July 29, 2023 • 18 mins
Join Angie and producer Brittany in this episode of #TakeAwaysIRL as they bring you behind the scenes of the electrifying IRL Experience event, "Celebrating 50 Years of Women in Hip Hop" at Essence Fest 2023. Five legendary female hip hop acts, including Mia x, Eve, Trina, Remy Ma, and Salt N Pepa, set the stage on fire, with Spinderella on the decks all night long. As the host of the evening, Angie shares the unforgettable moments of sisterhood, support, and celebration.
But Salt from Salt N Pepa had a surprise that pushed Angie out of her comfort zone, resulting in a truly magical ending. Relive the experience by checking out the exclusive event footage on our YouTube page. Get ready to salute the next 50 years of extraordinary women in hip hop!
Join Angie and Brittany as they uncover the hidden stories behind the scenes. Don't miss this captivating episode.Subscribe now to IRL Posdcast.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Edge Martinez in real life podcast. This episode and conversation
is powered by I Do Say.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
One Too, Mike Checker.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
What's Up Everybody is another Edge Martinez takeaway podcast. So
Hi everyone. First of all, I might may be confusing
you because normally when we do takeaway episodes, it is
after an interview special, which we have not done for
a couple of weeks because we will be launching another
suit season in a few more weeks. But I just
(00:31):
wanted to tap in with everybody and just check in
and maybe do a takeaway episode about this experience that
we Brittany and I just had with Edge Martinez in
real life, but in real life experiences, which is a
thing that we've kind of been.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
We've already done one. Yeah, we did the Mary jay.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Blige experience around her show, and then we did this
Essence experience. This is our second one. So I kind
of wanted to just check in and like do a
little takeaway about that because there are some takeaway to
be had from our experience at Essence Fest number one.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
They brought me into curate.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
They brought Irl Ellen to curate this special celebrating women
a hip Hop Hip Hop fiftieth anniversary, which is like
a no brainer. Sure, that'll be great. We'll get women,
they'll come out. We had Eve, which who by the way,
looks flawless. Eve is like uncomfortably stunning, you know what
(01:28):
I'm saying, Like she's the type of girl that you know,
you don't see her on while then you see her,
she looks better than the last time even that you
saw her, and you just it's almost.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Like you got to stare a little bit.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
And I know Eve, even I did the sprite commercial
back in the nineties, Like I know, I know pitbull
and a skirt first Lady of rough Rider Eve.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
But she just looks I don't know, she just looks
like she's happy. You know, she just had a baby.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
And and I could be this is totally my assumption
at her because we didn't really get into like life conversation,
but she seems like she's just living a problem madic life,
Like she's living like you know, when women look like
nothing's bothering them, like.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Very far few in between. But if I had to
describe that, it would definitely be Eve. Right, Yes, she
has an aura.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
She has like a care free life is cool, Like
what's the big deal? It's chill. Everything's chill.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
There's no like frown, there's no like wrinkle in between
her you know what I mean. Like she just looks
very happy and that just could be the new mom
glow because she is a new mom. But anyway, I
do all I digress. It was by the way, all
the women were amazing. Shout out to me a X,
who I hadn't seen in years. Also and she's just
(02:44):
like the sweetest, most loveliest, like New Orleans ledgend.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Yeah, but like she's.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Girls like like hospitality on a million, on a trillion,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Like if we were staying long, she probably would have
showed us around town. Yah. She's just like sweet.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
And and dope and the whole legend. And watching her
do bout it bottom on the stage was very exciting
for me. So it was mea X was so yes,
it was me a X Eve Trina who you know,
the baddest, the baddest in LA and who Remy, Remy
who was always ram always shows up, delivers nuf hits.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
I love how Remy looks so in the background.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
You know, we did everything on the stage curation from
the graphics that we're gonna be playing from the beginning
to the end.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Shout out to Spinderella. It was the DJ who.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
The whole sets held it down for us. I put
these graphics behind Remy Matt. It was like the Statue
of Liberty. It looked like it's shot and she just
looked like she was on the top of New York performing.
