May 24, 2023 • 42 mins
Award-winning filmmaker and former record executive Lisa Cortés joins Questlove Supreme for an in-studio conversation in New York City. Cortés recalls her musical upbringing and serendipitous beginnings at Def Jam Records and, eventually, the Mercury Records executive team. Here is a two-parter not to be missed.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
This is kind of weird.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
Well it's gonna be great. Welcome you mean the weirdness
of those those two guys in the corner.
Speaker 4 (00:13):
No, everyone, we're good.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
All right, let's go kids. Here we go.
Speaker 5 (00:19):
Supprimo Sun sub primo, roll sup primo, sub primo, roll
sudream Primo, roll sub cream su Premo.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
My name is quest Love. Shut up.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Yeah, So, ladies and gentlemen, Uh, this is another episode
of Quest Love Supreme. I'm your host, Quest Love. I
hope you are doing fine. We have a fan Tikeolo
and Laya and and Sugar Steve and on pay Bill.
And our guest today is the Emmy winning director in film.
Why y'all looking at me like there's a far tell
(01:00):
you alright, knows what time it is. My name is Spante,
so nice to meet you. Don't got the coat jam,
but it's Lisa, Lisa.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
My name is Sugar Glad. We're not on zoom. Yeah,
wop out of lubob Yeah, wop.
Speaker 6 (01:33):
Him on my mom?
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Pay Bill and what the what?
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Let's talk to the fruity and take it in the butt.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
It's live.
Speaker 7 (01:59):
Yeah, and I'm losing my mind.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah, I am everything. That's music doc of my time.
My name Isa and I can't rap, but I'm a
director and I'm gonna tell you about some little rip.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
I know why you left the rap label. I'm sorry
I was I didn't know. Actually, I agree with you.
It's one of the most important Yo.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
No for a ladies and gentlemen walking to another Quest
Love Supreme episode.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
All right, how are you guys doing doing?
Speaker 7 (02:53):
Good?
Speaker 6 (02:53):
Man?
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yo, we had a field trip.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
I got to make a butt tex rhyme.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
I'm good, Hey, yo, man shot yo unpaid building doing
some amazing ship.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Come on, yeah, straight up man, Even.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Though he got You're definitely gonna e got all right? Right, No, first,
jam Ban had showed us on YouTube kids. It's like
my favorite kids show since Yo Gabba Gabba. It is
perfectly made for people that like to get high and
watch television shows.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
Also featuring Fonte and like, yeah, yeah, yeah, she's.
Speaker 6 (03:26):
Killing as the book Yeah I meant to give you.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
So yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
So jam Van is great. And then his show and Juliette,
which is on Broadway. We saw it last night at
the Stephen Sun Theater. I'm not a musical person.
Speaker 6 (03:39):
At all.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Like ever, I was worried.
Speaker 6 (03:41):
That was my first Broadway show ever, first Broadway show,
not my first play.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
I mean I've been to play. I got culture and Ship,
but like iain't never been on Broadway. You've seen some
Sunday plays, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 8 (03:53):
Come on, I seen Mama and the Burning Up the
Chicken and y'all short the box with whatever. But no,
a Juliette bro we had a wonderful time, man, great time.
It's the music of Max Martin.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
So it's like all like the Backstreet Boys Ship and
Weekend and brit Britney Britney.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
That way and the way they used it. Yeah, I
was like, yo, that was that was clever. Yeah, and
everybody the Backstreets Back.
Speaker 6 (04:18):
That shit was funny. There's gonna be well. I don't
want to spoil it, but.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
But no, man, wait, can I ask a question though?
When you hear Backstreets Back?
Speaker 1 (04:29):
My prerogative? Oh not even damn. I didn't even give
to that.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
I was going to say, are there any other thoughts
in your mind when you hear Backstreets Back?
Speaker 6 (04:42):
Nah?
