Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. Ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 1: Welcome to Quest Love Supreme. Neil's Quest Love. We have
Speaker 1: Teams Supreme with us. This is a morning episode of
Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme. So it would be very interesting to
Speaker 1: see how the energy is this morning.
Speaker 2: Because you know how you doing.
Speaker 3: Tries you ready to go?
Speaker 2: That's an instant Jiff b there. I think it's Kiff.
Speaker 2: It's not Jif. Steve is Jip. Jip is a peanut butter.
Speaker 1: Bro yo man before Money died.
Speaker 2: Before he passed, he told me it was Jiff.
Speaker 4: Hey man, it's just like the thing.
Speaker 2: Come on, man, draw draws. I get it all right,
Speaker 2: all right, I'll roll with the mob.
Speaker 5: Call the creator of the gift.
Speaker 1: The creator of the gift, like he was one of
Speaker 1: the early people to die in the pandemic. But the
Speaker 1: last thing we did together some awards thing, and I
Speaker 1: asked him.
Speaker 2: I didn't even ask him, he says Jiff. I was like,
Speaker 2: how do you know? I was going to ask you?
Speaker 1: Like I get asked this one hundred times a day.
Speaker 1: But then he also said I should have said.
Speaker 2: Gift, but yeah, or used a jay if he wanted it.
Speaker 2: I get it. It's above him now, so you know
Speaker 2: he's not here, so he's above us now. He's oh god,
Speaker 2: all right, So Bill, how you doing? Man?
Speaker 3: I just I just googled it said. He called it
Speaker 3: a gift with a soft g. Choosy developers, he said,
Speaker 3: choose Jiff. This was, of course, a play on the
Speaker 3: peanut butter brand Jeff's line.
Speaker 2: Choosy mothers, choose Jeff. That's all.
Speaker 3: And the Internet never lies, So I'm going gift. I'm fine,
Speaker 3: by the way, thank you very much for asking.
Speaker 2: Well, and thank you and Steve. Yes, I'm good, Fante.
Speaker 4: I'm good, Man, I'm good. Been working. Men just did something,
Speaker 4: but it said, yeah, what are you working on? I
Speaker 4: don't know how much I'm a livinged to say, so
Speaker 4: I let William Bill.
Speaker 2: I'll explain what it happened once. Tell us.
Speaker 3: What it happened was Sponte and his producing partner Zoe
Speaker 3: have created a jam for the children that will air
Speaker 3: sometime in September by very famous, fantastic artist on this
Speaker 3: films today. But we're not allowed to say who that
Speaker 3: person is other than it's gonna be awesome.
Speaker 2: Wait, Fante wrote an Elmo jam. Yeah, I've been right,
Speaker 2: I've been writing.
Speaker 1: Anyway, ladies and gentlemen, I will say that our guest today,
Speaker 1: what's an understatement to say that she is a monster talent,
Speaker 1: as talented as they come. Uh, she's an unworldly singer,
Speaker 1: one of the you know, there's there's people that ooze
Speaker 1: with charisma, and I mean I've probably have been. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think we're our careers are borderline neck and neck.
Speaker 1: So since the roots have been.
Speaker 6: Years older, but that's okay.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but like I just started late.
Speaker 1: Okay, so our guest started when she was two years old. Okay, anyway, Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I'll say that, even if my memory serves me correct,
Speaker 1: whenever the Roots would come to the Bay Area, I
Speaker 1: believe that this person has been kind of a presence
Speaker 1: in the entirety of my career. And even from the
Speaker 1: first moment we've laid eyes on her, like just absolute charisma,
Speaker 1: Like she owned the stage and that's that's something that
Speaker 1: you can't find anywhere pretty much in entertainment.
Speaker 2: Like that's a special gift.
Speaker 1: As of now, as we speak, her eleventh album, entitled
Speaker 1: Good Life, has just been released. By the time it
Speaker 1: gets on the air, it should have been out by then.
Speaker 1: So in addition to a Grammy Award winning music career
Speaker 1: in multiple genres, he's also an actress of stage and screen,
Speaker 1: don't forget, an author, an educator, and an advocate for others.
Speaker 2: And this is a long time coming.
Speaker 1: So welcome to QLs today we have let usy welcome
Speaker 1: to question.
Speaker 6: Thank you so much. What that means a lot just
Speaker 6: hearing you talk about me because I see you DJing
Speaker 6: all the time. You know, I would always go to
Speaker 6: your shows. That's like one of my favorite things.
Speaker 2: I know. This is the thing.
Speaker 1: As long as we've known each other, like, we've never
Speaker 1: had a moment to really just chop it up like
Speaker 1: in every real way. So this is almost like our
Speaker 1: first real, in depth conversation, even though you know, again
Speaker 1: it's it's been several decades.
Speaker 2: And you know this is a long time coming.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 1: Well, I'll ask you because you know today's is the
Speaker 1: what I say, the birth day of your new album.
Speaker 1: Do you still get excited about these things as if
Speaker 1: it were like your children out in the world, or
Speaker 1: like you still get like butterflies and anticipation and excitement
Speaker 1: of presenting it to the world.
Speaker 6: I am so nervous right now, but I really every
Speaker 6: single time. But I think this one even more so
Speaker 6: because of the growth. I never chase relevancy. It's not
Speaker 6: my thing. I love growth and perseverance in history more
Speaker 6: than anything, and so me, I'm always adding colors to
Speaker 6: my version of whoever I am in that era and
Speaker 6: hoping for people to see another side of myself that
Speaker 6: I never get to show. So this is another side
Speaker 6: and kind of full circle, coming back to the root
Speaker 6: of feel good music, like when I started, you know,
Speaker 6: so this one, I'm kind of grown and I don't
Speaker 6: care what people think anymore. I just want to put
Speaker 6: feel good out there. I think we needed it. I
Speaker 6: needed it, And what I'm nervous about is, after three
Speaker 6: years of work, is it enough? You know?
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm so glad you said that, because right now
Speaker 1: we're going through a cycle. I mean, you'll be maybe
Speaker 1: the fourth or fifth artist that we've interviewed in which
Speaker 1: their product is kind of a direct result of whatever
Speaker 1: they learned from the pandemic. This restart thing, like it
Speaker 1: happened with Brittany, with Brittany Howard and also with Green
Speaker 1: Bailey Ray.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like you're seeing these artists who kind of had
Speaker 1: either a pivot or a transformation, or they got to
Speaker 1: know themselves better. They have a lot of self work
Speaker 1: and the creativity that normally went on their product before
Speaker 1: twenty twenty is not the same way as it is now.
Speaker 2: So would you say that for you? That's also the case.
Speaker 6: I think I'm a chameleon every album, though I've always
Speaker 6: been different every project. I think I did a complete
Speaker 6: pivot by doing Lettucey sings Nina when I'm an R
Speaker 6: and B. You know me as an R and B artist,
Speaker 6: but I've seen classical and opera and in French and Italian,
Speaker 6: but I never get to show that in R and B.
Speaker 6: So to me, it's like for me, it's how I feel,
Speaker 6: And a lot of it has to do with ownership,
Speaker 6: being my own under my own label and doing my
Speaker 6: own thing, so I've never had that. The pandemic only
Speaker 6: pushed me forward to be more active in socially active
Speaker 6: online and talking to people. Before I was more like
Speaker 6: just putting stuff out and going away. This is new
Speaker 6: for me, actually talking to people more.
Speaker 2: Wait, so you're not an engager, No, I try to be.
Speaker 6: I've gotten better. Twenty twenty taught me that I have
Speaker 6: my own podcasts. I started talking more to my friends privately,
Speaker 6: but then I'm like, I might as well put this
Speaker 6: out and show people that I'm talking. You know, no
Speaker 6: one knows and knew anything much about me, but you
Speaker 6: seeing me around, you know what I mean. I'm like
Speaker 6: the the oh let Usy said the show, what is
Speaker 6: she doing here?
Speaker 5: You know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Well, you know what, I would have thought the opposite,
Speaker 2: because when you're.
Speaker 6: On stage, that's another thing you do.
Speaker 1: But when you're on stage, you do this like zero
Speaker 1: to one hundred in two seconds. And you know, I'm
Speaker 1: not even trying to blow smoke up your ass or anything,
Speaker 1: but literally like charisma, connecting with the audience, talking to
Speaker 1: the audience, engaging them, telling jokes, yeah, talking about your life.
Speaker 1: Like that's a hard thing to do. Like I avoided
Speaker 1: it all costs, you know what I mean. I hide
Speaker 1: behind a drum set. I hide behind turntables and the
Speaker 1: internet and all these things like where you have to
Speaker 1: be out there. And I just naturally thought there was
Speaker 1: one show I saw where I was like, I will
Speaker 1: be none surprised if you know, you get an OPRAH
Speaker 1: platform just the way that you were doing one on
Speaker 1: one with your your audience. But that's weird to hear
Speaker 1: that in your personal off stage life that you're you're
Speaker 1: saying you're an introvert sort of or worth I'm a little.