I just thought it was so fly. Yeah, we're gonna
post actually, we'll post it today.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Also, we're gonna post some visuals that you could see
on the YouTube page, so you can go to the
Angie Martinez IRL YouTube page and check out some of
the experience if you missed it.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
But yeah, it was all of that, and Salt and
Pepper was a big finale. Yeah, and well shosh, we'll
get to that. Just chill out, Just shush it, just
shush it.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
But I will say there was a moment at the
beginning and me and Brittany and I both we were
on the plane like obsessing about this because we know
how people are about forgetting folks, especially when you're like
saluting women of hip hop.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
But what about this person? What about this one?
Speaker 1 (04:22):
So we made a full list and a full like
at the beginning, we did this like a rollout of
all the names Queen Latifa, Empsy Light, Nicki, Minaj, Cardi B.
You know, just the sequence shot Rock Pebbly Pool. And
then also we included the new girls too, Lotto Glow, Rilla, Lola,
Lola Brook, I mean, on and On, Coila Ray.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
We have all we put every woman we could think of.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Now, is it possible that even in our deep dive
that we could have forgotten somebody? It is possible, but
it's not likely because we tried really hard not to
so that that opened up the show, which was an
nice moment because I didn't want it to just be
a moment about the women there. I wanted to make
sure that it was also a salute to all of
(05:06):
the women who contribute. And I wish, by the way,
our set was forty five minutes, we had all those
performances and stuff. I wish this is if we did this,
if it was a week long, I would have took
a moment to salute all of the women behind the scenes,
all of the women creatives, stylists.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
All those all of that.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
I think those are oftentimes the women that get overlooked
and the culture that are really important when we did
the ABC special.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
YEP.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
We talked a lot about that, and we talked to
Sharry Brian about you know, Sharry is the president president
of rock Nation right now, rock Nation Music, and you
know she started there as an intern. And if you
think about rock Nation and the history of it, even
when it was Rockefeller, because I knew them when it
was Rockefeller and they were working in that shitty little office.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Uh you know it was. It was a shitty little office.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Far from that now it's far from that, yes, But
there were a lot of women around, and I think
Jay has always been Jay n Dame. I will say
both of them were always they always were smart and
intentional about that. And so you know, Shaca Pilgrim and
I don't want to naming all the people, but they
were great women around. And so I say that to
(06:16):
say that since its inception, there are women to salute
in every category in hip hop. But I will say
one takeaway from me for me from that event was
it's okay to get pushed out of your comfort zone.
Sometimes a word. So we're at the sound check and
(06:39):
Salt and Pepper, we're going through all the ladies. They're
all doing this soundcheck and then it's Salt and Pepper's time,
and you know, I'm obsessed with Salt and Peppa. This
is that was like my you know what I mean.
And it's not like they're much older than me. It's
just that they were popping young. So they were out
and I was That's like when people say to me,
I've been listening to you on the radio my whole life.
You're like, you the same age as me, chill out,
like do slow down, We're the same age, ma, you
(07:02):
was listening to me it was nineteen. I was nineteen
on the radio. But no, no, seriously, but the same
type of thing. Like, they were out and they were popping,
and I was inspired by them, and I spent money
on the concert ticket. My best friend Nikki, who we've
been friends, you know, since we're eight years old, she
texted me the other day she was like, Yo, it's crazy.
She said, you got to because at Gabrielle Union's fiftieth
birthday party, I introduced Lisa Lisa at the thing. She
(07:25):
was like, you used to always sing Lisa Liso songs.
You got to introduce her, she goes, and you used
to always listen to Salt with Peppa and we went
to their concert and now you got they.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Got to gros.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
I was like, that's kind's like God really loves me,
don't know, but yeah, nikk you noticed that.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
So anyway, so Salt and Pepper, you know, they're they're heroes,
they're icons. If we talk about women in hip hop,
we must salute them, we must bow down. They changed
the game, they elevated the game.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
They will fly. They were not they were just everything right.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
So so they do the sound check and then Salt
comes up to me and goes, okay, so and so
when you gonna do Ladies' Night?
Speaker 2 (08:01):
She did all that. Then she came up to me.
She was very serious about it.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
She came up to me at the booth because I
was in the booth to spin the Realm, and she
was like no, and she like, you have to do it.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
And I was like, no, no, no, I don't. I
don't do that. I haven't done that in.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Twenty fives and even then I only did Ladies Night
like once with the girls at the MTV. Was like,
it's not a thing that I do. And you know,
this is your job. You guys do what you do.