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Okay, it's only me only because that song is literally
the reason why Kel's got a guilty plea because you
know his whole thing of saying that you know.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
C G I or you know whatever, like that was
make me or whatever.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
But apparently someone has t r L on in the
other room and it was a Halloween episode.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
I guess that that song debuted on as a.
Speaker 7 (05:15):
Halloween costumes and the videos and stuff, right, and.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
So I guess you can hear in the background like
special Halloween. There's a world premiere of Backstreets Back but no, no, no,
no no. So it's almost like every time I hear
that song, I think like, wow, this is the song
that finally, after years and years, is what got call.
Speaker 6 (05:34):
I did not know that.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Yeah, that was a deep dive.
Speaker 6 (05:38):
I won't be thinking of that when I hear that song.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Sorry, I'll just be doing that.
Speaker 6 (05:45):
Man, Like great job man the music show. Like we
had a wonderful time.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Man, glad you guys got to go.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
I appreciate it. It was amazing, cool and that was
your experience last night. Fantastic. I went to see New
York New York just Open on Broadway, uh with John
Deeler and Linn Miranda, and it was wonderful. He's in
it no, he just wrote some additional lyrics.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Okay, I got it.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
I got I saw Vanessa Williams though, who I believe
worked with our guest here, and that was quite a night.
Speaker 6 (06:09):
Vanessa L.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Williams sure, okay, right.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Yeah, and I got to rhyme about a butt. So
I'm happy.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
It's a good day. I feel you, befo yo o.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Our guest today is h I mean, winning director, film producer,
and she's part of the team that brought us.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Oh Precious. Wait, can I ask, how's life are you?
I was just messing with you.
Speaker 7 (06:41):
Go ahead, ask your question, boy, whose.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Idea was it to make?
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Like why it wasn't just simply called Precious and not
Precious a film adaptation?
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Yes, I asked that was your idea? Yes?
Speaker 7 (06:56):
Why?
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Why was that?
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Precious was the character? But the source material was so
important and I wanted to make certain that that connection
was there at the end of the day. Shorten it,
yeah if you want, But I wanted people to connect
to the book that you know, back in the nineties
on the subway going to Brooklyn, everybody was reading Push.
So based on the novel Bye Push.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
At thirty Rock.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
That's always been like an inside joke where people will
never say Precious. They'll be like, oh, you're talking about
Precious based on the novel, by push and by like literally,
they'll give the whole biography or description of the book.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
And I was like, why do you guys keep saying that?
And I guess it's them.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Like also, because if it was just going to be Precious,
I didn't think that gave enough. We worked on that
film for so long to get Sapphire to give us
the rights option it, to develop it, to write the script,
to have one director, to then have Lee step in,
to have cast the main character, and four weeks before
(08:00):
we're gonna start shooting, Lee's like, we have the wrong person.
I'm like, oh, no, we have the right person because
we're gonna start shooting in four weeks. And then we
went out and we found Gabby Sidibe. So there's such
a deep, deep history. We worked on it forever as
she was she was the right person, but they let
me introduce our guests first.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Wait, I know that anyway.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
There's also the Apollo Theater documentary, which she was part
of the production team. She also directed Remixed Hip Hop Times, Fashion,
All Right, Got It, and Before her life in film,
she was an exec at Mercury and Deaf Jam. Very
interesting story of how we're connected. Well, we'll talk about
that later, but I will say that her newest film,
(08:51):
which I will go ahead and say an instant classic,
and that's not questlove, hypercole or over exaggeration, which of
course world famous for it.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
But I will say that it is an immensely what
you just called yourself world famous for exaggerating, which was.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
I will say that it's an immensely powerful and important film,
especially where we are today in terms of erasure, in
terms of understanding that all people are in a monolith,
that we have different spectrums and different cultures and different
aspects of our lives, and you know, and basically the freedom,
(09:35):
the fight.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
For the freedom to be free.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
And I guess we had quest of supreme want to
do everything in our power to amplify this very powerful documentary.
