
huge fan of her. Like I said, the way she's sang,
you know, I was trying to play with my voice
more because I love her identity, and so I really

(56:22):
love I sat with him and he was really so
enamored and so passionate.

Speaker 5 (56:27):
About this story.

Speaker 2 (56:28):
He was like, people need to know this about her,
And so he breaks down what he's gonna do and
how he's gonna like, you know, just he's trying to
vindicate really her legacy. He was like, I'm making this
for black women, Like I'm you know, I want people
to know she's a fier. I'm so moved by her
story and by this song strench Fruit. He wasn't even
really familiar.

Speaker 5 (56:43):
With the song and so.

Speaker 4 (56:47):
And so I was.

Speaker 5 (56:47):
I really loved that. I was like, I really love
how passionate he is.

Speaker 2 (56:50):
But I'm excited for him and whoever he gets to
do the movie.

Speaker 5 (56:53):
But I still yeah, because I was like, I love her.

Speaker 2 (56:58):
So I told people, I said, my biggest fear was
like people would be like, oh, I love Billie Holliday,
Oh my god, you remember the amazing you know, Diana
Ross and Ladies Sings the Blues. Oh you remember the
amazing Audrey McDonald on Broadway. Oh you remember when Andrew
did it?

Speaker 5 (57:10):
You know what I mean? Like, I didn't want to
be that.

Speaker 1 (57:12):
I was like, oh my god, like everybody, yo, bro.

Speaker 5 (57:16):
Yeah exactly, like wow, you are Prince Petty.

Speaker 1 (57:25):
That is our friend.

Speaker 2 (57:28):
So so yeah, so I was like I can't.

Speaker 5 (57:35):
So yeah. So I met with him and he introduced me.
He was like, you know what, he didn't.

Speaker 2 (57:39):
What I love about Lee is he didn't just kind
of throw me to the wolves and be like whatever,
let's see. So before we even did the audition, he
got me with Tasha Smith Smith, who was my acting.

Speaker 1 (57:47):
Coach, who is.

Speaker 2 (57:49):
An amazing director, actress coach. Like she's just all the
things and a sister, you know. So he linked me
with her and to prepare me for the audition. So
I just thought that was really Like That's why I
tell people. I'm like, you know, I'm grateful, and I'm
grateful that people love the performance, but it would not
have been that performance without eight I think there are

(58:10):
very very few, and when I say a handful, I
mean maybe like three fingers directors in Hollywood that can
pull performances out of actors the way Lee does, you
know what I mean, There's just like very very few
people of Scorsese's like that. Lee is like that, Like,
so it was a combination of like her coaching, her
believing in me even more than I did in the beginning,
and him believing in me and his direction, you know.

(58:32):
So he got me with her. And then he said
he saw a little tape of He always when he
tells the story, he says he saw a tape. She
sent him a clip of me, just like going through
the scenes, he said. And in that moment I knew.
He's like, you weren't acting, you were just being you
know what I mean? He was like, that was the
moment I knew you were billying so so, and then
they did this thing where like I was preparing for

(58:53):
the role like a lot before before because I got
it at the top of twenty eighteen and start filming
until the very end of.

Speaker 5 (59:05):
Or did I get it twenty seventeen. I can't remember.

Speaker 2 (59:08):
We didn't start filming until the end of twenty nineteen.
So I was kind of in her headspace changing for
a long time. I started smoking cigarettes, I started drinking alcohol,
started cussing for which I didn't do.

Speaker 5 (59:20):
It still hasn't gone away, but and you just went
you just yeah.

Speaker 2 (59:24):
Yeah, yeah, what she told She trained me from a
different thing, she said, But what you did, sis is
you did what I trained you. But she also trained
me to just do what you need to do to
get it, you know what I mean. And so she
trained me in this particular way and then she said,
you also incorporated some method and so it was just
like and then they we didn't get in and start

(59:45):
coaching heavily until that was Lee's call. Lee was like,
I don't want you to get with her until two
weeks right before we go to film, and then intensively
work with her because he really and it worked because
he had this idea that he was like, I want
the anxiety and because Billy would have that in her
life during this.

Speaker 5 (01:00:00):
Period of her life.