What I do is I host, and I curate and
I interview and I do that, and she was like, yeah, no, no, no,
you are curating.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
This is your event. This is your moment.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
You are on Ladies' Night, which is like a pivotal
moment for women and hip hop. People are gonna expect
you to do it, she said. And I was just
looking at her and I'm not so Then I looked
to the left real quick, and I see Brittany and
my friend Tiffany and Ron Day on the side, and
I'm looking at them like do I really have to
do this?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
And all three of y'all.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Like nodding your head like yeah, you got you kind
of gotta do it. And even then, still in that moment,
I was like, nah, it's too much. I'm not doing that.
That's crazy.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Whatever. So then we leave, we leave check.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
And I'm like, na, na, na, na na. Somehow Salt
gets my myself my phone number from someone and she
texted me and she was like, look, she was like,
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
People say I'm pushy.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
She was like, I'm sorry if I'm being too pushy,
and if you really don't want to, I'll understand, But
I really think it's important.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
I really think you.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Should do it, and she just and I said, so,
I haven't done that in twenty five years.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
I wasn't planning on it. I didn't practice it or
anything like that.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
There's no I don't even She was like, I said,
but if you really think I should, I'll just do it.
But you guys gotta do it with me. And she
was like, well, absolutely, do it with you. And so
then even then, even in that moment, I was like,
all right, we'll see. And then we got to the
show and I was like, we'll feel it out as
it goes. I had no conversation with Spin about it.
(09:45):
I had no conversation with any about anybody about it.
But then of course at the end of the show,
she plays the song and I was like, oh shit,
what am I gonna do?
Speaker 2 (09:52):
What am I gonna do? I'm on the stage. I
gotta do it. I gotta do it.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
I have Salt and Peppa as my background danswers, and
so I did it, and it was and I had
so much fun and it really was like a fun,
surreal moment. And then the and I think the crowd
felt me too, like felt to have Salt and Peppa
being like my hype girls in that moment, and then
you had the cute alpha Yes, I dread that that
part I planned. I did want to introduce Salt and
(10:19):
Peppa in the iconic eight ball jacket because they made that,
you know, that's they look.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
And also Spinderella hadn't been.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
With Spinderella hadn't performed with the girls in years, So
it was there was a whole little magical thing happening.
Spin hadn't hadn't performed with the girls in years, I
hadn't done the song in years. I was kind of
just living and thriving in the moment, like, oh my god,
I get to do it, and Salt and Peppa's gonna
be my hype girls.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
So there was a whole lot of like women in
hip hop magic happening on the stage, and I felt
the energy from them, I felt the energy from the crowd.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Mia X at one point was on the side like
you should do it, you should do it, Like it
just was so cute. It was supportive.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
It was there's a bunch of women in hip hop
supporting each other, so supportive and what was dope Like
when we saw Salt on Peppa doing their dress rehearsal,
I mean their rehearsal to.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
See like Eve on the side and Remy on the side,
like Remy was waiting for them to do the little dance,
like I don't know, just there really is something powerful
and important about us coming together and taking moments to
salute each other and showing up and showing love. It
really does uplift you, because there is no way in
one gazillion years that I have would have gotten on
(11:28):
essence stage and performed a song in twenty twenty three
if not for the magic of the moment of being
with all those women and feeling supported and feeling like
it's cool, it's just fun, just have some fun, just
go do it, you know it. Just that really is
the magic of all of us coming together. So to me,
two takeaways. Number One, it's not just a slogan because
(11:50):
it's hip hop fifty and women got to support each
other like we really do. Like there's an actual tangible
thing that happens when women stand next to each other.