Speaker 6: Bit of both, but more so introverted, really shy stage though.
Speaker 6: It's I think of the audience more so. I don't
Speaker 6: think of myself. I think of them and making time
Speaker 6: and moments to come to the show and entertain them
Speaker 6: and be honest and authentic because I wouldn't want to
Speaker 6: pay for that and then put myself in their position.
Speaker 6: But what would I if I'm sitting out there watching
Speaker 6: you guys? I want to be like this, you know
Speaker 6: what I mean. I want feel something. So if I'm
Speaker 6: standing there like glue, just letting it dry, just boring.
Speaker 6: So I always think of put myself in the audience's position.
Speaker 1: Well, look, so if you are shy in your personal life.
Speaker 1: And this is something I'm just discovering maybe in the
Speaker 1: last two or three years and talking to artists like
Speaker 1: on this platform and also just interviewing them in general.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of the general public is rather
Speaker 1: shocked that some artists might have anxiety, social anxiety, that
Speaker 1: sort of thing. And so I'm often finding out that
Speaker 1: they have to sort of psyche themselves up, like a
Speaker 1: half hour before going on stage or like transform into
Speaker 1: a new character, that sort of thing like so what
Speaker 1: is your process to get out of your social shyness
Speaker 1: of non stage life into like what is your process
Speaker 1: like an hour before the before showtime?
Speaker 6: A lot of breathing High Hills does it for me.
Speaker 2: I love wearing, so you become a new character that
Speaker 2: I love.
Speaker 6: High heels, I love makeup. I just love this becoming
Speaker 6: grown woman like energy. It's so good for me. It
Speaker 6: says I belong, It says I'm worthy, it says power,
Speaker 6: and inside my heart is racing. I'm still afraid. But
Speaker 6: I recycle the fear into win and gather tell them
Speaker 6: about who you are, where you come from, the music,
Speaker 6: the root, everything, it's not it's bigger than me. But
Speaker 6: all of that gives me power to just execute the stories.
Speaker 6: We're storytellers, we're creative, so we gotta It's not about us,
Speaker 6: It's about what we're trying to ignite and inspire other people.
Speaker 6: They want to feel something. So I go back to that,
Speaker 6: and but the high Hills six it ashow hold. I
Speaker 6: can get it off even one.
Speaker 3: Keeping clothes again the first the first guest to go
Speaker 3: and grab their shoessal.
Speaker 6: I will fight you.
Speaker 5: That is not a way.
Speaker 6: What that is my uncles? Oh your ankles so much fun.
Speaker 6: That's a whole performance and notes. Yeah, yes, ma'am ninety's
Speaker 6: Warrior ninety minutes. I love a good hell. It makes
Speaker 6: me taller. I'm five five. I need some y'all are.
Speaker 1: Tall short, all right, so noted, I will be writing
Speaker 1: crocks for.
Speaker 6: I have some nice make her some nice high crocks. Me.
Speaker 6: You have some heels with cracks.
Speaker 2: They actually have platform crocks.
Speaker 6: But have some, but they.
Speaker 2: Don't they don't go beyond size fourteen.
Speaker 6: So you know, I don't know. I need.
Speaker 5: I love it.
Speaker 2: It's happening, but I'll produce it.
Speaker 6: Down in two years as well. Do it as long
Speaker 6: as I can watch those hips.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let to see.
Speaker 1: I thought you were born in the Bay Area, but
Speaker 1: I found out I was wrong.
Speaker 2: He tell us where you were born.
Speaker 6: I'm originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, and my family comes
Speaker 6: from the Holly Grove area. I don't have an accent
Speaker 6: because I moved when I was twelve years old to
Speaker 6: the Bay Area, so it's raised in Oakland, East Oakland.
Speaker 6: But when I get mad, my accent comes out really
Speaker 6: nicely bit bad. It gets round.
Speaker 5: A new Ornan's accent.
Speaker 7: Wait, can I ask the question of mirror that I
Speaker 7: feel like we might have to skip because I need
Speaker 7: to know where lettu see anee by day came from.
Speaker 6: It's a year but where my mom named me. It
Speaker 6: comes from a Ochoca song a year but word God,
Speaker 6: my mom loves year of a music and would sing it.
Speaker 6: And that's where the name. It means to bring forth
Speaker 6: is let us see and aniba day means to bring luck,
Speaker 6: so bring forth, bring luck. And so that's my real name.
Speaker 6: My mom and dad named me. They were kind of
Speaker 6: hippies and uh that was their thing, you know. So
Speaker 6: that's where my name comes from.
Speaker 2: Do you remember what was your first musical memory.
Speaker 6: My mom would sing at this park across the street
Speaker 6: with her band, and she had this big afro and
Speaker 6: bell bottoms, blue jeans, bell bottoms in a green shirt
Speaker 6: and some big hoops, and she had this tambourine but
Speaker 6: she would hit it with her hip all the time,
Speaker 6: and I just love every time her hip would move her,
Speaker 6: she'd sing the audience would just I just saw them
Speaker 6: go crazy. I didn't know what that meant, but the
Speaker 6: sound of her voice always would do something here. So
Speaker 6: that memory always, I always remember that before I go
Speaker 6: on stage. But that was my one of my first
Speaker 6: memories of music. The other one is the A track.
Speaker 6: The band would record to the A track and it
Speaker 6: would sit in our room. We had a shotgun house
Speaker 6: to just go straight ahead and in the living room.
Speaker 6: The band would record in the living room and my
Speaker 6: mom would record her vocal part with the A track
Speaker 6: in our bedroom, which was the next room. So I
Speaker 6: would stare at the A track and watch my mom
Speaker 6: record on the edge of the bed. And then when
Speaker 6: they pressed play and her voice came out of it,
Speaker 6: I was just blown away. And that's when I like
Speaker 6: those two memories. That's when I wanted to sing.
Speaker 4: Did your mother does she like make records of you're
Speaker 4: recording artists?
Speaker 6: Or did she just sing? And she was a recording artist.
Speaker 6: She had her own band called car Nova in New Orleans.
Speaker 6: They had their own band. It was interracial race bass
Speaker 6: player guitar. My stepdad played drums. That's why I started
Speaker 6: on the drums. That's why I love watching drummers. That's
Speaker 6: why I became a fan of me. And I would
Speaker 6: watch the way drummers set up their snares. It slanted,
Speaker 6: is it low? Is it below their knees? Like every
Speaker 6: little technical thing. So I started on the drums and
Speaker 6: I would watch them perform rehearse in our bedroom. But
Speaker 6: we were too young to go in the club, so
Speaker 6: they would have the car close to the side door
Speaker 6: so that my mom can babysit while performing, so she
Speaker 6: would do double duty. So I'm a kid from that
Speaker 6: kind of era where they did a lot of performing
Speaker 6: and recording at the same time. But she had her
Speaker 6: own band lead singer, and her and the bass player
Speaker 6: would write songs together all the time.
Speaker 1: Wow, I know you're probably obsessed with Darwy Jones if
Speaker 1: you're trying to figure out drummer angles, because.
Speaker 2: I'm still trying to figure that out right, that's set up.
Speaker 1: It's crazy, Okay, are you still drumming now?
Speaker 6: Like? Do you can paradiddles on a pad when I
Speaker 6: get nervous or things like that? But not Nah. The
Speaker 6: band always trying to make me play, but I won't
Speaker 6: play it. I told you, I get a little nerdy
Speaker 6: on certain times and that's one of them. I don't
Speaker 6: want to play in front of it. I know, like
Speaker 6: an African beat and a James Brown beat. That's all
Speaker 6: I know right now.
Speaker 2: You don't think your audience would go crazy if you
Speaker 2: just suddenly started.
Speaker 5: It was a little especially for afrobeats.
Speaker 6: Let's go. You think I can do it?
Speaker 2: I mean I know you can do it. You know
Speaker 2: you can do it.
Speaker 6: I'm in practice. If you're there, definitely not doing it.
Speaker 2: Do you own a drum set?
Speaker 6: No, I think when we get a bigger house, i'll
Speaker 6: get one. But right now, I'll wait. I have a
Speaker 6: I have a road. It's right there.
Speaker 2: I'm sending you a drum set.
Speaker 6: Really what?
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, you're also helping me because you know I'm
Speaker 1: a hoarder and yeah, the less less boxes I have.
Speaker 6: Well, if you send it, I'll practice and then i'll
Speaker 6: play and record.
Speaker 1: I'm not bullstitting you. I'm trying to get rid of
Speaker 1: these boxes. I'm giving you a drum set.
