Queen Latifah Reflects on Legendary Career, Balancing Fame & Private Life

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You may have to live your life like this, and
so you're trying to figure out how did she live
her life?

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Yeah, they want to know. They want to know.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Oh, you can't even believe it. Whatever you thought, I
think bigger.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Go first, you wain't far enough, Yes, that's good. Now
go further. If it's dangerous, No, it's more dangerous than that.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Thanks for watching, guys. Today's episode is brought to you
by Boostmobile. Guys, I have a whole introduction to do today,
and it involves Grammy Awards and Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame and many, many, many accolades. But I'm gonna
pause that just to run a list down from like
Jungle Fever, House Party, Juice, Who's the Man, My Life
Set It Off, Hudlim Living Out a Loud, The Boone Collector,

(00:46):
Bringing out the Dead, Brown Sugar Chicago, This is not
even all of them. A Scary Movie, Three, Barbershop, two
to Cookout, Taxi Beauty Shop, Last Holiday, Ice Age, The Meltdown, Hairspray,
The Perfect Holiday. And then I'm talking about like Queen
Latifah Show and Living Single and Star and Equalizer and
Cover Girl, Ads and Ladies first, and you and I
t Y and Quinlan is my guess today.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
The buddy and got the shit, I got that spice.
She just made this my last night. Come on, I'm
such a rapper. You are such Do you think I am?
I definitely think you are. I know you are.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
You know what part of the problem is that you
made me believe that I could be a rapper. You
also made me believe I could do a talk show
and this and that and that because you did all
the things and me watching you my whole career, I thought.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah, yeah, I want to do a lot of things.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Of course, and it's okay to do a lot of things.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Okay to do a lot of things. Whatever you think
you can do, you should be doing right And look
at you right now.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
I'm so happy you're here today, Angie.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
I'm so glad to be here. And nothing brings me
more pleasure than to be right here right now, a
guest on your cast, your show. You come on, you
to go with this, So it's my honor.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
You have been supportive, not of just me, and I
hear so many stories about the way you carry people
and show up for people quietly, and when I hear them,
I'm like, oh, I already know because I am from
my own first hand experience of like, yo, I'm doing
this commercial. You put me in a cover girl at commercial.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Of course, look at you. What's stop.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
The point is that while you were collecting some of
that list that I'm just talking about, you were just
pulling people into things like I can't imagine what that
feels like. And then you see all these people doing
things like do you feel connected to so many people?

Speaker 1 (02:46):
And I do, Yeah, I do. I feel connected to
a huge amount of people. And it's actually you know
that phrase, what goes up must come down. It's really
a real thing. And so if you really take that
phrase seriously as you're going up, you got to consider
it that some of the people who may not be

(03:08):
up yet, if you're going down, they might be going
up and you could use that help. At some point,
you might need somebody to look out for you. And
it's that one person that you said hi to that day,
or you held the door open as you should have
and let them go through, and they may just remember
your demeanor or how you spoke to them or with
respect or something like that, or you may have given

(03:29):
them a job and nobody would have hired them necessarily,
they didn't have experience, but you saw something in them,
you know, And then one day they're writing the checks,
and then one day they're the boss and they actually
can hook you up, and so they think why not you?

Speaker 2 (03:43):
So but you talk about the lows. I don't remember
any lows for you, and maybe that's just what that's nice.
It's good that you don't remember those lows. So you're
telling this always lows.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
This always lows. Life is a thing that just goes up,
even if it appears that way. Definitely some body blows
along the way, big ones, you know. I want to
learn all about your lessons today. I want to learn all.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
I want to get all up in your lessons of
life today.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
I'm still learning. Yeah, that's one of the biggest lessons.
Keep learning.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
I will say, though, though, before we get and go
into like details of things, the one thing, maybe it's
not always been highs for you, Like I'm sure there's
ups and downs and all of that. But I think
what people love about you so much and where I
value you about you, One of the things I value
about you so much is that that you know that
your name is Queen Latifa, right, and so people call
you a queen, and you've always been held in that
type of You came into the game like this is

(04:40):
how you're look at me, This is how I want
to be treated. But that crown, it's one thing to
say that, not I'm just saying you have worn that
crown for a long time and kept it like intact, Like,
how do you do that?

Speaker 1 (04:58):
I think I've always try to First of all, I
didn't do this on my own. God put me in
this position. There's no reason I should even be here.
This is divine. And then the fact that I have
the mom who I had, my father, my family, my
friends who I still work with to this day. From
high school, that's a rare thing. Apparently I thought it

(05:20):
was a normal thing, but I came to learn that
it's not. And so even just having people who actually
love you, who are able to critique you, is helpful
because then you don't know, you don't get a big
head thinking you're much bigger than you are, and then
you also don't diminish yourself either. So there are people

(05:41):
who can tell you the truth without really trying to
put you down or just gas you up.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
So I came up in a crew of people who
did that, and even my partner slash manager shot him
like I've had him all these years and he could
be a real realist, like brutally you know much got it? Okay, Yeah,
now let me pick myself off the ground and put

(06:08):
myself back together again. I don't know, I think. I
just I've just been raising a way to know oftentimes
where I am in life, so I don't over I'm
kind of right here where I'm supposed to be. And
if I kind of go this way, I got people
to go, eh, well, if I go that way, people
to move me back to center and so. And then

(06:31):
I could call my grandmother and it's about church. Yes,
she just turned ninety eight. I call from all around
the world, and I know when I call it, I
always wind up being well, trust God, and we crack
up about some things. She'll ask me what I'm doing,
and I always think to myself, here's someone who has
lived one hundred years pretty much, she's still standing. She's

(06:55):
seen way more than I'll ever imagine saying. And if
she can figure out a way to be okay in
the midst of all these things and it's been all
through years, then I think I can. I'll just follow
her lead, you know, I'll just trust that things will
work out and stay optimistic rather than just become pessimistic
or jaded and sinacle and all that stuff.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
Did you always have that?

Speaker 1 (07:19):
I think I've been a pretty optimist optimistic person in general.
Like I'm always a happy, go lucky person until somebody
takes away from it. Like I wake up in the
tent and the joyful place generally, and it's somebody's like,
you know, starts messing with my day and then I
have to get myself back heavy. I just want you
to know that crowns are heavy. Heavy is the crown,

(07:44):
because when people expect you to like carry something, it
could be heavy, you know what I mean? Like, you
got real actual life to live and things are not
as easy as they seem, and in spite of in
despite of that, you're expected to like stand up, and
you ready to fall down and crumble and fall apart
like everybody else might. But you know when you're expected

(08:08):
to get up, you know you have to figure out
how to get up, and it could be tough.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
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party started. That's what I wonder, Like, I don't know.
It's like when people put something on you, like people

(09:25):
put things on us, like you're the this of that,
and then you have to like walk around the world
like the this of that. Now you put a thing
on you that was a good thing, like this regal
persona of it's not a persona, you really are regal.
You walk around people love you because they love you,
not because your name is Queen Latifa. But I don't know,
it's just like a standard that's almost expected. I just

(09:47):
wonder if that becomes.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
Like it's way too burden some to live up to that.
I can't live up to what people expect of me.
It's just impossible, and I'm not that. That's not who
I am. I live up to what I can live
up to in what my family has expected of me,
you know what I mean. If I can go for that,
then the public should be good, you know, because I

(10:08):
got a big family. If I could make it through them.
And I think most people should be okay with everything else.
But also I'm not superman, you know what I mean,
Like I have faults and I'm okay with that. And
so what I'd rather show is that you don't have
to be perfect, you know what I mean, But you
can still carry yourself in a certain way that allows

(10:30):
you to step back into what you want to be.
So for me, maybe I want to get there. I
might not be there, but I have to imagine, Okay,
this is where I want to be, So let me
start moving in a way. I'll try to move in
a way that can help me move into that space.
What would I be if I were her? How would
I feel if I met me? Would I like for

(10:53):
me to speak when I walked in the room and
say hello to everybody, or just speak to the person
I know's let's be you know, let's have some managers,
Let's say hi, everybody, have a great shoot, you know
what I mean.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
I can't imagine through all your years too, and like
being famous and being in Hollywood and you know, movie
sets were really famous, Like just navigating the personalities in
the world because you seem really well adjusted, you know,
we see people that we knew from young and we've
seen them come up, and you see people kind of
losing in these in these waters, it's hard, and your

(11:28):
soul seems to be intact. Is it always like that?

Speaker 1 (11:31):
No? I think I've I've crashed and burned several times.
I've definitely hit brick walls and was like, oh, that
was brick right, My bad. I've been protected by those
who care about me. I've been protected by God. And
then I've tried to be a person who asks for help,

(11:52):
you know, or I say, you know, I'm tapping. I
don't have this, I ain't got this one. Yeah, absolutely,
and go get help, Go figure it out, go talk
to somebody, or step away for a second, whatever time
I can get. I've had to make adjustments through the years.
In the beginning, I would literally just disappear and everybody

(12:13):
be looking for me. I have things to do. I
would just blow off everything and just bounce and I
would call my mother and I'm like, ma, I'm up here.
I'll go to my brother's grave. Half the time, get
two coronas, you know, one for him, one for me.
I'm like, MA, I'm fine. I'm not speaking to anybody,
I need a minute, and she would talk to whoever

(12:33):
she needed to talk to to let him know, back up,
give us some space. And it really would generally just
take that day for me to recenter, you know, and
then I'll be ready for the world again. I'm ready
for the fight all over again.

Speaker 2 (12:49):
But what was it? What are you battling?

Speaker 1 (12:51):
Like?

Speaker 2 (12:51):
What were you?

