Come behind the scenes of the College Hill: Celebrity Edition with EMMY-winning TV and Film Producer, and Entrepreneur, Tracey Edmonds. We discuss how graduating from an HBCU (Southern University) changed her life and propelled her forward in her career.
Topics Covered
Did Ray J & Nene Leakes ruin set?
Who brought Stacey Dash on the show?
Nene Leakes, Ray J, Lamar Odom, Big Freedia, Stacey Dash, DreamDoll, India Love, and Slim Thug will head back to class to expand their educational horizons.
AlrightNow.com, lifestyle, health and wellness media brand
More on Tracey Edmonds
Tracey Edmonds has created and produced groundbreaking projects for television, film, music, and digital media and recently exited ExtraTV, where she earned an Emmy Award while serving as co-host alongside Mario Lopez and Charissa Thompson for 3 years. Edmonds currently serves as CEO and President of Edmonds Entertainment. Edmonds is also the Founder and Editor of the new lifestyle, health and wellness media brand, AlrightNow.com.
More On College Hill: Celebrity Edition
BET goes back to school to revive the nostalgic reality series “COLLEGE HILL: CELEBRITY EDITION.” In the reimagined new season, celebrities will live together and join the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Texas Southern University as students.
Nene Leakes, Ray J, Lamar Odom, Big Freedia, Stacey Dash, DreamDoll, India Love, and Slim Thug will head back to class to expand their educational horizons.
The 8-episode series will explore college life through a celebrity lens while showcasing the unique cultural and academic experience of HBCUs.
Despite their respective fame and notoriety, each cast member is committed to focusing on their higher education as a personal challenge to prove it’s never too late.
Enrolled alongside current Texas Southern University students, the cast will work towards completing a specialty certificate program to cross the graduation stage. T
hough to triumph, like any ordinary college student, they must complete their course work along with required internships, extra credit opportunities, group projects, and more.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Money Making Conversation Masterclass. I'm your host, Rashan McDonald.
I recognized that we all have different definitions of success
and I want to thank you for coming on this
show and be a part of it through the audio
through video because of the fact that we try to
make a difference for you on this show. You can
only exceed expectations by believing in yourself. People always talk
about their purpose of gifts. If you have a gift,
(00:20):
lead with your gifts and remember this, don't let your friends, family,
a coworker stop you from planning or living your dreams.
My guest is Tracy Edmonds. I've known it for a
long time. An incredible Emmy Award winning TV and film
producer as well as entrepreneur. I definitely want to emphasize entrepreneur.
Her film and television work includes shows like movies like
(00:40):
Jumping the Broom, Uh, Josie and the Pussycat, and TV
shows like Games, People Play, Dian Sanders, Family Playbook, UH College,
Hell So Food, TV ap DA type Ship with my
girl Felicia Henderson who's a good friend of mine and
now she's doing a reboot. That's what we got on
the show. And talk about reboot of college here celebrity
addition mean h b c U, y'all in Texas Southern University,
(01:04):
that's my hometown. So but I also want to talk
about her entrepreneurial side, health and wellness when she is
always pushing out a call. She has a website which
is fantastic that I helped launch several years ago called
all right now dot com. Please welcome to money making
Conversation because I got the energy and I got to love.
Please welcome Tracy Edmonds. How you, Tracy? Thank you? Always
(01:25):
get to see you well. First of all, you know
the beauty of what we're doing here is a HBCU show,
and you've done it in the past. You did for
like seven or eight seasons previously, right, yes, seven seasons
and this was used to undergraduate students. He was a
young adult pursuing. Now you're taking I like to use
the word grown folks, because they've grown folms. You got
(01:46):
many leaks all the way down that Little India loves.
She may be the youngest person on the show, and
uh and dream Doll may be mad I'm younger, but
but again they're the two youngest people on the show.
So you have you have these like these eighteen or
thirty four Allenneo gen Z type people, and then you
have these uh these are these people who are beyond
the millennial, who are veterans of of reality shows, like
(02:10):
Nini Nicks and ray J. Talk about the casting. Oh yeah,
so we have a it's an all African American cast,
but we wanted to divide. I'm sorry, can yeah, no problem.
So let's let's talk about this. Okay, you have Nianie
Leaks and you have ray J on the show, and
I want to emphasize that because they have veterans of
reality shows. When you bring on veterans, I'm just being honest,
(02:34):
sometimes they could be no at alls and sometimes they
could be assets. Nini is a great person. Ray J
is a fantastic ber. I go way back to him
with his sister Brandy, all the way back to Moesia.
That's a know a long I've known him. So talk
about them being assets on the show because of the
past experience or reality shows. Oh yeah, so, so Nini
(02:54):
and ray J are absolute reality veterans. Of course, we
all know Nini was on Old Housewives of Atlanta forever
and ray J, you know, love and hip hop and
you know, and he goes way back to Moitia days
doing scripted TV. So they are TV pros and we're
really amazing because they were kind of like they kind
of like shepherded the rest of the cast. And so
(03:17):
we had a lot of young cast members, you know,
some who had never done reality TV before, and Needy
and ray J came in as pros and just kind
of relaxed everyone, got everyone comfortable being in front of
the cameras, where you know, after the cameras around for
a while, you kind of stopped stop thinking about them
and just kind of ignore them and just kind of
(03:38):
be yourselves. And so they helped just kind of relax
and warm everybody up and really, you know, just kind
of helped keep things alive. And you know, in the
houses that's important because this is all energy we see
a lot of. You know, first of all, the producers
did a great job of keeping the story moving, of
keeping it feeling like there was a rhythm to the show,
(03:59):
because that's what you have to do. You have these
these eight people are thrown into the house. I don't
care how professionally you are. There are personalities and all
personality jail immediately, okay. And and the beauty of this
particular series is that if you watch India, I'm a
rally Joe veteran Tracy. So they all when they when
they bring in the cast, they start with and they
(04:20):
end with the shocker. They I was in with the shocker.