Speaker 6: So well, thank you. I appreciate it. I love the doms,
Speaker 6: you know what, My monitor's mirror, the rim shot, the
Speaker 6: snare and the kick and my vocal. That's it. That's
Speaker 6: all I have in my my monitor ears. Everyone's like,
Speaker 6: you're crazy. I'm like, I need to beat Yeah.
Speaker 2: I know this, No, this, this is great. I encourage
Speaker 2: this highly. I encourage What was the first album that
Speaker 2: you owned?
Speaker 6: First album? My own Thriller, Purple Rain was there? Those
Speaker 6: two was what I had, But.
Speaker 2: Thriller was allowed to listen to Purple Rain.
Speaker 6: I snuck it in.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm just gonna say, sneak it in.
Speaker 1: I think I think we've had one guest on the
Speaker 1: show that was like freely allowed to listen to Prince
Speaker 1: in their childhood, Like Prince wasn't contraband after the.
Speaker 6: Movie, they let it go because we had saw the movie.
Speaker 6: It's a rap, you know. The Thriller was the one
Speaker 6: that was the that.
Speaker 2: Was okay, what about your first content?
Speaker 6: I didn't you know my during my time, we couldn't go.
Speaker 6: It was run DMC, a fresh vest. It was, yes,
Speaker 6: we couldn't go. I couldn't go. My parents wouldn't let
Speaker 6: us go. So I have my little General Electric radio
Speaker 6: and I would just play the cassette on the porch
Speaker 6: and just listen like that and pretend like we were there.
Speaker 6: But I didn't go to a concert until I was
Speaker 6: in college and the first concert, yes did never had
Speaker 6: never been a concert. My first concert was Dian Reeves
Speaker 6: opening for George Benson in Sonoma somewhere. It was a date.
Speaker 6: This guy took me on a date. That's I got
Speaker 6: to go to a concert. Crazy, right.
Speaker 1: It's funny you said that because for some reason three
Speaker 1: days ago, what was the song about Grandma better Days? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know why I had this need to hear
Speaker 1: that song, like it was always on radio when I
Speaker 1: was in high school.
Speaker 5: Really, oh god.
Speaker 1: That was like I forgot there was a time in
Speaker 1: which like Diane Reeves had like the number one song
Speaker 1: on Power ninety nine, like and that was the thing
Speaker 1: that also.
Speaker 4: Likely record and also kind of a Piano in the
Speaker 4: Dark by.
Speaker 8: Brenda Roshrenda Russell Yeah, yeah, era, well that still gets
Speaker 8: played on like Piano the Dark has this travel to
Speaker 8: well I don't call it yacht rock radio, but whatever,
Speaker 8: like yeah, yeah, wherever when you're in CVS at three
Speaker 8: in the morning.
Speaker 7: That's one of the best albums of all time, the
Speaker 7: Russell album.
Speaker 1: It is tell us about your your musical development, Like
Speaker 1: do you have any siblings or is it just you?
Speaker 6: I have an older sister, a younger sister, and on
Speaker 6: my dad's side, I have I have eleven and I
Speaker 6: think I'm twelve. I'm twelve in there in that mix.
Speaker 6: I know you're interviewing, but I wanted to ask you
Speaker 6: about when we did the VH one Anita.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna get to that. I'm gonna get that.
Speaker 6: I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: That is all right, all right, let's just have it now,
Speaker 1: all right, I'm trying to rap up to this. You know,
Speaker 1: the thing for me is, as an artist, the two
Speaker 1: things that I look forward to most in life is
Speaker 1: when someone puts me onto an album that will later
Speaker 1: like change my life and all that stuff. So, I mean,
Speaker 1: I've had that a few times, you know, like Jill
Speaker 1: handing me her record, Oh shit, Fonte handed me his
Speaker 1: you know, the the Little Brother album or record blow
Speaker 1: or whatever. But the only thing that tops that for
Speaker 1: me is when I witnessed a star is Born moment
Speaker 1: and to see what transpired that day. Now we're doing
Speaker 1: VH on'es uh.
Speaker 2: It's not women who rockets, it's is a divas. Was
Speaker 2: it Divas?
Speaker 6: I think I can't remember. Yeah, I think it was
Speaker 6: Divas R and B Divs.
Speaker 1: And I've told many stories of whenever I'm put in
Speaker 1: those situations in which you got to curate a bunch
Speaker 1: of artists.
Speaker 2: That's the first.
Speaker 1: Time, like, but even before Hip Hop fifty, that's the
Speaker 1: first time I had to learn that it's not just
Speaker 1: about music, but you also have to manage artists in
Speaker 1: general personalities, personalities which I didn't know. Now the first
Speaker 1: half of the story kind of isn't mine to tell
Speaker 1: all the pieces of the jinga fell down with seconds
Speaker 1: left on the clock and or when I say seconds
Speaker 1: left on the clock, I mean, you know, in TV world,
Speaker 1: one should at least thoroughly kind of you know, at
Speaker 1: least have three a minimum of three hours of working
Speaker 1: out kinks and whatnot. I mean, we probably had all
Speaker 1: of twenty seven minutes before we started taping, and.
Speaker 2: You know, we have a giant, gaping hole of.
Speaker 1: Space left that needed to be filled, which is who's
Speaker 1: gonna now sing sweet love? You know you did it
Speaker 1: in such Now I realize that, Yeah, you're telling the
Speaker 1: truth about your shyness because you kind.
Speaker 2: Of very don't.
Speaker 1: Was Sondra there as well or was it just you?
Speaker 6: No, it was me and Sindra. Yeah, because I had
Speaker 6: done a tribute ever on television.
Speaker 2: That was like, right, first, first, correct me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 1: What were you initially there for Aaron Jones, Karen Jones. Yes,
Speaker 1: what I do remember was I didn't go to you first.
Speaker 1: I think I went to Sundra.
Speaker 6: No, Marcia, right, Oh, you went to Sundra to talk
Speaker 6: to her?
Speaker 1: Yes, right, I mean, well she was there in proximity
Speaker 1: because she was also like, were you there to watch
Speaker 1: the rehearsal?
Speaker 6: Yeah, we were trying to watch rehearsal, and then we
Speaker 6: got kicked out of a room and we went back
Speaker 6: to our dressing room and stayed out of the way,
Speaker 6: which is what I love to do.
Speaker 2: Because I'll wait all I'm going to say.
Speaker 1: The only thing I'm going to say, I don't know
Speaker 1: if I ever shared this part of the story. So again, yes,
Speaker 1: the initial plan for that moment was in motion, like
Speaker 1: both artists were on stage and verse and the parts
Speaker 1: and whatnot.
Speaker 2: And then this is the craziest.
Speaker 1: Real moment of all time I've ever witnessed an artist
Speaker 1: due and I'm respectfully recapitulating the story, So.
Speaker 7: You are so respectful right now, I can't even understand
Speaker 7: the story.
Speaker 2: Look after I'm losing my mind.
Speaker 5: I'm like, I need to get a less respectful remix.
Speaker 1: Yes, story, I know that we're about that, but I've
Speaker 1: already been roasted by another artist, by her other group members.
Speaker 1: I was the wicked boy, and I had nothing to
Speaker 1: do with it.
Speaker 2: You know. Again it's it's above me.
Speaker 1: But anyway, the whole point was that there was a
Speaker 1: moment right after the bridge in which the song started
Speaker 1: to go rogue, and Anita Baker decided that this moment's
Speaker 1: not going to go down. She literally like, so go
Speaker 1: after the bridge of Sweet Love, like, and she's walking
Speaker 1: down the stairs, she's singing. Then she puts her coat
Speaker 1: on and she's still singing the song. And then we
Speaker 1: get to the chorus and she's putting a pocketbook on
Speaker 1: and then she's like walking down to the audience.
Speaker 2: You know, we're camera blocking and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: Yo, She sang the last of those ad libs, walked
Speaker 1: out the door, hailed the cab, and it went straight
Speaker 1: to the airport.
Speaker 5: Like but that was rehearsal though, right, that was I
Speaker 5: mean it.
Speaker 1: Was it was camera blocking for a show we were
Speaker 1: gonna shoot in two hours, like the average person would
Speaker 1: have been like, hey, stop the song, guys. I appreciate this,
Speaker 1: but I cannot do this. I'm leaving goodbye. She didn't
Speaker 1: do that, like she literally sang the song and then
Speaker 1: like the way mister Rogers like puts a sweater on,
Speaker 1: and she put her coat on.
Speaker 5: You see, did you see?
Speaker 6: No, I wasn't in the room. We were kicked We
Speaker 6: were kicked out way before the song even started.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a lot of drama.
Speaker 1: And but seriously, when I think at what point she
Speaker 1: ye had govern her mouth like this, like she put
Speaker 1: her pocketbook on and all that stuff, and but still
Speaker 1: doing it for Bata swing and and she was like
Speaker 1: in the vest of you. She left the theater still
Speaker 1: singing with the microphone in the rest of you. And
Speaker 1: then she walked out of the hammersteam Ballroom, and I'm
Speaker 1: looking at Nelson George like, wait, what's going on here?