Speaker 1 (12:53):
Because I appeared that I can handle a lot people
throw all out at me to handle, and I'm like,
I can't handle all that just a limit to how
much which I can handle. I may appear to be
able to carry that load, but that load is heavy.
And so when do I get to take a break.
And if I say, hey, I need a minute, I
need a break. A million dollar production, yeah, yeah, which

(13:16):
which means nothing to me because I'm not materialistic. It
could be one hundred million dollar production. It could be
a billion dollar production. Guess what I will bounce, you
know what I mean? Really, absolutely, I cannot be moved
by money. It's too dangerous, you know what I mean, Like,
that's not enough of a motivation for me. What I

(13:36):
noticed is when I did things for a check, I
hated it half the time.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
You know.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
The check clear. The money was good, but I really
did not enjoy it. It wasn't memorable. My heart wasn't
in it. So I felt like I needed to do
things that really meant something to me. And I mean
that's literally from my first couple of jobs. Wow on.
So I learned early and probably why I even had

(14:01):
any type of poise when I came into the businesses
because I had already been living. I was running the
streets at fifteen. I was in clubs, I was hanging.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
Out because I ain't no little Dana. How do you
reflect on her now at this age when you think
of her, you at I don't know what age pops
for you. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
I just think about my poor mother.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
Why?

Speaker 1 (14:24):
Because what the hell was I doing in them damned streets?
What are you doing in the streets? I was partying.
I was doing it all.

Speaker 2 (14:32):
How old are we talking about?

Speaker 1 (14:33):
Like from fifteen, fifteen, sixteen seventy?

Speaker 2 (14:36):
Party like local parties, house party.

Speaker 1 (14:38):
I was glubs, local parties. But I was going to
New York. I was. I lived in New Jersey. I
lived in Eastarrings, New Jersey, which is like a border
of Nork. So it's maybe thirty five minutes outside of
the city. I'm taking the train going to New York,
just being cool, dressing fly, just pretending at fifteen, I'm fronting. Yes,
I'm saying that.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
But I was at roseland so you know, I was
in roseland of course the first night I went, but
there was a shootout.

Speaker 1 (15:06):
Of course there was a shootout.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
I didn't leave. I jumped under the table. I waited
for it to stop, and then they played Bismarck and
I popped about the table the party.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
And the party continued. And this is why I'm honored
to be here with a G, with a G at
this table interview with me who had seen something. I
need you to have seen some things at Roseland so
you were also fifteen in the club. I was fifteen
in the club. But no guys. I mean I remember
meeting BISMARKI because he had a biz hat on and

(15:41):
we were took We took the train into the city
to go to Latin Quarter, which was a club that
had a hip hop night, the biggest hip hop night
that around. Of course, to see anybody form, right, and
you would always stop at the McDonald's in Toms Square
before you went to the to the club, which is
a few blocks up, and we stand outside of McDonald's

(16:03):
and my boy brief says, Yo, that's Biz. And I
see this kind of guy walking up the street. He
got this kind of truck of hat that says BIZ
on it. And I was like, that's not Biz Marky.
I don't know what I expected him to look look like.
And I walked up to him. I was like you
biz Marky. He was like yeah. I said, hit the

(16:24):
beat box. He said yea, what crazy? I was like,
what went nuts? And he was from Jersey. It was
like Yo, So this was this was the beginning of
all of it. There was no way I could walk
away from this hip hop music.

Speaker 2 (16:44):
You're already the type of kid though, Like number one,
you leave in Jersey to get to the streets. You're
in the streets and you're not afraid to go up
to somebody like Yo. Like this energy that you're talking about,
how you could walk in the room and feel people
like you already had that kind of because.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
I come from a big family and there's every type
of person in my family and so and we taught
a lot of things, and so if you could be
an Owens Marsetti. You can make it through our family,
any of our cookouts, all the stuff we've seen. I mean,
there's this every type of person in my family. So
I've seen it all in front of me, my whole life.

(17:18):
And you're afraid. You're not afraid of people, people that
I'm supposed to be afraid of. Yes, yeah, you know
what I mean. The people that I'm supposed to be
afraid of, I'm afraid of. Or if I get a
certain vibe from a person, I'm like, Okay, how are
you gonna get out of? Get out of this one?
Figure you a way out of it. The rest of
the Angels had the wheel because it ain't no reason.
I'm in East New York at sixteen? What are you

(17:39):
doing out here? What are you doing in East New York, Jersey? Girl?
You way out in Brooklyn, like this is last stop?
What you trained this way and that way?

Speaker 2 (17:48):
What were you looking for?

Speaker 1 (17:50):
Probably love? And I'm fifteen sixteen? This hormones are crazy?

Speaker 2 (17:56):
Oh you oh really? You weren't kidding, but that just.

Speaker 1 (17:58):
Happened to be part of it. This was something cut No,
I mean it comes with the club, but yes, I
was in I was I was looking. I was in
clubs for the music, for the style, for the energy,
for this music called hip hop that I got to
be a part of. I'm looking at my favorite artists
in this box on the wall performing, you know, thinking

(18:20):
one day, man, I wish I could perform up there.
I mean, I'm hearing. I'm looking at Salt Pepper, I'm
looking at Light, I'm looking at Koogie Rap and Polo.
I'm looking at Caine. I'm looking at Boogie Down Productions,
Mellie mel Is hosting. I mean Sweet Tea, Jazzy Joyce.
Anybody who's anyone in hip hop is performing at this club.

(18:42):
You're gonna get frisked, but you're gonna think somebody cavity
search you by the time you get in there. The
way you're getting frisson and I'm like, yo, I've arrived.
I got this.

Speaker 2 (18:55):
Your mother's thinking my child is well.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
Mother has no idea. She doesn't I would have. I
would have snuck out or either gone to she. I mean,
she's a school teacher. She has to get some friends.

Speaker 2 (19:05):
The school teacher. And you're in the house that you
your brother, your mother, oh just.

Speaker 1 (19:10):
Does three And my dad was at his other house
at that point, so my parents weren't together by that time.
He was in Nork. He was very close, but he
wasn't in the house, so you know, he was sneaking out,
not not till, not till my mother probably told him.
And then I got the talk from everyone, and then
I tried to get it together. And it was my brother,
Like my brother and I were so close, like I

(19:31):
never kept secrets with him. And then I had a
couple of cousins that do my whole life, and we
you know, we're a close family. So there wasn't There
was always somebody you know, or somebody in a flavor unit,
the crew in Mark's basement, you know, that was with me,
like we go into the city, we're going to get
into something. So this was like it became. But what

(19:52):
it was my mother understood it because she was a
cool teacher. Like I got in my mother's car one
day and she was playing leaders the new school. It's
just another case of that old pt. I like what
my mother knows hip hop. So then I'm like, you know,
my mother was like the cool teacher, so she got

(20:13):
that this was like a new form of music, Like
this must have been what folk or rock and roll
was to her generation, but to my generation, this was
hip hop, and she encouraged it rather than you know,
pushed us away from it. You know, we were this
was our thing, and we were thinking about how to
make it a career, how to how to monetize it,

(20:33):
how to make a business out of it, and my
mother supported that rather than pushed us away from it.
Although you were going to college if you're living in
this house. So I did go to college, but I
also asked if I could have permission to leave college
for a year so I could like really put my.

Speaker 2 (20:50):
Your mother the educator.

Speaker 1 (20:51):
My mother asked the educator, so you know, not she
didn't even call herself a teacher. She called herself an educator.
So yes, I did have have to ask that permission. However,
my mother and I were very close, and she knew,
she knew she I was a pretty honest kid. My
brother would lie, but she knew. She's like now, when

(21:13):
he'll tell him a lie, and she would bust him
in a minute. But she she knew pretty much. She could.
She could quiz me, and in a few questions, I
was giving up the story because I really could lie
to my mother like that, and so you know, I
just had to I was. I was, and she had
my number, and I just had to explain to her
what my purpose was. So once I explained to her,

(21:36):
I was like, ma, I really think I can do
something with this. So I just want to put a
I just want to take off one year. Let me
and I skipped a year, I skipped first grade whatever,
So I said, let me just take off one year
and I'll put my one hundred and fifty percent into this,
and if it doesn't work out, I promise you I'll
go back to college. And I never looked back. Well,

(21:59):
you know, all those records started playing, I got a run,
Like the companies came together. It was just it all worked.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
At some point though you thought I want this to
I don't know, you just thought bigger than everybody else.
I feel like you always thought bigger because you could
have just been, like I want to be a rapper,
which is big enough. You did a great enough job
at that, Like that could have been it, but you didn't.
You wanted a management company, and you wanted to act,
and you wanted to have brands, and you wanted to

(22:29):
like I feel like you just have always your whole career,
have thought bigger? Did you always think that from the beginning?
Or I think so? And how much of that is
like the key to what you've been able to do
for us?

Speaker 1 (22:41):
I think it's very important. Yeah, I think it's very important.
I think I grew up in a very creative household.
My parents were a police officer and who wanted to
be an architect, and that's dad. Yeah, very creative. Listen
to jazz, played percussion, so music cool household as well.

(23:01):
My mom became an art teacher, but we watched her
go to school, so she wasn't already she didn't already
have a diploma when we were kids. She went to school,
she went to college. Sometimes she would take us to
school with her because she didn't have a babysitter, and
there's a janitor that worked there that would watch us
while she took her classes. So not only did we

(23:22):
you know, we actually got to see the work that
went into her achieving this this degree, and so there
was a lot of learning, hands on learning that we
got to see. Also, my grandfather owned a hardware store,
so we got to see business people in front of
us growing up. You know, anybody could get a job.

(23:43):
Any one of my cousins could work at the hardware
store where my grandfather and his brothers owned it, and
a lot of business went through there. My grandmother was
very much a hustler, smart, just knew how to talk
to people. I mean, they just lived at a different level.
So Nork was not the Nork that people talk about.

