Christina Millian

Tune in to Episode 149 of the R&B Money Podcast as Tank and J. Valentine sit down with the multi-talented Christina Milian. From topping the charts as a singer to shining on screen as an actress, Christina shares her journey through the entertainment industry. In this episode, she discusses her musical beginnings, breakthrough moments in both music and film, and her ventures into entrepreneurship. Christina also gives us a glimpse into her upcoming projects and her evolution as an artist.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Speaks to the planet.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
I go by the name of Charlamagne of God and
guess what, I can't wait to see y'all at the
third annual Black Effect Podcast Festival. That's right, We're coming
back to Atlanta, Georgia, Saturday, April twenty six at Poeman
Yards and it's hosted by none other than Decisions Decisions,
Mandy B and Weezy. Okay, we got the R and
B Money podcast. We're taking Jay Valentine. We got the
Woman of All podcasts with Sarah Jake Roberts. We got

(00:22):
Good Mom's Bad Choices. Carrie Champion will be there with
her next sports podcast and the Trap Nerds podcast, with
more to be announced. And of course it's bigger than podcasts.
We're bringing the Black Effect marketplace with black owned businesses,
plus the food truck court to keep you fed while
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Black Effect dot Com Flash Podcast Festival.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
R and B Money, we second take valleib We are
the authority R and B Ladies and gentlemen. My name
is Tank Valentine and this is the R and B
Money Podcast. The authority on all things are n B. Yeah,

(01:14):
you know, hit records, hit movies, dessert.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
You can't spell that.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
It's written right here on my phone class beauty and Talent.

Speaker 4 (01:35):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
It's all package and a really cool paggage and it
has a really really awesome being to define it. I
would enjoy saying this name, announcing this.

Speaker 5 (01:51):
Person to be family, excuse my friends, but is oh yeah, yeah, yeah, Christine,
I didn't know you.

Speaker 4 (02:07):
Were sta Okay, okay. It was a great intro.

Speaker 6 (02:13):
That was exciting, That was exciting, and I wish, you
know what, we have it on tape if I ever
go out and perform ever again, I'm gonna play that
right at the beginning.

Speaker 4 (02:20):
You know, you have you the intro, that's my intro. Hi,
what's the guys gonna be?

Speaker 1 (02:26):
Y'all give me million? Where's Lilyan?

Speaker 4 (02:28):
From my mom?

Speaker 6 (02:30):
So Carmen Million is my mom and my dog.

Speaker 4 (02:37):
And I'm Cuban, So I come from Cuban descent.

Speaker 6 (02:39):
But Cuba is like a melting pot, just several just
different different cultures, different places and faces, and so from
what I'm told, I mean, we have just a long
lineage back.

Speaker 4 (02:50):
But it's Spaniard.

Speaker 6 (02:52):
It also feels very Italian if you have veryal But
I don't know, I honestly, really I need to do
one of those like twenty three and and just kind
of go back, I know, because.

Speaker 4 (03:02):
Then you find out you're connected to a whole bunch
of presents you don't want to be in contact even
just that.

Speaker 7 (03:06):
Then they start, you know, they probably will be looking
for people that they got certain that's true.

Speaker 6 (03:10):
What you're in the system. They might they might build
a robot off of me. I found a little bit
of inkling. What is the ear wax or what is
it the nose?

Speaker 1 (03:18):
I didn't do it yet, No, sure yet. I'm just interested,
you know what I'm saying. Because every time, every every
time I'm around me him there, they say, start talking
through me, you know. So I'm like, I must be
I must be part of the community, you know. They
told to me, and they see me, they say, hey,
your name is Derail. That's my mama fault. But my

(03:42):
middle name is out.

Speaker 4 (03:45):
With the role just artists.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
Artists, Okay, you know what it has? I like, like
over over my e there's the thing. It's only found
in the in the Spanish, right over top of.

Speaker 4 (04:05):
Okay, it count you even.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Know what I'm talking about. It's US scree today.

Speaker 4 (04:09):
You're Spanish.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
I was taught Spanish. Is my first language? Really? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (04:20):
Wait so in school or you mean in general? That
was your first first language.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
My grandmother believed that that Spanish was going to be
the first language of the US. One day, Wow, my
grandmother in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, said, I'm going to put you
in a Spanish immersion school kindergarten through fifth grade. I
only learned Spanish, really, and you would lose recess if
you talk English write the word Spanish too.

Speaker 4 (04:47):
Did you teach nobody? You're coming from me like, oh,
your grandma me.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
I thought I was slick. I'd be like, she's like,
where's your homework. I was like, it's right here, and
she'd like this, So what all you got to do?
I said, well, this says right here, no necessity, and
then and then this part says I saw them, and
then I'm done. And she said, okay, you can talk
that Spanish stuff if you want to. I'm gonna see
when the report car come out. And my dumb self

(05:14):
like this, whatever, you know what I'm saying, And that
report card came out English.

Speaker 4 (05:19):
Yes, maybe you got beep.

Speaker 8 (05:24):
Dang man.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
She lied to me. She told me, I was good,
it's Spanish.

Speaker 6 (05:29):
You thought you had a secret language and everything thought
I had a secret leg.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
Kids always think that they're smarter than the adults.

Speaker 6 (05:38):
I don't know why they do. My daughter, I had
to talk with her this morning talking about stuff that
wasn't turned in and how she found out three other
people had turned it in and she had turned it
into and the teacher wrote to me that they hadn't
gotten it, but they sent the same message to everybody
else and blah blah blah blah blah. And I'm like, everybody,
this is the same story all the time. I never
I don't think I tried to pull this stuff on
my parents, but they were too smart.

Speaker 4 (06:00):
Dad was super smart. He was really strict to me. No, no, no,
no no.

Speaker 6 (06:03):
I remember the day I had a C on my
pre report you know, like the middle of the semester
report card. I was an AB student and so I
had a C.

Speaker 4 (06:12):
Do you know.

Speaker 6 (06:12):
I was crying on my walk home, like, oh my gosh,
my dad, my parents are going to kill me. I
got a C on my on my report card on
the progress report. Oh my god, I was so scared
about what would happen when I got home because it
just meant that I wasn't doing my homework. It was
meant I wasn't, you know, focus, et cetera, et cetera.
My dad was big on like focusing and about you know,
being great.

Speaker 4 (06:33):
And so when I had a.

Speaker 6 (06:34):
See, Oh my gosh, but you know what he was surprisingly,
they were cool. I didn't get my my butt whipped.
I gots yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
Went out. We're talking about c's here.

Speaker 4 (06:48):
That mean that was average.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
First of all, when I got a SEE, was going
to basket Rappers.

Speaker 6 (06:53):
Yes, you got the pizza.

Speaker 3 (06:57):
They knew you were going to master the middle seat.

Speaker 4 (07:00):
L Look what happens when you stay here with.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
Graduate. He didn't even need to school. He didn't even
need to school. She said. I was getting a and
BS and scene. No, it tormented me.

Speaker 4 (07:22):
It was terrible. I thought death was It was upon me.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
Christina. When was the identifying moment that you have a
gift or something different to offer outside of your intellectual
and scholasticabilities.

Speaker 6 (07:43):
Wow, okay, well outside of being extremely.

Speaker 4 (07:49):
You know, I knew early on.

Speaker 6 (07:51):
My mom says she saw it early of course a parent,
they recognized things, and now as a parent, I recognize
things in my.

Speaker 4 (07:57):
Children, so I get in.

Speaker 6 (07:59):
But she I was always singing, and I still to
this day. There's not a moment in my day even
if I'm having an argument or having a conversation, I
don't even notice I'm humming or I'm singing. So I'm
always like musically, it's always going through my head.

Speaker 4 (08:13):
I could be having me my mom would be screaming
at me and she's like, stop, stop doing that, and
I'm like, I'm not doing it, and then she started
talking again.

Speaker 6 (08:20):
I'm like, like, I don't know, it's it's something neurological,
it's something, but I think it's a great thing. I
say that musical people or people that sing like that.
I'm like, you don't see like an unhappy person. I
think that's just what keeps me in my little happy bubbles.

Speaker 4 (08:38):
Music. So it was really it was.

Speaker 6 (08:40):
It was the Greats that I was watching as I
grew up. It was Michael Jackson, I was listening to
Diana Ross. I was listening to a lot of oldies,
a lot of motown. My parents only had AM radio
in their car for some reason. It was like broken
so Am Radio. I was just listening to old school
stuff and I also just listened to everything all genres.

Speaker 4 (08:59):
So I was looking at the people and they.

Speaker 6 (09:01):
Like, I mean, especially Michael Jackson, like I can get
chill still thinking about him to this day and seeing
him being on stage and people passing out and screaming
and sweating and just the energy. And I had dreams
about it. So I would dream about like performing, and
I'd dream about that same exact thing. And of course
at the in the back, like the helm of that

(09:23):
is having parents telling me I can do anything I
want to do, be great at it, work hard at it,
you know, just always enforcing this this energy in me
to just want to go big and back then, those
people had such a mystique about them, I just wanted
to know so much, so I just I dreamt about
it and I begged my parents. I really did to

(09:43):
do what I do today. So they started me early,
like they helped me out early. I don't want to
say they started me because it was really a thing
that I really like if you watch old camp quarter
videos to me, like you couldn't get me off the camera.
I was singing the Oscar Marina song. Whatever I can
sing in front of the camera, they're like.

Speaker 4 (09:59):
Get away from the they're screaming up. I got screamed
at a lot for.

Speaker 6 (10:05):
You know, people telling me sing for everybody, for the family.
So I'd always have to sing some Italian aria, some
opera thing or whatever. But it started really early, and
I started like auditioning and stuff when I was a kid,
mostly for acting because we didn't really know how to
get in the music industry.

Speaker 4 (10:21):
I was living in Maryland because my dad was in
the military.

Speaker 6 (10:23):
Yeah. Yeah, and my parents they were my dad and
my mom. They started young, like they had me at
seventeen and eighteen years old, and so these are like
two Cuban refugees, you know, they'd come from Cuba five
with their family, big family, and they met eventually in
high school, fell in love. Well, I guess they fell
in love. They had me, so they had to follow

(10:45):
in love.

Speaker 4 (10:45):
Back then.

Speaker 6 (10:45):
They were like, y'all gotta get married, y'all gotta do this,
and they got their lives together. And so my dad
was in the military and that's what took us to Maryland.
And in Maryland it was just you know, there's not
much out there. At that time, but I grew up
in the age of MTV. That was also the Information
is the year MTV was really born, so it was
just so exciting. So I just wanted to embody all

(11:06):
of that. So I was just, you know, auditioning. I
didn't really get anything for a long time, so my
parents took me out because they were like, this costing
us too much money and maybe you need to focus
on school. And it was like a year later, I
just I just I couldn't bear just doing that. Only
I really asked my parents, like I really want to
do the skin. They're like, Christina, we're going to be
one more try. So they got an agent or whatever,

(11:28):
and I went my first audition. I booked it and
it was a national geographic campaign. It was like not
a campaign, but back then you used to watch those
scholastic videos a national geographic video when you were in
elementary school about whatever. And so I was acting and
like I did like three of them, and so that
was my first thing I ever did.

Speaker 4 (11:49):
And then from there was just like.

Speaker 6 (11:50):
A little short small like baby steps and musical theater
kind of was my first foray into music and acting.
And I started out in DC at the Fords Theater
doing a play and I was an understudy. So I
was an understudy, so I had to learn everybody's lines.
Everything not always nice to the understudy. So I learned
that as a kid that you know to be patient.

(12:11):
My time would come. But I watched people every night,
had the whole thing memorized from top to bottom, everybody's lines,
everybody's voice, this, that, and it was exciting. I got
a chance to actually perform because I got chicken pox
and then somebody else got chicken pox.

Speaker 1 (12:26):
Just kidding, not saying that you not saying that you
took your chicken pox.

Speaker 4 (12:32):
I must have gone back a little too early.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
I can give you a hood.

Speaker 6 (12:38):
No, that's like our ongoing joke. But I guess technically
it was. Maybe it might have been back to a
little too soon. And so I got my opportunity to perform.
And I just felt the energy of being on that
stage performing for a crowd, the voice that you have
to belt out, it was invigorating.

Speaker 4 (12:57):
I actually swore for my life like.

Speaker 6 (12:59):
The most of the beginnings of my career was musical theater,
and I thought, that's all I want to do. My
musical theater is my life because it was just such
a good feeling to be live.

Speaker 3 (13:09):
So you weren't even thinking about making records or anything
like that.

Speaker 6 (13:11):
No, I mean it was a dream, but I just
we were like, maybe one day I'll get discovered. We'll
be walking in them all and somebody discovered, or maybe
I'll go on what was the one not start start
star search, you know what I mean. But never bothered
to like seek those things. It was just like, maybe
we'll get discovered and tell me this.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
You two can speak to this as child stars and performers.
I was terrified as a kid to get in front
of that church and sing a solo, like.

Speaker 6 (13:45):
Terrified, But do you find it's maybe because you knew
the people.

Speaker 4 (13:49):
I think if I.

Speaker 6 (13:49):
Sing in front of my family, I was like I
don't want to sing in front of my family, But
in front of strangers, I was about it.

Speaker 4 (13:54):
I was like, this is great, I know.