Speaker 2 (01:00:01):
I want the anxiety and the nerves, and I want
her to be super present and I want all that
to work for her. And so it was a combination
of all of my preparation those intense.

Speaker 1 (01:00:10):
Two weeks so smart.

Speaker 5 (01:00:12):
I was super grateful just it all came together, you
know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:00:15):
You are absolutely amazing.

Speaker 5 (01:00:17):
Thank you. I appreciate it taking movie special that afforded
me some more time.

Speaker 1 (01:00:23):
I just didn't like the way you left your band
in the middle of it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:25):
No, yeah, it's exactly this fake turner. Nigga cocaine is
a hell of a drug, Like you do some crazy things.
Yeah right, it was like, come on, Billy, No, there
were so many moments they were like working the script

(01:00:46):
because she's super lovable, like when you read her biography
and all the things. But she did crazy ship too,
you know what I mean. So, and she would do
stuff that you would be like, wow, I really can't
stand that. But for whatever reason, people still loved her.

Speaker 1 (01:00:57):
So they it was an artist.

Speaker 2 (01:00:58):
Yeah, she really was, and she was. She Also here's
the thing about Billy. She was a woman of a
different time, you know what I'm saying, Like, and you
forget that like she was like her saying was like
I didn't want to be nobody's I didn't want to
you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (01:01:11):
She ended up working.

Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
She started working in a she was raped at ten,
and then she started working in a brothel by the
age eleven.

Speaker 5 (01:01:17):
I think with her mom, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:01:19):
So, and she had women too, She ran girls like
she was a She was a hard woman and she
was from a different time and she had to survive.
And so her saying was like I didn't want to
be nobody's damn maids. So she used to like clean
the steps of people's houses and like wealthy white people
for like a nickel in Baltimore.

Speaker 5 (01:01:37):
Or you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:01:38):
And so she just like she dealt with a lot
of men who were super abusive, you know what I mean.
She was stolen from oftentimes, and you know, she was
abused physically, abused sexually all the things. But she it
made her hard and it made her very like you know,
but truthfully, it also made her a fighter and made
her who she was. You know, So like people forget
like to be a black woman in the twenties and

(01:02:00):
the thirties and the forties, it's way different.

Speaker 5 (01:02:02):
It's way you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:02:03):
Like, so yeah, it's interesting. So yeah, she was, she
was out there. You should read her biography if you
haven't read, it's funny as well.

Speaker 1 (01:02:09):
You just did amazing. It's just tough to do. It's
just it's just because, like you said, to be that
to be that one person out of all the people
who've come before you to not nail it, Oh my god, right,
that that pressure is tersting.

Speaker 5 (01:02:26):
That was terrible.

Speaker 1 (01:02:27):
But for leaders say, let's use that.

Speaker 5 (01:02:29):
Yes, exactly. Use that anxiety.

Speaker 6 (01:02:31):
Use that anxiety, and that's why a part of it
why she was using drugs.

Speaker 2 (01:02:35):
Absolutely well, and her people forget about that all the time.
I'm like that she didn't just be like, oh, let
me pick it up. And a lot of these drugs
were planted on musicians, you know what I mean, This
was put like that's like people, the drug war was
not in the eighties. That started in like the thirties
and the forties, you know what I mean with jazz musicians,
particularly black jazz musicians.

Speaker 5 (01:02:52):
You know, so, and it's still and it's still.

Speaker 6 (01:02:55):
The thing is it's so you know, once again, we
always we try to have moments as many moments on
this podcast as possible to be informative.

Speaker 1 (01:03:03):
Yeah, and you know, for me.

Speaker 6 (01:03:05):
I would just you know, to any young artist that's
out there, understand when they're giving you these things is
to control you, you know what I mean, because you're
you're not on your dean at this point, you're not
standing on your platform. They're knocking you off of it
by telling you, oh, it's just gonna take the edge
off or it's gone. Now you're on lean. Now you're

(01:03:26):
smoking way too much weed. Now you're doing coke. Now
you're doing whatever the.