(24:04):
It was a thriving metropolis with a million plus people.
And I got to see a whole lot of things
growing up and a lot of success in our own ways.
Also grew up in Maryland and Virginia, where my mother's
side of the family was from, so was slow. Got
to get away from the city, appreciate nature, being the country.

(24:25):
Go to church every Sunday, you go on to vis
a vacation Bible school. Whether you like it or not.
Nobody's sleeping in the house on a Sunday. It's not happening.
I don't care who you are or your religion, You're
gonna be at church on sun So there was something
to that.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
Oh, So there's like a lot of discipline in that.
There's faith in that. There's like how you treat people
in that, like all those music in that and there's music.
There's music in that. But all those things that you
talk about, how they define you, that's it's all rooted
in that upbringing and that setting and that thing. It's
nice to hear you talk about your brother too, because
we always when he comes up for us, it's always

(25:01):
in the sad part of his existence. But hearing about
him and the joyful how close you were.

Speaker 1 (25:07):
Oh, that was my brother. People thought we were twins
because we looked alike. As soon as we saw each other,
we were just like puppies. We would just dug each
other do something very loving or very silly, and people
got to see what like a loving sibling relationship looked like,
you know. So it was very normal for us. And
I know at some point my mother was like, listen,

(25:28):
I understand that you. I get it. It was my
brother who actually brought it to my attention that my
mother was stressing about me hanging out and being in
the streets like that. And he was like, come on
thee oh, mommy crying.

Speaker 2 (25:41):
I was like, what cry?

Speaker 1 (25:42):
I mean, mommy cry. It was so out of the
realm of reality for me, and he was like yeah.
I was like, oh man, So I got to talk
to mommy. And I was seventeen at that time, so
we talking about two years of just going at it.
And why do you.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
Think she was crying? Did she think she was gonna
lose you?

Speaker 1 (26:03):
Or I think she was Definitely I think she was
worried about me. That particular night, I remember I went
out to a club. I expected my friends to be there,
and none of my friends were there, and I went
out with no money, and I was like, oh my god,
I'm stuck in the city.

Speaker 2 (26:18):
By the way, guys, no cell phones, no beepers, there's
nothing at this nothing you just outside till you're Busses
and trains all that stuff stopped running in Jersey.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
So I'm stuck in the city. Like, how am I
going to get home? My mother has a cousin who
lives in Castle Hill in the Bronx, So I said, okay,
I got hop this turnstyle and I could just take
it to Castle Hill. Then I walked her house and
I knocked on her door. She was a nurse at
the hospital locally, and I was like, it's Dana Rita's daughter,

(26:48):
and now she's like, what come on in. She led
me into a room, let me spend the night call
my mother. Of course, it's my mother's first cousin. She
called my mother and let her know where I was,
gave me train fair and bus fair to get home
because she had to work, and I took the train
home and by the time I got back to eastar

(27:08):
And I just felt like I traveled one hundred and
fifty miles and U it was time to just have
a And that's when I came in and my brother
was like, d what you're doing. He was drinking some
beer I could tell. I was like, you're tipsy, and
then we used to wrestle a lot, so he grabbed
me up, like, oh, you got mommy crying. I was like,
I got mommy crying. And I was like, I couldn't

(27:30):
believe I had done that to my mother, and so
you know, I had to talk to my mom and
she talked. We had a conversation about things, and she
was like, ultimately it was like, I know you're gonna
continue to do what you're doing because you have to
do this. I just need you to call me and
let me know you safe wherever you are. And I
was like, ma, I promise you, I will let you

(27:52):
know wherever I am because I'm thinking, Okay, she don't
let me still loud a little bit. All I just
let her know that if I'm in Brooklyn. From that,
it got so it got to the point where everybody
was you call your mother. Do you call your mother?
Call your mother, Let me get in the door, like
for you really were protected. I was protected everybody, like

(28:15):
all the whole flavor unit. If I was in markets basement,
you'll call your mother, you know, get in my friends
in bedstyle, my girl Gigi's house. You call your mother,
Call my mother. I'm in the bronx Ya.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
You call your mother.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
I call my mother, like I have to call my
mother or somebody. Ramsey, tell my mother I'm here. Pass
the number along, make sure she knows where I'm where
I am. And from that moment on, it was like
it was like we were adults, you know, we were
women dealing with one another rather than just mother daughter,
you know what I mean. And it was a different
kind of cadence in our in our relationship that really

(28:48):
made the difference, because she knew I needed to do
this and that it was a purpose in it. She
could see it. She could see it in my friends.
She could hear it because I would play my little
songs for her. I would rhyme for her or make
up a song and sing it for her. So she
knew that I was called to make music. I was
called something was calling me, and she wanted me to

(29:08):
follow my creative path. She she just didn't want to
worry about my life.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (29:14):
And I can respect that, get it?

Speaker 2 (29:16):
God bless How lucky are you? How much has that
informed you as a mom? Now? Like? Like what kind
of mom are you? I don't even know you as mom?

Speaker 1 (29:26):
Who? I don't know that I know me as what
do you mean?

Speaker 2 (29:29):
I just know you've been doing it for seven years now.

Speaker 1 (29:32):
I know. The day he got here, I was like,
I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. What was that crazy? What?
Oh my god?

Speaker 2 (29:47):
Is that how you?

Speaker 1 (29:47):
I was so mad at me? I do I talked
to her like she's right here, like I don't know
what I was thinking? God, bless you? How could you so?
I love you so much? How could you just think
to be so nice to me after pushing me out
like that? You know? I got stuck to Oh my gosh,
she still love me. It's it's you, you and mom.

(30:08):
You know, it's just one of the most unselfish things
you will ever do. And that's pretty much like I
don't talk very much about my personal life like that
because I need that to keep, to keep for myself
and it.

Speaker 2 (30:22):
Has served you, it has. And that came from my
mother too, you know.

Speaker 1 (30:25):
My mother would tell me to keep you know, keep
your private, see your private things private. And this house
is this is for you. This is your sanctuary. So
everybody can't come in your house. You know, out there
is out there, but here should be like a safe
space for you to be who you are because I
need to take clean my teeth off sometimes and sit

(30:47):
here at the door and let just lie come in
the door. They ain't a come in the door and
just be whoever she is. Yeah, I'm just mama, you know,
like I'm I'm bringing whatever I can to the table,
you know where I'm fortunate that I grew up with
a brother who comes up with all kinds of craziness,
so I'm never shocked when my son comes up with

(31:07):
some madness or has jokes or wants to do something
wild that everybody is like. I'm like, okay, we're gonna
do that. But here's how we're gonna do it. We're
gonna do that safely, but we definitely jumping, but not
from there, you know.

Speaker 2 (31:23):
So you know, I know I really do become my
mother's Yeah, the only thing I will say. And I
know I also value your privacy, you know what I mean,
And I respect you so much that I would never
want to push anything abound you. But I will say
it has been really joyful for people who love you

(31:44):
to see you just seem and be free like that's
really it. It's like I don't even want to know
the details of all the intimacies of whatever, all the
decision making, and I know you don't really want to
share that, but you have been more open, and you
have been outside. You have been on carpets with your
wife and you and everybody knows you have a child,

(32:05):
and they've.

Speaker 1 (32:06):
Always been outside the beauty. Honest with you, Yeah, you
haven't been.

Speaker 2 (32:09):
It's not stuff like but.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
I have to know, and you know you know, and
if you don't, you don't. It wasn't like something I felt.
I've seen people. You know, some people are really good
at navigating public life. Uh, some people are really bad
at it. And some of my peers my friends like
that fame thing hit them and there and then he

(32:32):
went away and they were like they couldn't really handle that.
You know. Plus we're teenagers and we got to grow up. Still,
we're still growing up, so that's really really tough to
grow up in front of the world. But I never
felt I also seen people invite the world into their
house and then come to regret it. So I don't.

(32:53):
I don't really feel the need to put my whole
life in everybody else's hands. It's not like something that's
a desire I have for you. You to know what's
going on in my house every five minutes, or what
I ate, or how I sleep or what I'm doing.
That's not for you.

Speaker 2 (33:08):
But you never felt trapped or like you felt like
you had to hide anything. You know what I'm saying.
Because I had the Brad on and have you ever
spent time with the Brad and Judy?

Speaker 1 (33:18):
I would like to spend some time.

Speaker 2 (33:20):
Should have absolutely spent time with They are so funny,
you know, they are so funny. But the Brad was
explaining to me, like, you know, there was a time
and she couldn't do certain things and be certain ways,
and that was just it, that was the law. And
then she got to a point she was like, look,
I just want to I don't give a ship and
you stop caring, You stop caring. She's way more open
with her. They tell they got a reality show her.

(33:41):
She's not like, she's way more open and that's her choices,
everybody's choices. But I'm just saying, like the feeling of feeling,
I don't know you just even the little bit that
you share now, you seem happy and free about it,
you don't seem pressed about it, but you also I
just wonder if there was another side of that, if
you ever felt definitely tight.

Speaker 1 (34:02):
And we'll no question the question. I felt tight from jump,
but what I felt was and I still feel it.
People think they know me, and they don't like. I'm
still not the box you think I'm in. Like whatever
you think, you're wrong nine times out of ten. And
that is why I really can't justify all your thoughts,

(34:23):
dear public, God bless you public. I cannot justify all
your thoughts about me by either verifying or you know,
I don't need to clarify that because my life is
much more rich than whatever you think. My life is
way more colorful than all that. You know what I mean.
I'm a pisces, you know what I'm saying, A full blooded,

(34:46):
free ranging pisces over here, and I do what I feel.
You know what I'm saying. So you may have to
live your life like this, and so you're trying to
figure out how do she live her life?

Speaker 2 (34:56):
They want to know, They want to know.

Speaker 1 (34:58):
Oh, you can't even believe it. Whatever you I thought,
think bigger. You know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (35:02):
Go further.