Speaker 1 (13:56):
I mean I would sneak and do it, like I
would sneak and play my grandmother's piano when nobody was looking,
sneak and play my cousin finals's drums when he wasn't looking.
But I wasn't like I wasn't ready to get in
front of five hundred one thousand people and that it
wasn't emmy. Do you feel like that was something because

(14:18):
with you having with you having pops and you having
your parents that they kind of they kind of read
in you in terms of getting you ready for that
or do you feel like that you were born? I
think I was ready for the world.

Speaker 4 (14:33):
I was.

Speaker 6 (14:33):
I was just like I told you, I was such
an extrovert because I was just I was born ready
for the world because I knew, like with the idea
that I could get discovered, because you'd hear these stories.
No matter who it was that asked me to sing,
I would just start singing anywhere. I'm like in the mall,
blah blah blah, this place, that place. I would just
start singing because I was like, this might be my

(14:53):
opportunity to make it. And like I said, Michael Jackson, Ma, Donna,
Janet Jackson, all these people to see that, I was like,
I'm ready.

Speaker 3 (15:01):
Yeah, I feel like I was raised like yours being born.

Speaker 7 (15:06):
I think I was raised and early on, I think
for me it was where's the money. My niggas got
a couple of dollars on y'all this is what because
I mean because early on too, like we were street performers. Yeah,
like my family street performers, me and my brothers. So
you know that how that goes. That's you know, the

(15:27):
crowd gets around and they see these little kids and
they throwing money. So I'm like, oh, this is cool.
So if you didn't have no money, I wasn't doing
no singing. That's just kind of how it was for me.
That's kind of how it is to this business. Business,
so it is the juice worth to squeeze. If not,
I'm going here and talk a little bit on this podcast.

Speaker 3 (15:48):
Managed to do some executive ship, but I.

Speaker 7 (15:49):
Was right, and I'm not about to just be out
here sinking for free. So I think for me, I
was I was more so raised into it and brought
into it in that sense more so than like one
day I was just oh I'm a singer now.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (16:01):
I wasn't that me personally.

Speaker 4 (16:03):
I was just I wanted to.

Speaker 6 (16:04):
I was. I felt like I was destined for success
and something. And my dad was like, you don't have
to wait for any man to do it for you.
You have to do this, do that. It's all in you.

Speaker 4 (16:12):
So I was just like, Okay, that's.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
Amazing, that's o Ye. When is discovery? When is like
the real? Like I'm not going to say National Geographic
when real because that's a gig. I know you got
some money for that put in the account. Yeah. When
do you feel like that that defining moment where it's like,
oh shit, they all of these things that.

Speaker 4 (16:32):
I connecting.

Speaker 1 (16:34):
Manifest Yeah, I've been knowing I'm gonna do this. Now
we're here looking at yah eye.

Speaker 4 (16:41):
Okay.

Speaker 6 (16:41):
So when I was thirteen, we moved to Los Angeles
because I did a play at the Pantags Theater Pantage, Yeah,
and all these agents started calling and asking me to stay.
They said they had seen the show and they were like,
she should stay in Los Angeles.

Speaker 4 (16:54):
We were still living in Maryland.

Speaker 6 (16:55):
My mom was on the road with me, and so
we're like, wow, Hollywood agents are asked for me to
stay and they want me to come home and do this.
So we considered it, but we went back home because
my mom's my grandma was sick. So we went to
go take care of her for like a good year
year or two, and eventually cancer took over and she
passed away. And by that time it was like, Okay,

(17:18):
now it's time to take a chance and go We're
going to do this.

Speaker 4 (17:21):
And I was ready.

Speaker 6 (17:22):
I was so ready to get out of Maryland. I
was like, he's y'all, I'll see you later. I'm going
to Hollywood in Maryland. West Lake High School, you know, Weslake.
West Lake High School is in Waldorff, Charles County.

Speaker 4 (17:37):
That's where I grew up.

Speaker 1 (17:38):
Okay, so I'm in PG County.

Speaker 4 (17:40):
I forgot.

Speaker 6 (17:41):
We were both from We've been had that show one
time in DC a long time ago. It was like
a college and so yeah, PG County. I grew up
over there. I grew up in Maryland, like right in the.

Speaker 1 (17:54):
Room of it and where you would go to go
to up against the.

Speaker 6 (18:00):
It off with the you know, but the children's places,
and then you grow up and you go up.

Speaker 1 (18:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (18:04):
Yeah, so yes, it was cool, but I was ready
to be out. So we just tried it out l
a for a second. We said, okay, six months and
see what happens. Nothing happened. Six months later, my sisters
and we were supposed to come back, and my sisters
and I booked all these commercials, and so the commercials
is what kept us out here. So we stayed and eventually,
like I started to get discovered. So I stayed at

(18:26):
the Oca departments.

Speaker 9 (18:27):
We know the we started a lot of a lot
of people's you know, their their journey and you had
like people like Tupac and O dB, all these people there.

Speaker 6 (18:38):
I was always always around and I would be selling
cookies with my sisters.

Speaker 4 (18:42):
They were in the girls Scouts and stuff you need.

Speaker 6 (18:43):
People got a lot of money d by and it's
when I met Ronnie Jerkins. Yes, so right before Rodney Jerkins,
I met another guy that was the in my building.

(19:04):
They were called Spanky and Charles. And Spanky and Charles
were the first people that they had like a little
studio in their apartment and they were like, you do
you sing? I was like, yes, I do, and they
were like sing for us. So I sang, but all
I sang back then was like classical arias and Broadway songs.

Speaker 4 (19:18):
So I'm like.

Speaker 6 (19:19):
To play life and real musical, like real musical theater.
And so they brought me into the studio first. It's
before I met Rodney. And this is all at the
oak Woods also, and that's where I learned to like
my first time behind a microphone and hearing my voice
and on a song it was I was hooked.

Speaker 4 (19:43):
I was hooked, Like.

Speaker 3 (19:44):
How are you?

Speaker 4 (19:44):
At this point, I was just thirteen.

Speaker 6 (19:47):
I was thirteen, and so we made like two songs
were followed spanking and charles around. They were in like
a band with like I don't remember. It wasn't earth
Win the Fire, but it was somebody the Temptations or
something I remember, but they were older gentlemen.

Speaker 4 (20:00):
And I was making like some R and.

Speaker 6 (20:02):
B, like you know records, but of that style of
the night and of the nineties, but it was it
was the nineties, yeah, And so I made a couple
of demos and then eventually I just started meeting people.
It was like a trickle effect. Just started meeting people,
and Rodney Jerkins came around. And I met Rodney when
I was about fourteen or fifteen fifteen, maybe fifteen forty
to fifteen, and he.

Speaker 4 (20:20):
Was in his early stage. She was only like eighteen.

Speaker 6 (20:22):
He's like eighteen years old, and he invited us to
the studio and I remember seeing these massive speakers. I've
never seen such huge speakers in my life. And we
played the music, your ear drums.

Speaker 1 (20:37):
Full out drink yeah, that's what he did.

Speaker 6 (20:39):
Yes, that was the first time I experienced music that way.
I mean I used to play it up loud in
our little tourists you know, our four tours that Yeah,
we had the four tourist station wagon. I was the
DJ in the car. But when we got to that
studio and I heard that music and heard him play
and watched him play, and he connected with me and
my mom. So my mom is my right had died

(20:59):
like this, I said, Carmen is my mom. She's my
manager and for years, like she's just everywhere I went.
We just did this together, and so we were like,
maybe this is our opportunity to really like to get
a record deal.

Speaker 4 (21:10):
And we're meeting people constantly.

Speaker 6 (21:11):
We're meeting people through Rodney, I'm meeting people at different avenues,
just walking walking the street.

Speaker 4 (21:16):
Again, like I met a lot.

Speaker 6 (21:18):
Of different people, like you know, people from Babyfaces Camp.
You know, people would just they were trying to find
girls like to sing or to be in girl groups.
And so I didn't know these people, but eventually, like
you know, they were all legit and they're still here
to this day.

Speaker 4 (21:32):
You know a lot of these producers A.

Speaker 6 (21:34):
And RS and stuff, but Rodney. I made some great
people through Rodney and Rodney. Originally he asked me to
make some demos. He was like, you want to make
some demos, you could practice there and he wanted to
sign me. So I was making demos for him and
I got him. I got to watch him make the
Boys Mine. I got to watch him make all that
Brandy album that was a really good album, amazing. I

(21:54):
got to see him work with Whitney Houston and he
would just invite us to the studio. And that's the
first time I experienced like, don't go to sleep, you know,
you don't sleep, like working late at night, people talking, gathering,
watching them work, listening to music. The music's so powerful.
It's just like you dream big as this is happening.
So that was really my first foray into the record

(22:15):
business world. R and B world and Ronnie used to
They used to make fun of me because I was
They would say, I sing white so like they so
I would go and make demos, but they're like, can
you do this?

Speaker 4 (22:25):
Run? Can you do this? And I'm like, and Sean,
you know everybody, they're making fun of me and stuff.

Speaker 6 (22:31):
But I was learning and trying and you know, trying
to do runs. I just didn't do that. You know,
when you do musical theater. It was just so like plugging,
you know, learn and you stick to that. So I
learned to find myself by myself emotionally. I wasn't writing
back then, but I was singing other people's demos. But
it was there that I learned that I wanted to
write because it was the really like I just sometimes

(22:54):
couldn't relate to the lyrics. So I wanted to write
songs that related to me and to other kids and stuff,
and so.

Speaker 4 (23:02):
That happened later on.

Speaker 6 (23:03):
But yeah, Brodney, I didn't end up signing with him,
and I don't even think we got to the paper,
but I started to the papers part of it. But
I started to meet other people, and I think, like
at sixteen, I took a music as a business class
at Valley College over here, and I met a gentleman
who worked with David Foster, and they also ended up

(23:24):
wanting to offer me a deal.

Speaker 4 (23:26):
I got a little deal.

Speaker 6 (23:27):
The deal was offer was like twenty five thousand dollars,
but it was David Foster, and I learned about the
music business and I got an attorney, and then the
attorney was like, you should probably meet some other people
before you sign this deal. So we're like okay, and
so they set up some meetings and I ended up
going to New York and meeting with Island f Jam.

(23:47):
I met with Sony, I met Tommy Mottola, I met
Leo Cohen, and I just sang for them. I made
a demo. I ended up writing a song for myself.
It was called what You're going to Do. I have
like songs that I wrote as a kid. I was
because I'm the big sister, So I used to like
write songs, do plays.

Speaker 4 (24:00):
In the house of my sisters. I used to make Yeah,
they had to sing yeah to act out what I did.
Pup show.

Speaker 6 (24:07):
I'm the director, you said, the puppet rail station, the
record and play and record on the little play.

Speaker 4 (24:13):
Yeah, that was me say this. They are the puppet
by the way too.

Speaker 7 (24:27):
So you all these means you do the you do
the whole thing. Yeah, where you go sit practically you
you're naming all the labels at this time.

Speaker 3 (24:35):
Yeah everybody.

Speaker 6 (24:36):
Yeah, that was that was crazy to me because like
I finally had a little CD collection. Oh no, no,
it might have been cassette. I wasn't on CDs yet.
I was like, I'm not CD. But when I finally
did get into CDs, I was sixteen seventeen years old
and I had like my little record book, my little
CD book, and I had most of the artists in
there were rappers. I love the jay z Jall Rule,

(24:58):
all these people. Most of them were artists. So in
my head, I was like, you got either bad Boy.
I was like, that would be cool to be on
bad Boy, or I could be something like Deaf Jam
and Deaf Jam.

Speaker 9 (25:10):
So those were like two big record laklans.

Speaker 4 (25:13):
Like what I had plans. I had dreams. It was
really like dreams, but.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
You were very concerned. It's almost like you were studying,
like this is gonna this is where, this is where
it's gonna work best for me.

Speaker 6 (25:27):
I was like, there's no other person that competes. They
would appreciate me this. I would be the girl of
the team, you know what I mean. I would be
that person. But at the same time, I was like,
I want to be an urban pop artist, Like I'm
not just R and B, but I'm urban pop. I
want to go really mainstream, And back then they only
had like, you're only listening to pop radio hip hop radio.

Speaker 4 (25:48):
Remember it was also, I'm so separated.

Speaker 6 (25:50):
If you wanted to be if you made a pop song,
you want to be on R and B radio or
hip hop radio, you had to get a feature from
hip hop artists.

Speaker 4 (25:57):
Now it's all.

Speaker 6 (25:58):
So I had to find this like happy middle. But
I just knew that I was both, you know, it
was all of it. I was like, I'm not going
to be just you know, one tone. And I was like,
I want to dance, but I didn't know how to dance.
By the way, I didn't I didn't take dance lessons.

Speaker 3 (26:11):
Or I wanted to dance.

Speaker 4 (26:11):
But yeah, I was like, I want to be Michael Jackson.

Speaker 6 (26:14):
I want to be Jenna Jackson, but I don't take
dance classes because we can't afford it. But I'm going
to do it the musical theater. I faked it the
whole way too. I said I was the tap dancer.
I said I could ride horses. I can skateboard. Yeah,
I've seen kills, you know, ride never.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
Have a horse.

Speaker 4 (26:36):
I was like, I want to learn it.

Speaker 1 (26:39):
Pop in to the meeting. You pop it to the
meeting and they say so you ride horses first.