Speaker 2 (01:03:29):
Thing is, Like, you look cooler. It's cool as an
artist for you to do this thing. And that's the vibe.
And that's all this stuff. Like I love that you
bring it up too, because I tell like, you know,
like I said, the drug world to me, when I
go we talk, we can go back like chattel slavery right,
you know, segregation right, Jim Crow, reconstruction, you know, lynching
and America. The thing I believe as a community that

(01:03:52):
took us out the most is drugs because it took
our soul and our drive and our motivation. We went
through chattle slavery, and we still became land on owners
and community owners. Like when people go, oh, black people,
we need invest in charice businesses, we have. We have
done that over and over and over again. Every time
you walk through Central Park, that was a thriving black community.
Every time you go to these major lakes and enjoy
the water, those were wealthy, thriving black communities, right. And

(01:04:13):
so the drugs, I feel like, is the thing that
I look back on that I'm like that that's a
part of the institution and that's what took the soul
and the drive, you know what I'm saying, like not
that we are still going to thrive and we still
get it back, but I agree with you. I definitely
feel like the thing that you that's to control. You
absolutely took the men absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:04:34):
Which was absolutely that's the foundation.

Speaker 5 (01:04:36):
Yeah, absolutely, what we were are.

Speaker 1 (01:04:38):
The strong men in our community. It's the fathers, the grandfathers,
you know what I mean, and all that being passed down,
it started missing generations because yeah, they were either strung
out or sit in jail.

Speaker 5 (01:04:50):
Right exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:04:51):
Yeah, yeah, wow, Yeah, so you did amazing. You got
two more movie. You did two more movies which helped
you pass you know, the nine years. What's going on?

Speaker 5 (01:05:12):
I started buying property.

Speaker 2 (01:05:16):
It was like just small, like small things. We were
filming the Lee and I did a movie called The Deliverance.

Speaker 5 (01:05:21):
I'm so excited about that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:22):
It was like and this was like Leah is so amazing,
Like I honestly he has really just loved and supported
me and put me in great positions. So like this cast,
like to be able to lead a cast like you
know of Oscar winners and nominated actors and actresses. It's
like my castmates were Glenn Close, Monique Andrew Ellis, Caleb McLoughlin,

(01:05:44):
Demi Singleton, Uh, Anthony Jenkins. Like it was just it
was such an incredible cast of of of actors. And
so when I was in Pittsburgh, I was kind of
looking around at the market and I was like, you
know what I mean, Like it was like, there's a
lot of new bills, there was a lot the disparity
between housing prices was like pretty drastic because they're building
so much. It was like a lot going on. So

(01:06:05):
I was like, I don't know, let me just like
dip in and just see, you know what I mean. So,
I don't know, it's cool to me. Listen, when you
think you're never going to be able to afford to
buy a car and you are able to buy a property,
I'm like, that's pretty it's pretty exciting.

Speaker 1 (01:06:17):
Give me two of those. It is a long way
from the seven eleven, long way from eleven, I mean
the first No, I'm gonna just hold them until to
the time, you know, Cassandra, Yes the new album. Yes,
Ladies and Gentlemen, please go get that. And I think

(01:06:40):
I think you know, also, just on a on a
serious note, before I get to this next segment. I
just I just think you're needed. I think your talent,
your gift, your energy, like that's something and it's a
great time for you because because because of how things
have turned and how they're now needing what we do.

Speaker 5 (01:07:01):
Yeah right, that's real.

Speaker 1 (01:07:04):
And it's refreshing that ship this whole time.

Speaker 6 (01:07:09):
You know, I didn't know she wanted the one.

Speaker 1 (01:07:17):
I thought it just saying south like get no, right,
but you you need. I think I think you're just
you know, you're You're a dope example of what I think.
You know what I think young girls should be able
to see and aspire to.

Speaker 5 (01:07:36):
Thank you. Wow, I really appreciate that. Thank you, Thank
you that really does.

Speaker 1 (01:07:39):
That is that is a thing. Thank you to a
specially talented moment in our god where I want to

(01:08:06):
get into your mind. You've been inspired by so many,
so many of the greats. You've been able to portray
one of the crates. But we want to know right
now as we vibe you'r we want to know.

Speaker 3 (01:08:34):
Top five, Yeah, your top five, top five, Your top
five are the easing.

Speaker 6 (01:08:52):
Whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:08:56):
We want to know that we want to say nothing
years your h.