Speaker 1 (35:02):
You ain't far enough. Yes, that's good. Now go further.
You know what I'm saying. Like, if it's dangerous, no,
it's more dangerous than that. Okay, if that's who she loved, No, no, no,
loved more than that. You know what I'm saying, much
more of that, because it's actual, real life. And again,
I think it comes back to my family and just

(35:23):
being around I mean, it's the reason I can be.
I never felt uncomfortable being in a room with different
races of people. I never felt uncomfortable being around people
who have more money. You can be a millionaire, you
could be a billionaire. It makes no difference to me.
I'm gonna speak to you and treat you just like
anyone else.

Speaker 2 (35:42):
In the room.

Speaker 1 (35:43):
It came from my family and what they filled me
with before I even stepped into the world at all.
So people are people.

Speaker 2 (35:51):
But you're comfortable in any room, that is what you mean, right,
Like you're comfortable.

Speaker 1 (35:56):
In most, in good rooms, in any good room, in
most and in someplace, he says. Listen, I'm not perfect.
I've gotten burned by people too, you know. But I
just I have to keep moving and I have to
get up. I got my heart broke, I still choose
to love, you know. I've suffered unbelievable losses of family members.

(36:18):
I still have to live, because apparently I have to live.
I'm still here. I love music. I always will. It's
my default. Music is like my default when with whatever
I do. So if I were hosting this show, I
would be playing some music to get me in a mood,

(36:39):
to get me in a zone. If it's a scene
in a film that I have to cry, I don't
have to think of a sad thing anymore. I can
put on a Clark Sister's record and the harmonies alone
would make me want to cry. Really, so I'll be
right there called action, you know what I mean, And
that's a gift, and I received that. And the faith
that I have has been my superpower in a lot

(37:02):
of ways. Because you're right, those who are not walking
around with it, they don't have this like invisible person
to talk to like I do. That's okay, whether it's
my mom or one of my other relatives. Winky, you
the big brother, you better watch out for me. I
could curse at him a little bit.

Speaker 2 (37:20):
You still talk in that way.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
Yeah, you're supposed to be doing this. How come I
have to do it? You the oldest?

Speaker 2 (37:26):
Did you talk too? Did you talk to him as
Winky that was a kid, or do you have an
evolved Winky.

Speaker 1 (37:31):
I haven't evolved Winky too, because Winky as a kid,
still check me as a little sister, you.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
Know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
I still check me on something. So if I catch
myself cursing too much, I can hear him say, deep,
come on, can you cursing too much? And I'm like, Dag,
how can you make me feel bad? From way over there?
Then I laugh and we laugh about it. You know,
it's just funny to me. So I like that. I
don't have those walls between the realms like some people do,

(37:58):
and I'm not trying to be all space, see, but
I just having to confront life and death like that
at such a young age. You know, from the time
my grandfather passed away when I was seven, I felt
like we went to back to back to back funerals,
and so when you lose so many people that you love,
you you have to deal with the realities that this
is a life. But it doesn't. For me. It doesn't

(38:19):
end there. You know. I can still feel the energy.
I still get the messages and the guidance a little
bit to go here, do this, do that, And I
know it can't be me because I don't even know
that to know it. You know, it might just be
a feeling out again, and so I just give it
to God.

Speaker 2 (38:38):
How are you managing real? Be careful how I asked
this because I don't want to be too nosy. I'm like,
your thoughtful process like this, look at me, look at
me over here with it. I'm talking about one of
my ancestors up there. No, you know, I'm trying to
think how to ask this without being too nosy. But

(38:59):
it's like, uh, you know you have you have made
a shift, a public shift. Damn you did you are
a married woman with a child. You want you do
carpets with your wife. I met your wife at the
Mary J. Blige concert, by the way, I think I
met her before I saw her. They would come up
to the pod. She was like, good get her. No

(39:19):
she didn't say, well, maybe she said something. It was great.
But when you you've let people in a little bit.
I mean you went on the stage the tiniest bit.
So I'm not gonna go I'm not going to ask
about details about none of the intimate home. Thank you.
I won't, I promise I won't. But you did go
on stage, you shout pride. You clearly are living in

(39:42):
your truth and your family and your life.

Speaker 1 (39:45):
Dana, I can't do just looked. It was the damn
pride in l A. Stop to me.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
You made you made a choice to do that.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
I did.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
Yeah, So what what about the can you talk to
about that? Like that decision to just make that choice
and a woman who's had the career that you've had,
with the speculation for all those years, and the decision
to be so private to make a decision to go
you know what, I'll just say this and leave it
right there, like that's a decision, like, so what makes

(40:21):
you make that decision? And then what does that feel like?
I guess it's the question.

Speaker 1 (40:28):
I was getting a Lifetime Achievement award and I didn't
want to leave out the people who were part of
the lifetime That makes sense. That's about it.

Speaker 2 (40:36):
That was it. That's it really was not more complicated.
That's so not more complicated than that.

Speaker 1 (40:43):
And it's funny because it's it's not always that deep.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
But some people think that if you don't share, it
means you're hiding something, versus I'm okay with just not sharing.
I guess maybe that's the difference.

Speaker 1 (40:56):
I mean, oh, maybe it's a combination of both. You know,
I've when I was growing up, you know, or kind
of hanging out people. Just even in this business, people
are just so fascinated about people's private lives, you know
what I mean, like, so fascinated by what you're doing
with your private life. Why is it because you're curious?

(41:19):
Is because you're intrigued? Is it because you might like
you be surprised?

Speaker 2 (41:24):
I think also sometimes people want to know how you're navigating.

Speaker 1 (41:27):
Listen, that's hard for obviously how I'm navigating, But don't
expect unless it's energy. I may tell you how I
navigate a MoMA business. It's okay to mind your business
and having your business. I do try to mind business,

(41:49):
you know what I mean? Because I realized that a
lot of people also like talking about other people's business,
and they when even before it was like all the
pages and everything where it was like literally National Inquirer,
people would bring those things to me or bring gossip

(42:10):
to people near me or around me, and I was,
I'm like, what is the point of this? Why are
you telling me this? Like what do you think you're
doing by telling me that you read something about me somewhere?
And then I got to look at the person who's
bringing me the message, like what do you get out
of this? Like do you care about me? You see,
I'm about to go do this and you come put

(42:31):
this on me. How do you think I'm gonna feel
about that? You know what I mean? Like, there's nothing
positive that's gonna come from me having this knowledge right now?
So really, this is for you. This is not for me.
So I told everybody around me, don't bring that shit
to me. If you read it, you read it, tell
me later. I don't want to hear that shit, keep

(42:52):
it where you at, you know. And so some of it,
and some of my ability to keep things to mysel
is me also respecting other people's privacy. I know a
lot about a lot of different people, but it's not
really my place for me to share their business necessarily,
you know, because many of them, like myself, we're all

(43:15):
growing up, you know what I mean, We're not perfect,
and I make mistakes and other people make mistakes too.
When I need to say something else, I'm clear about it.
You know, you step on my toe or let you know,
say ouch. But every I don't have to say everything
about everything. And I don't need to say everything about
my private life because it's my private life and I

(43:40):
love the people that are in my life, you know.
Or maybe maybe I'm getting cheated on, or maybe I'm
getting my heart broken, or maybe I'm down in the dumps,
or maybe I'm drinking too much, like and maybe I
need to deal with me. So what are you going
me to tell all y'all that for what? Let me
work on this. Let me go work on this, Let

(44:01):
me work on me. And so maybe that's been part
of it. Or I talk to the people I know
who actually care about me. You know, I don't go
to people who are strangers who don't necessarily have my
best interests at heart. I talk to the people who
actually care about me and and try to navigate my
life with them, and they also try to do the
same with me. And so we need to know we

(44:22):
have this circle of protection, this circle of safety, of
safe what word I'm trying to use, but I mean,
even with you, like the things I would tell you,
because we known each other a thousand years, I would
feel more comfortable telling you than I would tell somebody
else me. You can have a straight up, off the
record conversation the moment we walk out this door and

(44:43):
they're not here, you know. And of course, but you
know I know parts of your life. It's none of
their business, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (44:50):
It's also I also understand, and somebody who actually cares
about you and respects you like I understand. I was
literally sitting in the room earlier thinking about I want
to ask you about this, and I want to ask you
about this, and then I thought to myself, I think
it's really beautiful the way she has navigated her life
this long and just giving people enough to like stand

(45:11):
on your business, stand on your work, stand on your integrity,
and how you and how you carry yourself, and that
you could even have this moment now where you give
them just a little and it's okay, and people are
so happy to see it because you're happy, because you are.
You seem happy, like from.

Speaker 1 (45:28):
The outside happy all the time.

Speaker 2 (45:30):
You seem happy, and I think I think people are
happy for you. I think for the most part. I mean,
you can't everybody listen. It's a sick world out there
with a lot of people who are very unhappy. But
I think most people who know you and have been
raised with you and they see you, they're like mm hmm, yeah,
we love to see that. I mean, do you feel that.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
I do feel that, you know what I'm saying. When
I get on I see the comments that people have
and most of the time is all is always very positive,
and I just stick with the positive stuff, and somebody
always goes left out.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
Okay, but even for you take take you out of
the equation. I think about people watching and in the
spirit of like real life and learning the lessons of that.
It's like you not sharing all those things. I think
lots of women making this mistake now because of social
media and because of our need to overshare all the time,
and that shit stays with you forever. And then you're

(46:26):
walking around with not only trying to figure out like
how you said and my drinking too much? Am I
doing this? Like that's the ship we all need to
be working on. Yeah, but all of our stuff is
outside because we're looking at other people's things. We're looking
at the comments, We're looking at what we should be doing,
and the what our skin should look like and what
we should be wearing, and we should be It's like

(46:47):
everything is external versus what.