Speaker 6 (26:51):
My skills were deep, but you have no idea that's
how That's what my list was. So I was like,
whatever the case is, I'm going to learn it, you know.
And so yeah, I met Tommy Wutola, I went to them,
I came back again, did a whole meeting. I met
Jeff Finster at Island def Jam and he was the first.
He was the one that discovered and signed Backsheet Boys.

(27:12):
He was the A and R for Britney Spears and
Sink and so they brought him over to Island f JAM.

Speaker 4 (27:19):
I was like, what a perfect union for what I want.

Speaker 1 (27:22):
You are doing so much.

Speaker 4 (27:24):
It was a great, amazing.

Speaker 1 (27:25):
Calculating and processing at an early age.

Speaker 4 (27:28):
Like I had a lot of information.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
None of that is like, give me a d I
was like, I didn't even know that was like you're
still talking about sixteen seventeen eighteen. I'm still at church,
not even considering R and B. But I mean we
had a deal with Verity Records doing gospel and stuff
like that. But I didn't even know what that meant,
you know what I mean. I just wanted to get
on my two keyboards and sing my songs. And write

(27:54):
my songs. I didn't know there was life after that,
that there was a whole thing happening that I was
that was being stolen from me. I didn't know that, right,
And so when I finally get to this R and
B space, I don't know, they just say, yea, we're
gonna get a deal with such.

Speaker 4 (28:09):
I'm like, cool, cool, and put the music out.

Speaker 1 (28:13):
Oh we lost that deal. We don't get a deal
because we got another one coming there. We'll get deal
with such.

Speaker 4 (28:17):
A Ya that happened. Yeah, people work didn't go through that.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
Barry Higginson says he would blackground records now is it cool?

Speaker 4 (28:25):
I'll I'll tak it whatever.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
But you're like doing so was that a result of,
of course, not just you understanding or wanting to understand
the terrain, but also having your mom involved to have
that back and forth and have those those Yeah, my mom.

Speaker 6 (28:42):
I mean she, like I said, we were really close.
We still we're very close. And like because she was
a young mom. We were talking about her being in
her thirties and I'm like, you know, early thirties. And
it was when my parents, like I don't know where
they were going to have a divorce. My dad asked
for a divorce from my mom and that was like
around fifteen, and it came as kind of a real
big surprise, even though and I look at their history,

(29:04):
I'm like, it shouldn't have been a surprise because things
were all over the place, but it was normal back then.

Speaker 4 (29:10):
But it really, like all of a sudden, our life.

Speaker 6 (29:12):
Kind of changed, like like a from zero to one
hundred real fast. We went from living this like it
was a more middle class family life and really surviving
off of what we you know, my money, our family money.
It's nothing like my dad working his butt off. My
mom had to quit her job help with all this stuff,
and next thing you know, we were on our feet

(29:34):
on our own, like my dad.

Speaker 4 (29:35):
It kind of shifted.

Speaker 6 (29:36):
It was a shift, and we've come to terms with
the reasons why and everything, and you know what was
happening in our life. But all of a sudden, it
was my mom and I having to raise my two
sisters and we decided to stay here in California instead
of going back to Maryland. And so because we made
that choice my dad, it was like a separation of
everything from financ shoal to everything. So we were surviving

(29:59):
on our own. So in that time, it was a rough,
rough patch for my mom. She had, you know, months
of crying and listen to unbreak my heart and Tony
Braxton and the bathtub got.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
To do it.

Speaker 6 (30:11):
And I had to get her back on her feet
and say, Mom, like we're here, We're still living life.
And she had to get her life together again because
she was just so distraught over it. And I remember
we went to the grocery store and we went to
go buy groceries and we found out like the credit
cards everything was cut off, so we're gonna have to survive.
And survival mode really was like we had just moved
into our apartment everything we were gonna have to pay

(30:33):
the the you know, the rent on our own without
my dad and I'm only fifteen, you know.

Speaker 4 (30:38):
So she started taking temp.

Speaker 6 (30:40):
Jobs, I started babysitting, hosting at restaurants, We started cleaning
houses together, and we really went through this survival mode
of like work, work, work, but we were just working
to survive. But also life was actually kind of great
at that time when you're at your life hardest time

(31:01):
and you really have faith, but you're in a situation
where it's like we had no furniture. We just moved
through the whole apartment thinking like life was gonna be fine.
We had moved in, we didn't have furniture, we didn't
have anything, and all of a sudden, we had nothing.

Speaker 4 (31:11):
You really appreciate with that nothing that.

Speaker 6 (31:13):
Says you appreciate, like having toilet paper from the dollar
store instead of getting it from you know, McDonald's up
the street and getting ketchup or whatever. You liked the
can of beats that's the only food that you have
in the house, and you mix it up with some
olive oil and so, oh my gosh, it tastes like
a damn stk rob and noodles taste like a steak
and lobster. You're like, I don't know what these rich
people are talking about, but I could live like this.

Speaker 4 (31:35):
This apartment is fine. We do. We as a family
were such a union.

Speaker 6 (31:39):
And our friends were so dope. We had so many
friends from all of rich my friends. I had a
lot of kind of like young black, wealthy friends, and
they used.

Speaker 4 (31:49):
To love to come to my house and like thug
it out with us.

Speaker 6 (31:53):
It was like everybody's sitting on the floor watching TV
and my Mom's just like the cheapest thing to make
was like spaghetti or a list. You know, it doesn't
cost anything for noodles and sauce, but she cooked it
up and she would make a mass amount, and people
just every day just loved being with us and didn't
really feel like we were technically that we were broke,
though we were like on the verge of eviction every

(32:14):
other day, but we also just didn't feel like we
were broke, like something still felt like we were surviving,
even though there were some times that was like tough.
But the one moment when we realized it was the tough,
isn't it was the turnaround that we were like, let's
focus on.

Speaker 4 (32:28):
This music part.

Speaker 6 (32:29):
You really want to do this, then let's focus is
when my mom and I went to a we went
to a food line in North Hollywood.

Speaker 4 (32:36):
There's a church.

Speaker 6 (32:36):
I know you've probably seen it all the time. It's
on like Moore Park and like Colfax, and they still
do this. They give away food to those that need it.
And we went there because we had no food. And
by the way, blessings would happen sporadically out of nowhere
all the time, so that's like we find like one
hundred dollars on the floor or something. Just random things
would happen so that we really were surviving off of that.

(32:57):
But it was in that line that I saw like
the rest of the people that were there with us,
and some people even more of a hopeless situation with
no shoes, nothing, And we got like I was standing
there with my mom and I just remember like I
didn't want to show them, but I was crying, and
I was like we it had gotten to this, you know,
and we had gotten the food and they gave us,

(33:18):
you know, all the necessary needs that we needed. And
when we went home and I started opening the box
and when as we were walking and I'm looking like
there's ants in the boxes and stuff, and I'm crying,
and my mom she said to me, Christine, and we
made this promise to each other on that walk back
home that we were going to focus, that we were
going to sacrifice. We were going to sacrifice the fun

(33:40):
and all different all the other stuff to focus on
my career.

Speaker 4 (33:44):
She started reading books.

Speaker 6 (33:45):
She had just started reading books about music as a business,
and this is what made me go to school for
music as a business. She read about just contracts and
focusing on that because we seemed so close to everything,
but it just never got there. We were like, there's
something there, and I really wanted it. And so we
made this promise to each other that I would always
take care of her. To promise that to my mom

(34:05):
to this day, I said, I just need you to
focus on managing me. I need you to focus on me,
and we'll focus on this together. We got to get
out of this rut. And so we went home. We
put on all white, lit some candles and said a
prayer with my sisters and we had this joke with
my mom said a prayer on her knees. Like answers
were came immediately, and so we said, I can't tell

(34:27):
you about the job she was.

Speaker 4 (34:28):
Doing at the time, but they's just.

Speaker 6 (34:30):
Say she had to use her voice, yes, And let
me tell you the next day.

Speaker 4 (34:34):
Her voice was gone. She needed her voice for this job.

Speaker 6 (34:39):
And just like our neighbors knocked on the door said hey,
we're moving out. Do you want the milk? Do you
want the stuff in our cabinet? And like we just
appreciated all the little things, the little answers were coming
to us. I would find like ten cents under the
couch so I can get a little gas, just so
I can go to the Valley College and get my
anda take these lessons. And that's where I met the
gentleman from David. So it was like we're just getting

(35:01):
these little answers. But we were going to this crazy
time in life. And when we went to New York,
it was like, we're in New York and I have
to make this happen. And so yes, it was a
strategy and it was a there was we It was
a lot of homework. We really my mom My mom
is the mostly especially the spiritual part holds us down.
And that's where I became connected, the spiritual part, because

(35:22):
I understood religion as a kid, but I still didn't
understand it. But it was then that I became spiritual
and I had conversations with God and that's when I
was like everything was just starting to unfold itself. And
the day I so I got the deal with Island
Deaf jam oh M.

Speaker 4 (35:40):
Just Censer came to me again, offered the deal.

Speaker 6 (35:42):
I went in sing acapella, got my deal singing acapella
and what You're gonna do about a demo?

Speaker 4 (35:48):
And the day I finally signed my deal. We literally
drove our little tour station wagon to the attorney's office
and that.

Speaker 6 (35:54):
Thing it was broken down. We were laughing, my mom
and I because there was smoke coming out the car.
We had to push our car there. We had to
push our car there. We finally made it there. It
was right off of like Highland and Hollywood Boulevard. Signed
my deal and on the way home we got it
to start again, and then it stopped like right on
the hill, like you know when you're like the Hollywood Bowl, and.

Speaker 4 (36:16):
Stopped right there.

Speaker 6 (36:17):
We were there and my mom and I are laughing
and crying, laughing like we just signed a deal for.

Speaker 4 (36:22):
One hundred and twenty five thousand dollars.

Speaker 6 (36:24):
I didn't think I'd ever seen money like that, and
we went from zero I had actually been. We were
getting evicted and my attorney had to forward us money
in the meantime because I wasn't going to be able
to pay it. And so we're laughing and crying and like,
look at us, look at what's happening right now. It
was so humble. It's so humble, our humble beginnings, Like
stick with me. That's probably why I'm very frugal and

(36:45):
all this other stuff because I'm like always like you know,
I save and other stuff lasting out. I can laugh
at it, right, right, But it's those humble beginnings that
I always draw back to and my connection with God
and I was my spiritual side. That's really like that
opened up when I was sixteen fifteen, sixteen years old
and those times and yeah, you know that is now.

Speaker 1 (37:08):
That's it.

Speaker 3 (37:09):
That's incredible.

Speaker 7 (37:10):
That's an incredible story. And it just shows you got
to stick to what you really want. Yeah you know
what I mean, because so many people you just never
know how close you are, yes, right, And for you
and your mom to have that moment together to say, listen,
all right, no more this, no more that, no more this,
because we're focused on getting you to a certain place
and actually getting there.

Speaker 3 (37:31):
Yeah, that moment.

Speaker 7 (37:32):
Of relief and that like you said your car had
broken down, but you broke down with a with one
hundred and twenty five.

Speaker 1 (37:38):
You got five if you just picked me up.

Speaker 4 (37:44):
Somebody pushed us.

Speaker 6 (37:48):
They pushed ark and said there was somebody saw us
and they pushed our car from their car and they
pushed us up the hill. But yeah, it's crazy that
walk that I had with my mom was like an
it was an eye because the option was stay and
dug it out and let's make this happen, or go
back to Maryland. And I was like, I just don't
see it. I don't see me going back to Maryland.
All my friends that I had from back in Maryland

(38:09):
at that time, they started, you know, doing drugs out
of boredom. There's stuff that kids do in towns like
that that is just out of boredom. And if they
don't have, they weren't dreaming, already motivating. I was in
a different position. I still just felt like I could
see it.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
I wasn't going back to There.

Speaker 4 (38:23):
Was no giving up. I was like, I'm not giving up.

Speaker 1 (38:26):
And that Maryland was a bad place, not at all.

Speaker 4 (38:28):
It just felt like the opportunity.

Speaker 1 (38:32):
I'm in Hollywood, the land of opportunity. If I go home,
if I just pack it up and go home, I've
given up.

Speaker 4 (38:41):
Yes, that's exactly, And I was not. I was not
giving up.

Speaker 1 (38:44):
So let me just move out to Rancho Cuckamonga, you know,
just a little ways away, okay, where I can afford it,
you know, where they can't really see me doing bad
or Corona. Yeah, you know what I mean, until I'm
still here. I still I still can drive my stick
shift Ford Escort.

Speaker 3 (39:05):
So you had a Ford that Scort, she had a
four tours.

Speaker 4 (39:07):
Yeah, we're in the family. Thank you for you know
what I'm saying, the very wheel spell off.

Speaker 3 (39:25):
So now you got your deal.

Speaker 4 (39:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (39:27):
People don't realize now it's a whole nother process.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (39:30):
Yeah, because now you gotta find songs.

Speaker 7 (39:32):
Now you got to people, you might get shelved.

Speaker 3 (39:36):
How long does it take you to get to the
record with you and ji U? Between me and you?

Speaker 6 (39:44):
Okay, I think it took I signed my deal September.
I think by the next summer that that song came out.
So I signed my deal. I was making music.

Speaker 3 (39:56):
Are you still acting? In between two?

Speaker 6 (39:58):
Though I was at the I was I had gotten
to the job on Disney Channel, so I was like
Tina from the movie Surfers.