And I had that experience twice at Ust because I
also went to a lunch for Target. It was a
brunch that Target does. This is their second year doing it,
and you get there and there's photos and stuff, and
then when we sit down for brunch, it's the photos
(12:11):
and the video stop, and there's a conversation about life
and what are some of our challenges as women and
how can we support each other. And there's a very honest,
vulnerable conversation that happened at this brunch that I was
so grateful to be there for.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
And so yes, it lifts lifts you up.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
The the coming together of us is like tangible.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
You can feel that.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
So that and then also sometimes you know, if I
didn't have the comfort to be able to like step
outside of my comfort zone, I would have not had
that fun moment that I'm so glad that I did,
you know what I mean, Like when in life, when
in my life, I'm gonna be like, yeah, I was
at Essence Fast before my joints, hype girls in the backroom,
(12:58):
like that's fun.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
It's fun from me. It's not just me.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
It's fun for me, it's fun for the crowd. It's
just it's It was a it was a moment.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
You finally you said what you said earlier in the day.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
You also did a conversation with Target before the brunch
with Chelsea from Refinery twenty nine.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Shout out to Chelsea. She was great, she was amazing.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
And she asked you about what chapter, what season you
were in, and your answer was that you were surrendering.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
And I think you surrendered.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
In that moment and that moment, I totally surrendered to
the to the moment, to the feeling, to the energy,
and to Salt, who was very aggressive, by the way, No,
just kidding assault.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
I love your thank you.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
She's aggressive in a good way and I said that
to her. She was like, sorry, if I'm being pushy.
I was like, girl, I'm a Capricorn. I like women
with your opinion forward, yes, and who says what they
feel and who cares.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Yes. She did that because she cares. She could have just.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Been like, oh, she ain't doing nothing and we're gonna
just I will do what we do and bye. She
was so passionate about the fact that I had to
do Ladies there.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
No, she was damn near.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
She was disappointed at the thought that you were and
I felt that was part of it too.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
I felt she was Yes, She's like, how dare you
not take advantage of this opportunity? What's wrong with you?
Speaker 1 (14:04):
And the fun thing was that after we got when
I got off the stage, it was so like I
was like on a high and then Salt Pepa's there.
We get off and I get off the stage and
then Salt like slaps me in my back and she
was like, you killed And I told you, And then
I see you and Tiff and y'all like you all
looked very surprised that I did it.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Number one.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
No, we were shocked because because I'm always like, we were shocked.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
I don't want to do that.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
You always described your rapper years is like a little
blimp in your life.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
A little blip. Yeah for sure, Yeah, but so what
who cares? It was fun? It was fun. Were you
nervous for me in that moment? We'd be like, oh, god,
you know it's going to be awkward. I wanted.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
I didn't think it was going to be awkward, because
I don't think you would allow that for yourself. But
I was more concerned about how the crowd was gonna
like how you would feel afterwards, Like if you were
going to be too worried about what the crowd is
because you haven't been in front of people in that
way way, Yeah, it's not.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
That much difference once I let go, like once I
started having fun on the stage, like we were shaking
tambourines while titt Oh that was the best we had tambourines,
Like we were having fun. So it just was like
a continuation of fun. Like if I was if anybody
was in the house with their girls and he was
singing along to a song. It was just I just surrendered,
like you said, to the moment and to the fun.
(15:24):
And I think an older version of me might have
been taking myself a little too serious.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yeah, where I'd have been like, no, I can't, I
can't do that.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
It's not this is me I am right now in
my life. Shut up, which you know it's okay, but
like sometimes just you gotta let shit go and just
have fun.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
And so and you weren't alone. That was the biggest part.
You were not alone. Oh, I got to love a
little sisterhood of women in hip hop. Were shout out
to fifty years. Shout out to fifty years. Salute to
fifty more.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Anyway, So thank you guys. I just wanted to check
in with you, tell you about my experience at Essence.
Thank you guys so much for the support on everything
that's been happening. That we did the ABC News special,
which was also Angreie Martinez IRL production. Yes, it was
our first time producing network television. And so what we're
doing is we're building IRL out past the podcast.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
The podcast will always remain, so that's great. We will
continue to do interviews. We will pick up a new
season very soon. But yeah, but we want to branch
out and do you know, I just want to tell stories.
I want to help people tell stories. I want to
I just want to continue to kind of keep pushing
past my comfort zone. I don't want to get too comfortable, like, Okay,
this works and then we just sit here for five years.
(16:37):
I want to just keep growing and building. And so
that is the goal for the platform. And I just
want to say thank you to everyone because you really
showed out for the and showed up for the ABC special.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
We had great ratings.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Yes, you showed love at Essence Fest and you continue
to support the podcast, which I'm so grateful for. So
thank you guys for that. And what else am I forgetting?