Speaker 1 (46:49):
We're managing inside. Yeah, we lose a lot of our
natural instincts. I think, you know, if we if we
always are looking for validation or even justification, and or
we're looking for someone else to tell us that we're right.
I mean, there's a lot of gaslighting that can happen.

(47:10):
I've just seen so much. And I've also you know,
I always, I just I love smart women. I always
have loved smart women always. I grew up around a
lot of smart women. My freshman year of high school,
I went to all girls Catholic school in Urbanton, New Jersey.
I'm still in a group chat with my friends from
high school, like my crew, and they are so smart,

(47:34):
you know what I mean, and their mothers and got
graduates and they're going through ups and downs, but they
I just appreciate. And they have such varied opinions, you know,
they have such different opinions, but they all still have
to walk the individual past. And I respect that, you

(47:55):
know what I mean. And I think that we need
to be okay with walking our path and knowing that
we'll come out on the other end of things. Like
if I can share some wisdom of my life to
let you know that I fell in a hole so
deep I couldn't find the bottom of it, and then
I was like help, and somehow I came up out

(48:20):
of that and I was out of it and I
just put one foot in front of the other, and
that helps you. Then I want you to know that
that I did go through that, you know what I mean.
I want you to know that I've gone through hell
and back. I have a reason to smile, you know.

(48:42):
And whenever I get too much in my own head,
I start praying, I pray, I pray it away. I
start saying, hold up, wait a minute, I don't have this.
I ain't got it. I don't got it. Listen, I
need you to protect my son, protect my family, protect
this house. I just go off, and then before you
know it, I'm calm. I'm all right, because then I

(49:04):
remember I'm not in control of this. I didn't invent
this whole thing. There's no way I could control it all,
you know. And once I remember that that, I let
go of the wheel a little bit. Then I get
back to just being me, doing my portion of it,
you know, sharing my gifts, you know, saying the things
that only Dama Owens will say. It's just it's the truth,

(49:25):
you know, it's the truth. Because there's so much right now.
I wish I could control in this world with what
we're looking at, but I will own I will do
what I can, you know. I will do what I
can and that's what I can do. And I could
be content with that and may not change everything, but
you never know, and every little bit will change something.
So I try to stay positive and keep a positive

(49:47):
attitude because I just can't give into negativity. Like I
can't wake up every day like somebody gonna die, this
is gonna happen. I won't hear that shit, you know
what I mean, because guess what, somebody did die. That
already happened, and it's gonna happen. And I don't want
to live in that space. I want to live in
a space that you know, goes beyond that. Somebody's also
gonna take their first steps today. Somebody is also gonna

(50:10):
like swim for the first time, you know what I mean.
And somebody's gonna save somebody in the swimming pool today.
It's not just gonna be a drowning like you are
telling those stories. Those stories get a lot of publicity.
Tell good stories, you know you'll see some You'll find
it when you tell goods. If you want to find
the good, you'll find the good. So I try to

(50:30):
find the good because I need to keep my head
above water, and the negative is not gonna do that
for me.

Speaker 2 (50:35):
I love that. Did you have a good story today?

Speaker 1 (50:38):
Let's see?

Speaker 2 (50:39):
I mean, this is a good story. You are a
good story.

Speaker 1 (50:42):
Angie Martinez came in my dressing room, sat on a
giant pillow and levitated.

Speaker 2 (50:47):
I did.

Speaker 1 (50:48):
She sat in a lotus physician, and next thing you know,
she floated and I took a picture of it. And
I was like, you know what, I'm gonna look at
this picture when I need to get in a good mood.
I'm gonna look at you just sitting there. I don't
feel good about something, and I know that that picture
is gonna come in handy one day.

Speaker 2 (51:04):
That might really be a simple key to life. Really,
It's like, because right now people are struggling to navigate this.
It is a stressful. Even myself, Man, I be struggling
some days. Who I get scared. I get scared of
ship like I get I get scared of myself almost
because I can't fix it. I want to fix things.

(51:25):
I want to help. I want to say the right thing.
I want to be I want to inspire somebody. I
want to I want to challenge myself. I want to
do all these things. And there's so much going on
in the world that it's hard sometimes and so for me,
like you try to, Okay, hold up, yep, hold on, calm,
comrades down, here you go. What can you control today?

Speaker 1 (51:47):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (51:47):
What can you? What is what is good today? What
you got for me today?

Speaker 1 (51:52):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (51:53):
How are you gonna use me today?

Speaker 1 (51:55):
Yep?

Speaker 2 (51:55):
And let's just get through today.

Speaker 1 (51:58):
How about that? You know what I mean, how about
just the next thirty minutes. Maybe we're going too far
with this. Let's just you know, let's right here.

Speaker 2 (52:09):
That's just making me think of one time I went
to go see you. You were hosting, you were doing
a show, and I was introducing you, and I think
it was your jazz album, Oh wow, and it was
here in La the outdoor what's that outdoor Hollywood Bowl?
You're doing in Hollywood Ball. I'm introducing you. Now I
am backstage. My hair is like not doing right. I
didn't like what I was doing, so I'm fidgeting. I'm visiting,

(52:31):
and she's getting ready to go out to perform and
sing in a way that you didn't really sing in
front of people before. It's a new thing. I'm rattled
because my hair in my office is not really hitting right.
She's calm as a cucumber, and your demeanor is so calm,
and I realized, this is what you're experiencing, what you're expressing.
You had it even then, like you have this kind

(52:54):
of like let me just let me just deal with
this moment right here, let me be you like you
just I remember looking at you like she's mad and
this ain't all going right. There were things going wrong.
Last minute, people were running in all the light didn't
go off. Hey, I need you to redo it, hey,
and people get scattered. You were kind of like, okay,
all right, well let me get that. Like you just

(53:16):
you had this demeanor about you that people could be
throwing the damn kitchen sink at you, and you did
not seem to be rattled. And I was so inspired
by that, No, really, like I was inspired by it
because I think that's part of what it takes to
be great, is to be able to weather fucking noise

(53:36):
right and shit yep, and still operate at a high level.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
Yeah you know what I'm saying. I absolutely know what
she's saying.

Speaker 2 (53:42):
Yeah, and you do that really well.

Speaker 1 (53:46):
I think I've seen a lot going on around me
and I have to grab onto the things that call me.
And I also seen people that I thought were that
I held in much higher esteem get nervous, and I'm like,
I'm nervous about this. I just have a process to
certain ways that I do things, Like I remember actually

(54:06):
playing the Hollywood Bowl, and I think my life got
off so early. I didn't have the history of all
the places that we had gone and the things, the
doors we would walked through, and how people had been
through some of these doors, and some of them were
the first black people to even play some of these
places I played. But everybody was putting so much seriousness

(54:29):
on it, and some people are really respect to or accomplished.
And I said, mm hmmm, I remember taking I had
a show at the Bowl on a Sunday. I rolled
my motorcycle from my house to the Hollywood Bowl on
that Saturday, and luckily there was no show. They were
on a break at the time. I was like, yo,

(54:49):
I got to perform you tomorrow. You monified like pull
up for a second, and just so the guy let
me in. I pulled up my stage. He knows who
I am, kind of you know what I mean, kind
of knows who I am. And I just walked down
into the crowd. I walked out into the audience and
I just looked at the stage from like way up.

(55:17):
I was like, body, you just tomorrow. I'm a canless tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (55:24):
Okay, cleo, you go. And then I left it.

Speaker 1 (55:28):
And then I left and then the next day I
was like, let's go, you know, because I had to
even take it in like, Okay, it's at least five
thousand people go to your heir. I gotta, I gotta
get it, I gotta, I gotta do this. But that
was my homework. It wasn't about being in rehearsal, it
wasn't about being with the band. It wasn't about again again.

(55:49):
It was about take this moment and just see where
you are, because tomorrow it's gonna be filled with people.
Imagine them sitting right here looking at you there. How
you gonna project what you're gonna do to talk to
this person with the seat to up here? And this
is the stuff that my mind goes on, you know.
So I said, Okay, I know what to do for you.

(56:11):
And some of it is just relating to you back
there in that seat rather than what's right in front
of you, you know. And then some of it is
relating to what's in front of you, you know what
I mean. But I was just so grateful because, like again,
some of the people in my band that do this
in their sleep, we're like, we're playing Hollywood ball. We're
playing the ball. We're playing the ball ball. I'm like, Okay,

(56:33):
if you nervous, should I be nervous? I'm not. I'm
not about to no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not doing that.
I've seen things in different ways. I've been on these
roads too long. Show up with my crown. Yeah, let me, Michelle,
let me put my joint on tilted a little. Yep,
there we go. We got it. Now, let's get out

(56:54):
there and give the people what they want. And that
was what we did. So I'm glad you got to
make that observation because that's probably why you saw me
looking so gone. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (57:05):
Wow, that's amazing. That's the backstory.

Speaker 1 (57:08):
It's always a backstory.

Speaker 2 (57:09):
There's always a prep, there's always a there's always an
internal process that everybody has to go through to make
sure that your crown is sitting away supposed to see.

Speaker 1 (57:20):
You do and it's yours and it's meant to be
done your way, and you ain't gonna find it in
the comment section. No, you need to just trust yourself sometimes.
And that's the concern. We're looking outwards for everything. Like
if you look at outwards to develop something on the inside,
maybe you know, but it all has to come from here.
And when I look at the chats with my friends

(57:41):
from high school, they're all developed in here. We hadn't
been through hell and back still going through it, like
still can talk about everything that we're going through at
our big ages. But there's just like a difference in
the development on the inside, you know, that is no
different than when we were freshmen in high school, Like
it was already happening then. So when I see people

(58:06):
negate the youth voice, it's one of the things that
irritates me most when you don't listen to kids, when
you don't listen to young people, it annoys me because
it does because they're not jaded yet, they're not cynical yet.
They haven't learned enough about the world to be afraid
of everything, you know, and they have great ideas, they're

(58:29):
willing to do things, and so what do you do.
You take your old ideas and you shove it down there,
and you know, thoses and tell them who to be
and how to be, and then you kind of it's
like you don't ruin that, you know. And I think
my mother had a lot to do with that too,
and my father just watching my mother pour a little
bit of something on so many so called thugs. What

(58:52):
you mean, businessmen, you mean doctors? You mean that lawyer.
You mean that that owner of that new company, you
mean that music person. I watch them. I watched them
come in the room like this, and she says something
and then they just like the whole posture changes. They're
coming with a smile. Hey, you know how you doing it?
So and I'm like, mm hmmm. So sometimes you need

(59:15):
the water. You gotta water the flowers.