The shocker was the queen came in that was Nini Leaks.
And then you came in with the end of the
show shocker, Stacy, And she came in strong. Her entrance
was strong. We did not tell Stacy how to dress.
She came in wearing her cowboy hat, her cowboy boots
(04:44):
and completely for her Texas experiences. And so she came
in with a bad Yeah. Well, you know, she's still beautiful, everybody,
this woman is an incredibly beautiful woman, but she's also
Stacy Dash and Stacy Dashed and is throughout her life
has proven that living in an environment with other people
(05:05):
may not be the best thing, but she's gonna try
it out on this show. Now, how did the whole
casting process go through, because let me just go through
the cast member your Ninni Leaks, yea Ray J Lama
Older if you don't know him, played in the Nba
Kadashi and just to get Lama old him Kadashi in Okay,
just you remember him. Now you're Big frieda who out
of New Orleans who I've known many years, the Queen
(05:26):
of Bouts, the Queen of Bouts, and there's a great
conversation she has on the show with Slim Thug who's
also on the show, but he calls himself Big Slim
on the show. And then of course you have Dime
dream Dog, who's a rapper out of the Bronx and
India Love who I just loved her death because she's
coming out of her shell. That is basically the cast
that you have that you put him in this beautiful
(05:47):
matching which I'm so jealous because I'm from Houston. I
don't know where the house is at, but I want
to rent it for a weekend. Talk about the house
because it's the star to show to me. Then talk
about the cast. Oh yeah, so okay, So first of all,
just so people know, when you have to find a
house for reality TV series, it can be really tough
because you need a humongous house with tons of bedrooms.
(06:10):
We had eight cast members and they all wanted their
own room. Uh, most of them did not get their
own room. That became an issue as well. So um,
but you know, he had to find, you know, a
house that could accommodate everybody and also find one that
looked really good on camera as well. And so we
were really lucky. We found this brick mansion that kind
(06:32):
of resembled like an old dormitory house or something. Um,
and it was on the lake, and so we had
a chance to you know, put the cast in a
beautiful environment, um where they spent half their time and
then the other half of the time was spent at
attending classes at Southern University and so um. So yeah,
(06:52):
so you get a chance to see how the cast
navigated which rooms they wanted to stay in, you know,
which roommates they wanted to have, and at the same
time go to school and get that HPC you experience.
We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass
with Rushan McDonald. Now let's return to Money Making Conversations
(07:16):
Masterclass with Rashan McDonald. Let's talk about that HBC experience.
Texas Southern University, one of the great HBCUs just did
an event and like I said, we were crossing lines
here because I was there April two for an HBCU
College day uh tour where I bring in like fourteen
HBCUs to the campus of Texas Southern. We had prayer
(07:38):
view there, We had the Mississippi Valleence State there with
Kentucky State, Maryland easton Shore, wildly college old campus recruiting students.
That's how that's how family it is. When hbc used
to actually allow other HBCUs to come on campus, were
roughly four thousand parents and influences and counsels showed up
to my event. But all the time we were planning
(07:59):
this event, Tracy, they kept saying, Oh, we're busy, We're busy,
We're busy. Finally we got there, they said, whoa they
just left campus? Who? We said, who? College Hill, College Town.
Oh yeah, yes. Our cast was busy with Sean because
we wanted them to have a real HBCU experience, not
(08:19):
like some little faith produced one where they where they
just go in for a couple of minutes each day
and pretend like they're going to school. No, our cast
really went to class every day. They took African American studies,
they took business management, they took law, they took biology
and they had tasks, they had final exams, they had
(08:40):
mid terms, they had presentations. And then on top of that,
our casts also had the extracurricular HBCU experience. And so
we see Stacy Dash joined the dance team, Meani and
Raye joined the debate team. Lamar helped out with the
basketball team, and you know, I forgot dreamed all became
(09:03):
a cheerleader, you know. And so they really took the
HBCU experience seriously and just kind of wanted to embrace
and absorb everything in Texas. Southern has offen. We had
a lot to offer. And let's talk about the whole experience.
Because you you graduated from you attended HBCU Southern University,
and well, I I graduated from Stanford. I did my
(09:26):
undergraduate work at Stanford University, and then um I was
blessed and got a doctorate from Southern Southern. Very well,
it sounds like a graduate to me. She graduated for something,
you know, easily. Okay, it's so funny. Our relationship is
so funny because you know, my freshman year, I enrolled
in Southern University in Baton Rouge. I didn't at team.
You know, just this has been like off on that
(09:48):
we've been crossing our line so much. It's great to
reconnect with and you know, you guys, Southern was the
very first university that we shot College Hill at, so
it's absolutely absolutely so she went back to home. Now
she's coming back to my home in Houston, Texas. Now.
African American Studies. That was one of the things that
stood out to me, and I wanted to talk about
that because my my college degree is in mathematics, my
(10:10):
minors in sociology, and I took African American Studies because
I heard it was an easy grade. I heard that
was one of the easy grades on campus. I went
into the class and realized what I had been educated
in life was nothing. I knew nothing about my black experience.