Speaker 4 (40:04):
So that was actually that was one of those.

Speaker 6 (40:06):
Checks that would come I would get sporadically, that was
like one of the things that helped us. So I too,
and I was getting a name for being Tina from
the movie Surfers. And also this probably helped me move
my deal. Because Disney kids were popping and popping through
they were trying to find Disney kids. So that probably
really helped because when I look at it, I'm like,
I don't sing that great, and I wasn't dancing.

Speaker 4 (40:22):
Oh, you know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (40:23):
But I had enough of a chance and a globe
that walked in and they were like they saw it,
and so yeah, I had squit this Disney because by
then I was like seventeen, eighteen eighteen, and I was like,
I can't do this high pitch voice anymore.

Speaker 4 (40:36):
And I was just in the studio and surviving off
this money. So I was doing fun.

Speaker 6 (40:39):
I didn't have to do the acting at the moment,
and I was tired of doing like girl number four,
number three, you know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (40:44):
I wasn't getting my main roles.

Speaker 6 (40:46):
So I was making music and unfortunately, for a period
of time, there was I did it something that could
have helped me back. I ended up in an abusive
relationship for a little while, but my def gen people
really like stuck with me, and my mom was on me,
and I stuck it out and I eventually got out
of that and I made this trip my A and R.

(41:09):
Jeff said come to New York and start working on
music here. So I went to New York and in
that trip, I was able to break off of that relationship.
I cut off my phone number. This that though I feared,
you know, for the worst, I was like, I'm gonna
take this chance, and I really want this.

Speaker 4 (41:23):
I can't let this stop me.

Speaker 6 (41:25):
And so I went to New York and I started
working on music there and I met my Her name
is Shanita Floyd.

Speaker 4 (41:31):
She was like my creative director, I guess, she would say.

Speaker 6 (41:34):
And she got a call from IRV Gotti and IRV
was looking for somebody to sing between me and you,
and he wanted somebody that kind of sing.

Speaker 4 (41:41):
Like Mariah Vibe. He wanted, like I forgot the song.

Speaker 6 (41:44):
There was a song that Mariah did maybe with buster
rhymes or something like that, and he wanted that kind
of sweet spot voice. And they or the song was
written and she's like, go to the studio and I
was like, they're like, would you want to do this?

Speaker 4 (41:55):
I was like yeah. I was like, I'll go to
the studio and hear the song.

Speaker 6 (41:58):
So I went and I met IRV and I had
Irven his God bless him, and May he rest in peace.
He had this loud New York energy and everything with
bananas and it was electric.

Speaker 4 (42:11):
Banana.

Speaker 6 (42:12):
That was the first time I was in the studio,
so like there was a gun on the table. I
was like, oh my here, you know, the guys had
to protect themselves. But Job Rule was one of my
first you know, theft jam albums CDs that I bought,
so I was a band of Ja Rule, like, oh yeah,
I want to work with them, And so he played
me to the song and the song was dope.

Speaker 4 (42:29):
It was there.

Speaker 6 (42:30):
So I went in the booth, sang it, didn't know
anything of it, left, the left my mom and I left,
and within a month we're shooting a music video David
Myers up in like Porter Ranch, Chatsworth and this giant
house and I'm shooting a video and it was like overnight.
It was those chances that I would take of sacrificing,

(42:53):
Like even when you're in an abusive relationship, it is
a sacrifice to leave something because you're scared and you're
also so in love brainwashing that person. You're like, you know,
I could you know You're It's it's a it's a
sacrifice I had to make because my heart was so
in it, but I knew it was the wrong thing.
So it was when I would take those chances and
follow my heart and connect with God that I would

(43:13):
have these amazing turnovers, like these turns in my life
that was like it. God was always telling me, see,
like I'm your friend, I got you, I got you,
and I did. The video song came out and I
didn't really know that it was like blowing up like that.

Speaker 4 (43:30):
It was crazy.

Speaker 6 (43:30):
I was like, yeah, like at Ralph's on Venture Boulevard
one day, all of a sudden, I'm power one of six,
I'm hearing the song and I'm sitting in the in
the parking lot with my mom, and I'm like, I
just thought, I'm calling people.

Speaker 4 (43:45):
I'm hearing myself on the radio like like it was.

Speaker 6 (43:49):
It was that's when you you cry and you're counting
your blessing. You're connecting back to the moment of walking
and you know, you know, the whole I've lived. I
still live in the area where all of this stuff happens,
you know, So I passed by these places and remind
myself of this stuff all the time.

Speaker 4 (44:06):
So yeah, the job Rol.

Speaker 6 (44:07):
Song came out, Give You that's when the label was like, okay, studio,
I go to Sweden. Oh yeah, like yeah, I go
to Sweden. It had been took like four months. It
was like maybe maybe two maybe two and a half months.
I made an album.

Speaker 1 (44:25):
And you said to Sweden to make it.

Speaker 6 (44:27):
I went to Sweden. I went to Norway. That was
my first time at the country. I still have these videos.
Was watching the other day and I was such a novice,
like like, wow, look there's a burger king.

Speaker 4 (44:36):
Wow, this is that?

Speaker 6 (44:37):
And and yeah, I went and worked with a couple
couple people stricken to Rogers.

Speaker 4 (44:42):
These guys name bloodshin Avunt, even what's his name?

Speaker 6 (44:46):
My mama, Mama Mark Mark when we made all the
Brittey Spears records, I should.

Speaker 3 (44:50):
Know this, Yeah, Max Martin.

Speaker 4 (44:57):
Historic. So these are people.

Speaker 6 (45:00):
Well I'm like watching, you know, and I'm in the
studio making records. And I started writing.

Speaker 3 (45:05):
I really started the I started.

Speaker 4 (45:07):
Yeah, it was with Bloodshed. I started writing.

Speaker 6 (45:10):
And because people were giving me songs at eighteen talking
about there were either two overly sexualized or always like
I've got pictures of him on my wall.

Speaker 4 (45:19):
I look at him.

Speaker 6 (45:19):
It's always admiration and like over the top of guys,
and I'm like, well, what about my real experiences, Like
I didn't fit in in school, girls didn't like me,
you know the you know the records about.

Speaker 4 (45:31):
Just like real high school stuff.

Speaker 6 (45:33):
And so I started writing those songs with really great
melodies and pop sounds. And when I was working with him,
I ended up writing a song called play also, and
that was supposed to be like I wrote that right
before song. The next day, I wrote a song called
AM to PM. So play was something I did in
like twenty minutes. I didn't think anything of it.

Speaker 4 (45:52):
I was like, Oh, it's cool, Bampa, doctor Seuss. I
was like, is this too simple? My Mom's like it's great,
you know simple, It's good.

Speaker 6 (45:59):
And by the way, I studied to write because I
didn't think I could write, So my mom told me,
if you could read, you could write. So I did
study a lot of the greats to learn how to
write songs in the formats, all that stuff that was
happening also in those really broke times.

Speaker 4 (46:12):
So that's what we do.

Speaker 6 (46:12):
We go to Second Spin on Ventura and we would
listen to music for free, because you get the CDs,
you listen to music and so anyways, so that's how
I learned how to write, learn how to format.

Speaker 4 (46:22):
I wrote a first song, my first song called you
Make Me Laugh.

Speaker 6 (46:24):
Anyways, So play happens and I was like, oh, it's
a good song write am TOPM.

Speaker 4 (46:30):
I'm like, that's a great song. This is me.

Speaker 6 (46:32):
And then like a week later, Tommy Watola comes to
Sweden to come get some songs for j LO and
he hears the song play and he's and he fell
in love with it, and he's like, we need this
song for Jenny Lopez. And they were like do you
are you? Do you? Are you cool to give it away?

Speaker 4 (46:46):
I was like, oh yeah, yes, please, yes, I don't
like the song like that. I was like, am TOPM.

Speaker 6 (46:54):
Was my party song. I was like, there's no way
they're going to put two party songs on this album.
I'm going to keep AM to PM. Yes, yes to
j LO. And so yeah, I'm like I got a
song on j LO by accident.

Speaker 4 (47:06):
It was so cool.

Speaker 6 (47:06):
I went to New York she recorded the song like
it blew my mind. And then I started writing for
other people too, and it's just it was crazy and yeah.

Speaker 4 (47:15):
Eventually AM to PM came out of course.

Speaker 6 (47:18):
Unfortunately it came out around the nine to eleven era,
so a lot of that changed, a lot of the
trajectory of music. I ended up getting Johnny Right as
a manager, so he started co managing with my mom
and Johnny Wright.

Speaker 4 (47:31):
Was handling Britney Spears and Sync.

Speaker 6 (47:33):
When I tour within Sync, which was cool and opening
for them, Yes, I opened for.

Speaker 4 (47:37):
Them and the week my album was it was crazy. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (47:43):
I met my idol. The day I went to MTV,
I met Jenny Jackson.

Speaker 3 (47:49):
The one day you go up there having a meeting.

Speaker 6 (47:52):
Jenny Jackson was going to surprise PRL and come out
and they decided they said.

Speaker 4 (47:57):
You want to meet her?

Speaker 3 (47:58):
Yes, absolutely, They.

Speaker 6 (48:01):
Brought me down to her. I walked in that room. Guys,
I couldn't get a word out of my mouth. I
was like, like, I said, Hi, I was like so timid.

Speaker 4 (48:10):
I had my mom with me. All I said was
nice to meet you. She was glowing. That's the thing.
I walked in there. She was glowing. She had an
art she was glowing, and she.

Speaker 6 (48:18):
Was petite, and she was telling me that she saw
my music video and she was telling me, my mind, did.

Speaker 3 (48:28):
You never know who's watching no, you never know who's watching.

Speaker 6 (48:31):
It blew my mind and I was on MTV. I'm like,
this is my dreams that come in true. Like she
left the room or I left the room, I can't
even remember. And I was I cried for two hours
and laughter in tears and crying good.

Speaker 4 (48:43):
Like I was crazy, but I was crying.

Speaker 6 (48:45):
I was so happy, like everything just unfolded so beautifully
and so it was so cool and it was such
a time. This is why people don't like. People ask
me about doing music now and I just don't know.

Speaker 1 (48:56):
It's cool. It's cool, is it? I have to ask you.

Speaker 6 (49:01):
My husband does it, but he does it in France,
I think on a really international level. And I had
MTV and I had the nineties, nineties, two thousands.

Speaker 1 (49:10):
Early two thousands, man please, there was like, yeah, there
was so music mediums, like especially visually you know what
I mean with that MTV and those like music videos,
worry things.

Speaker 6 (49:29):
You spent your money on that being man what And
people watched it. People came home after kids came home
after school.

Speaker 4 (49:36):
It was a tradition.

Speaker 3 (49:38):
I think they made it more normal.

Speaker 7 (49:39):
Now music feels too in my opinion, it feels too normal.

Speaker 1 (49:42):
Because back then, doing a video right was special because
you have to actually have an't you called just content.
You have to have a You couldn't use this to
shoot a video.

Speaker 7 (49:57):
I mean the first time a director said that to me,
he was like, you know, I shot it on my iPhone.

Speaker 3 (50:01):
I said, oh, we're fucked. Dang, I said, we're fuck.

Speaker 4 (50:04):
No, in my head, I was like when someone said that,
I was like, damn.

Speaker 6 (50:09):
If I would have had that, then do you know
how many songs I wanted to put out or how
many videos I wanted to do? People telling me no
because you technically did what the label told you in
a way or what they were down for what they
would commit to. But like I have video ideas. I
wanted to shoot so many things, and eventually people did.

Speaker 4 (50:26):
Do that, and I was like, damn, I should have
done that.

Speaker 1 (50:28):
Well, it just wasn't economical back No, it wasn't. Yeah
that and that's you know that, that's where videos also
made star videos may start.

Speaker 3 (50:36):
They made stars.

Speaker 7 (50:37):
These pieces of content don't really make our stars.

Speaker 3 (50:41):
Like they introduced you to artists.

Speaker 7 (50:43):
They engagement, and it's engagement, but maybe not even I
won't say they don't make superstars they don't make superstars.

Speaker 4 (50:51):
All the superstars have videos with labels and still.

Speaker 1 (50:54):
Still don't you got videos? Still it says they got
video Chris Brown got videos, Beyones got videos, drakevideos, can videos.

Speaker 4 (51:02):
Name some new people who got videos.

Speaker 3 (51:04):
They don't got videos.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
Those your cat got videos. Those you can't got videos.

Speaker 3 (51:07):
But those are super That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 7 (51:09):
Those are Those are the superstars now though, and they
still have that. The rest of the artists don't have that.
Let me shoot this in my hood real quick.

Speaker 4 (51:18):
Yeah, you're gonna.

Speaker 1 (51:19):
Get a buzz off of it, and that's cool.

Speaker 7 (51:21):
It's not gonna make it to me because it's just
something about the screen, something about that screen, right, It's
just like being.

Speaker 6 (51:28):
In the movie There was Now I don't even get
to watch music videos.

Speaker 3 (51:32):
Did I make music videos?

Speaker 6 (51:35):
Man?

Speaker 4 (51:36):
You know, I'm surprised.

Speaker 6 (51:37):
Sometimes there are videos, but we just don't get to
seek them all the way. Like I'll find out when
I go on the treadmill and I'm like, Okay, I
just want to see listen to music, So I'll go
on put a playlist on, and I'm like, oh.