Of course I'm speaking of Little Richard the well the
full title, because of course.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
No it's called Little Richard. I am everything. Ladies and gentlemen,
welcome Lisa Cortel.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
I just want to say it's so good to see
you all. I listen and I thought these are my
imaginary friends.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
And they're real.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
There's no going.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
So before I get to your story, I have to
say that you are very, very, very key and instrumental
in my career.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Do you remember a conversation that you had with Richard
Nichols right when? So assuming that your years at Mercury
you were part of the Kenyata Bell ed Eckstein Dave gossip, Yeah,
rejection demos.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
That's my favorite line. So do you remember the story
of our the connection with the roots of Mercury Records?
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:49):
All right, Well one I want to ask what happened
the day after?
Speaker 3 (10:52):
So I've told this story millions of times, but the
shortest version is, you know, we started busking on the
streets in nineteen ninety two of the actually all of
nineteen ninety three, we start fishing for a deal, winds
up into I won't say it, bidding more, but we
damn near went to every label, and then at the
last minute Mercury was going to be that label. And
(11:15):
then the way that I believe the story was when
either Kenyada Bell's assistant sent us the contracts because of
our intricate spelling of our names, three of the group members'
names was misspelled, and our lawyer was like, well, instead
of you guys initially it, tear this up and have
them send back new contracts with your name spelled correctly.
(11:37):
And Kenyata Bell's assistant, I was supposed to send new
contracts the next day and she forgot to do it,
but not to worry. Look, I'll send it on Friday
and then you guys will get it, you know, Monday
and sign. But that Saturday and Sunday is when Wendy
Goldstein decided to throw a hat in a ring. Now,
(11:57):
we had no intentions on signing with Get From Record
because we're like this rock label.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
They don't off of staff.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
We're good, but we wanted the free dinner, like we
liked the whole whining and dining courting part of getting
a record deal.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
So thus, you know, we did the steak and lobster thing,
We're three to go and all that ghetto shit.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
And then just to mess with her Rich and I
decided to call her Bruff and we just literally like
just started naming everything like you know, we want you know,
pathminder and three apartments and da da da da da
da da da da da long story short or longer Sunday.
Our lawyers like, uh, she agreed to everything you guys
(12:36):
asked for and more. And then we're like, but we
told Kenyata Bell We're going to sign the Mercury Records,
and you know, the price was way different because you
know how much rap labels were paying back then, and
Rich basically had to break the news to you guys.
Kenyada was severely depressed about this, and I believe he
(12:57):
also spoke to you. He said, Lisa Cortez told us, HM,
get from records. I hope y'all take racial sensitivity training
over there. And I was like, wait, what does that mean?
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Rich? And we found later found out in the longest
twenty year lesson of.
Speaker 6 (13:17):
Its longest fuck around and found out ever.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Literally and so whenever the bullshit happens, we always used
to joke.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Lisa Cortez told us this is going to happen.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
So do you know, like what was the aftermath of that,
because you know, we should have signed to that label,
Like you guys took us to the Legion.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
I think the Legion was shooting a jingle jingle, jangle wow.
Speaker 6 (13:43):
Everything literally, like we.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Went to the jingle jingle said, we met dress and everything,
We're like, oh shit, we're going to be stars, you know.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
And then you know, so I remember when you guys
did a showcase for us at SR Yes, like on
fifty something something kind of proxidity, and it was fantastic.
I was the VP and I had hired all those
guys like Dave Gossip had gotten fired a deaf jam
(14:12):
and I was like, come over and work with me.
And you know, Kenyatta came in and I didn't know
this thing about the spelling stuff. See that's the thing
when you give the keys to the car to the kids,
like sometimes they don't tell you stuff that.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
You know. Our parents were naming us like you know,
it's like, don't do that, twelve names. So yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
I do remember though, telling Kenyatta that because you know,
I wanted to do the deal and I wanted to
support my team because if somebody came to me and
like Lisa, we have to sign, we have to and
they had so much passion, they had a vision. I
saw you guys. I knew the long tail that we
(15:04):
could make an investment in. And when I heard you know,
and it's like I just always blame it on the managers.