Speaker 1: But the way she left, I've never seen a person
Speaker 1: with a cordless microphone.
Speaker 2: Walk out the building, start on the stage, walk in
Speaker 2: the audience, then walked the rest of you. Like that's wow.
Speaker 6: It sounds accurate though, Yeah, m h.
Speaker 1: James James James boys and hang on, hang on, wait wait,
Speaker 1: Dame Steak.
Speaker 2: James, Yes, were you with us for VH one? Divas
Speaker 2: Anita shut up? Uh, I think I do something from
Speaker 2: old man brain. I think you know, James, that you're
Speaker 2: just afraid to I think I remember hearing about this.
Speaker 2: Was that not playing keyboards? Who else would play keyboards? Yeah?
Speaker 6: I don't know either. I can't.
Speaker 2: He wasn't in the loop like that. It was you
Speaker 2: were definitely there.
Speaker 5: It was a long time ago.
Speaker 2: Maybe it was Omar. Yes, Oh yeah, I do remember that.
Speaker 2: Wait what I feel like I'm having.
Speaker 1: I'm feeling like I'm having a little boy that cried
Speaker 1: wolf moment. I'm telling him the way that you would
Speaker 1: need a baker left the stage. I've never seen someone
Speaker 1: walk off the stage still singing.
Speaker 2: Grap her coat, still singing her pocketbook.
Speaker 1: Sheoot a stick of gum and literally ad libbed herself
Speaker 1: into a cab, went to the airport, and I asked
Speaker 1: Nelson George, I'm like, wait, what happened?
Speaker 2: And he was like, she went home, And I'm like,
Speaker 2: she was a luggage like she literally I do remember that.
Speaker 2: I do. I do remember that when you.
Speaker 6: Asked when they said the room started buzzing around that
Speaker 6: she left. Yes, and we were backstage going what's going on?
Speaker 6: And they were like, no, Anita Baker left. I was like, what,
Speaker 6: I wanted to meet her? Why did she leave? She
Speaker 6: coming back though? Right? They were like, no, she's not
Speaker 6: coming back. They're trying to call her. So I and
Speaker 6: when you came to my room to ask me about
Speaker 6: singing it. When you finally showed up, I was like,
Speaker 6: why is chues Love coming to my room? What I do?
Speaker 5: And I thought it was the trouble I was.
Speaker 6: I didn't do anything, and then you came in and explained,
Speaker 6: we need But this is the thing I didn't tell
Speaker 6: you is that after you asked me, I called ab
Speaker 6: Queen Anita Baker and said, can you police come back?
Speaker 2: We would love it.
Speaker 6: Even after you asked me, because I felt, you know,
Speaker 6: I love honoring our grades no matter what. And if
Speaker 6: you asked me to do their song, I always call
Speaker 6: them and say, hey, I'm gonna be performing your song.
Speaker 6: That's just something I do. But I felt weird a
Speaker 6: little bit, so I called her and said, hey, are
Speaker 6: you all right? Just checking on you. She was like,
Speaker 6: I'm fine, going home. I was. She didn't she didn't
Speaker 6: tell me what went on. She didn't say anything. She
Speaker 6: just said baby. I said, well, they're asking me to
Speaker 6: sing your song and I was hoping you would sing it,
Speaker 6: and I thought you were singing it with another artist.
Speaker 6: I would love for you to she and I hope
Speaker 6: she wasn't thinking that you put me up to that.
Speaker 6: That was just saying please come back because it's VH
Speaker 6: one and it was you know, and she was like,
Speaker 6: do a great job, honey, You're gonna be great.
Speaker 2: But I do.
Speaker 6: And that's all I heard. And I didn't ask her
Speaker 6: what went on. It was none of my business to know.
Speaker 6: My job was trying to get her to come come back.
Speaker 6: And because I knew a whole nother generation wanted to
Speaker 6: see that because she hadn't been on television along and
Speaker 6: it was a big event to see that.
Speaker 7: So hey, ps, just real quick because I know he's
Speaker 7: going to try to get out of here like Peter
Speaker 7: on The Family Guy, James Poyser, can we get your
Speaker 7: commitment to being a guest on Quest left the premium
Speaker 7: the next two months?
Speaker 6: Please?
Speaker 2: So she meet Homer Simpson.
Speaker 7: Homer Simpson, I'm sorry, you're right wrong guy.
Speaker 2: How much your pain?
Speaker 1: James do an episode already?
Speaker 2: Fred Havin. He was.
Speaker 3: He was in his sam ash basement. Remember I love you?
Speaker 3: Let us.
Speaker 2: Wait? Can I ask a.
Speaker 3: Question about the needed Baker thing? Were James? At any
Speaker 3: point did the band look at each other and be like, where.
Speaker 2: The need a go? Was that?
Speaker 3: Or it is just like it didn't matter.
Speaker 2: It was just she was gone. No, I'm gonna tell
Speaker 2: you why.
Speaker 1: Because the thing is the way that the stage was
Speaker 1: built kind of like a pyramid thing, and I'm at
Speaker 1: the top.
Speaker 2: And what was supposed to happen.
Speaker 1: Is these two, these two were supposed to saunter down
Speaker 1: these long ass stairs left and right, singing together.
Speaker 2: There's this sort of rosy ending to this thing.
Speaker 1: And the whole thing was that when I think Sondra
Speaker 1: was next to me and I asked, I see Sondra,
Speaker 1: I think she said or someone from your team was like, oh,
Speaker 1: let's you knows that song like the back of her hand.
Speaker 2: She will kill that Baker fan.
Speaker 6: She's also one of my greatest mentors and friends. I
Speaker 6: love it. Maybe there might be things, you know to me,
Speaker 6: every artist has a thing, they had their cork and
Speaker 6: what they need and require to be comfortable. I don't
Speaker 6: know what the situation was I'm just saying, and everybody
Speaker 6: got a thing, they got quirks.
Speaker 5: You know, you wasn't even going there with this conversation.
Speaker 6: What was your I wanted to know for Emir doing
Speaker 6: that kind of show, the mass it was so massive
Speaker 6: with so many women, like it was R and B
Speaker 6: and soul that night, you know what I mean. It
Speaker 6: was huge for me, and I wanted to ask him,
Speaker 6: having that control over that kind of playlist and all
Speaker 6: these artists in one room, what was that like for you? Well,
Speaker 6: you answered it, But that's why I wanted to bring
Speaker 6: it up, like, because that was the first time I said,
Speaker 6: come out of being the drummer to being like a conductor.
Speaker 2: Run whipping bag. You want to know something funny though, Well,
Speaker 2: you know something funny.
Speaker 1: That was the second most stressful moment of a night
Speaker 1: because I had another situation backstage with a Mota legend whom,
Speaker 1: like drummers will all always get no pun intended the
Speaker 1: short end of the stick, mainly from singers who now
Speaker 1: I understand that if there's certain insecurities lying under, usually
Speaker 1: when a person wants to micromanage tempo or that's not right,
Speaker 1: there's another issue at hand, you know, that that's not
Speaker 1: about the song's too fast or you're playing it too slow.
Speaker 1: So you know, I was dealing with another drama with
Speaker 1: a motown legend that she browbeat me, and she did
Speaker 1: it something so smooth, like I'm drumming behind her and
Speaker 1: at one point she's so on.
Speaker 2: She sings something, sings the chorus and turns around says
Speaker 2: kill you.
Speaker 6: Oh no, a mirror R and B is a whole
Speaker 6: nother beast. It has you know this samir is so different, right.
Speaker 1: So no, just to let you know that, like that
Speaker 1: situation with the needle was sort of like that was
Speaker 1: in second place. There's something else I was dealing with.
Speaker 1: It taught me to be careful what you asked for.
Speaker 1: And also I'll say that surviving that prepared me for.
Speaker 2: Hip hop fifty.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 1: You know I've told our listeners that, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I've lost the body part uh because of the stress
Speaker 1: of that. But that's also that's also me not you know,
Speaker 1: advocating for myself and volunteering to be a whipping boy.
Speaker 2: But I.
Speaker 5: Said, that's what I said.
Speaker 2: The main one I told you all my tooth fell out.
Speaker 7: We all smoke and drink, so we be forgetting the camera,
Speaker 7: you know, with our brother.
Speaker 5: But you know, we just still.
Speaker 2: And we can put this to bed. Let me put
Speaker 2: the cheery on top.
Speaker 1: And say that you came out with twenty seven minutes left.
Speaker 2: You ran through that song.
Speaker 1: And it was the most beautiful thing ever, even to
Speaker 1: the detriment of not seeing that magic moment happen. What
Speaker 1: that taught me was one I said to myself, like wow,
Speaker 1: like I rarely see an artist that's like ready for
Speaker 1: their close up, and for me, that was the stars
Speaker 1: born moment, because like you were trending number one when
Speaker 1: that aired, and it was a whole nother comment. It
Speaker 1: was as if people just discovered you for real, and
Speaker 1: it was such a moment where I was like, that's
Speaker 1: that's the way it was meant to be.