Speaker 5 (01:09:33):
That was definitely one of my top five R and
B performances. I love that. Can I say that?

Speaker 1 (01:09:39):
Yes?

Speaker 4 (01:09:40):
Okay, Andre d Yes, I was want to say go ahead.

Speaker 5 (01:09:47):
Somebody told me they were like, it sounds more expensive.
I'm like whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:09:52):
When I go into my fortnight and Day, your top
five R and B singers, Top five.

Speaker 5 (01:10:02):
Armhi, this is so hard.

Speaker 2 (01:10:03):
I saw that question, I was like, so are we not?
Are we doing the all encompassing? Are we not including jazz?

Speaker 1 (01:10:16):
Whatever? Okay?

Speaker 2 (01:10:18):
I would have to say, Okay, there's two worlds I
live in, so I would have to say, okay, I'm
gonna do two top fives.

Speaker 5 (01:10:30):
Can I do that?

Speaker 2 (01:10:31):
Because they're like, okay, So we're gonna start with Whitney
for sure. We're going to go to ooh, this is
so hard, bro Okay, Whitney Aretha mm hmm. We're gonna

(01:10:56):
also say so hard okay. We're gonna say Michael that's
too and Shady and Anita Baker. Yeah yeah, but okay,
so on the flip side, right, you know what I'm saying, Yeah,

(01:11:16):
it's like a little the jazzier side. We're gonna say
Billie Holliday, absolutely, yes, she's definitely. We're also going to
say Ella Fitzgerald. For me, it's also Erica, Jill Scott,
and Lauren Hill.

Speaker 1 (01:11:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:11:36):
Yeah, you see what I'm saying. I'm like, I kind
of had to do like who do I leave out?
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (01:11:41):
Mad Mike.

Speaker 5 (01:11:46):
I love. I was actually thinking about going with like
should I do all women do all that? Because that's
I'm like, bro, how do I leave out? You know
what I'm saying? Luther and Stevie and Beyond. I love Beyonce. Yeah,
so I was like, I have to hit him with.

Speaker 1 (01:12:06):
Those are those are two really crazy?

Speaker 5 (01:12:09):
Top five and jazzmine She's still absolutely I'm gonna say.

Speaker 1 (01:12:16):
Your top five R and B songs.

Speaker 5 (01:12:20):
Okay, top five.

Speaker 2 (01:12:23):
I know, Okay, top five R and B songs, hmmm,
I'll just mix them all together. This is not this
is missing so many songs, but okay, so I'll say
to be quick, I'll say God Bless the Child. I

(01:12:45):
love this song, which is more of a jazz but
uh human nature Michael Jackson also, you know what I mean,
Jesus songs.

Speaker 5 (01:12:58):
This is so crazy.

Speaker 4 (01:12:59):
Uh Oh.

Speaker 2 (01:13:02):
I love Erica's bag Lady too. I love bag Lady
by Erica. That's one of my favorite. There's so many though,
that's so hard to say. So I'm just gonna you
just already know she's one of my favorites.

Speaker 5 (01:13:11):
What I say so far mm hmmmmmm mm hmmm. And
angel Anita Baker m h.

Speaker 1 (01:13:26):
That's great.

Speaker 2 (01:13:28):
And then right now I'm just trying to I feel
like you can pick any shady song, Like right now,
I'm just trying to like pick which you will.

Speaker 5 (01:13:35):
But I'm like, how do I leave exactly? Like, oh gosh, yeah,
we're going with that? There's I love.

Speaker 2 (01:13:45):
I love everything she's done. I love everything she's done.
So yeah, I'm just gonna have to just say all
I can't pick.

Speaker 5 (01:13:51):
I can't pick.

Speaker 1 (01:13:52):
I can't.

Speaker 5 (01:13:54):
M m my god, uh huh oh, you can't just
be like vibe for day, Like.

Speaker 6 (01:14:01):
It's bigger than vibe. Like that word is that word
is an understate. You learn at that theater in New
War figured this.

Speaker 5 (01:14:09):
Let's tell you something.

Speaker 1 (01:14:14):
That was just.

Speaker 5 (01:14:17):
I had a home gro on a school named Jennison Class.