I knew nothing that I was not aware of our
contributions as African American or black people or colored people
(10:31):
or negroes, whatever they wanted the callers, as we transcended
through this country and built this country and made a
difference in this country. And HBCUs, which started in the
A ten sixty five, have played that same tremendous role.
Why was it important to have a class like African
American Studies on an HBCU show and black people go
to the HBCU, Well, I mean I think it, um,
(10:54):
it showcases what makes the HBCU experience so unique and
so special, and so part of what makes the HBCU
experience so wonderful is that you have professors who look
like you and professors who can relate to you. And
so when you're an African American student and you're being
(11:15):
taught by an African American professor, they can connect to
you in a deeper and more meaningful way that I
think you know, um, someone that's outside of your racial
identity can And so starting the students off with African
American studies was like, it was just a no brainer
(11:35):
for us, because you know, the other thing that's important
is to know where you came from, you know, know
where you're heading, and also feel empowered. You know that
you're black, and so a lot of you know these
classes these days. You know, while it's important to know
the history of slavery and the challenges and the obstacles
that we've had to overcome as a race, it's also
(11:59):
important to know the accomplishments that we've made as a race,
and so learning about African Americans who have helped build
this country, you know, have invented things that have impacted
the entire world. You know, learning about all those contributions
that African Americans have made really helps you feel empowered
(12:20):
as an individual because you look at you know, your
you know people, your predecessors, and you go, wow, they
did this and you know, and they didn't have one
tenth of the resources that I have now, you know, Um,
that makes me feel like I can do this too.
And so we wanted our you know, our cast members
to feel inspired and encourage and be able to take
(12:42):
everything that they're learning from this HBC you experience and
apply that in today's society and in their lives and
in their careers. I'm talking to the Emmy Award winning
television producer Tracy Edmonds. Tracy was really interesting in watching
the cast members eight cast members as on the show,
Like I said, Ninnie Leaks, Ray j lamar Old and Freda, Uh,
Stacy Dash, dream Dog, India Love and slim A Big
(13:05):
Slam on the show. Uh. You know, there's a certain
amount of respect because you know, you watch these realities
shows just feel like people have agendas. They have these
issues and they bring up to the show, and I
felt a natural or natural goal was to be very
respectful to the brand of HBCUs. I'm talking about the
cast members and was that was that? Was that a
(13:28):
natural for them to go that direction? You got set
them down and go, look, we're doing a show on
an HBCU campus. A HBCU campus are what they represent
in our society. We don't want to do anything foolish.
It did that conversation have to be had or with
just a natural butture guidance by the cast, I can
(13:48):
honestly say, ra Sean, we didn't even have to have
that conversation. Each has member when I talked to them
about joining the show. I'm being totally honest. They were
all genuinely organically excited about attending an HBCU and they
they could not wait for the to get to Houston
(14:11):
and to get it going, and especially Texas Southern. And
so a couple of our cast members had affiliations with
Texas Southern, you know in the past. They either had
a family member that had had attended you know, um
Texas Southern, you know, or one of our cast members
had attended it briefly and then had to drop out.
And so, um, they knew how incredible Texas Southern is
(14:35):
as an h B c U and so they were
really really excited about attending it, and so we didn't
have to pump them up. They were already pumped up. Well,
it showed and I was very fairy worried about that,
and there was the word was quickly erased early on
in the in the first episode, you realized this is
a show that's gonna really be groundbreaking and also learning
(14:57):
career for the cast members as well because of the
fact that did the agendas and putting together a show
like this. You know, Stacy dash let's go back to
the Elephant in the room, you know, the bull and
the China Shop. Okay, based on her comments you know
show on Fox News. Uh she said there, why do
we have black history mad? When they asked her on
(15:18):
the show where she African American, she clearly says she's uh,
Mexican and black, So she would acknotge she's African Americans.
She's some type of mixture. That's why she said a
biracial or something like that. So how did she get
on the show? They see that well, actually, we wanted
to have a cast that was coming from very diverse
(15:40):
experiences and perspectives, because you know, it would be boring
to have eight cast members who all thought exactly alike
and who all had the same perspective in backgrounds, and
so we hand picked every single cast member from their background,
their history, their personalities, their perspectives, because we just we
(16:01):
wanted to mix it up and have like a melting
pot of you know, all kinds of different perspectives. It's
more interesting for discussions and for the journeys that we
wanted to chronicle. And so Stacy obviously was coming from
a conservative background. You know, she had you know, UH
had an experience uh as a host for her Fox News.
(16:22):
She's been very vocal about some of her thoughts about
you know, black culture, and so we thought it would
be very interesting to have someone who's coming from a
conservative perspective attend an HBCU because HBCUs can really open
your eyes and open your perspective on the black experience.
(16:46):
And so we were hoping that Stacy, through the classes
that she took, through her experience on campus and with
our cast members, would really you know, kind of continue
to grow her perspective and a pause sative direction on
the African American experience and black culture. And so that
(17:06):
was our our goal in casting Stacy and Stacy actually,
you know, when I spoke to her prior to you know,
starting to film things, she was super excited about going
to n HBCU and about attending Texas Southern and was
positive about what she thought her experience was gonna entail.