Anything else?
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Nope? Stay tuned for follow us coming up soon.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Yes, follow us on Instagram, on YouTube so you can
get alerted into our next episodes, but until then subscribe.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Oh and we are doing a recap at essence fest
like I mentioned earlier, and so you can go to
the YouTube page and check that out in the meantime
and then we'll have some new episodes coming soon.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Enjoy the rest of the day, guys. We get with
you soon. Bye.
Edge Martinez in real life podcast. This episode and conversation
is powered by I Do Say.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
One Too, Mike Checker.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
What's Up Everybody is another Edge Martinez takeaway podcast. So
Hi everyone. First of all, I might may be confusing
you because normally when we do takeaway episodes, it is
after an interview special, which we have not done for
a couple of weeks because we will be launching another
suit season in a few more weeks. But I just
(00:31):
wanted to tap in with everybody and just check in
and maybe do a takeaway episode about this experience that
we Brittany and I just had with Edge Martinez in
real life, but in real life experiences, which is a
thing that we've kind of been.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
We've already done one. Yeah, we did the Mary jay.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Blige experience around her show, and then we did this
Essence experience. This is our second one. So I kind
of wanted to just check in and like do a
little takeaway about that because there are some takeaway to
be had from our experience at Essence Fest number one.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
They brought me into curate.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
They brought Irl Ellen to curate this special celebrating women
a hip Hop Hip Hop fiftieth anniversary, which is like
a no brainer. Sure, that'll be great. We'll get women,
they'll come out. We had Eve, which who by the way,
looks flawless. Eve is like uncomfortably stunning, you know what
(01:28):
I'm saying, Like she's the type of girl that you know,
you don't see her on while then you see her,
she looks better than the last time even that you
saw her, and you just it's almost.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Like you got to stare a little bit.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
And I know Eve, even I did the sprite commercial
back in the nineties, Like I know, I know pitbull
and a skirt first Lady of rough Rider Eve.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
But she just looks I don't know, she just looks
like she's happy. You know, she just had a baby.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
And and I could be this is totally my assumption
at her because we didn't really get into like life conversation,
but she seems like she's just living a problem madic life,
Like she's living like you know, when women look like
nothing's bothering them, like.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Very far few in between. But if I had to
describe that, it would definitely be Eve. Right, Yes, she
has an aura.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
She has like a care free life is cool, Like
what's the big deal? It's chill. Everything's chill.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
There's no like frown, there's no like wrinkle in between
her you know what I mean. Like she just looks
very happy and that just could be the new mom
glow because she is a new mom. But anyway, I
do all I digress. It was by the way, all
the women were amazing. Shout out to me a X,
who I hadn't seen in years. Also and she's just
(02:44):
like the sweetest, most loveliest, like New Orleans ledgend.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Yeah, but like she's.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Girls like like hospitality on a million, on a trillion,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Like if we were staying long, she probably would have
showed us around town. Yah. She's just like sweet.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
And and dope and the whole legend. And watching her
do bout it bottom on the stage was very exciting
for me. So it was mea X was so yes,
it was me a X Eve Trina who you know,
the baddest, the baddest in LA and who Remy, Remy
who was always ram always shows up, delivers nuf hits.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
I love how Remy looks so in the background.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
You know, we did everything on the stage curation from
the graphics that we're gonna be playing from the beginning
to the end.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Shout out to Spinderella. It was the DJ who.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
The whole sets held it down for us. I put
these graphics behind Remy Matt. It was like the Statue
of Liberty. It looked like it's shot and she just
looked like she was on the top of New York performing.
I just thought it was so fly. Yeah, we're gonna
post actually, we'll post it today.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Also, we're gonna post some visuals that you could see
on the YouTube page, so you can go to the
Angie Martinez IRL YouTube page and check out some of
the experience if you missed it.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
But yeah, it was all of that, and Salt and
Pepper was a big finale. Yeah, and well shosh, we'll
get to that. Just chill out, Just shush it, just
shush it.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
But I will say there was a moment at the
beginning and me and Brittany and I both we were
on the plane like obsessing about this because we know
how people are about forgetting folks, especially when you're like
saluting women of hip hop.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
But what about this person? What about this one?