Speaker 1 (01:14:27):
Come on, man, where are you going? Yeah, come on,
go down southeast.

Speaker 6 (01:14:34):
Some of that.

Speaker 1 (01:14:36):
I ain't saying no nick hey, I ain't saying no names.
I ain't saying no names. I ain't saying no names.

Speaker 3 (01:14:42):
You was.

Speaker 1 (01:14:45):
What you did? Don't say she ain't saying.

Speaker 6 (01:15:02):
Is the greatest part, right, Okay, So yeah, we had
a very very very important part of the show segment.
That's card I ain't saying no names. Okay, tell us
a story funny and fucked up? Are funny and fucked up?
The only rule to the game is you can't say
no name.

Speaker 5 (01:15:22):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:15:23):
And listen, You've been on tours and movie sets, a
whole bunch of cool ship so much, so much cool
in champagne much.

Speaker 2 (01:15:30):
Yeah, you know, you have all these stories and then
you get in like on in the lights and in
the camera, and my god, well yesterday I went to.

Speaker 4 (01:15:41):
Wait a minute.

Speaker 5 (01:15:43):
Okay, let's see. I do have a funny story.

Speaker 2 (01:15:47):
But bro, I don't know if I can even tell
the story without y'all knowing exactly who it is. Okay,
you can say the name, I let me see.

Speaker 1 (01:15:58):
You know, that's the story you want?

Speaker 5 (01:15:59):
Now, that's the what's the one? Which were you thinking of?
Which one?

Speaker 1 (01:16:08):
Yep?

Speaker 5 (01:16:11):
Okay, So all right, y'all gonna know. But whatever it is,
what it is.

Speaker 2 (01:16:16):
So I just remember, like you know, you meet people
sometimes and you know, you meet some people that you're like,
you know, you can tell from their artist persona, you
can tell from everything You're like, that is a huge personality,
super duper ego probably you.

Speaker 5 (01:16:29):
Know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (01:16:30):
All the things that and then sometimes you meet people
that you would think that and they're really sweet, they're cool,
you know whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:16:37):
So I think.

Speaker 5 (01:16:39):
There was one artist entertainer Mogel.

Speaker 2 (01:16:49):
There was one person. No, no, there was one person.
One time we were doing Essence best were you? There
was this the one which Essence was it.

Speaker 1 (01:16:57):
Was I wasn't there.

Speaker 3 (01:16:58):
I was so no.

Speaker 2 (01:17:01):
I just remember there was one time we were in
our dressing room and it was myself and a bunch
of other artists, you know what I'm saying, that we're there.

Speaker 3 (01:17:06):
It was like.

Speaker 2 (01:17:08):
And I remember we were just kind of everybody was
in their dressing room. It was like a common room.
And then everybody was in their respective dressing rooms, you.

Speaker 5 (01:17:16):
Know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:17:17):
And this artist like kind of came in. They sent
their team and or their security team in, you know
what I mean, And they and they were like, this
honestly is more funny than anything. But uh so they
sent their security team and there was a common room.
Each person had their dressing room. This person had their
dressing room too, and then we had a common room
and they were nice. Dressing rooms was nice. So everybody

(01:17:37):
was in their dressing room and they send their team
in and to go like kick everybody out of their
respective dressing room. So it was like common area can't
be used. And it was like and anybody and these
are other artists, like people that you know, you know
what I mean, And so they go in and they're
just like, all right, this person wants to come in,
so everybody has to get out.

Speaker 5 (01:17:55):
Everybody has to you know what I mean, whatever all
the stuff, so you know.

Speaker 1 (01:17:59):
Out of this.

Speaker 2 (01:18:02):
We saw them kicking everybody out of the common room
and we were like, all right, cool, and then they
came in and started kicking everybody out their individual rooms,
and so I was like, my god, you know what
I mean, you know, so most people, including my team,
were like, we're not gonna leave unless we feel like
somebody official, you know what I mean, it's telling us this,
you know, like, and so everybody kind of stayed in
their dressing room. And then so the person finally came

(01:18:23):
into the common area, and no one had left their
dressing rooms, and they were like, all right, everybody, we're
gonna pray.