(17:29):
We'll leave it at that and then we'll move on
to some of the other great projects because this is
an incredible show. It already has prepared, uh Aaron right
now streaming right now on BT Plus. It's called the
Celebrity Edition College Hill. Uh. It's a show that was
previous produced by the Ammy Award winning Tracy Edmonds and
at Southern University. Now is at Texas Southern University, Southern
(17:51):
University in Baton Rouge, Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas,
and to show the stars an incredible diverse you got diversity,
you got it, you know you you got it and
and and it's and it's really and I say this
really in a complimentary way. It's kind of like a
naiveness that's in the house outside of ray j and
outside of the nine leaks, you can see the awesome
(18:12):
virgin bodies in this world. So you get a lot
of good, honest conversations. Uh, and that a call on
tape And I think that's a blessing when you do
reality shows, correct, Oh, absolutely, And and your hopes and
doing reality shows is that the cast members will learn
from each other and we'll grow from being around each other.
(18:32):
And you know, one of the most amazing individuals that
I hadn't had a chance to spend time with until
this show is Big Freedom. And so um Big Freeda
is coming from the l g b t Q community,
and um, just one of the most beautiful spirits I
have ever worked with. Just incredibly talented, incredibly kind. You know,
(18:53):
it had a very unique perspective on life. And some
of the conversations that Big Freedom shares with our cast members,
which you'll see, you know a camera, especially, She's got
a an amazing conversation with with Slim Thug. Um really
helped our cast members grow and expand their perspective on
(19:14):
life and learn a lot about the LGBTQ community and stuff.
And so again, our goal was to really bring a
cast that's coming from all different perspectives together and see
how they all learn from each other, but then collectively
learned from the HBC experience too. We'll be right back
with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rushan McDonald. Now,
(19:38):
let's return to Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rushan McDonald.
You had a couple of the projects I want to
bring onto the table. You have a Netflix thriller that
comes out in September starring the incredible Queen Latifa. Uh.
Ludicrous is part of that, and my man bow Bridges
talk about that. How did it all come together? And
how are you wearing all these different hats? You know? Sean,
(20:01):
let me just tell you I was so busy in
one true story, I didn't I wasn't in my own
bed between January and September because I was on the
road shooting stuff. And so I shot games, people play,
I shot this this movie Netflix movie, End of the Road,
and at the top of this year I shot um
College Hill as well. But let's talk about into the road. Okay.
(20:23):
So End of the Road Uh premieres on Netflix September nine, starring,
as she said, Queen Latifa Ludicrous and bow Bridges and
so it's a script that I have been trying to get.
I've been trying to get produced for ten years. Can
you believe it to be ten years? Mat um? But
I'm super excited about it and so clean. Latifa plays
(20:45):
a single parent mom raising kids down on her luck,
loses her job, loses her house, and has to go
cross country to relocate. And her brother, who we call
Uncle Ridge, who's played by Ludicrous, joins them and on
their journey cross country, let's just say they get mixed
up into something they thought they never would have gotten
(21:07):
into and it becomes a thriller and so um they
see something they shouldn't have seen and so um. So
this family has got to pull together to save each
other and come out of some serious mess. We have
a great relationship with Netflix. They always sent me these
projects early and hopefully I need locked in on the
(21:28):
interview with Ludicrous or both bridges and I'll be if
I get Queenland, that'd be amazing. But again, uh, definitely
give me that trailer because you know I promote anything
that you do. Now I want to go to a
personal story with all right now dot com um, because
you always promote healthy living stretching. And I'm gonna tell
you something. My hip was bothering me, Tracy, and so
(21:50):
I went to the doctor and I thought, I was
that was nervous. I thought there would need a hip
replacement or do I have to have authritic ballowing in
my hip? And he said, oh, you need to stretch.
That's all they said. For four weeks they taught me
how to stretch, and they told me you need to walk.
So now I walk, you know, a Miliday in the morning,
(22:14):
and then I stretched for another thirty minutes. Something you
have been preaching to me ever since all right now
dot com things I see on your LinkedIn post, I
have been ignoring. The doctor said, stretch, please your life.
That is some real talk. And I'm happy, Rashaan that
you're taking the doctor's advice because he is so right.
(22:37):
Stretching keeps you young, and so it gives you that
pep in your step. It gives you that that energy
and that blood flow that you need. And I'm telling you,
when you stretch those legs and stretch your back even
ten minutes a day, and you do that at the
top of your day, you're gonna feel so energized. The
(22:59):
rest of your day and you're gonna feel your blood flowing,
You're gonna think clearer, and I mean, it's it's amazing
for you. It's almost like it's it's almost equally important
to cardio, like you know it is. It is. So
I'm just gonna just just just a testimony. Okay, she's
speaking the truth. Because what happens is as you get older,
(23:20):
your strides get shorter and you tend to lean leaned over.
You come, all that is gone. My stride is longer,
my posture is correct now because of the stretching is
And it's just simple stuff. It's not something that you
know then I tell you the lift weights and it
just stretch, you know, just simple things that you can do.
(23:43):
I'm watching the news. I get up at four thirty.
I staggered down to my basement. I turn on the news,
so I'm watching news. So I'm not like I can't
do anything but stretch. I can be focused, I can
do a lot of different things. All I'm just saying
is that I am a champion of everything you say.
Tracy Edmonds, All right now, dot Com will be in
(24:04):
my newsletter every week. I go up to sixty four
thousand people every Wednesday at ten am. It will be
in there. I'll have personal testimony telling people do it
because of the fact that no surgery was needed. All
he told me was Rashan McDonald stretch, love love at Rashaun.
(24:24):
I mean, take taking care of yourself is so important.
You guys, eat right, exercise, take your vitamins and your supplements,
and stretch and it will keep you young and keep
you going well. I testify to that again. Thank you
for your time. Tracy Award winning Tracy is on my show.
Remember streaming right now on BT Plus is College Hills
(24:46):
the celebrity edition. Also coming up in September is the
Quility for Netflix thriller. We gotta watch it, everybody, because
you want to get it into the top ten streaming.