Speaker 2 (59:17):
You know.

Speaker 1 (59:18):
It's not including yourself, including ourselves, including ourselves, So what
do That's what I try to do. I try to
pour some positive energy on myself when I'm feeling like
I don't have it or I'm not feeling one hundred percent,
which is quite often, you know. I find something good
to read, I find something funny to look at, or

(59:40):
I draw.

Speaker 2 (59:41):
You draw, Yeah, you're nice.

Speaker 1 (59:43):
I won't know if I'm nice, but I'm nice enough
to just draw, you know. Squaring you know is a
very good friend of mine, is my neighbor.

Speaker 2 (59:52):
So I go and his wife is one of my
best friends sometimes, right, So I'll come down in the
morning to get some breakfast and go and there he
in his office and he's he's drawing, He draws. He
has these things of it, says Crack three. Thousand, three
thousand cars, and it's all the Picasso, Joe Picasso. He
just being there, just drawing with glasses, and I'm like,

(01:00:14):
I love I love that for you. I love that
you're like a painter. He just grad he draws art,
little GRAFFEEDI grad yes all over the place.

Speaker 1 (01:00:23):
Yes, whatever it takes, whatever it takes, that's his peace.
I wanted to learn how to play violin. Really mighty
got one.

Speaker 2 (01:00:30):
You can do it. It's not too late. No, what
was the last good thing you learned how to do?
What was the last interesting thing you learned? What's the
last new thing you learned how to do? It's something
trick question? Well, be a mom, I guess still kind
of being a mom's you're only seven, Priya.

Speaker 1 (01:00:47):
Listen to you.

Speaker 2 (01:00:50):
Nohing, no new hobbies now, no new tricks, something for
a movie, something for something to do. I don't know
I can through my life right now. I learned how
to golf.

Speaker 1 (01:01:04):
Oh we should go? I would. I loved that golfing
with you.

Speaker 2 (01:01:07):
Do you golf?

Speaker 1 (01:01:07):
I hear that I could golf if I have you practice?

Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
No, I have tried it, and you're okay, Yeah, decent, Jada,
You're friends with Jada. Why aren't you She's a golfer.

Speaker 1 (01:01:17):
No, so come on, let's let's go golfing.

Speaker 2 (01:01:19):
Light is a golfer.

Speaker 1 (01:01:21):
I have to be here.

Speaker 2 (01:01:22):
Light up. Uh. She can't beat me at everything, Spinderella golfs.
There's a world out here.

Speaker 1 (01:01:30):
What are we doing.

Speaker 2 (01:01:31):
I'm gonna take you. I'm gonna I'm gonna go with you.
I'm not the greatest golfer, but I love it. I'm obsessed.
You can't, and I think there's a beauty in it.
Do you just like the clothes? No, I don't give
a shit about the clothes. I go out there and whatever.
I don't care. I'm not. No, I like an outfit,
but I don't really care. Most days i'd be out there.
I go out there by myself. I will do a
whole eighteen by myself in some gray sweatshorts and a

(01:01:51):
little tank top, and I will golf eighteen holes. And
I find beauty in the grass. I find beauty in
the quiet. I find I find beauty in being in
my own head and trying to figure something out quietly
without any interruptions. There's no multitasking. It's just like it's
like my painting. It's the same thing anyway. I would

(01:02:15):
love to take you. I'm gonna take you, all right.
We have a couple of segments, Okay, before you go,
We're not gonna leave here.

Speaker 1 (01:02:20):
No, because I gotta figure out what I learned that's.

Speaker 2 (01:02:22):
Not learned anything. Stop. You know I've learned you're the
daughter of an educator. I know.

Speaker 1 (01:02:27):
That's why I got to really be if you.

Speaker 2 (01:02:29):
Don't figure this first of all real quick, because I
have an in real life questions. First of all, the
Hall of Fame induction is really fucking cool.

Speaker 1 (01:02:37):
I had nothing to do with it. And thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:02:42):
What are you gonna say your speech? Do you know?

Speaker 1 (01:02:43):
No idea?

Speaker 2 (01:02:44):
Okay, I'm gonna practice my tea, So you're gonna you're
definitely gonna cry. Does it make your emotional these things
or not that anymore? That might might. Everybody's excited about
that one. So I think it's really cool.

Speaker 1 (01:02:56):
I think it is too.

Speaker 2 (01:02:57):
What does success look like to you right now? You've
done a lot, like what kind of I don't know success?
I don't know, like is there another level of success
that you wish to attain? Is there anything that you're chasing?
Or I feel like you have to conquer.

Speaker 1 (01:03:17):
Still, always, always, even even you know, just finishing things,
just finishing the things that I have started. Like I
told you, I'll will play you a bunch of music,
so much music that I just need to finish. I'd
be happy to finish that, you know. I'm happy to
finish just basic tasks. I'm going to be a better parent,

(01:03:42):
you know what I mean? Like this to me, I'm
going I want to be a better I want to
cook better, I want to design better.

Speaker 2 (01:03:48):
I mean this.

Speaker 1 (01:03:49):
I'm a constant student. So whatever it is I'm interested in,
I want to get better at it. You know. I
want to read more, draw more, paint more, as many things.
I want to learn how to fix my car. You
don't know how to fix your car, no, but I
want to be under the hood.

Speaker 2 (01:04:06):
And we think, you know, we think, you know what
we think what we think that Cleo is inside of you,
like that she has she holds space inside of you.
Cleo knows how to fix cars, Cleo know how to
do itside? Is she not? Is that is that a

(01:04:29):
myth that we have in our head? Like is there
any of her in you?

Speaker 1 (01:04:33):
Yeah? Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 2 (01:04:34):
I just saw e clips because I've been prepared. I
was looking at a bunch of stuff and I was like, yo, no, no,
you're so and you're such a baby. Like your skin
looks so you look like such a baby in that.
I don't know. It's just like I was like, look
at her, she looks so, I don't know, she's like
a baby. It's so good. You just like you wrapped
your arms around that character in a way that was different.

Speaker 1 (01:04:57):
I wanted to. That was the goal. I was like,
y'all can't see because people don't see you as you.
People don't always see what you can achieve what you
see for yourself. You know what I mean. And it's
something I said to the graduates at North Carolina Ant.
You have to don't be afraid to drive down that
road that the world doesn't see for you yet, because

(01:05:20):
you see it. You know, you see that, you have
that vision, you have that imagination. You can see yourself
like that. But the world may not be able to
see you in that role yet. So now you got
to show them so that they, in their small imagination,
can now see it in front of them. And so like,

(01:05:40):
there's so many things and so whatever I think of that,
I think I can do. I know I can do.
I just need to put the work in to do
it and make the time to do it. I need
to figure that out.

Speaker 2 (01:05:51):
But are pieces of you in all those Khadijah and Clio?
Definitely there are pieces of you.

Speaker 1 (01:05:58):
Right, Yeah, for sure? I mean just me in so
many ways because event literally rode around in a car
with me for weeks looking at studying my mannerisms and
my ways and my lingo and writing for me. You know,
Cleo is comprised of my aunt, some of my former classmates,

(01:06:18):
like a few people that actually know I made her
maids sense makes sense by figuring out who she was,
because I know somebody you know in high school that
was nice with the hands and was just knocking girls
out for what. But that's one of the girls I
found out lost her mother. So it was really like
she didn't know what to do with those feelings and

(01:06:40):
that anger, and so her friends, who she loved and
who loved her, all they had to do is point
and she was going to handle it. And I was like,
that makes sense. Cleo is gonna go all out for
her friends. She didn't have parents. We don't never see
Cleo's parents in that movie. These are her fans, this
is her family, her girls and her family, so she's

(01:07:01):
gonna go all out for them. It made sense.

Speaker 2 (01:07:02):
I had to make it make sense. So good so legend, yeah, man.

Speaker 1 (01:07:08):
And not great, And we had premie We had an
East Coast premiere for that. I remember it was like
the whole hip hop world was at that premiere, and
I knew when that kiss came. It was everybody was like, oh, like,
the whole theater went crazy. The whole theater went nuts.

Speaker 2 (01:07:27):
What did you feel like? Though?

Speaker 1 (01:07:29):
I felt crazy, but I was laughing because I went
to see the movie eight times and in the theaters
because listen, I was poor, poor Shah my mother. Everybody's like, Okay,
we gotta this is here, this is gonna happen. I'm like,
it's in the script. Sorry, it's in the script. It

(01:07:49):
is what it is. It's not like I is missing it.
It's in the script. If I signed up to do this,
I signed him to the script. So but how else
would you see me as an actor? If I don't
step outside of who you know me as who I
really am. I have to stretch myself, you know, in
order to be considered for some other roles, I have

(01:08:11):
to let you see me in a different way. So
that is part of the time. It's definitely part of
your greatness. I'm sure acting greatness. Greatness boaking chances, gotta
take chances.