Speaker 1 (04:22):
So we made a full list and a full like
at the beginning, we did this like a rollout of
all the names Queen Latifa, Empsy Light, Nicki, Minaj, Cardi B.
You know, just the sequence shot Rock Pebbly Pool. And
then also we included the new girls too, Lotto Glow, Rilla, Lola,
Lola Brook, I mean, on and On, Coila Ray.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
We have all we put every woman we could think of.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Now, is it possible that even in our deep dive
that we could have forgotten somebody? It is possible, but
it's not likely because we tried really hard not to
so that that opened up the show, which was an
nice moment because I didn't want it to just be
a moment about the women there. I wanted to make
sure that it was also a salute to all of
(05:06):
the women who contribute. And I wish, by the way,
our set was forty five minutes, we had all those
performances and stuff. I wish this is if we did this,
if it was a week long, I would have took
a moment to salute all of the women behind the scenes,
all of the women creatives, stylists.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
All those all of that.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
I think those are oftentimes the women that get overlooked
and the culture that are really important when we did
the ABC special.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
YEP.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
We talked a lot about that, and we talked to
Sharry Brian about you know, Sharry is the president president
of rock Nation right now, rock Nation Music, and you
know she started there as an intern. And if you
think about rock Nation and the history of it, even
when it was Rockefeller, because I knew them when it
was Rockefeller and they were working in that shitty little office.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Uh you know it was. It was a shitty little office.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Far from that now it's far from that, yes, But
there were a lot of women around, and I think
Jay has always been Jay n Dame. I will say
both of them were always they always were smart and
intentional about that. And so you know, Shaca Pilgrim and
I don't want to naming all the people, but they
were great women around. And so I say that to
(06:16):
say that since its inception, there are women to salute
in every category in hip hop. But I will say
one takeaway from me for me from that event was
it's okay to get pushed out of your comfort zone.
Sometimes a word. So we're at the sound check and
(06:39):
Salt and Pepper, we're going through all the ladies. They're
all doing this soundcheck and then it's Salt and Pepper's time,
and you know, I'm obsessed with Salt and Peppa. This
is that was like my you know what I mean.
And it's not like they're much older than me. It's
just that they were popping young. So they were out
and I was That's like when people say to me,
I've been listening to you on the radio my whole life.
You're like, you the same age as me, chill out,
like do slow down, We're the same age, ma, you
(07:02):
was listening to me it was nineteen. I was nineteen
on the radio. But no, no, seriously, but the same
type of thing. Like, they were out and they were popping,
and I was inspired by them, and I spent money
on the concert ticket. My best friend Nikki, who we've
been friends, you know, since we're eight years old, she
texted me the other day she was like, Yo, it's crazy.
She said, you got to because at Gabrielle Union's fiftieth
birthday party, I introduced Lisa Lisa at the thing. She
(07:25):
was like, you used to always sing Lisa Liso songs.
You got to introduce her, she goes, and you used
to always listen to Salt with Peppa and we went
to their concert and now you got they.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Got to gros.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
I was like, that's kind's like God really loves me,
don't know, but yeah, nikk you noticed that.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
So anyway, so Salt and Pepper, you know, they're they're heroes,
they're icons. If we talk about women in hip hop,
we must salute them, we must bow down. They changed
the game, they elevated the game.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
They will fly. They were not they were just everything right.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
So so they do the sound check and then Salt
comes up to me and goes, okay, so and so
when you gonna do Ladies' Night?
Speaker 2 (08:01):
She did all that. Then she came up to me.
She was very serious about it.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
She came up to me at the booth because I
was in the booth to spin the Realm, and she
was like no, and she like, you have to do it.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
And I was like, no, no, no, I don't. I
don't do that. I haven't done that in.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Twenty fives and even then I only did Ladies Night
like once with the girls at the MTV. Was like,
it's not a thing that I do. And you know,
this is your job. You guys do what you do.
What I do is I host, and I curate and
I interview and I do that, and she was like, yeah, no, no, no,
you are curating.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
This is your event. This is your moment.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
You are on Ladies' Night, which is like a pivotal
moment for women and hip hop. People are gonna expect
you to do it, she said. And I was just
looking at her and I'm not so Then I looked
to the left real quick, and I see Brittany and
my friend Tiffany and Ron Day on the side, and
I'm looking at them like do I really have to
do this?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
And all three of y'all.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Like nodding your head like yeah, you got you kind
of gotta do it. And even then, still in that moment,
I was like, nah, it's too much. I'm not doing that.