Speaker 6: Honestly, I was scared to death and I because I
Speaker 6: didn't have time to do what I normally do prepare, overthink,
Speaker 6: I know, overthink, and I just did it. Marcia Ambrosius
Speaker 6: did it too, and I was happy to have her
Speaker 6: there as well to help sing part of the other part.
Speaker 6: But you were like so happy. I was honored to
Speaker 6: finish out what you had started and do my best,
Speaker 6: but I was freaked out, but I did try to
Speaker 6: get a B back. I did. I didn't know what
Speaker 6: was going on. I was out the dark, out of
Speaker 6: the room. Still don't know what happened, but I'm just.
Speaker 2: Having euros up here.
Speaker 6: Your face though that night, well that's why I wanted
Speaker 6: to ask why it was So how was it for you?
Speaker 6: Because your face was you wore out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't know about meditation. Job.
Speaker 6: You did a wonderful job. I have to.
Speaker 5: Say, y'all, is this the BT Award twenty eighteen?
Speaker 6: Oh it was VH one.
Speaker 5: So you didn't say Anita Baker sweet love?
Speaker 6: A couple of times I did, but I didn't do
Speaker 6: I did it first with a mirror.
Speaker 7: That was making sure because I know people are listening,
Speaker 7: They're like, how which one is?
Speaker 5: I want to find it't not that.
Speaker 6: So that was the first tribute I had ever done.
Speaker 6: I do a lot of tributes, but that was the
Speaker 6: first one on a big platform like that. It was
Speaker 6: all R and B people, soul, R and B. The
Speaker 6: lineup was incredible. I couldn't believe I was there.
Speaker 5: I was still rmb das.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So did you notice a paradigm shift after that?
Speaker 1: Moment, Absolutely tell me about it, because I still maintained that,
Speaker 1: you know, one, you trended the entire night it was
Speaker 1: on and just reading all the comments, like people were
Speaker 1: really engaged with how you handled it and they loved it.
Speaker 2: So what happened after that moment?
Speaker 6: They were my shows got bigger, more people started wanting
Speaker 6: to know more about me. But I wasn't really social,
Speaker 6: like I said earlier, we didn't have enough of that.
Speaker 6: I didn't even know what trending was. I was too
Speaker 6: busy surviving as independent artists, you know. But I noticed
Speaker 6: in the club environment more people were coming out to
Speaker 6: my shows after that, and there was a level of respect.
Speaker 6: But I also got called to do more tributes, so
Speaker 6: it kind of opened the door for that, which I
Speaker 6: was like, what is going on?
Speaker 1: Yeah, You've done a lot besides Anita Baker. Who are
Speaker 1: your north stars in terms of you know, who you
Speaker 1: look to as far as like your your vocal idols.
Speaker 6: Or like I wanted to be an opera singer. So
Speaker 6: Leontine was one of the biggest uh Dinah Washington because
Speaker 6: there would be no Aretha without Dinah. She was a
Speaker 6: big influence for Aretha and then of course Aretha Franklin
Speaker 6: because she could sing, She sunk, sung everything, and I
Speaker 6: love uh. My mother was a huge influence. It starts
Speaker 6: at home for me. She had the most beautiful soprano voice.
Speaker 6: And when she had cancer in the throat, and she
Speaker 6: survived and and won, but she her voice got lower.
Speaker 6: She was worried and said, Mama, you gonna sing. You
Speaker 6: could sing an out good old alto and tenna. You'll
Speaker 6: be fine, you know so. But she's one of my
Speaker 6: biggest inspirations, is my mother, because without her, I wouldn't
Speaker 6: have been introduced to all these other vocalists. And I
Speaker 6: love Patsy Kaine. She's another big voice, storyteller. We forget
Speaker 6: country is like not that everybody's having that country talk.
Speaker 6: I've been on it. My mom listened to Willie Nelson
Speaker 6: and Bob Dylan. I was like, Mom, why they can't
Speaker 6: really sing. She's like, it's the stories, you know. She's like,
Speaker 6: the stories are the thing. So I was the nerdy,
Speaker 6: weird kid that liked all the opposite. I didn't start
Speaker 6: at the church. I got the church stuff later when
Speaker 6: we moved to Oakland and I met the Hawkins and
Speaker 6: Darryl Coley, and.
Speaker 2: Learned that church.
Speaker 6: My mom did. She was in their choir, so we would.
Speaker 6: I would visit here and there. But I wasn't a
Speaker 6: church I'm not a church girl. I loved the nerdy.
Speaker 6: We were raised Catholics, so we were Mama me more.
Speaker 6: You know, we didn't do all the squalling. I learned
Speaker 6: all of that because Tremaine said, come on, baby squall.
Speaker 6: And my mom grew up Baptist, so I heard her voice.
Speaker 6: That's where I got it from. Do you know what
Speaker 6: I mean? I'm the Yeah, she taught me how to
Speaker 6: do my first squaw. She was in the studio. You go,
Speaker 6: like the squaw all that you asking and I ain't
Speaker 6: doing that now.
Speaker 2: But wait, if you know what Jamaine. Have you ever
Speaker 2: met Lynette Stephen Hawkins?
Speaker 6: Oh, absolutely met her as well.
Speaker 1: She like, man, like, just listen to all that records,
Speaker 1: like you never see pressed on any of them.
Speaker 6: So she had her own church. So they're really quiet,
Speaker 6: you know, they're nerds like well, I can't say like us,
Speaker 6: but yeah, I guess they like us, right you can, yeah,
Speaker 6: I can't, okay, but yeah, they're really quiet. But you
Speaker 6: know people who were loved the music and they keep
Speaker 6: it there. They love being private as well. Not all
Speaker 6: of us like to be in the front.
Speaker 1: I'll say that the number one scene that I really
Speaker 1: regret that I had to drop what in Summer Soul was?
Speaker 1: I mean, yes, they taught me off the ledgend I
Speaker 1: put O Happy Day in, but really there was there.
Speaker 1: There was a solo between uh Tremaine Walter and Lynette
Speaker 1: when they were teenagers, when they were you know, like.
Speaker 2: Nineteen years old. So that's one of the scenes I
Speaker 2: had to drop.
Speaker 6: You know what I wanted to say about someone's soul,
Speaker 6: Luther Vandross is a huge influence. Why didn't you put
Speaker 6: Luther such a good question?
Speaker 2: Because Luther was ace an eighteen year old.
Speaker 7: Nobody air quotes, nobody taped it, didn't it a little singer?
Speaker 2: And they were like, well, we're running out of tape.
Speaker 1: So you know that that local Harlem band with Luther
Speaker 1: Vanros and Phonsie Thornton and practically Luther's whole entire crew
Speaker 1: from listening to my brother oops they yeah. They also
Speaker 1: the weird thing was the same the same people that
Speaker 1: shot A Summer of Soul, we're also the same people
Speaker 1: that shot the pilot of Sesame Street, and so to them,
Speaker 1: Luthor was just like Luther was the first musical guest
Speaker 1: on Sesame Street because of the band he was in
Speaker 1: singing about the number twenty.
Speaker 2: I searched tying Low. There was no good footage of
Speaker 2: Luther at all.
Speaker 1: The last time we had a singer of your caliber
Speaker 1: or your vocal prowess, I'll say that's one of the
Speaker 1: unfortunate episodes in which the audio didn't work. Are that
Speaker 1: you're talking about, Well, you're saying it. I was just finally,
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna ask again. I want you to not
Speaker 1: not to spell a myth, but the way that singers
Speaker 1: have these very specific requirements for their their vocal to
Speaker 1: be open. I'm very cynical, and I believe that's psychosomatic.
Speaker 1: But I've heard like Fante clap back every now and
Speaker 1: then by saying like, no, that's real.
Speaker 2: But he explains me what is the deal.
Speaker 1: With like with the artists that are you know, they
Speaker 1: can't have air conditioning on because they're voice up.
Speaker 6: This is real it Your vocal cords will clam up
Speaker 6: from the cold air. I have gotten sick. I remember
Speaker 6: singing what was it called Biscuits and Blues in New
Speaker 6: York whatever that is where.
Speaker 1: I want some biscuits and blues.
Speaker 6: But it's closed now. I literally the air conditioning was
Speaker 6: right here, blowing into my face as I'm opening my mouth.
Speaker 6: It just dried my vocals out, and you can hear
Speaker 6: as I'm singing the show, my voice slowly go away cracks.
Speaker 6: Everything I said, can you turn the air off? They
Speaker 6: wouldn't turn it off because it was too It was underground.
Speaker 6: It was a club in New York on Broadway, but
Speaker 6: I can't remember the name of it. But it's gone now.