I'm like, who's the manager who like the ship go down?
But with grace, you know, I was Connecticut.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
He said, you did it very Claire Huxtables, like the
very stern.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Hmm, motherfucker. But I love you, bless you and so.
But I was just like, I also, as an executive,
saw different spaces, and I knew Wendy Goldstein had a
great heart and she was there. But the ecosystem, the
bigger ecosystem you were going into. It was like, you know,
(15:50):
when working for Ed Eckstein, and the Ed story is
really interesting how we connected. But you know, he was
the president. A black man was the president. He let
all of us do our thing, you know. Like I
got a tape from Red Alert. It was the Black Sheep.
I was like, I want to sign them. It was
a real jankie tape too. But I was just like,
(16:11):
I really like these kids from North Carolina, let's do it.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
He was all.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
I was like, I didn't know what Stanford.
Speaker 6 (16:16):
I did not know that.
Speaker 5 (16:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
I got a tape on a spoken word artist, Reggie Gaines.
I was like, I want to do a spoken word record.
He's like, sure, I would Produce didn't sign Regie Gaines.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Okay, okay, no, We're always.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Kind and gentle. So when all of this happened, I
just was like, yes, they should be here. But more importantly,
I'm a prayerful person, so I was like, I'm just
praying that the right people besides the one A n
R person who loves this group, is going to come
on board, because I know how that happened, like I
would love things and I could not get the rest
(16:56):
of the company on board. And then and you know,
like Buju, I worked with Boujious for so many years
from signing him to finally getting to tell Shiloh, and
there was a lot of resistance. You know, when you're
the sole A and R person in the woods going
they're the best, they're the greatest. Come to the show,
Let's do this at retail. Come on, let's get him
(17:18):
on this tour. And everybody's going, you know, when's the
new X record gonna drop? It's it's very disheartening.
Speaker 8 (17:27):
Were you did you sign el Al Scratch as well?
M okay, yeah, how did that come about?
Speaker 2 (17:33):
I think that might have been someone might have been
Bernadette Williams, who's my assistant, and then she became an
A and R person. You know, I did a record
a label deal with DJ Pooh because I had known
Pooh from you know, back in my days before. And
I think, if we're going to Mercury, the most interesting
thing talking about Vanessa Williams is when I was at Rush,
(17:57):
I started a company there called Rush Producer Man RPM,
and I represented you know, the Bomb Squad, Eric Vietnam, Sadler,
Larry Smith, Sam Sever, the jam Master, Jess Williams, and
so the late great Gary Harris.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
Ah.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Gary.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
You know, every conversation I ever had with Gary was
always like I don't even know how to visually describe,
but he'd just be like one of those cats that
would always cover his mouth like uh, like it's it's
a casino, like yeah, like the is watching the right
right right, But he'd be like, yo, this kid named
DiAngelo like whatever.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
It was part of the D'Angelo team at Emi. But
he was at Mercury first.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Well, he was friends with Ed. He never went there.
So Ed had Wing Records, and he had Tony Tony Tony.
He had Vanessa. They were trying to blow her up
and Gary said, Joe, you need to meet Cortez. She's
working with all the hot hip hop producers. So Hank
Shockley Bomb Squad did a remix of the Right Stuff, right,
(19:05):
and then I Edward was in California. He would come
to New York. You know, we'd take him to Nels,
we take them to the Fever, you know. And so
I knew all the people out there, the producers, you know.
I would sleep in the studio at Green Street, like
when we did Ice Cubes first album, the Bomb Squad.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
You were there to witness that.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Oh yeah, jesus, I'm a hip hop zelig.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
All right. You were born in Connecticut, Yes, all right,
So what was your first musical memory?