You wanted to trend in all hundred and ninety countries,
said he knows way too much. But now, but again,
thank you. Look fantastic. And I'm gonna tellar something. I'm
gonna put a curse on you. It's a good curse.
(25:08):
I hope you don't make it to your bed that
much in two how about that. I want you on
the road doing all these great projects. And I want
you to because it's that it's been a blessing to
have you back in my life, is a blessing to
talk about all these great projects. If that's what it
takes to keep you on the road, I know you're
down in sawth Carolina, Hilton Head relaxing, So you go
to relax, get a little tan, eat some great food,
(25:30):
and get your butt back on the road. Okay. I
always get to see you, love you, wish you, gonna
tell you, thank you, talk soon again. If you want
to hear or see this interview, please go to Money
Making Conversation dot com. I'm with Sean McDonald. I'm your host.
Welcome to Money Making Conversation Masterclass. I'm your host, Rashan McDonald.
I recognized that we all have different definitions of success
and I want to thank you for coming on this
show and be a part of it through the audio
through video because of the fact that we try to
make a difference for you on this show. You can
only exceed expectations by believing in yourself. People always talk
about their purpose of gifts. If you have a gift,
(00:20):
lead with your gifts and remember this, don't let your friends, family,
a coworker stop you from planning or living your dreams.
My guest is Tracy Edmonds. I've known it for a
long time. An incredible Emmy Award winning TV and film
producer as well as entrepreneur. I definitely want to emphasize entrepreneur.
Her film and television work includes shows like movies like
(00:40):
Jumping the Broom, Uh, Josie and the Pussycat, and TV
shows like Games, People Play, Dian Sanders, Family Playbook, UH College,
Hell So Food, TV ap DA type Ship with my
girl Felicia Henderson who's a good friend of mine and
now she's doing a reboot. That's what we got on
the show. And talk about reboot of college here celebrity
addition mean h b c U, y'all in Texas Southern University,
(01:04):
that's my hometown. So but I also want to talk
about her entrepreneurial side, health and wellness when she is
always pushing out a call. She has a website which
is fantastic that I helped launch several years ago called
all right now dot com. Please welcome to money making
Conversation because I got the energy and I got to love.
Please welcome Tracy Edmonds. How you, Tracy? Thank you? Always
(01:25):
get to see you well. First of all, you know
the beauty of what we're doing here is a HBCU show,
and you've done it in the past. You did for
like seven or eight seasons previously, right, yes, seven seasons
and this was used to undergraduate students. He was a
young adult pursuing. Now you're taking I like to use
the word grown folks, because they've grown folms. You got
(01:46):
many leaks all the way down that Little India loves.
She may be the youngest person on the show, and
uh and dream Doll may be mad I'm younger, but
but again they're the two youngest people on the show.
So you have you have these like these eighteen or
thirty four Allenneo gen Z type people, and then you
have these uh these are these people who are beyond
the millennial, who are veterans of of reality shows, like
(02:10):
Nini Nicks and ray J. Talk about the casting. Oh yeah,
so we have a it's an all African American cast,
but we wanted to divide. I'm sorry, can yeah, no problem.
So let's let's talk about this. Okay, you have Nianie
Leaks and you have ray J on the show, and
I want to emphasize that because they have veterans of
reality shows. When you bring on veterans, I'm just being honest,
(02:34):
sometimes they could be no at alls and sometimes they
could be assets. Nini is a great person. Ray J
is a fantastic ber. I go way back to him
with his sister Brandy, all the way back to Moesia.
That's a know a long I've known him. So talk
about them being assets on the show because of the
past experience or reality shows. Oh yeah, so, so Nini
(02:54):
and ray J are absolute reality veterans. Of course, we
all know Nini was on Old Housewives of Atlanta forever
and ray J, you know, love and hip hop and
you know, and he goes way back to Moitia days
doing scripted TV. So they are TV pros and we're
really amazing because they were kind of like they kind
of like shepherded the rest of the cast. And so
(03:17):
we had a lot of young cast members, you know,
some who had never done reality TV before, and Needy
and ray J came in as pros and just kind
of relaxed everyone, got everyone comfortable being in front of
the cameras, where you know, after the cameras around for
a while, you kind of stopped stop thinking about them
and just kind of ignore them and just kind of
(03:38):
be yourselves. And so they helped just kind of relax
and warm everybody up and really, you know, just kind
of helped keep things alive. And you know, in the
houses that's important because this is all energy we see
a lot of. You know, first of all, the producers
did a great job of keeping the story moving, of
keeping it feeling like there was a rhythm to the show,
(03:59):
because that's what you have to do. You have these
these eight people are thrown into the house. I don't
care how professionally you are. There are personalities and all
personality jail immediately, okay. And and the beauty of this
particular series is that if you watch India, I'm a
rally Joe veteran Tracy. So they all when they when
they bring in the cast, they start with and they
(04:20):
end with the shocker. They I was in with the shocker.
The shocker was the queen came in that was Nini Leaks.
And then you came in with the end of the
show shocker, Stacy, And she came in strong. Her entrance
was strong. We did not tell Stacy how to dress.