Speaker 6: It just took my vocals out and we had to
Speaker 6: stop the show. It's better when it's warm, it keeps
Speaker 6: it fluid. I don't want to sound gross, but you
Speaker 6: need it to be in there. You need water, you
Speaker 6: need moisture, you need you need your vocal courts. They're
Speaker 6: really thin and they have to flap. You should know that.
Speaker 2: Come on with the I don't sing.
Speaker 6: You yell yeah, I've heard you many times.
Speaker 2: No, But it's just I don't know.
Speaker 1: There's certain I'll look at the writers of singers and
Speaker 1: you know some things I'll know like, okay, well they
Speaker 1: need lemon and honey and dad whatever.
Speaker 6: But yeah, I get it too.
Speaker 1: So do you have a warm up process before you
Speaker 1: get on stage or yeah.
Speaker 6: I don't talk it all. I do the Celine Dion thing.
Speaker 6: My room is at eighty eighty degrees like Luther and.
Speaker 5: The sweat stole.
Speaker 6: Yeah, the sweat is good. I sing all the high notes. Knows,
Speaker 6: he knows. It just feels good. It makes you ready
Speaker 6: to go.
Speaker 7: It's funny fun They do be sweating, and it'll be
Speaker 7: hot when I go see him sing on stage, that
Speaker 7: might be.
Speaker 6: And then I have a steamer. I steam my vocal cords.
Speaker 6: See that's heat, and it's making it loose and everything opens,
Speaker 6: all your chests. It's kind of like when you put
Speaker 6: vapor rub all over and it goes. That's how you
Speaker 6: want your vocal cords to stay open. So it is
Speaker 6: a real thing for me. The good ones, the real
Speaker 6: singers do that kind of stuff. The one that sing
Speaker 6: like classical. They don't like all that because by the
Speaker 6: time you're on the stage too, it's freezing cold, so
Speaker 6: you might as well stay warm. So that's what I do, okay,
Speaker 6: And I don't drink a lot of liquids, and I yeah,
Speaker 6: the steaming is incredible. I also opera singer turned me
Speaker 6: onto the CITRONTI. That's really good. But I love that.
Speaker 3: You transitioned to theater like all your theatrical work, both
Speaker 3: in solo shows and kyliner change and blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 3: What was the impetus behind that? Why so why go there?
Speaker 6: To survive? To pay bills? In the Bay Area, before
Speaker 6: I became an artist, that you know is let us see,
Speaker 6: I was waiting tables and working at a place called
Speaker 6: Beach Blanket, Babylon where you wear these big hats. I
Speaker 6: auditioned when I was eighteen years old, right out of
Speaker 6: high school, and I was going to college at the
Speaker 6: same time working in theater. And luckily with theater, I
Speaker 6: learned how to reach past four rows and not just
Speaker 6: perform right here. Now I can fill the whole room
Speaker 6: with my voice and all that because of theater. But
Speaker 6: I had to do it to pay bills, to survive.
Speaker 6: I was waiting tables at the same time. After my
Speaker 6: thea gig, I leave at eleven thirty and go rush
Speaker 6: to my gig. That everybody would go see me underground
Speaker 6: at Cafe Denor with one hundred people in the room,
Speaker 6: so they would wait for me for two hours, and
Speaker 6: I would rush there after doing the theater gig with
Speaker 6: full makeup on, so that I can pay bills, do
Speaker 6: what I love and do what I need to do
Speaker 6: at the same time. So did you finish school? Huh?
Speaker 5: Did you finish school?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 6: I did not.
Speaker 5: Where'd you go?
Speaker 6: I went to cal State Heyward and I studied at
Speaker 6: UC Berkeley in the summers during high school. So, because
Speaker 6: like I said, I'm a nerd, loved all that classical
Speaker 6: music there. That's where I studied. But yeah, I never
Speaker 6: finished because I had to survive, had to pay bills
Speaker 6: and be I left home at eighteen. Like I said,
Speaker 6: I left home at eighteen and took care of myself
Speaker 6: and school and waiting tables. But theater was I love
Speaker 6: acting because I did it in high school and to
Speaker 6: be able to do cabaret shows. And then I was
Speaker 6: going to quit the music industry because I had been
Speaker 6: in it for as independent artist for two years and nothing.
Speaker 6: I just kept spending all my money and when I
Speaker 6: was quitting, I only had two suitcases in a house
Speaker 6: that I got a commercial off of doing a Sprint commercial.
Speaker 6: At the time when Sprint existed, all Sprint it hasn't
Speaker 6: Sprint back in the day, but I'm the same time,
Speaker 6: I miss on my side and I got you.
Speaker 2: Hello, what year was this?
Speaker 6: It was like around two thousand and man, was it
Speaker 6: two thousand and two?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 4: Okay, okay, thousand and.
Speaker 6: Two or three after two thousand and three. Yeah, because
Speaker 6: Feeling Orange had came out after that.
Speaker 7: You didn't have to audition for that. They found they
Speaker 7: just knew you, they knew your voice, and they were like,
Speaker 7: I was.
Speaker 6: Still I was teaching during the day sometime middle schools
Speaker 6: and going carrying instruments around. I mean, I was trying
Speaker 6: to make money. You're on your own. But I would
Speaker 6: also audition for voiceovers to do children's books and children things,
Speaker 6: and I ended up getting that Sprint commercial that way
Speaker 6: through someone who, hey, what a friend of mine needs
Speaker 6: a voice for this. I didn't know what it was for.
Speaker 6: I just sang it, and then the little check start
Speaker 6: rolling in.
Speaker 5: I was like, oh, I know.
Speaker 6: There, you know that's that's that's how I mean. My
Speaker 6: living was teaching and waiting tables and it's crazy, and
Speaker 6: doing gigs late at night and cabaret shows.
Speaker 7: People act like the first time they saw you on
Speaker 7: screen acting was the I want to say the Nina
Speaker 7: short that you did the women, Oh yeah, yeah right
Speaker 7: with a shout out to Lisa Cortez and Gabby Sabe.
Speaker 5: Right who were behind it before.
Speaker 7: Years Yeah, talk about that. I wanted you to talk
Speaker 7: about that because I was like, did that come first?
Speaker 7: And then the Nina album? Like you and Nina got
Speaker 7: some things going on?
Speaker 6: Well? The first uh, Gabby was inspired by my Nina
Speaker 6: Simone tribute that I did with Black Girls Rock. So
Speaker 6: that was the second time I ever been on television,
Speaker 6: was doing another tribute and I came in saying I
Speaker 6: want to be Peaches. I was like, I gotta do
Speaker 6: the Peaches part. And they could have kicked me out,
Speaker 6: you know what I mean, But I was like, I
Speaker 6: knew what part I wanted to sing, and it was me,
Speaker 6: Jill Scott, Marsha Ambrosius, and Kelly Price. So I sang
Speaker 6: Peaches and then Gabby said the writer and Gabby and
Speaker 6: a couple of producers they were saying they were inspired
Speaker 6: by that and they wrote me into that short and
Speaker 6: they always wanted me to play that role. Later and
Speaker 6: years later, I would meet Gabby just in passing with
Speaker 6: Lee Daniels hanging out and she said, I got a
Speaker 6: part for you, and that was the role in the
Speaker 6: four Women short that we did. It was amazing. Gabby's
Speaker 6: a great director.
Speaker 5: That debut too at a black Star shout out to
Speaker 5: me or too dope.
Speaker 6: I loved it.
Speaker 1: So, speaking of which, can you talk about the moments
Speaker 1: that led up to you playing Maheleia Jackson and remember
Speaker 1: me and what that was like?
Speaker 6: By the way, thank you. I said no to that
Speaker 6: role a couple of times, but.
Speaker 2: The I love Why did you say no? Initially?
Speaker 6: Because I had did it in Selma, you know, the
Speaker 6: little snippet I did, and I wanted to so many
Speaker 6: other people were doing it, so I didn't want to
Speaker 6: be a part of that, you know, the Mahela thing,
Speaker 6: because I already did it, and uh, I wanted there's
Speaker 6: another role I wanted to do one day. So I
Speaker 6: was just waiting for a bigger debut, you know. But
Speaker 6: I love the director so much, Erica, Erica, the producer,
Speaker 6: to I mean, the whole team, Erica is amazing. I
Speaker 6: just wanted to be a part of it. After I
Speaker 6: met them, we met on a zoom and I said,
Speaker 6: that's it. I got do it and ended up doing it.