Speaker 5 (01:18:28):
And I was like, oh my god, look at me.
I had underestimated this person. They want to pray, my
bad Jesus, let's go ahead and do it. I judged
them that was totally wrong. Blah blah blah blah.

Speaker 2 (01:18:37):
So we all come out of our common dressing rooms
and we all get in this massive circle and we
start praying. Well, we all bowed our heads to start praying,
and so it's like down my head, closed my eyes,
I did the thing.

Speaker 1 (01:18:48):
You know what I mean? Were you still kind of
looking but you're not.

Speaker 5 (01:18:51):
No, no, not at this point. We're not there yet
at that part of the story. So I had my
heads bowed, and then all of a sudden, I hear
I woke up this morning and I.

Speaker 2 (01:19:00):
Was me and I was like, I was so I
was like, and it was a whole thing, and I
was like, by the time we were dead, I thought
to myself, I was like.

Speaker 5 (01:19:10):
Did they make me pray to them?

Speaker 3 (01:19:14):
Look at that?

Speaker 5 (01:19:15):
Because I damn, I'm gonna go have to repent and be.

Speaker 2 (01:19:17):
Like, God, my bad.

Speaker 5 (01:19:18):
I ain't nobody else I know that God. I didn't know. God,
I didn't know he was gonna do that, you know
what I mean. So I had to go and be like, yeah,
not me at the end of the prayer talking about
and Jesus name. Okay, all right, thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:19:32):
No.

Speaker 5 (01:19:32):
So that was a really interesting story.

Speaker 2 (01:19:33):
That was probably my first experience with like something that
was that random and that bizarre, but still funny and entertaining.

Speaker 5 (01:19:39):
Like I don't know, I like a good charismatic versus
to me. Yeah, I was like I was, I was tricked.
I ain't realizing until we said Amen.

Speaker 1 (01:19:49):
I was like to who, Lord, bless these people holding
my hand?

Speaker 5 (01:19:56):
No, no, no, you did it wrong. It's me blessed,
these peopeople holding Lord, just me bless me.

Speaker 1 (01:20:03):
I'm a blessed these people holding my hands. Wow, I
know the way truth and the light. Oh my god.

Speaker 5 (01:20:16):
My whole team was cracking up, kind of like right
there you go. Yeah, it was like that.

Speaker 1 (01:20:23):
Watch me work, watch me name name, watch me with
with two whips, whip whip, watch me name.

Speaker 5 (01:20:40):
That's pretty much it.

Speaker 4 (01:20:41):
Yeah, it's crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:20:43):
I was like, oh wow, I'm just going down my
mental rollerdecks of you know, a couple of people that
I know are capable of that anyway. Andrew Day, you
are just you're You're really really awesome.

Speaker 5 (01:20:56):
Thank you so much. I love this podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:20:59):
Thank you just to like, you know, just all you
know inside and out, you know what I mean. And
I think that you know, we need we need more
of that. And I and I and I and I pray.

Speaker 5 (01:21:10):
Yea to yourself.

Speaker 1 (01:21:15):
I pray that you you you are, you are blessed
to go in as many spaces as possible to be
as infectious as you are.

Speaker 4 (01:21:22):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:21:23):
I appreciate that your thing is just that it just
becomes contagious and everybody can be more like you.

Speaker 5 (01:21:29):
Thank you so much. And I pray the same for you.
Well you've already done it. You're already doing it.

Speaker 1 (01:21:33):
You know it's still still more work to do.

Speaker 5 (01:21:36):
Yeah, thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (01:21:38):
This is home for you, whatever, whenever, whatever you want
to do.

Speaker 5 (01:21:42):
I love the aesthetic specific there. This is.

Speaker 1 (01:21:50):
Kick you out. You got two jags, ladies and gentlemen,
And this is the Yrvey Money Podcast at the authority
on all things R and B. And this has been light,
This has been loved. This, this has been fairly man
the most beautiful, the most Talented.

Speaker 2 (01:22:10):
And R and B Money.

Speaker 6 (01:22:18):
R and B Money is a production of the Black
Effect podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows. Don't forget to subscribe to and rate our show,
and you can connect with us on social media at
Jay Valentine and at the Real Tank. For the extended episode,

(01:22:40):
subscribe to YouTube dot com, forward Slash, R and B
Money

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