She came in wearing her cowboy hat, her cowboy boots
(04:44):
and completely for her Texas experiences. And so she came
in with a bad Yeah. Well, you know, she's still beautiful, everybody,
this woman is an incredibly beautiful woman, but she's also
Stacy Dash and Stacy Dashed and is throughout her life
has proven that living in an environment with other people
(05:05):
may not be the best thing, but she's gonna try
it out on this show. Now, how did the whole
casting process go through, because let me just go through
the cast member your Ninni Leaks, yea Ray J Lama
Older if you don't know him, played in the Nba
Kadashi and just to get Lama old him Kadashi in Okay,
just you remember him. Now you're Big frieda who out
of New Orleans who I've known many years, the Queen
(05:26):
of Bouts, the Queen of Bouts, and there's a great
conversation she has on the show with Slim Thug who's
also on the show, but he calls himself Big Slim
on the show. And then of course you have Dime
dream Dog, who's a rapper out of the Bronx and
India Love who I just loved her death because she's
coming out of her shell. That is basically the cast
that you have that you put him in this beautiful
(05:47):
matching which I'm so jealous because I'm from Houston. I
don't know where the house is at, but I want
to rent it for a weekend. Talk about the house
because it's the star to show to me. Then talk
about the cast. Oh yeah, so okay, So first of all,
just so people know, when you have to find a
house for reality TV series, it can be really tough
because you need a humongous house with tons of bedrooms.
(06:10):
We had eight cast members and they all wanted their
own room. Uh, most of them did not get their
own room. That became an issue as well. So um,
but you know, he had to find, you know, a
house that could accommodate everybody and also find one that
looked really good on camera as well. And so we
were really lucky. We found this brick mansion that kind
(06:32):
of resembled like an old dormitory house or something. Um,
and it was on the lake, and so we had
a chance to you know, put the cast in a
beautiful environment, um where they spent half their time and
then the other half of the time was spent at
attending classes at Southern University and so um. So yeah,
(06:52):
so you get a chance to see how the cast
navigated which rooms they wanted to stay in, you know,
which roommates they wanted to have, and at the same
time go to school and get that HPC you experience.
We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass
with Rushan McDonald. Now let's return to Money Making Conversations
(07:16):
Masterclass with Rashan McDonald. Let's talk about that HBC experience.
Texas Southern University, one of the great HBCUs just did
an event and like I said, we were crossing lines
here because I was there April two for an HBCU
College day uh tour where I bring in like fourteen
HBCUs to the campus of Texas Southern. We had prayer
(07:38):
view there, We had the Mississippi Valleence State there with
Kentucky State, Maryland easton Shore, wildly college old campus recruiting students.
That's how that's how family it is. When hbc used
to actually allow other HBCUs to come on campus, were
roughly four thousand parents and influences and counsels showed up
to my event. But all the time we were planning
(07:59):
this event, Tracy, they kept saying, Oh, we're busy, We're busy,
We're busy. Finally we got there, they said, whoa they
just left campus? Who? We said, who? College Hill, College Town.
Oh yeah, yes. Our cast was busy with Sean because
we wanted them to have a real HBCU experience, not
(08:19):
like some little faith produced one where they where they
just go in for a couple of minutes each day
and pretend like they're going to school. No, our cast
really went to class every day. They took African American studies,
they took business management, they took law, they took biology
and they had tasks, they had final exams, they had
(08:40):
mid terms, they had presentations. And then on top of that,
our casts also had the extracurricular HBCU experience. And so
we see Stacy Dash joined the dance team, Meani and
Raye joined the debate team. Lamar helped out with the
basketball team, and you know, I forgot dreamed all became
(09:03):
a cheerleader, you know. And so they really took the
HBCU experience seriously and just kind of wanted to embrace
and absorb everything in Texas. Southern has offen. We had
a lot to offer. And let's talk about the whole experience.
Because you you graduated from you attended HBCU Southern University,
and well, I I graduated from Stanford. I did my
(09:26):
undergraduate work at Stanford University, and then um I was
blessed and got a doctorate from Southern Southern. Very well,
it sounds like a graduate to me. She graduated for something,
you know, easily. Okay, it's so funny. Our relationship is
so funny because you know, my freshman year, I enrolled
in Southern University in Baton Rouge. I didn't at team.
You know, just this has been like off on that
(09:48):
we've been crossing our line so much. It's great to
reconnect with and you know, you guys, Southern was the
very first university that we shot College Hill at, so
it's absolutely absolutely so she went back to home. Now
she's coming back to my home in Houston, Texas. Now.
African American Studies. That was one of the things that
stood out to me, and I wanted to talk about
that because my my college degree is in mathematics, my
(10:10):
minors in sociology, and I took African American Studies because
I heard it was an easy grade. I heard that
was one of the easy grades on campus. I went
into the class and realized what I had been educated
in life was nothing. I knew nothing about my black experience.
I knew nothing that I was not aware of our
contributions as African American or black people or colored people
(10:31):
or negroes, whatever they wanted the callers, as we transcended
through this country and built this country and made a
difference in this country. And HBCUs, which started in the
A ten sixty five, have played that same tremendous role.
Why was it important to have a class like African
American Studies on an HBCU show and black people go
to the HBCU, Well, I mean I think it, um,
(10:54):
it showcases what makes the HBCU experience so unique and
so special, and so part of what makes the HBCU
experience so wonderful is that you have professors who look
like you and professors who can relate to you. And
so when you're an African American student and you're being
(11:15):
taught by an African American professor, they can connect to
you in a deeper and more meaningful way that I
think you know, um, someone that's outside of your racial
identity can And so starting the students off with African
American studies was like, it was just a no brainer
(11:35):
for us, because you know, the other thing that's important
is to know where you came from, you know, know
where you're heading, and also feel empowered. You know that
you're black, and so a lot of you know these
classes these days. You know, while it's important to know
the history of slavery and the challenges and the obstacles
that we've had to overcome as a race, it's also
(11:59):
important to know the accomplishments that we've made as a race,
and so learning about African Americans who have helped build
this country, you know, have invented things that have impacted
the entire world. You know, learning about all those contributions
that African Americans have made really helps you feel empowered
(12:20):
as an individual because you look at you know, your
you know people, your predecessors, and you go, wow, they
did this and you know, and they didn't have one
tenth of the resources that I have now, you know, Um,
that makes me feel like I can do this too.