Speaker 4 (51:48):
They made a video for that. Like, but you're right.

Speaker 6 (51:50):
Still, some people are just making like lyric videos and
stuff because it's like why spend the money. But it
was just a different time. We had the platforms. Is
when we had we had MTV overseas, we had all
these different networks of shows that you will perform on
PEPSI smash this, that, blah blah blah, and it was
just so exciting. And I just don't like if it
doesn't give me that vibe, and I got a hustle

(52:10):
and that probably not make any money, not that much money,
and leave sacrificed my family for that. It doesn't feel
really worth it for me right now to do that.
And I just feel like I lived in such a
good time. And actually back then you can kind of
know what the numbers were. I don't know how y'all
count the numbers streams and this, that that, and figure
out how you make money off of this as an
artist just for music.

Speaker 4 (52:32):
You know, now it's just touring and maybe merchant stuff.
But figure out the numbers how you do that character show?

Speaker 3 (52:38):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 7 (52:39):
I mean, that's that's a big tricky That's the only
real thing. Those the numbers that they've created. Now as
far as like the streaming, it's all bullshit. Yeah, I'll
say it clearly, it's all bullshit, you know what I mean?
Somebody telling you that you gotta stream fifteen hundred times
for it to be considered one download?

Speaker 3 (52:56):
Like who made that dumb ass shit up?

Speaker 1 (52:59):
Are you?

Speaker 6 (53:00):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (53:02):
Crook?

Speaker 4 (53:03):
That's crazy?

Speaker 3 (53:05):
Crook made that up?

Speaker 1 (53:06):
Right?

Speaker 7 (53:06):
Because and then it's like, okay, are the numbers even real?
Because you can trick the algorithm. Somebody may have phones
just running over unning about that, you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (53:15):
So it's a lot of things.

Speaker 7 (53:16):
The only thing that's that's in my opinion, that's really
tangible is going out there and performing for your for
your audience and for your fans.

Speaker 1 (53:24):
When you show up to that room five hundred or
one thousand or fifteen hundred, that's gonna tell strong what
the truth is outside. All that makes the stream and
YouTube and all I get it? What do the people say, though, Yes,
that's how you define it. Yeah, I'm gonna jump around

(53:44):
a little bit because my stories no no, no, no, no, I'm learning, like,
like I've learned so much about you that it's really really.

Speaker 4 (53:54):
Cool that I had no idea good, Like.

Speaker 1 (53:56):
Really your journey is really really awesome, let's go here
because because this is I want to go and sequence
your order. Love don't cost the thing? Oh two thousand.

Speaker 4 (54:07):
And three, right, great movie?

Speaker 1 (54:09):
Yep, how'd you land that? Just me me quick.

Speaker 4 (54:13):
I was surprised. I was going away with that one.

Speaker 6 (54:16):
My first album came out only overseas because, like I said,
nine to eleven kind of change the trajectory of that.
But I had a name that was out there. Am
TOPM did come out between me and you came out.
But I got a call from Troy Bayer. That's she's
an actress who was also a director.

Speaker 4 (54:33):
She's great.

Speaker 6 (54:33):
She ended up writing the script to have a general meeting,
and that was one of my first general meetings that
I had. It was like an in between album thing.
I was coming back to you know, LA, because I
was on the road everywhere. I traveled to over like
thirty five countries off just the first album because I
went overseas, and so I came back and they asked
me to have I ended up getting an agent because
I was like, I'm interested in acting again, and I

(54:56):
got an agent and she got the call about this meeting.
So when had a meeting and didn't have a.

Speaker 4 (55:02):
Script or anything.

Speaker 6 (55:03):
They had introduced me, given me a script, and they
were just talking to me, and I'm like, okay, cool,
We're here having this meeting in Santa Monica talking and
it was like the producers and stuff didn't really know
anything of what was happening. But she was just smiling.
She was just so happy to see me. It's just
something to director Troy, and she kind of looked like
she could be like my big sister. So I think
she saw her in me. And by the end of

(55:27):
the meeting, she's like there telling me, we want you
to do this movie. And I was like, really, like,
I had been auditioning my whole life for everything, for
small roles because they didn't have as many black roles,
black Latina rolls, anything like that back then. So I
was always auditioned for really small roles or the best

(55:49):
friend of or something. And they said they want me
to do this movie. And back then it wasn't even
with Warner Brothers. Yet they got the green light off
of me, off of my name, and so I read
the script loved it. It reminded me of Can't Buy
Me Love, which it is a remaking Can't Buy Me Love.
So I knew the vibe. I didn't know actually until
later on, that it was actually a reimagining of and

(56:12):
so they said, if you want to do it, then
we'll bring it to Warner Brothers. So Warner Brothers said yes.
They green lit the movie off of me saying yes.
And then we had to find the guy. And so
they thought of a couple guys. But I thought of
you know who I thought of? So I thought of
two guys. It was the guy who played Jet Jackson
on Nickelodeon. And I thought of Nick Cannon. And there
was saying, that's funny, we were think about Nick Cannon two,

(56:33):
et cetera, et cetera. So had a general meeting with
them and I connected with Nick. And now the reason
I thought about Nick cause Nick used to hit on
me all the time when I was younger, and I
just felt like, you know.

Speaker 4 (56:41):
The whole and I always felt like he was nerdy.

Speaker 6 (56:44):
He was young, Yeah, we were both young, but I
always felt like he was a little bit nerd.

Speaker 4 (56:49):
He just wasn't my type, you know. So I was like,
how perfect fit. He's popular in Nickelodeon.

Speaker 6 (56:56):
It's this and he's actually a really nice guy and
so when he came in and we all had this meeting,
they were like they still were on the fence. They
were thought maybe jee Jackson, and I was like, no,
it's Nick. I think it's Nick. And so they went
off of my off of my.

Speaker 4 (57:08):
Say and said we'll do Nick.

Speaker 6 (57:10):
And so Nick ended up being Alvin and within what
didn't take much like I don't even know how they
green lit it and it happened so fast, but whatever
period of time it was, the production.

Speaker 4 (57:22):
Company was ready.

Speaker 6 (57:23):
We shot the movie, and I mean it was the
best experience ever. I just I was nervous because I
finally had a lead role, so it was gonna fall
on me and I was gonna had to actually memorize
all these lines and everything. But it was easy. It
was so easy. Troy was an amazing director. She was great,
such a great guide. My connection with Nick I was
we had great chemistry and it grew over time in

(57:46):
the role. I almost felt like I was my character
sometimes when people would, you know, when the odds were
against me, you know what I.

Speaker 4 (57:52):
Mean, Sometimes I was like nobody's my friend here.

Speaker 6 (57:55):
And Nick and I connected and had this chemistry on
screen and of course in person.

Speaker 4 (57:59):
That happened eventually.

Speaker 6 (58:01):
Where you got to see that and now you know,
after that role, I immediately got another role.

Speaker 1 (58:10):
What happened because because you're having a time right now,
like you're starting like.

Speaker 4 (58:15):
Two thousand and three, two thousand and three, you.

Speaker 1 (58:17):
Start having a time, then you drop it's about time
and hit that hot one hundred with dip it low. Yes, yeah, yeah,
you're cooking right now.

Speaker 4 (58:27):
Yes. So I'm back in the studio, back in the studio.

Speaker 1 (58:32):
So Love don't cost a thing. The record company said, yeah,
we got some money.

Speaker 6 (58:37):
You want album going, keep going, Come on, I'm in
the studio. I'm trying to find a hit. By the way,
I'm making songs. I consistently was in the studio, by
the way, all this time, because music was still like.
I was like, there's no reason I can't do both.
So I'm still in the studio doing and filming Love
don't cost the thing, but I'm making songs movies over
I'm still continuing to make songs. But I still didn't

(58:58):
have that hit. I didn't have that home, so I
was searching. It took months finding it. And my friend.

Speaker 4 (59:04):
Billy Billy's in the building. Big Billy like he was
at Deaf Jam.

Speaker 6 (59:09):
I made best friends with him and Billy is he
is one of the A and R's here on the
West Coast and he's just one of my best friends
who just believed in me. And he's another lover of
like the Jacksons, Michael Janet and he just gets it too.

Speaker 4 (59:22):
And Billy, Billy knew some producers.

Speaker 6 (59:27):
I called him one day, I said, Billy, I said,
I want to meet as many producers as possible. I
need to find a hit. And so just put me
like every hour I want to go to a studio,
meet somebody listening to some music. Tell him I want
to come in, and you know, because not every hour
is like maybe you have two hours because you got
traffic in La So I had one meeting and then
he told me about this guy named Polly Paul and

(59:47):
this guy named Demetrius. Demetrius was managing Polly Paul and
also at the time it was Schaeffer as we know
was Neow he was Schaeffer back then was working with
him too and like helping him, like with vocal production
and stuff like that. So I went and had a
meeting with Shape or not Shape or with Paully Paul

(01:00:08):
and Demetrius. First time I met them, and uh, he
plays me songs and the first song they play is
dip it little first song, first song.

Speaker 4 (01:00:19):
And TJ.

Speaker 6 (01:00:19):
Moses is the one that wrote it. She's singing the song,
and my mom and I.

Speaker 4 (01:00:23):
Have chills thinking about this. We looked at each other
and we were like, that's it. You know, you don't
say that. I loved And they started playing game. They
started over play Oh, so and So wants it? So
I got a lot of that.

Speaker 6 (01:00:39):
You find a song like oh but so and So
wants oh but it. Songs that never even came out
to this day. So I heard, We heard that song,
and we just knew it was immediate.

Speaker 4 (01:00:51):
It was immediate.

Speaker 6 (01:00:52):
We didn't say it in front of him, but we knew.
Then he played some other songs. We're like, yeah, those
are good. That's a good great We were like that
Diplot song, that would be a good one.

Speaker 4 (01:01:02):
That would be a good one. That's great.

Speaker 1 (01:01:07):
Yeah, I should explore it.

Speaker 4 (01:01:09):
Let me tell you.

Speaker 6 (01:01:10):
We got in the car my mom and I called
Billy like Billy sorry, that was prob. We got it.
We got it. We got it. Called the label do
this do that? We got to set this up. We
got to record this song. That's the one. It's the one.
I'm telling you, it's the one. Billy was so excited,

(01:01:31):
you know, because it's like as a friend and as
an an r and you know that your friend is happy,
and those meetings were set upright.

Speaker 4 (01:01:38):
And everything was was good. Everybody was good.

Speaker 6 (01:01:40):
But that song we knew we had the single single
is everything. First single, that's first single, and now we
know it's dip it low like diplo. Is my biggest
song today. So I went in and Uh Schaeffer, which
is Neo. He was my vocal producer, and I sang
that song. And thank you teacher Moses, Moses for writing

(01:02:02):
it also being a great demo guide because most of
what I did on top of what I did on
my own.

Speaker 4 (01:02:09):
Was her flair, you know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (01:02:10):
She was a great inspiration for that and I found
my I felt sexy already in that time.

Speaker 4 (01:02:16):
I was twenty one, twenty twenty one. There was a
big change. Also, you had like.

Speaker 6 (01:02:20):
All the maxims and all this other stuff. So it
was it's like I feel this, I am this, I'm
ready to make this leap into my womanhood.

Speaker 3 (01:02:32):
Yeah, she just jumped over King magazine. You went right
to Maximum.

Speaker 6 (01:02:38):
King was the Queen of King most magazines ever sold.

Speaker 1 (01:02:46):
It was the time.

Speaker 6 (01:02:48):
Platinum, the time.

Speaker 8 (01:02:53):
We did a couple of those, by the way.

Speaker 6 (01:02:57):
So yeah, I fell into my woman Hud. I felt
confident this was me, and it felt like even though
I didn't write it, and it was rare that I
would find songs that didn't write that I connected with.
So this one, I just felt it and it was right,
and so I recorded it. The label was super happy
with it, and wam bam music video. The ideas were
just coming out, coming out, and we found the right

(01:03:19):
director and we had this whole idea based off of
the seventies and just doing body paint and they used
to do shows with the body paint and everything.

Speaker 4 (01:03:26):
Then I started getting movies. I got be Cool.

Speaker 3 (01:03:30):
That's ship. I don't do no no this nigga loves
be Cool.

Speaker 6 (01:03:34):
Well, the video for Dipple Little helped me also, like
I showed them after I got me cool.

Speaker 4 (01:03:38):
But keep going. Let's let's back it up, going, go ahead, tank.

Speaker 6 (01:03:41):
Go ahead, Well, now Diplo in my pocket.

Speaker 1 (01:03:48):
Now we're two thousand and five. We be cool? Yes,
I don't even think you understand how many times me
and Zina have watched this funny movie. It comes on today,
I stopped and watch It's just one of my movies.

(01:04:09):
I love that movie. Like in this period in time,
like this, this, this, this is I just want to
I just want you to speak to this is life.
You're having a life changing something that never happens in
a lifetime for most entertainers, like you have hit records

(01:04:30):
and hit the movies at the same time, it doesn't
happen like that. And just speaking to the walk home
with mom too. Now you're having this moment that had
to be like.

Speaker 4 (01:04:48):
That means, what's happening.

Speaker 6 (01:04:49):
But we're still like it's crazy because we're still living
like this, like a really cool regular life because we're
still saving.

Speaker 1 (01:04:58):
I'm sure you don't have to get My little.