Speaker 6: It was amazing to dive into Mahelia. We had so
Speaker 6: much in common, like being from New Orleans but transported
Speaker 6: into another city and then coming trying to come back
Speaker 6: to pour into New Orleans, and it was just amazing
Speaker 6: role to sing, but it was it was enormous because
Speaker 6: you have you have to sing gospel music and they
Speaker 6: don't play at all, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 6: it wore me out. And then I had to gain
Speaker 6: a little weight because the director wanted me a little
Speaker 6: you know. She said, Mahellya, it was bigger. And when
Speaker 6: I saw Summer and Soul, I said, oh wow, I
Speaker 6: had never seen her like you know that you gave
Speaker 6: us her and I was and I was so happy
Speaker 6: my heart. I was like, there she is. And I
Speaker 6: before I did even sell my visitor a grave, like
Speaker 6: I said, I told you, I honored ancestors. I was
Speaker 6: in New Orleans. I said, I want to know more
Speaker 6: about her, was researching and I went to a grave
Speaker 6: and visitor and thanked her. And then that's when I
Speaker 6: got Selma. And here she is again. Like the answers
Speaker 6: is to me, they call I, let stuff happen to me.
Speaker 6: I just do the work and get out the way.
Speaker 6: That's why I got Nina, That's why I got all
Speaker 6: these tributes. They just happened, and I don't ask for them.
Speaker 6: I say no to all the time. I say no, no, no,
Speaker 6: and then you have to do the work. Finish, finish.
Speaker 5: The work is their favorite experience.
Speaker 7: I just wanted to know, because you did mention a
Speaker 7: couple of times that you've been called to honor a
Speaker 7: few times. But I just got to know, like, was
Speaker 7: there a favorite experience and why.
Speaker 6: My two favorite tributes I've ever done is Shaka and
Speaker 6: it It. It's still Shaka, that Shaka tribute. People are
Speaker 6: still talking about it. You can go online now.
Speaker 5: No, I've seen it live. I just forgot because I smoke,
Speaker 5: but I.
Speaker 6: Got it that that was years ago and it's still amazing.
Speaker 6: That was my favorite only because she was the first
Speaker 6: person to bring me back out of quitting the business,
Speaker 6: meaning she was the first, one of the first artists,
Speaker 6: her and Rachelle Farrell. But Shaka let me open for
Speaker 6: her and gave me a gig, and that's what made
Speaker 6: me want to come back after meeting her, cause she's like,
Speaker 6: you can't quit there's no quitting, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Just pussy talk about that real quick, Like, what was
Speaker 1: the decision that led up to that?
Speaker 6: Well, the industry kept saying, you're not pretty enough, you're
Speaker 6: not good enough, You'll never make it. Then I went
Speaker 6: ahead and did it myself. But I was spending so
Speaker 6: much money and didn't have the knowledge that I needed,
Speaker 6: and we didn't have internet.
Speaker 4: Then, to elaborate more on that, like being an independent
Speaker 4: R and B artist, Like speak about because R and
Speaker 4: B generally, I mean, anybody you know R and B
Speaker 4: is a money game, you know what I mean? Talk
Speaker 4: more about just independently, Like what was it like being
Speaker 4: an R and B artist.
Speaker 6: I came out at a time where you know, it's
Speaker 6: about who you know and who's going to give you
Speaker 6: the leg up. I didn't have a leg up. I
Speaker 6: would do Black Lily here and there. People would come
Speaker 6: out and see me, and they didn't like the way
Speaker 6: I look. Industry people. Yes, I did back Lily and
Speaker 6: invited a couple of industry people. They said, well's just
Speaker 6: the start.
Speaker 7: I remember when you came to those phrenology sessions too.
Speaker 6: I went, I hung out with a mirror in the studio.
Speaker 6: That was so much fun. You know what I learned
Speaker 6: from you a mirror. I learned from you about simplicity
Speaker 6: and more about what hip hop does, why the space
Speaker 6: is so important. And I never forget it. I said,
Speaker 6: Amir said less do less, just more, this is more
Speaker 6: And when that was my first time hearing that, and uh,
Speaker 6: and I carried it. I still carry it with me today.
Speaker 6: But anyway, those things, I would hope to meet people
Speaker 6: and they would help me or do a gig with me,
Speaker 6: or for me, or endorse me. But really I just
Speaker 6: had to keep endorsing myself. I had to spend my
Speaker 6: own money to get a publicist, and my own money
Speaker 6: to word of mouth. I would chop up flyers. Back
Speaker 6: in the day when we had Kinko's, I would do
Speaker 6: programs and make up my own flyers and pass them out.
Speaker 6: Because we didn't have internet. I would go to the
Speaker 6: flea markets. I would go to the record stores when
Speaker 6: they had record stores, Please take my CD on consignment.
Speaker 6: That's what I was doing. Me and Sundra, we would
Speaker 6: call and beg people, Hey, give us a leg up,
Speaker 6: help us out. That's what I had to do. Now
Speaker 6: you get to go online. Sing a song. If they
Speaker 6: like you and you have enough followers, then boom, you're relevant.
Speaker 6: That's why I stopped chasing that game. The long term
Speaker 6: for me is if I can get five people, I'm happy.
Speaker 6: If I get ten people, I'm happy more and more
Speaker 6: or artists, I got all the legends, they're on my side.
Speaker 6: I gracefully. I did it in God's timing and not
Speaker 6: trying to push things to happen, because every time I pushed,
Speaker 6: it wouldn't happen. But I always had to honor them
Speaker 6: first and say thank you, here's let me sing the
Speaker 6: song and honor you, and then it brought more people in.
Speaker 6: That's the only way. And all the things you saw
Speaker 6: me on is because somebody believed in me. It'd be
Speaker 6: one person in the room.
Speaker 5: In a should be here.
Speaker 6: This is the only person knew me on Black Girls
Speaker 6: Rock for That for Women was Faverly Bond and Kim
Speaker 6: Verse all the other people. They didn't have a clue
Speaker 6: of who I was, but they knew me from being
Speaker 6: an independent artist. And I know a lot of artists
Speaker 6: I'm gonna be honest here that saw me and could
Speaker 6: have helped me, and they didn't.
Speaker 7: I was about to ask you how you do how
Speaker 7: did you maintain your not being angry? Now these people
Speaker 7: are singing your praises and they're like, yeah, I've been
Speaker 7: known that it was great?
Speaker 5: How do you do that?
Speaker 2: Is this also why you advocate?
Speaker 1: Because I know that you work with Naris and the
Speaker 1: Grammys or artists and you play a major role into that.
Speaker 1: You've had a hand in these new categories. People don't
Speaker 1: know like you're behind that. Is this why you also
Speaker 1: into that area?
Speaker 6: Because the Recording Academy came out saw my independent show,
Speaker 6: said why aren't you a member? Come be on a
Speaker 6: panel for Grammy You the Youth. I saw that they
Speaker 6: were helping the elders with advocacy with a Grammy museum,
Speaker 6: and I was blown away because I didn't want to
Speaker 6: be the industry thing. I didn't even want to be
Speaker 6: signed to a label. I did it to survive because
Speaker 6: I was gonna quit. But when I did, it opened
Speaker 6: another kind of door. So when I went in the
Speaker 6: Recording Academy, all I focused on, not the Grammy. I
Speaker 6: focused on the youth. I went to Grammy Youth, did
Speaker 6: all the panels and talked about my journey, rejection, recycling,
Speaker 6: rejection and fear into winning. Just complete your work and
Speaker 6: do your best work. And if you get five people
Speaker 6: loving you, those five will talk about you and it'll
Speaker 6: bring more people. And I told them about focusing on
Speaker 6: their craft and all that. I love advocating because that
Speaker 6: was me. That's how I got to study classical music.
Speaker 6: My mom couldn't afford the violin or the piano lessons
Speaker 6: or the classical lessons. She had to Someone came to
Speaker 6: our school said we have free programs, and that's why
Speaker 6: I joined. So I'm that person now, you know.
Speaker 7: Let me go back to my question originally, So have
Speaker 7: you always been that person? Or did that take some
Speaker 7: self work because that moment and knowing that you've done
Speaker 7: all this work and now, like I said, people are
Speaker 7: now like.
Speaker 5: Let us see, I've been known, I've seen you. I
Speaker 5: say you there like you know, like.
Speaker 2: Being hose didn't want me.
Speaker 4: Now I'm hot holes all on me.
Speaker 5: There we go, tell me about that.
Speaker 6: See. This is the part why I love being from
Speaker 6: New Orleans because we are prideful people. We know we're dope,
Speaker 6: but we don't have to brag about it. We remember
Speaker 6: what happened, but we don't have to bring it up,
Speaker 6: because what we do is just take the energy and
Speaker 6: refeel it. It's a faith thing, it's a honor your
Speaker 6: parents thing. Don't cut up embarrass them exactly. Come on,
Speaker 6: Miror you know, I, me and your sister are good friends.
Speaker 6: So it's like we we just do our classy work.
Speaker 6: I just follow the lead of the ancestors. But on
Speaker 6: the side, yeah, we talking, but I don't want to
Speaker 6: talk about it in here.
Speaker 5: With human in that way. I'm sorry.