That's crazy.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Whatever. So then we leave, we leave check.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
And I'm like, na, na, na, na na. Somehow Salt
gets my myself my phone number from someone and she
texted me and she was like, look, she was like,
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
People say I'm pushy.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
She was like, I'm sorry if I'm being too pushy,
and if you really don't want to, I'll understand, But
I really think it's important.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
I really think you.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Should do it, and she just and I said, so,
I haven't done that in twenty five years.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
I wasn't planning on it. I didn't practice it or
anything like that.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
There's no I don't even She was like, I said,
but if you really think I should, I'll just do it.
But you guys gotta do it with me. And she
was like, well, absolutely, do it with you. And so
then even then, even in that moment, I was like,
all right, we'll see. And then we got to the
show and I was like, we'll feel it out as
it goes. I had no conversation with Spin about it.
(09:45):
I had no conversation with any about anybody about it.
But then of course at the end of the show,
she plays the song and I was like, oh shit,
what am I gonna do?
Speaker 2 (09:52):
What am I gonna do? I'm on the stage. I
gotta do it. I gotta do it.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
I have Salt and Peppa as my background danswers, and
so I did it, and it was and I had
so much fun and it really was like a fun,
surreal moment. And then the and I think the crowd
felt me too, like felt to have Salt and Peppa
being like my hype girls in that moment, and then
you had the cute alpha Yes, I dread that that
part I planned. I did want to introduce Salt and
(10:19):
Peppa in the iconic eight ball jacket because they made that,
you know, that's they look.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
And also Spinderella hadn't been.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
With Spinderella hadn't performed with the girls in years, So
it was there was a whole little magical thing happening.
Spin hadn't hadn't performed with the girls in years, I
hadn't done the song in years. I was kind of
just living and thriving in the moment, like, oh my god,
I get to do it, and Salt and Peppa's gonna
be my hype girls.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
So there was a whole lot of like women in
hip hop magic happening on the stage, and I felt
the energy from them, I felt the energy from the crowd.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Mia X at one point was on the side like
you should do it, you should do it, Like it
just was so cute. It was supportive.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
It was there's a bunch of women in hip hop
supporting each other, so supportive and what was dope Like
when we saw Salt on Peppa doing their dress rehearsal,
I mean their rehearsal to.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
See like Eve on the side and Remy on the side,
like Remy was waiting for them to do the little dance,
like I don't know, just there really is something powerful
and important about us coming together and taking moments to
salute each other and showing up and showing love. It
really does uplift you, because there is no way in
one gazillion years that I have would have gotten on
(11:28):
essence stage and performed a song in twenty twenty three
if not for the magic of the moment of being
with all those women and feeling supported and feeling like
it's cool, it's just fun, just have some fun, just
go do it, you know it. Just that really is
the magic of all of us coming together. So to me,
two takeaways. Number One, it's not just a slogan because
(11:50):
it's hip hop fifty and women got to support each
other like we really do. Like there's an actual tangible
thing that happens when women stand next to each other.
And I had that experience twice at Ust because I
also went to a lunch for Target. It was a
brunch that Target does. This is their second year doing it,
and you get there and there's photos and stuff, and
then when we sit down for brunch, it's the photos
(12:11):
and the video stop, and there's a conversation about life
and what are some of our challenges as women and
how can we support each other. And there's a very honest,
vulnerable conversation that happened at this brunch that I was
so grateful to be there for.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
And so yes, it lifts lifts you up.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
The the coming together of us is like tangible.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
You can feel that.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
So that and then also sometimes you know, if I
didn't have the comfort to be able to like step
outside of my comfort zone, I would have not had
that fun moment that I'm so glad that I did,
you know what I mean, Like when in life, when
in my life, I'm gonna be like, yeah, I was
at Essence Fast before my joints, hype girls in the backroom,
(12:58):
like that's fun.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
It's fun from me. It's not just me.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
It's fun for me, it's fun for the crowd. It's
just it's It was a it was a moment.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
You finally you said what you said earlier in the day.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
You also did a conversation with Target before the brunch
with Chelsea from Refinery twenty nine.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Shout out to Chelsea. She was great, she was amazing.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
And she asked you about what chapter, what season you
were in, and your answer was that you were surrendering.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
And I think you surrendered.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
In that moment and that moment, I totally surrendered to
the to the moment, to the feeling, to the energy,
and to Salt, who was very aggressive, by the way, No,
just kidding assault.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
I love your thank you.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
She's aggressive in a good way and I said that
to her. She was like, sorry, if I'm being pushy.