Speaker 6 (01:05:01):
Sisters are going to school in North Hollywood High School.
I'm showing up at the little you know, the little
you know prom thing, being the ambassador little things, showing
up for my sisters because they also had to sacrifice
a lot too from like me being away. I felt
like I was like their parents too, So yes, all
this stuff, I was like, I'm doing it for me,
for my family or my sisters. There were my daughters,

(01:05:22):
you know, and uh yeah, it was the time. I'm
doing photo shoots every the day. Magazines were selling back
then too, so we're doing photo shoots every day, magazine covers,
traveling the world, shows, Japan, this, that, tours and sync.
I'm touring with Britney Spears and doing this that below.
So I get the audition for Be Cool. Yeah, and

(01:05:43):
they had John Jivalta and now with Thurman involved, and
I knew it was the sequel to Get Shorty.

Speaker 1 (01:05:49):
Yeah, yeah, are you kidding me?

Speaker 4 (01:05:53):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (01:05:54):
Tell me about it. I was blown away that I
got it.

Speaker 3 (01:05:56):
Did you have to audition?

Speaker 6 (01:05:57):
I auditioned four times, and that time I was exhausted.
I was shooting the movie Man of the House Tommy
Lee Jones in Texas. Love Don't Cost a Thing came
out that same month, and I came back to do
these auditions for f Gary Gray and I sang, well
should I feel this good?

Speaker 4 (01:06:19):
I sing?

Speaker 6 (01:06:20):
I can't sing right now, but I was singing it,
singing and that was the song I was using to
sing it. And I did my audition and they loved it,
and there were a couple of really really great contenders
I was up against. It was like a handful of
women that were up for this role. So I was
really surprised actually that I got it because they're real
the sangers, and they're really popular. And when it came

(01:06:42):
down to my last audition, I was exhausted. I was
tired because I was filming. I was doing a lot,
and I flew in from Texas to do this last
audition and I remember sitting inside the driveway for the
audition because they were negotiating my deal.

Speaker 4 (01:06:55):
You have to negotiate for the it's.

Speaker 6 (01:06:57):
Kind of like it's kind of like a screen test,
so you kind of have to negotiate if you if
they're going to agree to what's happening. If not, you
don't do the audition, you do not even doing the movie.
So this last screen test, my attorney was was like
for an hour and a half. I was sitting inside
the driveway and I had practic singing so much that
my voice was actually kind of tired, so I was like,

(01:07:17):
I gotta go and sing again. So I remember crying
to my mom like I'm just exhausted, and she's like, Tina,
you can do this. You can pull through with this,
you know, don't you know, don't discourage yourself.

Speaker 4 (01:07:28):
This is the last one.

Speaker 6 (01:07:30):
And I went in there and I sang and I
did crack a little because I was tired. It was like,
how my voices right now is got scratchy. But it
was just a small crack. But I had enough parisma,
I guess, and enough of the auditions enough that Efgary
Gray saw something and the innocence I think still in
me that match to character. And gosh, when I got

(01:07:52):
that call talk about bringing to your knees crying and
prayers and being where I was at and back then
I was still with Nick Too, and I had just
I shot the video for Dip It Low too, and
I had the video in my hands and we were
at the edits and stuff and uh, and I got
that call.

Speaker 4 (01:08:10):
It's just a man, Yeah, maybe you'll feel me. I
don't have to say words.

Speaker 6 (01:08:19):
And then I was on the set with these people
and I'm like, what am I doing here?

Speaker 4 (01:08:22):
I had it was pinched me.

Speaker 6 (01:08:23):
It was pinched me all the whole time, just like
and you're shocked that I'm working with these legends, these
amazing of a plus actors and I couldn't believe I
was there with them and I was singing, and I'm
the focused.

Speaker 4 (01:08:36):
My character is the focus of this movie, Linda Moon,
Linda Moon. John Travolta's my manager.

Speaker 6 (01:08:42):
These people are fighting over me in this movie. Alicia
Keys wrote one of the songs. Bergie and wrote one
of the songs. And will I am Vince Vaughn. Like
the scene actually with me and Vince Vaughan in the
beginning where he's like, Linda, get over here, blah blah blah,
and by the arm like I really fel grabbed me

(01:09:04):
and I slipped in my little wedges and I love
that they kept that stuff in there. But he stays
in character, by the way, even when he's not feeling
he was. He was his character all the time when
we're not chooting. So so uh it was. It was
mind blowing at this point.

Speaker 7 (01:09:21):
What's your favorite? You have a favorite between being an
artist or being an actress?

Speaker 4 (01:09:26):
Not at all?

Speaker 3 (01:09:27):
Are you just like I'm doing everything?

Speaker 4 (01:09:29):
You're doing everything. I loved doing everything.

Speaker 6 (01:09:31):
People try to break me away from doing one or
the other, like the label would be like she has
to do acting. They didn't really tell me I had
to do that, but they kind of were like she
has to a little bit. There was a there was
a like she's gonna get more movies she focuses on.
And I was like, no, I can do it all.
And even at the label, they were fighting over me.
I went, if you look at my albums, I was

(01:09:52):
like Island plus Murder plus the ink. They changed the
thing because I don't want to have Murder on that
the ink. Then they changed me the deaf Soul. So
they were fighting over me. Even as a pop artist
and an R and B artist, I was always in
between these things where people trying to make me make choices,
and I never believed that that was the option. Like
it's just like I can do it all, and like
don't give me these labels actor or singer, pop or

(01:10:16):
R and B or this or that, Like I can
do all of these things, and so.

Speaker 4 (01:10:20):
I just kept doing it.

Speaker 6 (01:10:21):
Sometimes I had to make these adjustments and do things
their way, especially music label wise, and then would prove
itself like if it didn't work, it just didn't fit.
But yeah, it was a it was a beautiful time.
I ended up going on tour after that with Usher
and Kanye West.

Speaker 1 (01:10:37):
Your tour lineup is pretty crazy and it's pretty cool.

Speaker 6 (01:10:42):
Confessions Tour at that that was Kanye West the Graduation
like College drop Out that say, it was college the
College Dropout album and we have.

Speaker 4 (01:10:58):
Never people. He's honest.

Speaker 1 (01:11:03):
Time he was cooking. I don't I don't want to.
I don't want to gloss over bring it on.

Speaker 6 (01:11:09):
Oh that was yeah, that's still girls to because it
bring it on is a thing. It is a thing
that they came to me, Universal came to me. That
was a straight up offer. I no longer had a
record deal. I had gotten dropped from ild Def Jam
after my third album. It was a crazy like drop,
but it happened, and I was in this lull and

(01:11:30):
I still wanted to do music, and uh.

Speaker 4 (01:11:34):
But I didn't know you know, the labels.

Speaker 6 (01:11:36):
You know how labels it could be like people don't
want you to be somewhere else, so they'll talk about you,
and you know, so I was like in this crazy
place and next thing I know, I got a call
out of nowhere to bring it on and it was
great money, great franchise.

Speaker 4 (01:11:51):
I needed them. I did.

Speaker 6 (01:11:52):
When I say money is because again you go through
dips as an entertainer. Everything is not certain. People have
to understand like it might be famous, but it's nothing
is certain. You have to be you have to let
your pride go to the side sometimes, but this is
not a pride thing. I was a fan of to
bring it on, you know, franchise, and they brought me
a really great deal and I was like, yeah, I
love the script and I did it. And now to

(01:12:13):
this day, I have little girls and their mama coming
to me overseas are like it's called American Girl. They're like,
I love American Girl. I have girls recognized you in
now yeah called American Girl.

Speaker 4 (01:12:25):
Okay, Yeah. And I had so much fun doing it.
It was great. It was an awesome opportunity.

Speaker 1 (01:12:30):
One thing that's awesome about what you were able to
do with your career is you were able to really
establish an overseas presence, yes, which which which pays dividends
as you as you moved in through move through those
highs and lows, because something about overseas, Yeah, they just
they stick, which yeah they rocking.

Speaker 6 (01:12:50):
Which they still then they still rock with me whether
I'm doing music or not. When you see those numbers
on those Netflix films and when you see numbers on
you know, especially movie these they do numbers these days.
A lot of things data driven. That's what streams are for,
for data. And and when you see that, you're like
a movie you do is number one in over seventy

(01:13:12):
five countries.

Speaker 4 (01:13:14):
Speak because of that relationship I've carried with them.

Speaker 1 (01:13:18):
You know that.

Speaker 3 (01:13:18):
You know my sister did that movie with you?

Speaker 4 (01:13:20):
Which one?

Speaker 3 (01:13:21):
Meet me at Christmas?

Speaker 4 (01:13:23):
Which one?

Speaker 6 (01:13:23):
Oh my gosh, yes, yes, yes, yes, let's tell you
you know ser tomorrow.

Speaker 4 (01:13:30):
That's my girl.

Speaker 1 (01:13:32):
There's most people.

Speaker 3 (01:13:32):
Most people don't. Most people don't put two and two together.

Speaker 7 (01:13:35):
Because our last name is new but my middle name
is Valentine, So.

Speaker 3 (01:13:38):
Most people don't put it together. We don't always say it.
You know what I'm saying, Like, you know, she has
her career.

Speaker 4 (01:13:44):
She surprised me when she talks about it. I forgot.
I didn't put it. I did didn't even put the
two together.

Speaker 3 (01:13:52):
I love her, She loves you.

Speaker 4 (01:13:54):
She did a fantastic you.

Speaker 3 (01:13:55):
Guys did an amazing movie and we watched it over Christmas.
Loved it the whole family.

Speaker 1 (01:14:00):
She's like, and make sure what was the extra one?

Speaker 7 (01:14:04):
It's like excellent movie makes all y'all got got you?

Speaker 6 (01:14:10):
Oh man, Yes, that's amazing.

Speaker 4 (01:14:12):
She's great. She's an awesome producer.

Speaker 6 (01:14:14):
Now I've gotten just step into the producer lane, you know,
which is cool on producing movies now.

Speaker 4 (01:14:19):
And so that was one of.

Speaker 6 (01:14:20):
My first I produced an independent before that, and then
I just was an executive producer with Netflix after I've
done two very successful movies with them. They trusted and
trusted in me and my gut feeling about how to
do this. And I'm pretty good at rom coms, you know,
Love Don't Cost a Thing, and and Latania and I
and also Christina Rogers she introduced me Militania. She entrusted

(01:14:42):
in the both of us to really help put this
project together in a way that would make it work
and become what that movie was. And we had some
really great partners. I mean Mark Mark Roberts is the
one that you know, initially started the movie. So all
the producers, all of us together was a really great team.
We had so much fun, so much fun, and it
shows on screen. And she's very I love she's on it.

Speaker 4 (01:15:01):
She stay with us the whole way. She could have left.

Speaker 3 (01:15:04):
She still like that. You still like that for sure?

Speaker 1 (01:15:08):
You're sending me leon. We got TV film, we got
records producers. Now we got my nickname is snacks. Now
we got these motherfucking Ben.

Speaker 3 (01:15:28):
And said my daughter two days ago. Listen, she loves it.

Speaker 1 (01:15:33):
No disrespect to anybody, am I beignets anywhere? You got
my favorite beignets. No, no disrespect to anyone, to the
originators of the idea, just.

Speaker 7 (01:15:52):
God, and say what you gotta say, disrespect.

Speaker 1 (01:15:55):
Your beignets are my favorite. Thank you light extra powders
sugar for me late almost died. It was so much
powdered sugar. And I breathed in hell, Never in hell,
yesterday powdered sugar for the love of God.

Speaker 6 (01:16:15):
Gosh, no the first bite, never in hell, because the
powdered sugar is just gonna go straight.

Speaker 1 (01:16:21):
What really quickly? What made you say I'm going to start? Ben?
Yeo okay, Ben.

Speaker 4 (01:16:30):
Yeah okay.

Speaker 6 (01:16:30):
So in the between, after all the music has happened,
and after being bring it on, I started living real
life after I had a divorce, so my daughter Violet
came along, I met dream, got married, had a crazy
world when life of one year and a half and
then I had to figure out my life after that,
I'm getting a divorced, got a divorce, the whole deal,
and I'm like, what am I gonna do. I'm figuring

(01:16:52):
out my career, start getting a little rolls here and there.
But then I started to figure out friendships. I was
always working, so I didn't really get to hang out
with pa people like I have. My dancers were my friends.
Police people like Billy were my friends. But it were
always music related. But my family was like my friend.
That was like I was kind of raised, like your
family is your friend and everybody else is an out
of it. But I'm such an extrovert, like everybody is
actually my friend. But I didn't really go out. I

(01:17:14):
didn't go out in Hollywood, none of that. But I
had to figure out how to stay famous in Hollywood
after getting dropped from the label and like, But the
thing was it was going out, going out, being popular,
going to Robertson doing pop Rozzi snapping you, and so
I figured that out.

Speaker 4 (01:17:32):
So I started to go.

Speaker 6 (01:17:33):
Out and I had a friend named Liz that I met.
We know, she's not my Venia box partner, but Liz
was in the scene.

Speaker 4 (01:17:40):
She knew people.

Speaker 6 (01:17:41):
And I met Liz through an organization, like we were
going to work on an organization mentoring kids and that
were in a Plowster care system.

Speaker 4 (01:17:53):
And through our.