And so we wanted our you know, our cast members
to feel inspired and encourage and be able to take
(12:42):
everything that they're learning from this HBC you experience and
apply that in today's society and in their lives and
in their careers. I'm talking to the Emmy Award winning
television producer Tracy Edmonds. Tracy was really interesting in watching
the cast members eight cast members as on the show,
Like I said, Ninnie Leaks, Ray j lamar Old and Freda, Uh,
Stacy Dash, dream Dog, India Love and slim A Big
(13:05):
Slam on the show. Uh. You know, there's a certain
amount of respect because you know, you watch these realities
shows just feel like people have agendas. They have these
issues and they bring up to the show, and I
felt a natural or natural goal was to be very
respectful to the brand of HBCUs. I'm talking about the
cast members and was that was that? Was that a
(13:28):
natural for them to go that direction? You got set
them down and go, look, we're doing a show on
an HBCU campus. A HBCU campus are what they represent
in our society. We don't want to do anything foolish.
It did that conversation have to be had or with
just a natural butture guidance by the cast, I can
(13:48):
honestly say, ra Sean, we didn't even have to have
that conversation. Each has member when I talked to them
about joining the show. I'm being totally honest. They were
all genuinely organically excited about attending an HBCU and they
they could not wait for the to get to Houston
(14:11):
and to get it going, and especially Texas Southern. And
so a couple of our cast members had affiliations with
Texas Southern, you know in the past. They either had
a family member that had had attended you know, um
Texas Southern, you know, or one of our cast members
had attended it briefly and then had to drop out.
And so, um, they knew how incredible Texas Southern is
(14:35):
as an h B c U and so they were
really really excited about attending it, and so we didn't
have to pump them up. They were already pumped up. Well,
it showed and I was very fairy worried about that,
and there was the word was quickly erased early on
in the in the first episode, you realized this is
a show that's gonna really be groundbreaking and also learning
(14:57):
career for the cast members as well because of the
fact that did the agendas and putting together a show
like this. You know, Stacy dash let's go back to
the Elephant in the room, you know, the bull and
the China Shop. Okay, based on her comments you know
show on Fox News. Uh she said there, why do
we have black history mad? When they asked her on
(15:18):
the show where she African American, she clearly says she's uh,
Mexican and black, So she would acknotge she's African Americans.
She's some type of mixture. That's why she said a
biracial or something like that. So how did she get
on the show? They see that well, actually, we wanted
to have a cast that was coming from very diverse
(15:40):
experiences and perspectives, because you know, it would be boring
to have eight cast members who all thought exactly alike
and who all had the same perspective in backgrounds, and
so we hand picked every single cast member from their background,
their history, their personalities, their perspectives, because we just we
(16:01):
wanted to mix it up and have like a melting
pot of you know, all kinds of different perspectives. It's
more interesting for discussions and for the journeys that we
wanted to chronicle. And so Stacy obviously was coming from
a conservative background. You know, she had you know, UH
had an experience uh as a host for her Fox News.
(16:22):
She's been very vocal about some of her thoughts about
you know, black culture, and so we thought it would
be very interesting to have someone who's coming from a
conservative perspective attend an HBCU because HBCUs can really open
your eyes and open your perspective on the black experience.
(16:46):
And so we were hoping that Stacy, through the classes
that she took, through her experience on campus and with
our cast members, would really you know, kind of continue
to grow her perspective and a pause sative direction on
the African American experience and black culture. And so that
(17:06):
was our our goal in casting Stacy and Stacy actually,
you know, when I spoke to her prior to you know,
starting to film things, she was super excited about going
to n HBCU and about attending Texas Southern and was
positive about what she thought her experience was gonna entail.
(17:29):
We'll leave it at that and then we'll move on
to some of the other great projects because this is
an incredible show. It already has prepared, uh Aaron right
now streaming right now on BT Plus. It's called the
Celebrity Edition College Hill. Uh. It's a show that was
previous produced by the Ammy Award winning Tracy Edmonds and
at Southern University. Now is at Texas Southern University, Southern
(17:51):
University in Baton Rouge, Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas,
and to show the stars an incredible diverse you got diversity,
you got it, you know you you got it and
and and it's and it's really and I say this
really in a complimentary way. It's kind of like a
naiveness that's in the house outside of ray j and
outside of the nine leaks, you can see the awesome
(18:12):
virgin bodies in this world. So you get a lot
of good, honest conversations. Uh, and that a call on
tape And I think that's a blessing when you do
reality shows, correct, Oh, absolutely, And and your hopes and
doing reality shows is that the cast members will learn
from each other and we'll grow from being around each other.
(18:32):
And you know, one of the most amazing individuals that
I hadn't had a chance to spend time with until
this show is Big Freedom. And so um Big Freeda
is coming from the l g b t Q community,
and um, just one of the most beautiful spirits I
have ever worked with. Just incredibly talented, incredibly kind. You know,
(18:53):
it had a very unique perspective on life. And some
of the conversations that Big Freedom shares with our cast members,
which you'll see, you know a camera, especially, She's got
a an amazing conversation with with Slim Thug. Um really
helped our cast members grow and expand their perspective on
(19:14):
life and learn a lot about the LGBTQ community and stuff.