Speaker 2 (01:08:21):
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(01:08:45):
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Five G speeds is not available in all that there
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will pay twenty five dollars a month as long as

(01:09:06):
they remain active on the Boost Unlimited plan. We have
a segment called voice note. It's our boost mobile voice note.
It's a booth mobile Walder University. I don't know, they'll
fix it later. So we have a segment it's called
a voice note. It's usually a friend of the show whatever.
And so I ran into a friend, the mutual friend,
and mentioned that you were coming on the show, and
she just had a little note for you. So it's
just a little quick voice note. And I thought she

(01:09:29):
was perfect because I always hear stories, like I had
said to you before, about how you pour into people.
And I remember a story about reading a story about
you talking about how this woman had poured into you
one time. So it's a quick little note voice note.
But I'm going to play it an you time.

Speaker 3 (01:09:43):
Queen, Queen Queen, thank you for so many things, and
thank you for being my daughter. You know we did
that show star. You're just such a wonderful person for
so many reasons, so many things that you've done for
me that you don't know. I know, and it's because

(01:10:04):
you love me, and I love you too, honey. Thank you,
And Happy Mother's.

Speaker 1 (01:10:09):
Day, yoh god too. Patty. That was the legendary Patty
LaBelle Patty my chest, I feel it right here for
the week.

Speaker 2 (01:10:22):
What does that? What does that bring up for you?

Speaker 1 (01:10:24):
Oh? My god, my whole life. She's been around my
whole life, my whole life. If it wasn't for Patty
La Belle, you might not even know who I am
at this point. Because when I lost my brother at
twenty two, people were walking up to me like, make
we I tea for her, I'm sorry about your brother.

(01:10:45):
I get autograph, like one word, Oh I heard about
your brother. I get all of that. Like I was
like this business people don't care about me, they don't
care about how I feel it. I'm I was ready
to like check out of this whole thing. And Patty
LaBelle is one of the people who I talked to
who talked to me. She has lost sisters, she's been
through it.

Speaker 2 (01:11:05):
It lost four sisters.

Speaker 1 (01:11:06):
Yes, so her heavy d A couple of people who
have been through that were able to talk to me
and like help reframe my thought my thoughts at the time,
and just it out just that I was going to
get through it. You know, it's tough just by understanding

(01:11:29):
just first of all, just by understanding that I'm feeling
a pain that is unbelievable, you know, and there no
words for but I pretty much started to get messages
not to just don't throw it all away, that I
was going to get through it, so don't throw it
all away.

Speaker 2 (01:11:47):
And she was one of those.

Speaker 1 (01:11:48):
She was one of those. She's and she's been there,
you know, she's been there and we've I mean, this
is my mother played her music in the house. They
were mutual friends. She's from Philly, were from Jersey like
where there's. She's just been there my whole life, you know.
And she loves you. I love her. I love her
and she and g She runs motorcycles too, and can cook.

(01:12:12):
I just can cook.

Speaker 2 (01:12:13):
She get down, she's she I don't want I don't
want to say it too soon, but she will be
on an up and coming episode the podcast. Can't wait
to see and I'm going to be honored to have
her on. But she agreed to do the pod too,
so we're gonna have her on, so you have to
have on. She said that little voice note for you,
and I thought it was so dope, and I think
it really speaks to like how you were talking about

(01:12:34):
at the beginning of this interview. It's like full circle. Really,
because you pour into people, they pour back into you.
Patty is about to be eighty two years old and
she's still pouring in. She pour into people. She's pour
into you right now. I feel you felt that even
that just a note of love, like just to I
see you, I love you, yep, you know. Like but
she said also that you poured into her, and she

(01:12:55):
said she don't know that. I know. Do you know
what she's talking about?

Speaker 1 (01:12:58):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:12:59):
Maybe something star did you get, maybe you helped her
get the role. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:13:03):
Something she said that anything for her, anything for her,
and I'll make sure people treat her with respect. That
we're gonna have a problem, you know what I mean.
I love that seriously, Like this is like she is
a national treasure, you know. So it's like you you gotta,
we got to take care of our queens and kings
and treat them like such, you know, treat them as

(01:13:24):
such and make sure they get the respect that they deserve.
And you know, they changed the whole culture. So if
she feels like me, I don't even know what to say.
I stuck over that. I was not expecting that, you know, Patty,
I love her so much. I love her so much.

Speaker 2 (01:13:45):
How could you not. She's such a good soul.

Speaker 1 (01:13:47):
Is her family. They keep her looking fly like. She
looks so much flying. And she's still on tour. Mm hm.

Speaker 2 (01:13:57):
She's got a full brand in Walmart and Walmark Food brand.
She's still relevant.

Speaker 1 (01:14:04):
Eighties is on one. I can't wait to have my
eightieth birthday.

Speaker 2 (01:14:08):
Really went to an eightieth birthday born. She had an
amazing eighties.

Speaker 1 (01:14:12):
These eighties are out of control.

Speaker 2 (01:14:14):
I'm telling you, you have no fear about age or
no issues with aging or any of that weird stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:14:20):
And you know a thousand people and if they did,
you rocking.

Speaker 2 (01:14:22):
Like it's you can't wait.

Speaker 1 (01:14:25):
I can't wait.

Speaker 2 (01:14:26):
So fifty didn't hit you hard or fifty.

Speaker 1 (01:14:29):
The whole world shut down. So I was like, yeah,
I'm home. Oh it cod been home in years. It
was home for six months, like okay, with a newborn.
I was like, okay, this is different, but it was
for me. It was it was a break that I
probably needed. The world had to stop because I was
planning on having a fifty hour party. I was about

(01:14:49):
to tear ish up. I had a plan well to teachers,
but nah, I.

Speaker 2 (01:14:54):
Mean no fear is about sixty or seventy or.

Speaker 1 (01:14:57):
I don't really look at time like that, you know
what I mean. I just don't. I don't, I don't.
I just know too many people older than me. I've
always rolled with people older than me, at least four
years older than me, and I've always had something to
look forward to, and so to me. You know, my
grandmother was like in her eighties, and she was funny
and spunky and laughing and enjoying life and so not

(01:15:21):
that she was without her challenges, but I wanted to
be like her. I was like, this is how you live.
You just keep living, you keep learning, you keep doing things.
You know, maybe you don't do what you did in
your twenties, but I don't want to. I don't think
I want to do everything I did in my twenties.
Hell tore them twenties up, you know, I know you did.
I do not want to go back to.

Speaker 2 (01:15:42):
You.

Speaker 1 (01:15:43):
But if I don't leave the door open, I'm I'm
not leaving it open for what I still have to learn,
like you said, and what I have to give, because
some of this we got to just pass it on,
pass it along. And so no, I'm going to live
as long as I can.

Speaker 2 (01:16:00):
All right, we're gonna do our speed round of I
R L Questions in the World, and we're gonna let
you go because I know you have things to prepare for.
I know that. By the way, the AMAS are coming.
Queen Latifa is our host for this year's American Music War.

Speaker 1 (01:16:11):
What should I do?

Speaker 2 (01:16:12):
You should do? I do not have this planned already?

Speaker 1 (01:16:16):
You have this.

Speaker 2 (01:16:19):
You should just show up with that crown.

Speaker 1 (01:16:21):
Yep, bust the crowd and left a little bit. Maybe
I'll start straight. I don't let that joint slink a
little forward, Like.

Speaker 2 (01:16:30):
This is fun for you at this point, right, Like
closing the AMAS is like like.

Speaker 1 (01:16:34):
What is that?

Speaker 2 (01:16:35):
That's just you?

Speaker 1 (01:16:36):
Like, it's a music show. How can it not be fun.
I just want to see what everybody's gonna do, what
you're wearing, how you feeling. I just want everybody to
have a great show. This one's for the people. You know,
they get to vote for the winners, So I just
want the audience to have a good time. I wanted
to look great on TV. I wanted to look great
in person.

Speaker 2 (01:16:53):
Now you're doing that, You're doing the voice, you do
like you got a lot of shit coming up, I
do okay, I rol speed round and then you're bold.
Then you're out of here. So you could go prepare
for the voice and for amas on a scaley music
on ahattant, we can't because we have to clear it.

Speaker 1 (01:17:08):
Then got clear this do we.

Speaker 2 (01:17:10):
On a scale of one to ten? How happy are
you today?

Speaker 1 (01:17:13):
How happy am I? Today?

Speaker 2 (01:17:14):
Yes? Today? Hey? Do you run ten normally? Do you
run high normally?

Speaker 1 (01:17:20):
You dah happy? What is happy day?

Speaker 2 (01:17:25):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (01:17:25):
Ten? You gotta tell yourself first, guilty pleasure, guilty pleasure.
I don't like the guilty part. Okay, pleasure, Okay, pleasure, biggest,
greatest pleasure?

Speaker 2 (01:17:40):
Right now?

Speaker 1 (01:17:40):
What's giving you the greatest pleasure? Those sweet smiles and
laughs that I'm gonna get when I get home? Oh,
baby kisses? I love that Freddy stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:17:51):
What are you most proud of about yourself?

Speaker 1 (01:17:54):
Oh? Most proud of? Wow? I think I'm most proud
of all the people who I've helped through my career
that would otherwise have been overlooked. By using my power
to empower other people.

Speaker 2 (01:18:12):
Pet peeves or triggers, people.

Speaker 1 (01:18:14):
Who are disrespectful to women.

Speaker 2 (01:18:17):
M word.

Speaker 1 (01:18:22):
Feel the way to that. Okay, stop the violence and
hip hop. Why oh yeah? Or children or old people?

Speaker 2 (01:18:33):
What's your men? What's you?

Speaker 1 (01:18:34):
Basically everything?

Speaker 2 (01:18:37):
Don't don't be a bully and don't be an asshole.

Speaker 1 (01:18:40):
Basically I can't stand and bully. That's don't put your bully.
Can I get that on a T shirt?

Speaker 2 (01:18:46):
Don't be a bully and don't be an asshole? Yes, yes,
it's good. There's a there's a Hawaiian what is it?
Oh no, I don't want to mess it up. There's
like a Hawaiian term. When I went to Hawaii, they're like, no,
is it keep it pono or keep it something like that,
and I was like, what does that mean?