Speaker 6 (01:17:54):
Connection there on one side, we're like doing all the
you know, foundation hands on work, and we're also girls
going out clubs and partying and stuff like that, and
we just grew this bond. We grew this tight, tight friendship.
And through that type friendship, we meet lots of girls,
girls become our friends.

Speaker 4 (01:18:11):
Girls in the bathroom, girls this you.

Speaker 6 (01:18:12):
Know what I mean, you're going out, And we just
grew this clique of girls that just was growing, you know.
And so after my divorce, I started to go back
out again. It was that revenge body, revenge life. I
got to get my life together, but I know that
also being on the scene helps me get my roles,
helps me do this da da And we eventually decide

(01:18:33):
let's get a place together.

Speaker 4 (01:18:34):
She had this place called the Sugar Shock.

Speaker 6 (01:18:36):
So the Sugar Shock is where all the girls got
together hung out sugar Shack, and we're there and everybody's
doing their business, doing their life. And I started to
become an entrepreneur. I had this thing called Platinum Hookah
that I started at the time and it was getting
popping by the way. By the way, that would have
been a big business. It was these little, little known
nicotine hookah sticks, which is really popular, and I was

(01:18:57):
killing it. Let me tell you, I was killing it.
But I also felt it didn't match my life and
the FDA and all this other stuff was too complicated.
But she saw my ethic, my work ethic, and that
was my first entrepreneurial thing that I did, and that
was a goal getter. I didn't sleep. I was working
on that thing day and night. And Liz had her thing.
She has events, you know, knocked out, she's got marketing

(01:19:20):
knocked out, this that.

Speaker 4 (01:19:20):
So we always used to say. So we ended up
moving in.

Speaker 6 (01:19:23):
I moved in with her because I'm single, I'm with
the girls all the time. I needed to get out
of my mom's house because that's where I was after
my divorce, and I was like, I can't keep doing this.

Speaker 4 (01:19:31):
I had Violet, so.

Speaker 6 (01:19:32):
I was like, my girls, I'm with them all the time.
We're raising Violet together. We're a village. Plus to have
my sisters and my mom. But we said to each other,
Liz and I were like, we just saw what we
had on our hustle, and we were like, someday we
need to do a business together. We need to figure
it out. We need to do something local in Studio City.
That's our community, these are our people. We got that
vibe we're going to do something, and so we set

(01:19:53):
our mind that someday we were going to do something,
and we thought about it. We would go on walks
and running canyon and say, you know, maybe a candy store,
maybe this be a bakery. But we're not chefs, but
we never said bannets. But she had this organization where
we would rebuild houses in New Orleans. It was called
the Hope Foundation. And so I would go back to
New Orleans and she had this gala and we would

(01:20:15):
actually physically like meet the families and rebuild their houses.
We raise money, and we would try the food. We
had po boys, we had turtle soup, we had this that.
And one day all the girls we gathered we went
to cafe doing it and we got the coffee and
we got the bagnets.

Speaker 4 (01:20:33):
And lord, let me tell you, we.

Speaker 6 (01:20:35):
Were like ben like we're girls, you know, drinking wine
and having bagnets, like you know, we're bringing it back.
But it just wasn't the same when we would bringing
back like there it was great. We'd bring them back
to the house and it was like kind of like
doe and cold and it was just not the same thing.

Speaker 4 (01:20:51):
But the sugar, the sugar was doing a thing.

Speaker 6 (01:20:53):
So we're like, before we go back to La, we
need to get some Beagnets again. We have to do
it again. We're like, Liz, you have to bring us back.
And it was there that we were like, there's no
Begnets in La.

Speaker 4 (01:21:06):
Why not Beignet's in La. And this was like.

Speaker 6 (01:21:10):
We were like all of us are, Yeah, we should
d D D And Liz started to do the numbers
and see what the business of it would be and
it just made sense and so yeah, like it sounded
like it just made sense.

Speaker 4 (01:21:23):
We loved it. We knew there was nothing like it.

Speaker 6 (01:21:25):
There was a food culture in La and just the
world that food is everything, and we decided that was
gonna be the Begnet.

Speaker 4 (01:21:32):
So it took us some time.

Speaker 6 (01:21:35):
She started working on We really first started working on
the look of the branding.

Speaker 4 (01:21:39):
That's what Liz does.

Speaker 6 (01:21:40):
And through that time we started to figure out what's
the Begnet, what's gonna be the best tasting, most flavorful.
What's going to make sense in La? Why did we
choose La?

Speaker 4 (01:21:50):
Our friends were there.

Speaker 6 (01:21:51):
It was gonna be the community, the people, and but
you know La, we're also like health conscious, were also
like fit.

Speaker 4 (01:22:00):
It's conscious.

Speaker 6 (01:22:00):
We're like, we got to do something a little bit light,
but give them the same flare.

Speaker 4 (01:22:04):
Unless we got and we figured out the.

Speaker 3 (01:22:07):
Run off the turkey, then we don't care about none
of that.

Speaker 4 (01:22:09):
It's okay, just go a light.

Speaker 6 (01:22:10):
Bo I say it's a diet because they're super light.
They're very fluffy, the layered, and that's why we thought
it would be the perfect benyet.

Speaker 1 (01:22:23):
The mini Ben. Ye.

Speaker 4 (01:22:27):
Yeah, you guys were one of our first customers too.
We started with the truck. That's holy.

Speaker 3 (01:22:33):
That's how I found out about it. Yeah, coming to
the house, I see the truck.

Speaker 7 (01:22:38):
Yeah, and out of nowhere, I see Christie in the window.

Speaker 8 (01:22:41):
I'm like serving people cooking.

Speaker 4 (01:22:46):
It's taking sure, everyone's getting it.

Speaker 3 (01:22:48):
Okay, you got to search now, fine, give me give
me two boxes.

Speaker 1 (01:22:51):
Really awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:22:52):
Yeah, it's cool. It's a crazy start.

Speaker 6 (01:22:54):
We were like, we do a shop and then we
couldn't figure out the shops. Too many permits and too
much stuff. And then Liz, Liz is the go get her.
That's the one thing like, that's the partner I chose
was right for me, and she chose I was right
for her because we're connect we're connectors, we're one with
God and manifesting and we work hard. But Liz, she
is she is, She's diligent, she's like on it, she's persistent,

(01:23:16):
she's consistent, she's on and as a partner and as
an artist, I still want to be an artist.

Speaker 4 (01:23:20):
I don't want to have to do all the work.

Speaker 6 (01:23:22):
That she is really what she's really good at. She
doesn't want to have to do it all the time.
And I have been there when I can, especially in
the beginnings. But she's one of those people. She's a boss,
and she learns things and she grows things, and she's
not afraid to get her hands, you know, in the
dirt and learned some lessons and to get us where
we are even in the hardest times, because you know,
we've gone through pandemic, we've gone through actors strike, we've

(01:23:45):
gone through a lot of changes. But the food truck
was the best start for us because we got around
town and we made our way to the people and
we got the word out.

Speaker 3 (01:23:53):
How many restaurants do you guys have now?

Speaker 6 (01:23:55):
Right now, we have two trucks and we have one location, okay,
And the reason we did that just wanted to focus
on we want a franchise, and so our biggest thing
was learning the different ways this company could work. So
we've had a brick and mortar. We've had a really
big brick and mortar. The location was quite large, the
rent was high, you have.

Speaker 3 (01:24:13):
To employ more people.

Speaker 6 (01:24:14):
Yeah, so you have to employ more people, the rent
is high, the insurance, everything is much higher. In those situations,
it looks great, but you know, the the you know,
there's a lot of setbacks in that in that way,
but we've learned, like kiosks work, you know, really well
for us to go, the trucks work extremely well. So
we've learned the different patterns that work well for us,

(01:24:35):
so that if anybody wants a franchise, they can understand
what they're working with and with the best direction for them.
So it's been some really great learning lessons and we've
employed a lot of people, our friends' kids, you know,
and here here and around Studio City and North Hollywood everywhere.
We've had a lot of people come for us as
far as like to come to eat the beignet, but

(01:24:56):
also family like you know, you know your daughter needs
a job, first job, and we've had some great like
they bring on the other kids to come. You know,
it's a family, you know, Benya Box is about family.
The Benya Bytes is about sharing, it's about community, and
eventually we want to bring this back to where it
all started with foundations, organizations, and just last night we

(01:25:17):
work with a foundation called Hands for Hope. It's in
North Hollywood and we've done a lot of great things
personally with them and also now through the organization with
with with Benye Box. So it all leads one thing
right back to the next.

Speaker 7 (01:25:30):
Since you're here now, can you tell the people where
the trucks are located or around the way or even.

Speaker 6 (01:25:38):
Yeah, well you can find us at Bennet Box, our
online on social media just at Bennet Box. And then
we're we're up updating our website right now. Right now,
we're so focused on marketing and on making every short
making sure all the things that we have. We've never
done email marketing, we've never done any of that stuff.
Really we've been like just so small business, grassroots friends, family.

(01:25:58):
Then now we're like, okay, time take those next steps
because we really are a small.

Speaker 4 (01:26:02):
Team running it. We're just us women.

Speaker 6 (01:26:04):
We've had people come in and out that just didn't
work out, but we've got to figure it out. And
so yeah, you can find us right now at the
Topanga Mall at the Westfield to Panga Pega Social Yes,
which is great, brings lots of people over there. And
then the truck is usually in and around all around town,
Studio City, Calabasas, Santa Clarida, Long Beach. If you just

(01:26:25):
check out the page, you know, it'll show where it's at.
And eventually right now we're figuring out the email marketing.
We have a loyalty program all that stuff. We'll start
letting people know, you know where we're at. But you
can really just go to it.

Speaker 7 (01:26:35):
I mean, I'm gonna get I'm gonna get some uh
a discount.

Speaker 8 (01:26:38):
Then put you on the loyalty reward, you get a
a we got some good deal.

Speaker 3 (01:26:59):
Congratulate relations.

Speaker 7 (01:27:01):
Just watching how you pivoted in your career has been
really cool, you know what I mean, Like, no, absolutely right,
because we never know, nobody ever know.

Speaker 4 (01:27:10):
People.

Speaker 7 (01:27:11):
We meet each other young age, we're all kids, and
then some of us become what we become. Some of
us go into other spaces. But the main thing that
I've seen just off of the survivors in this thing
is like literally surviving in music and having a real career.

Speaker 3 (01:27:29):
Because you got to be able to pivot. You have to.

Speaker 7 (01:27:33):
You know, we talk about that all the time. You
can't shop that same demo, yeah, you know what I
mean in any term, You know what I mean. You
just can't continue to shop that same thing. It's like, Okay,
well what else can I do in these spaces because
all of this is in your wheelhouse though, everything that
you just said all connected, It all connected, and it's

(01:27:56):
really cool to see. And just like I said, congratulations
you graduation. I've known you a really long time.

Speaker 4 (01:28:02):
I know we have each other for a long time,
all of us here. We're not gonna talk about age.
That's all I got to say.

Speaker 3 (01:28:09):
You know that beauty.

Speaker 4 (01:28:15):
Forever though.

Speaker 3 (01:28:15):
While he was sixty three, is he about to be
sixty four? I said, yeah, I'm allowed to be sixty five.

Speaker 4 (01:28:21):
Oh my birthday, right time. It was the right time.
A good time.

Speaker 1 (01:28:27):
We need a couple of things from you before you go. Yes,
we need your top Oh lord, oh lord, five oh.

Speaker 4 (01:28:41):
R and B artists Brandy.

Speaker 1 (01:28:45):
Oh okay, let's go all right, married j oh yeah yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah yeah yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:28:55):
Oh gosh, I mean Beyonce, she's she's a little everything.

Speaker 4 (01:29:00):
She's I can consider her. She's and my last one. Dang,
I gotta go back though. I want to go. Oh,
Aretha Franklin. No no no no no no no no
no no no, I said the wrong name. It starts
with the A. No no no, no know me. I

(01:29:23):
need a baker.

Speaker 1 (01:29:25):
What a voice? Guy in there? Right?

Speaker 4 (01:29:32):
I mean I can keep going no, no, no, no no.
But I like my females and I relate very much
to them.

Speaker 6 (01:29:40):
And uh, but there are a lot of ARM and
B males. I mean, especially groups. I love groups, my gosh,
true hell, Joe's all the groups.

Speaker 4 (01:29:47):
I mean, everybody.

Speaker 6 (01:29:48):
You make great albums, like I can keep going.

Speaker 1 (01:29:52):
Five, it'll be in the top fifteen. I know you.
I know you're gonna do top five Army songs.

Speaker 4 (01:30:00):
Oh nah, he would go, I gotta do this R
and B.

Speaker 6 (01:30:07):
Gosh, can we just go through all the Confessions album.

Speaker 4 (01:30:15):
That's a great album.

Speaker 1 (01:30:16):
Incredible.

Speaker 6 (01:30:17):
Gosh, guys, you really do this.

Speaker 4 (01:30:20):
You should have told me in bed.

Speaker 1 (01:30:21):
This is the thing we told Billy.

Speaker 4 (01:30:24):
Yeah, he didn't tell me. Can I'm gonna go through
my phone.

Speaker 6 (01:30:28):
I'm gonna tell you what I have that you did not, guy,
did not say this.

Speaker 4 (01:30:34):
Hold on, we go to R and B and we're
gonna make this.

Speaker 6 (01:30:37):
Okay, okay, I mean to B B. I get so weak.