And so again, our goal was to really bring a
cast that's coming from all different perspectives together and see
how they all learn from each other, but then collectively
learned from the HBC experience too. We'll be right back
with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rushan McDonald. Now,
(19:38):
let's return to Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rushan McDonald.
You had a couple of the projects I want to
bring onto the table. You have a Netflix thriller that
comes out in September starring the incredible Queen Latifa. Uh.
Ludicrous is part of that, and my man bow Bridges
talk about that. How did it all come together? And
how are you wearing all these different hats? You know? Sean,
(20:01):
let me just tell you I was so busy in
one true story, I didn't I wasn't in my own
bed between January and September because I was on the
road shooting stuff. And so I shot games, people play,
I shot this this movie Netflix movie, End of the Road,
and at the top of this year I shot um
College Hill as well. But let's talk about into the road. Okay.
(20:23):
So End of the Road Uh premieres on Netflix September nine, starring,
as she said, Queen Latifa Ludicrous and bow Bridges and
so it's a script that I have been trying to get.
I've been trying to get produced for ten years. Can
you believe it to be ten years? Mat um? But
I'm super excited about it and so clean. Latifa plays
(20:45):
a single parent mom raising kids down on her luck,
loses her job, loses her house, and has to go
cross country to relocate. And her brother, who we call
Uncle Ridge, who's played by Ludicrous, joins them and on
their journey cross country, let's just say they get mixed
up into something they thought they never would have gotten
(21:07):
into and it becomes a thriller and so um they
see something they shouldn't have seen and so um. So
this family has got to pull together to save each
other and come out of some serious mess. We have
a great relationship with Netflix. They always sent me these
projects early and hopefully I need locked in on the
(21:28):
interview with Ludicrous or both bridges and I'll be if
I get Queenland, that'd be amazing. But again, uh, definitely
give me that trailer because you know I promote anything
that you do. Now I want to go to a
personal story with all right now dot com um, because
you always promote healthy living stretching. And I'm gonna tell
you something. My hip was bothering me, Tracy, and so
(21:50):
I went to the doctor and I thought, I was
that was nervous. I thought there would need a hip
replacement or do I have to have authritic ballowing in
my hip? And he said, oh, you need to stretch.
That's all they said. For four weeks they taught me
how to stretch, and they told me you need to walk.
So now I walk, you know, a Miliday in the morning,
(22:14):
and then I stretched for another thirty minutes. Something you
have been preaching to me ever since all right now
dot com things I see on your LinkedIn post, I
have been ignoring. The doctor said, stretch, please your life.
That is some real talk. And I'm happy, Rashaan that
you're taking the doctor's advice because he is so right.
(22:37):
Stretching keeps you young, and so it gives you that
pep in your step. It gives you that that energy
and that blood flow that you need. And I'm telling you,
when you stretch those legs and stretch your back even
ten minutes a day, and you do that at the
top of your day, you're gonna feel so energized. The
(22:59):
rest of your day and you're gonna feel your blood flowing,
You're gonna think clearer, and I mean, it's it's amazing
for you. It's almost like it's it's almost equally important
to cardio, like you know it is. It is. So
I'm just gonna just just just a testimony. Okay, she's
speaking the truth. Because what happens is as you get older,
(23:20):
your strides get shorter and you tend to lean leaned over.
You come, all that is gone. My stride is longer,
my posture is correct now because of the stretching is
And it's just simple stuff. It's not something that you
know then I tell you the lift weights and it
just stretch, you know, just simple things that you can do.
(23:43):
I'm watching the news. I get up at four thirty.
I staggered down to my basement. I turn on the news,
so I'm watching news. So I'm not like I can't
do anything but stretch. I can be focused, I can
do a lot of different things. All I'm just saying
is that I am a champion of everything you say.
Tracy Edmonds, All right now, dot Com will be in
(24:04):
my newsletter every week. I go up to sixty four
thousand people every Wednesday at ten am. It will be
in there. I'll have personal testimony telling people do it
because of the fact that no surgery was needed. All
he told me was Rashan McDonald stretch, love love at Rashaun.
(24:24):
I mean, take taking care of yourself is so important.
You guys, eat right, exercise, take your vitamins and your supplements,
and stretch and it will keep you young and keep
you going well. I testify to that again. Thank you
for your time. Tracy Award winning Tracy is on my show.
Remember streaming right now on BT Plus is College Hills
(24:46):
the celebrity edition. Also coming up in September is the
Quility for Netflix thriller. We gotta watch it, everybody, because
you want to get it into the top ten streaming.
You wanted to trend in all hundred and ninety countries,
said he knows way too much. But now, but again,
thank you. Look fantastic. And I'm gonna tellar something. I'm
gonna put a curse on you. It's a good curse.
(25:08):
I hope you don't make it to your bed that
much in two how about that. I want you on
the road doing all these great projects. And I want
you to because it's that it's been a blessing to
have you back in my life, is a blessing to
talk about all these great projects. If that's what it
takes to keep you on the road, I know you're
down in sawth Carolina, Hilton Head relaxing, So you go
to relax, get a little tan, eat some great food,
(25:30):
and get your butt back on the road. Okay. I
always get to see you, love you, wish you, gonna
tell you, thank you, talk soon again. If you want
to hear or see this interview, please go to Money
Making Conversation dot com. I'm with Sean McDonald. I'm your host.
Host
Rushion McDonald
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.