Speaker 6: I am very human you too. But a lot of
Speaker 6: people could have helped, but they didn't. But it wasn't
Speaker 6: for them to help. That's how I look at it
Speaker 6: every now that I to see it unfolding. It's supposed
Speaker 6: to happen this way. I'm supposed. I have so many
Speaker 6: strong relationships advocating than I do in my own industry,
Speaker 6: just being an artist, from artists to artists. When you
Speaker 6: do be of service, it's the best gift for your
Speaker 6: career ever ever, so it comes back to you.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm mm hmm.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, I was as you.
Speaker 4: About one of your you know, people that haven't helped,
Speaker 4: but just one of the people that has a REX rideout. Yes,
Speaker 4: one of your on all your albums. I just see
Speaker 4: him as like, you know, someone you've always worked with,
Speaker 4: and I just want to talk about you guys creative
Speaker 4: partnership and how it was developed over the years.
Speaker 6: Well, when I was gonna quit, we were outside his
Speaker 6: garage talking and I said, that's it. You know. We
Speaker 6: met on doing My Sensitivity with Bonnie James. Verve had
Speaker 6: a tribute for Luther Vandross they were doing and that
Speaker 6: was the one song that Bonnie James had agreed to
Speaker 6: have me sing on and he was actually telling me
Speaker 6: how to sing, which was trippy, but I did whatever
Speaker 6: he asked because that was the session. And when they
Speaker 6: found out they came to when Rex came to a
Speaker 6: live show, He's like, oh my god, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 6: We were telling you how to say but then we started.
Speaker 6: I told him, you know, in private, I'm quitting this
Speaker 6: industry is too hard and I don't think I fit
Speaker 6: in with everybody. I'm gonna go teach and be comfortable there,
Speaker 6: get a freaking health insurance, you know what I mean.
Speaker 6: Chill out. And he was like, don't quit. You know,
Speaker 6: I'll help you with better signing with a label, just
Speaker 6: to get in and start somewhere. Because they are interested
Speaker 6: in you. Verb was and here's a jazz label at
Speaker 6: the time, interested in the R and B singer. I said,
Speaker 6: I'll only do it because I'm like anti be entrepreneur,
Speaker 6: you know, own your stuff. But I was like, well,
Speaker 6: I gotta survive. Okay, I'll try it. He said, just record,
Speaker 6: just record, So we started recording together. We did a
Speaker 6: whole bunch of songs and Verb went crazy and wanted them.
Speaker 6: And the first song that I wrote was all Right.
Speaker 6: When I was on doing Carolina Change. I wrote it
Speaker 6: and I was recording in this box on my bed
Speaker 6: with my microphone because I didn't have anything to cover
Speaker 6: the mic. So it was singing this life get mad,
Speaker 6: you know what I mean, trying to riet on the bed.
Speaker 6: I was such a techy because I interned there's a yeah,
Speaker 6: exactly techy. So I was trying to record it right
Speaker 6: for Rex, so I would send him my vocals and
Speaker 6: all that, you know, back in the day, and all Right,
Speaker 6: blew up. Just it was the first song that came
Speaker 6: out that people got it. I told the truth. I
Speaker 6: don't know if I this is rough out here, you know.
Speaker 7: I was wondering that if people walk up on you
Speaker 7: and ask you because you you talk about relationships and
Speaker 7: self love and strengthen so much.
Speaker 5: And I'm like, do people walk up on you a lot?
Speaker 5: And is that?
Speaker 7: Is that a lot of pressure to how do you?
Speaker 7: I just I didn't need them advice quick girl.
Speaker 5: Because I'm in a situation.
Speaker 6: You know. No, they don't do that, but they do
Speaker 6: tell me how a song has gotten gotten them through.
Speaker 5: Okay, that's a little easier, all right.
Speaker 6: It is the one they love those songs the women.
Speaker 6: I gravitate towards women a lot. That's just what it is.
Speaker 6: But yeah, that's I don't get the therapy questions.
Speaker 4: Okay, good, speaking of therapy. Nice segue. What was she
Speaker 4: like in real life? Because I watched y'all Love Fixed
Speaker 4: My Life and well, I mean it used to come home.
Speaker 6: He is who she is on that show in person
Speaker 6: direct and I met her. She was the first time
Speaker 6: I met her, she said, oh, you have daddy issues.
Speaker 6: You need to fix that.
Speaker 5: Hello. I just said hello.
Speaker 2: I just said he.
Speaker 6: You, But in front of a whole group of people.
Speaker 6: That's just how she is. She's direct, you know, and
Speaker 6: she's like, you got to fix this and that.
Speaker 4: I love her and also I want to ask you
Speaker 4: as well, doing Black Love with your husband? What was
Speaker 4: Oh no, yo, yeah, what was the experience like? What
Speaker 4: was the aftermath?
Speaker 2: Y'all?
Speaker 5: Did Black Love?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 6: Man, that was We did it during the pandemic. I
Speaker 6: always been a fan of the show. They've always asked
Speaker 6: me to be on it, and I didn't respond because
Speaker 6: I feel like, you know, those parts of my life,
Speaker 6: like I said, I'm private, I love, I want to
Speaker 6: stay married. I don't know about y'all. You know Coston,
Speaker 6: Philly though he is from Philip He's amazing too. But
Speaker 6: I'm glad we did Black Love because you know, people
Speaker 6: got to see another side of me, you know, and
Speaker 6: uh and see who I'm with and it was great.
Speaker 6: But there I love Tommy. Tommy is incredibly good people,
Speaker 6: the good people. So yeah, we did that show. And
Speaker 6: that's all I'm gonna say.
Speaker 1: Tell us to the plans for the Good Life Tour
Speaker 1: that's coming up that you're about to do.
Speaker 6: Yes, I'm going on the twenty seventh city tour with
Speaker 6: the great Raheem Devine is coming with me the Good
Speaker 6: Life Tour BJ the Chicago do it a couple of
Speaker 6: dates when Raheem can't do it and I'm just looking
Speaker 6: forward to it the band. We did our final rehearsal
Speaker 6: last night and it just sounds so good and it
Speaker 6: feels good. So I'm excited about it. I hope. I'm
Speaker 6: trying to see if these hills gonna work, but we
Speaker 6: that's the ones.
Speaker 2: I want to.
Speaker 6: See what happens. But I'm looking forward to it. I'm
Speaker 6: gonna do a lot of a mixture of the old
Speaker 6: and the new, the well my classics and the new,
Speaker 6: a lot from the new album, so I'm really looking
Speaker 6: forward to that.
Speaker 7: I feel the thing I was gonna say the single
Speaker 7: delt too oh you like Yeah, I love it, Thank
Speaker 7: you Good Life.
Speaker 6: That was a great project to work on. It was hard,
Speaker 6: but I'm happy it's out and uh again with Rex.
Speaker 6: I got DJ Camper on it again. I'm working with
Speaker 6: Camper and the sell you No Dreams new producers No
Speaker 6: Dreams God and Joshi. I've never worked with them before
Speaker 6: that I think one of them is from London.
Speaker 2: And also Brown.
Speaker 6: Butcher Brown. We did a song called quality Time that
Speaker 6: I wrote with Corey.
Speaker 5: These are That's what I was thinking.
Speaker 6: To and I wrote quality Time together on the Butcher
Speaker 6: Brownton I've been always wanted to work with her. We've
Speaker 6: known each other for about five six years, but we
Speaker 6: never could find a song. So I got one. I
Speaker 6: think this is the one we should get together. I
Speaker 6: love writing with songwriters. I love sharing on this show too.
Speaker 5: I love our little Quest Love Supreme Extensions.
Speaker 6: I know we got to go on here.
Speaker 2: Thank you for doing this with us, Thanks.
Speaker 6: For having me. Thank you, I finally get to talk
Speaker 6: to you.
Speaker 1: I know a right longtime company on behalf of Aya
Speaker 1: and I'm baby Bill and Chudie, Steve and Fron Tigelow and.
Speaker 2: The Great Letter see Quest Love.
Speaker 1: We're signing off and we'll see you on the next
Speaker 1: go round of Quest Love Supreme.
Speaker 2: Thank you for your support. Thank you for listening to
Speaker 2: Quest Love Supreme.
Speaker 3: This podcast is hosted by a Mere Quest Love, Thompson,
Speaker 3: Liyah Saint Clair, Fante Coleman, Sugar, Steve Mandell, and myself
Speaker 3: unpaid Bill Sherman. The executive producers are Meir just walked
Speaker 3: into the Goddamn Room, Thompson, Sean g and Brian Calhoun.
Speaker 3: Produced by Brittany Benjamin, Jake Payne and Liah Sainclair. Edited
Speaker 3: by Alex Conroy. I know Alice Conrad, producer for iHeart
Speaker 3: by Noel Brown.
Speaker 2: West.
Speaker 1: Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.