Speaker 4 (01:30:41):
Yeah yeah, Mary j.

Speaker 6 (01:30:44):
Blige, Wait wait, but there's a specific song because that
was my jam.

Speaker 4 (01:30:49):
That was like, Mary, Oh my gosh, y'all killing me.

Speaker 7 (01:30:52):
I love that you have the pink phone with the
heart hanging now if it's very I love, don't cost
the thing.

Speaker 4 (01:30:59):
I haven't out of it.

Speaker 6 (01:31:01):
Not.

Speaker 4 (01:31:02):
Well, that's a great song too. Oh yeah, I love
real love. She's got so.

Speaker 6 (01:31:07):
Many songs, but there's just one.

Speaker 4 (01:31:12):
But let's let's get it. Cronk. I'm sorry. It's an
army songs was my jam.

Speaker 6 (01:31:16):
So we're gonna put that read about heartbreak Hotel. That's
another one.

Speaker 4 (01:31:23):
It's a Mary js Los song.

Speaker 6 (01:31:25):
I have to say because it's necessary my life. Mary Jane, Oh,
I'm gonna you know, I'm gonna give Maya Maya. Maya's
gosh Case of the X. Case of the X was
popped though, but her first song too, and it's uh damn,
what was Maya? I love Maya Rocked the Boat, Aliyah

(01:31:47):
Rock the Boat, great song, amazing and we got one more?

Speaker 4 (01:31:51):
Is that? What it is? Brandy? Brandy Brandy.

Speaker 6 (01:31:57):
Because it's gonna be hard to pick this one, but
that I'm gonna go with this.

Speaker 4 (01:32:01):
Album, Never Say Never. That was my jam.

Speaker 6 (01:32:04):
And it's gonna be hard to pick this one because
Never Say Never was my album. Me and my girlfriend
would be in the car crying over our little boyfriends,
singing the songs, Oh my gosh, Oh Angel in disguise.

Speaker 4 (01:32:17):
Angel, Yes, and I got the Roddy Jerkins what he
did in music, super bad by super Bad.

Speaker 1 (01:32:28):
He was a super producer, He is a super is Yes,
he is super bag.

Speaker 6 (01:32:33):
So I'd say that whole album, actually, but we'll go
with Angel. Honestly, it's every song you got a top
that Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:32:44):
It's your world, it's your work. Let's make a Vultron.
You're a super R and B artist, right. If you're
making an artist, you're making a superhero R and B artist,
and you want to get the vocals from somewhere or
mid style from somebody, the styling of the artists, the
heart of the artist. And since you're a songwriter who's
gonna write for this artist, you need one vocal to

(01:33:05):
make your super R and B artist.

Speaker 4 (01:33:07):
What is that going to be?

Speaker 6 (01:33:09):
Well, I just love Brandy's voice, So I'm gonna put
Brandy's voice on it, saying easy walk Brandy's boys performance style.

Speaker 4 (01:33:18):
We're making a super.

Speaker 6 (01:33:19):
R and B with the R and B performance style
of you know what, I love Maya.

Speaker 4 (01:33:27):
We're gonna put she she has.

Speaker 8 (01:33:29):
We're talking about her staff.

Speaker 6 (01:33:34):
I love a girl that can own it and who's
She's kind of timid, she's not like like an hour
person that's like, but her music is like she's I
like her, Yes, Maryland, you know my love is like Whoa?
Here was another one that's another person I should be.
But I'm gonna go with Maya because Maya I love.

(01:33:56):
I think I love that. I love what comes out
of her. You know what I mean as an artist,
a performance and stuff like that. With clothing wise, oh gosh,
there's a couple of them. Style wise, I would say dang,
I can't put it up at the top of my

(01:34:16):
the top of my ah, give me some girls, damn styling.

Speaker 1 (01:34:22):
Wise, you gotta read.

Speaker 6 (01:34:24):
You got the oh Rihanna, Yeah, Rihanna and the style too, please.

Speaker 4 (01:34:29):
Rihanna got easy easy.

Speaker 1 (01:34:31):
Love that love that she she put that ship on. Yeah,
the passion of the artist, the heart.

Speaker 4 (01:34:36):
Of the arts coming from the heart.

Speaker 6 (01:34:38):
I'm gonna give it to Beyonce because that girl's got
a heart of the heart of a lion.

Speaker 4 (01:34:41):
She just doesn't give up.

Speaker 6 (01:34:43):
She's just she's that what would Beyonce do? Like, she's
that voice in your head when you're feeling lazy that
day and you're like, oh my gosh, I'm overwhelmed, and
you're like.

Speaker 4 (01:34:52):
Whoa that woman?

Speaker 1 (01:34:54):
Beyonce would get to work. She would get to work,
heels on the track, get to work.

Speaker 4 (01:35:01):
On treadmill and singing and singing. Yeah, caring a baby.

Speaker 1 (01:35:04):
I'm sorry, who's writing for this artist?

Speaker 4 (01:35:07):
Oh? Dang, okay? The dream yeah? Yeah. Tricky Steward.

Speaker 6 (01:35:24):
Yeah, I'm not mad, not biased at all, No, not
for any particular reason, but I have witnessed the man's
talent in his very.

Speaker 10 (01:35:33):
Respect respect what's going on because We got one more segment,
and we have to give a disclaimer.

Speaker 7 (01:35:46):
My brother's doing eight shows a week now. He's doing
eight shows a week on John Browdway, right, he's a thespid.

Speaker 6 (01:35:52):
Can we talk about the title? Give me the title.
We need to name anybody who doesn't know what show
he's doing? What's the show?

Speaker 1 (01:35:58):
I am doing Hell's Kitchen and asking Alicia Keys Broadway
Musical and I play her father Davis. And it's real.
It's real, it's real. You got it.

Speaker 3 (01:36:10):
When you go back to New York, you gotta go
check it out.

Speaker 1 (01:36:12):
I will like it's like, you know, it's Tony Award
winners and nominees all over that.

Speaker 7 (01:36:19):
I was ready to throw tomatoes at him. He did
his thing, no starting, I mean I had to tell
I had to celebrate it.

Speaker 4 (01:36:24):
You couldn't help it.

Speaker 1 (01:36:25):
You killers on stage.

Speaker 6 (01:36:30):
Yeah, especially, and by the way, Broadway is killing you
right now. You're amongst all these eight plus everything everywhere.

Speaker 1 (01:36:36):
Danzel's feet away, Denzel's right there. They cool and all that.
But we talked.

Speaker 4 (01:36:40):
About this week talking about we're.

Speaker 1 (01:36:42):
Talking about dol Doorrail junior juniors. We'll be talking about senior.
I get it. You want to see the new Denzel
get to work. I'm on forty four. Oh, hello, my,
I'm on forty four. Stand.

Speaker 7 (01:37:04):
We had a very important segment of the show. What
we close out is called I Ain't saying on names?
Will you give us a story? Funny or fucked up?
Are funny and fucked up? The only route to the
game is you can't say no names.

Speaker 4 (01:37:19):
Funny orked up?

Speaker 3 (01:37:20):
Both are both.

Speaker 6 (01:37:22):
It could be Billy, You'm alright and die. You gotta
tell me because I know we got stories and I'm yeah,
Las Vegas.

Speaker 1 (01:37:37):
I like that New Years.

Speaker 6 (01:37:41):
Hotel opening New Year's not okay, I can't sit then
because I just love won't. But you might know the
name just based off of my own interpretations of the situation,
because this is an it's one of those nights.

Speaker 4 (01:38:00):
Actually you don't say the name. That's how good.

Speaker 6 (01:38:01):
This is beautiful, because this is almost a couple. This
is twenty years later or no, ten years later. Okay,
So we go night, Oh my gosh, we're having so
much fun. Me and my friends, me and my sister
and my sisters. Billy's there we go, New Year's Night,
We see the fireworks, Crazy night, Billy, let's let's help

(01:38:22):
me this with this story, because how do we end
up there? Somehow we end up going with a very
popular ARM and B pop star to a strip club.

Speaker 4 (01:38:31):
Is that where we started? How we end up there?

Speaker 6 (01:38:34):
Go say it, just say the beginning of it.

Speaker 4 (01:38:38):
Jay Z and Coldplay were playing.

Speaker 6 (01:38:40):
They are not in the part of the story, but
they were there at the Yeah, so we see this
all this everybody everybody like, all the hottest stars are
at this big cosmopolitan, you know, New Year's night thing,
and somehow we end up around this other star. She's
a female's pretty dope, and we all decide somehow we're
all going to the strip club.

Speaker 4 (01:39:00):
And she's like, come on, let's go. So she's got
you know.

Speaker 6 (01:39:02):
The biggest you know, the big suv trucks.

Speaker 4 (01:39:05):
We all clamoring.

Speaker 6 (01:39:06):
We're stuffed in there like sausages, and she's like, she's
a boss, by the way, and she gets.

Speaker 4 (01:39:11):
Us all inside of the car.

Speaker 6 (01:39:12):
We get to the strip club. We're at the strip
club having a really good time. By then, we've had
multiple shots, you know, there's people smoking, a little everything.
She decides she's done with the strip club. We're gonna
bring the strip club back.

Speaker 4 (01:39:25):
To her hotel room.

Speaker 6 (01:39:28):
So everybody gets back in the car. She's really cool,
by the way, and we get in the car. We
go to her penthouse suite that she has at the hotel,
and we're just in awe of all.

Speaker 4 (01:39:38):
We're watching it, and she's such a boss.

Speaker 6 (01:39:39):
She's walking around the room, she's got stacks of singles
in her pocket, and she's the but she doesn't really
hasn't shared it. And she brought the strippers back. So
these female strippers come back, you know, and so they're
shaking their butt everywhere and everything shaking ass and they're naked,
but nobody's paying attention to them.

Speaker 4 (01:39:55):
They're just like music playing out loud. People are smoking a.

Speaker 6 (01:39:57):
Little weed, you know what I mean, and we're all
talking just you know, having a good time. But the
strippers are doing stuff, but they're not getting paid anything.
She has the money, but she hasn't you know, it's
in the cut.

Speaker 4 (01:40:07):
So eventually the strippers.

Speaker 6 (01:40:08):
Are like, you know, oh my god, they're starting to
get bored because no one's paying attention to them. So
they go up to this girl and they're like, so
and so we're gonna lead because you know, everybody's you know, everybody,
Billy have to tell it, Come on, say it, you
have to say what she says, Okay, you're gonna say it.

Speaker 4 (01:40:27):
So we're gonna leave because nobody's paying attention to us, and.

Speaker 6 (01:40:30):
They're holding their clothes in their hand, and she says.

Speaker 4 (01:40:48):
They weren't back.

Speaker 6 (01:40:49):
On the floor got to dancing, and then she said,
just threw her she just threw the sacks.

Speaker 4 (01:40:54):
Of cash at them.

Speaker 6 (01:40:56):
And the night continued on and we were just in
all of this woman because she's just for so cool
and she's and I think, you know, I think that
told the story. So that's night we still talk about
to this tonight. We still talk about to this day,
just kind of like watching this this strong ass female
that's just so cool, be as dope as you imagine

(01:41:18):
that she is.

Speaker 1 (01:41:19):
Yeah, I love it.

Speaker 3 (01:41:22):
Shut and there.

Speaker 1 (01:41:27):
I don't want to hear it.

Speaker 4 (01:41:29):
That's all she had to say.

Speaker 1 (01:41:30):
That was it. Yeah, I don't want to hear nothing else.

Speaker 3 (01:41:35):
Yeah, that's great. That's a really good story.

Speaker 4 (01:41:37):
That's christ So that's a funny story.

Speaker 1 (01:41:39):
Yeah, yeah, you have you have navigated this thing in
such a way.

Speaker 4 (01:41:49):
Yeah, that was amazing. Was that two hours?

Speaker 1 (01:41:51):
It's close. We were trying to you. But you've navigated
this thing with with with so much grace and so
much class. And to see you now, to see you

(01:42:14):
still evolving, to see you still growing, still surprising us
and showing us new things, it's just like, really dough,
you know what I mean. We we we didn't get
to tap too heavy into the the you know, the
wife and the children in this aspect of But that's
that's a whole another space. That is to where you know,

(01:42:38):
with everything else that you do, like you're in this
super woman super hero space that is just it should
be studied.

Speaker 4 (01:42:49):
I got some work to do. It's not easy, no.

Speaker 1 (01:42:56):
Space, but we get to you know, we get to
see you show up. You get to pull up on
us and and it all looks good on you.

Speaker 4 (01:43:04):
Oh thank you.

Speaker 6 (01:43:06):
I'm just trying to stay young, drink a lot of water, hopefully,
stay in shape, trying to do what these kids need
in their life. It starts show for whoever needs me
to show up for. You know, that's important. But no
matter what, God has just guided me. I always turned
to gout and that's what keeps me and all of
those things going. And I'm just thankful for my longevity

(01:43:26):
and to meet good people and through my lifetime and
be good to people and people be good back and
it always comes back around. So great lesson I've learned
and I'm really happy about it.

Speaker 4 (01:43:36):
Look at us, look at.

Speaker 8 (01:43:37):
Us, look good at look at you.

Speaker 1 (01:43:46):
And this is the Army Money Podcast, the authority on
all things are and be a Superwoman. Family Are outro.

Speaker 4 (01:43:57):
Thank you has been been great. Thank you died that

Speaker 1 (01:44:07):
Yah