Speaker 1 (01:19:01):
Guilty pleasure is a hawk of dance they're doing New
Zealand at Traditional. It's like a traditional dance slash chant
that they do to celebrate things or for its wedding
happening or somebody's coming home from somewhere, and everybody knows.
It's from the kids to the old people. And I'm
telling you, I put that thing on. I got goosebumps

(01:19:23):
right now. Hard day at work, running low on energy.
I just put it on. And then somebody said, we're
gonna do it. We're gonna dedicate a hawk to black
people right now online, and I was like, let's go now,
you have to watch.

Speaker 2 (01:19:39):
That's your pleasure right now.

Speaker 1 (01:19:40):
It's always it gives you joy, it does cure joy.

Speaker 2 (01:19:43):
What do you pray for most?

Speaker 1 (01:19:46):
Oh? What do I pray for most? Forgiveness and family?

Speaker 2 (01:19:53):
How often do you think about your legacy?

Speaker 1 (01:19:57):
Not that often? Really, I don't think about it that
often when I'm reminded of it.

Speaker 2 (01:20:04):
M what do you think? What do you want it
to be? Or what do you want even if you
walk out of a room you leave here today, what
do you want to leave people with? What do you
want people to say about you or feel?

Speaker 1 (01:20:16):
When you know people feel like, you know, inspired in
some sort of way. I hope they feel like that
something they could take from this conversation we've had and
apply to their own lives in some sort of way,
shape or form in a good way, and to give
to other people, help other people. You never know when
you're going to need some help yourself. So word that

(01:20:38):
comes back around.

Speaker 2 (01:20:39):
Hey, guys. Support for this podcast is brought to you
by Walden University. Have you ever thought to yourself, what
if I could go after what I actually want and
I could really make a difference. Well, you are not alone,
and this is exactly why I want to tell you
about Walden University. For over fifty years, Walden has helped
working adults like you get the w with the knowledge,

(01:21:00):
the skills and everything you need to build the future
that you want. And you can make a difference where
it matters most. If you've been waiting for the right moment,
this is it. Head to WALDENU dot e d U
and take that first step. Walden University set a course
for change, certified to operate by SHIV. One last question

(01:21:21):
in the bowl. You're gonna go in the bowl before
we let you go home today. Can't wait to see
you on the AMAS.

Speaker 1 (01:21:26):
Can't wait to see you put my hand in that bowl.

Speaker 2 (01:21:29):
The bull is a good ball. Do you want me
to pick it for you?

Speaker 1 (01:21:31):
I don't need you to pick it for me.

Speaker 2 (01:21:33):
I want to know, all right, you'll pick your own.
You're sure you have me both picked one?

Speaker 1 (01:21:37):
Yes, you pick one and you answer it?

Speaker 2 (01:21:40):
You did have you know? What was it on? There
was the Queen latif for show at you had a
talk show. You could host this pod.

Speaker 1 (01:21:47):
But you have a better talk show hosts. So do
keep doing this, We'll learn it from you. For many years, what.

Speaker 2 (01:21:53):
Would you what would you ask me as a talk
show host?

Speaker 1 (01:21:59):
When is one one time when you thought you were
gonna quit that you decided that you couldn't?

Speaker 2 (01:22:05):
Me yes?

Speaker 1 (01:22:08):
And what made you get up and keep going?

Speaker 2 (01:22:13):
After my car accident, I was tired. I felt disconnected.
I felt like I didn't want to talk about the
same shit I was talking about. I didn't I felt
I just didn't feel useful in the way that I
had been useful in the past. So if you're not
useful in that way, then how do you how do
you show up? And then also I was like I
was not well. My body was not good, you know,

(01:22:36):
I was like struggling. So I was like, maybe I
just maybe I'm done, and maybe I just just And
then too number one, you know, you gotta I still
gotta figure out what look like. But then also I
realized God gives you those type of moments because because
you were a little stuck and you needed to be
shaken up a little bit. Even though it feels harsh

(01:22:58):
at the time, You're like, it didn't have to be this.
You think like, did it have to be like this?
And you're like, hit you up, and then you know
then it's uncomfortable, the transition into whatever the new version
of you is about to be, and so uh so yes,

(01:23:18):
I have to go through that. And then once I
got to the other side, I was like, wait, I
do have some ideas. I do have some things I
want to And that's how the pod actually was launched
because I wanted to have more meaningful conversations for somebody
who's sitting home feeling that to feel inspired by, like
when you get knocked down, or you need to like you,
how you That visual that you showed a loan could

(01:23:39):
literally pick somebody up today, you know what I'm saying.
So that made me want to look how good you are?
You asked me one question and I'm enjoying it. Keep
talking and I'll stop. You're doing the boll stop.

Speaker 1 (01:23:50):
Look I talked, got to talk so much. She gave
me the ball.

Speaker 2 (01:23:54):
Take the last question, and then I have one in
the bowl that's did that but got back up. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:24:02):
Seriously, you come with like such a different wisdom and
a handle that is so like so sure, it feels
so sure. And maybe because I've been listening to you
on the radio for many, many years. But it's just
and you've been in front of the mic, not just
behind the mic, you know what I mean, you know
what both sides of it, and your parent like you

(01:24:23):
got a lot to offer than you. You know everybody.
You've been through a lot of things. So it's just
like a certain handle that you have on this that
to me just feels very relaxing to watch, very easy
to watch you talk to your guests, and I like
the personal way you're able to do these interviews. I'd

(01:24:43):
love to see you on a huge stage with a
huge audience and lots of cameras.

Speaker 2 (01:24:48):
Do you think this is still placed like for that
in the world?

Speaker 1 (01:24:50):
But I don't think it would be any different than this,
you know what I mean. It's the conversation that you're
able to generate. That's just what everybody will be looking at. Anyway.

Speaker 2 (01:25:00):
Thank you, I love you. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:25:02):
And you have a special room for Joe and his
art and me. Can I come in your room and
do art?

Speaker 2 (01:25:07):
Yes, that's a good question. What is it? Tell me?

Speaker 1 (01:25:10):
If you have a chance to live forever, would you
take it?

Speaker 2 (01:25:14):
M M. I think that's a great question for you.

Speaker 1 (01:25:16):
That's a time.

Speaker 2 (01:25:19):
What am I going to do forever? You did a
lot of way.

Speaker 1 (01:25:22):
Do I got age in this forever? Do I get
to like? Stay right? So?

Speaker 2 (01:25:25):
You have too many questions? Next question?

Speaker 1 (01:25:27):
I can't answer this question?

Speaker 2 (01:25:28):
Can I ask you the question? I'm going to ask
you the question I like from THEE I can't find that.
I'm just gonna read it to you. Ready, Well, this
is my favorite one in the bowls. So before you leave,
first of all, I love you. Thank you for today.

Speaker 1 (01:25:45):
I love you.

Speaker 2 (01:25:46):
You are a gift to us all for real. We
appreciate you. And I know you don't like people in
your business, and you let me go in your business
a little bit to.

Speaker 1 (01:25:55):
Know, and we're gonna cut all of that. I hope
you enjoyed everyone.

Speaker 2 (01:26:00):
Why no, First of all, what she was talking about,
don't don't get in trouble, don't go home and get
in trouble.

Speaker 1 (01:26:08):
Not Ai not.

Speaker 2 (01:26:13):
I was very gentle today.

Speaker 1 (01:26:14):
I didn't.

Speaker 2 (01:26:15):
I know I didn't violate it anyway, Did I know?
I didn't stop?

Speaker 1 (01:26:19):
All right?

Speaker 2 (01:26:20):
This is my favorite. I love this question for you,
and I love this question in general. It's my favorite.

Speaker 1 (01:26:25):
If God were to text you right now, what would
it say, are you wearing your reading glasses?

Speaker 2 (01:26:33):
Stop?

Speaker 1 (01:26:36):
You know you wear reading glasses. Put you're reading before
you're reading glasses. That's the reason I invented reading glasses.
Oh oh was this here all that time? It was yeah, wow,
oh wow. See all the questions. Would you want to

(01:26:58):
ask me that shit? For real? You know I'm not
answering that one.

Speaker 2 (01:27:00):
What do you mean?

Speaker 1 (01:27:01):
I'm just joking? First of all, she would say, I
am a woman. I got too many jokes for this answer. God,
that's the biggest sense of humor, because God invented humor,
so no worries.

Speaker 2 (01:27:18):
So she gets it.

Speaker 1 (01:27:19):
Oh, I gotta go. I got a child at home.
That's what God just told me. God of God, thanks
child at home. You gotta go. I'm watching this child.
I got other people's chouts to walk, and fine, we'll go.
I got other people's chous. That's when my guard had said,

(01:27:40):
you want me to watch your child? How long? Do
you know how expensive my time is?

Speaker 2 (01:27:44):
I thank you for that's what that's it. That's your answer.
That's your answer.

Speaker 1 (01:27:49):
God said, you're doing all right, kid, Pat on the back,
go home. Both you girls did a great job.

Speaker 2 (01:27:58):
She didn't great she did great across the board in life,
on the pod, that's all around.

Speaker 1 (01:28:07):
Hey see what.

Speaker 2 (01:28:09):
They are amazing at the Hall of.

Speaker 1 (01:28:10):
Fame and on the boys all the things.

Speaker 2 (01:28:12):
Thanks, I know we kept you.

Speaker 1 (01:28:16):
This is Queen Montifa in real life.

Speaker 2 (01:28:19):
Hey guys, thanks for watching. Make sure you subscribe, like comments,
and check out all of the other episodes we have
on Edge. Martinez I R O Podcast

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Episode Transcript

Host

Angie Martinez

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;} Queen Latifah Reflects on Legendary Career, Balancing Fame & Private Life