I was like, girl, I'm a Capricorn. I like women
with your opinion forward, yes, and who says what they
feel and who cares.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Yes. She did that because she cares. She could have just.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Been like, oh, she ain't doing nothing and we're gonna
just I will do what we do and bye. She
was so passionate about the fact that I had to
do Ladies there.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
No, she was damn near.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
She was disappointed at the thought that you were and
I felt that was part of it too.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
I felt she was Yes, She's like, how dare you
not take advantage of this opportunity? What's wrong with you?
Speaker 1 (14:04):
And the fun thing was that after we got when
I got off the stage, it was so like I
was like on a high and then Salt Pepa's there.
We get off and I get off the stage and
then Salt like slaps me in my back and she
was like, you killed And I told you, And then
I see you and Tiff and y'all like you all
looked very surprised that I did it.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Number one.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
No, we were shocked because because I'm always like, we were shocked.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
I don't want to do that.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
You always described your rapper years is like a little
blimp in your life.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
A little blip. Yeah for sure, Yeah, but so what
who cares? It was fun? It was fun. Were you
nervous for me in that moment? We'd be like, oh, god,
you know it's going to be awkward. I wanted.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
I didn't think it was going to be awkward, because
I don't think you would allow that for yourself. But
I was more concerned about how the crowd was gonna
like how you would feel afterwards, Like if you were
going to be too worried about what the crowd is
because you haven't been in front of people in that
way way, Yeah, it's not.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
That much difference once I let go, like once I
started having fun on the stage, like we were shaking
tambourines while titt Oh that was the best we had tambourines,
Like we were having fun. So it just was like
a continuation of fun. Like if I was if anybody
was in the house with their girls and he was
singing along to a song. It was just I just surrendered,
like you said, to the moment and to the fun.
(15:24):
And I think an older version of me might have
been taking myself a little too serious.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yeah, where I'd have been like, no, I can't, I
can't do that.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
It's not this is me I am right now in
my life. Shut up, which you know it's okay, but
like sometimes just you gotta let shit go and just
have fun.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
And so and you weren't alone. That was the biggest part.
You were not alone. Oh, I got to love a
little sisterhood of women in hip hop. Were shout out
to fifty years. Shout out to fifty years. Salute to
fifty more.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Anyway, So thank you guys. I just wanted to check
in with you, tell you about my experience at Essence.
Thank you guys so much for the support on everything
that's been happening. That we did the ABC News special,
which was also Angreie Martinez IRL production. Yes, it was
our first time producing network television. And so what we're
doing is we're building IRL out past the podcast.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
The podcast will always remain, so that's great. We will
continue to do interviews. We will pick up a new
season very soon. But yeah, but we want to branch
out and do you know, I just want to tell stories.
I want to help people tell stories. I want to
I just want to continue to kind of keep pushing
past my comfort zone. I don't want to get too comfortable, like, Okay,
this works and then we just sit here for five years.
(16:37):
I want to just keep growing and building. And so
that is the goal for the platform. And I just
want to say thank you to everyone because you really
showed out for the and showed up for the ABC special.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
We had great ratings.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Yes, you showed love at Essence Fest and you continue
to support the podcast, which I'm so grateful for. So
thank you guys for that. And what else am I forgetting?
Anything else?
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Nope? Stay tuned for follow us coming up soon.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Yes, follow us on Instagram, on YouTube so you can
get alerted into our next episodes, but until then subscribe.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Oh and we are doing a recap at essence fest
like I mentioned earlier, and so you can go to
the YouTube page and check that out in the meantime
and then we'll have some new episodes coming soon.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Enjoy the rest of the day, guys. We get with
you soon. Bye.
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