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Okay, I was born in Connecticut, but I grew up
between Connecticut and Harlem. So I always liked to put
that on the map because I'm, you know, I'm kind
of like Green Acres. I'm like the city and the country.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
I can tell already this is gonna be my favorite
interview of this whole entire series, Like, oh, she just
has an energy first memory.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
I'm down on my knees. I'm begging you please cause
I'm busted. Ray Charles, Yes, ingredients and a recipe for soul.
My mother would play that like three times and the
house would be She had these records she would play
to clean the house and she'd be like, I buy
him three times and the house will be clean. So
that was one, and then Dinah Washington this Bit of Earth,
(20:22):
and then there'd be an occasional show too. So I
love musicals. I don't, said the man on his way
to it Eco.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
I mean, can I ask a question, speaking of Busted?
Have you ever heard this version of Ray Charles doing Busted?
And then someone walks on the stage to suck a
punch Ray, because I guess Ray.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Slept with this woman.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
Like literally, they're going and he's going through the verse
and then all of a sudden, you know the the bands,
you know, like on television when they messed up, like
literally that moment and someone's.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Like you a dog.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
You're a motherfucking dog and.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Racist, like bless your hearts, someone, someone come and get
this gentleman off.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Fuck you dog.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Why'd you do that to her? You dog? You dirty,
disgusting dog.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
And then something did you hear like dog dog, someone
please come get him off me? And my part was like, wait,
why is the band letting Rachel's get beat up like
that speaks more than because they knew, right, And so
you hear them dragging him to him off like fuck you, Raychel,
(21:36):
and you hear him like out the door, and I blessed,
blessed this kind of hard all right, two three?
Speaker 1 (21:41):
And then literally you never heard that, never never.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
That's like my favorite thing, next to like Freddie Ubbert
cursing out the band and Buddy Rich Germany.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Yeah, all right, sorry, Well, you know it's funny when
you were vamping there. I think for a kid, they're the.
Speaker 7 (22:02):
Right.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Even though I didn't know the lyrics. I love the melody,
So I think that's why I always remember that so
strongly as at musical memory, and just how it motivated
my mother to get the house together.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
You know, that's called I learned that. I learned this
this morning. Okay, I'm doing the slide movie.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
It's called Counterpoint, where oh damn, Bill just literally came
alive like rum hello, I know you have to get
music nerdy.
Speaker 6 (22:30):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Yeah, Counterpoint, I guess.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Uh. Well, Sly also took advantage of this well where
Ray has a gospel bass, but the melody is more
like a nursery rhyme. So it's sort of like, you know,
the the Rece's theory of mixing chocolate and your peanut
butter and that sort of thing. So sometimes people intentionally
write songs where, you know, some super funk like Slide
(22:55):
will do something super funky with the drums and the bass,
but the horns and the melody will be like no, no, no, no,
like play schoolyard ship mixed with funk and knowing that
that's how you get the kids and the music heads together.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
So can I ask you a question? Yes, did he
sleep with Doris Day?
Speaker 1 (23:17):
All right, so that's one of the most asked questions
of this thing.
Speaker 6 (23:23):
So far.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
He was like, what are you talking about?
Speaker 7 (23:27):
So far?
Speaker 1 (23:27):
I have four no's and two yes's, and the nose
might have it.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
However, dars Day's son, who was like Slies engineer doing
that there's a ride going on, was also his Well, no,
they Sly live across the street from the Beverly Hill
Billy's house. This is when they went to bel Air
but turn it real like hood. Dars gave Sly her
BMW and I guess that's how that rumor came.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
But Sly every every interview sly sort of.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
Sinuated like, yeah, you know, dars Day gave me this BMW,
so you know, they're like, wait, are you dating dars Day?
Speaker 1 (24:02):
I don't know. Am I dating dars Day? So I
don't think you know.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
You know Sarah everybody you know I'd be in the
Beauty Paul with my mother and then people be like, okay,
Sarah cy Doris Day.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
But the thing was, I looked in seventy three and
I was like, okay, so slies twenty nine, Dars's forty four,
and I looked at her in seventy three and I'd
be like, all right, that motherfucker hit.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
So like, would you give anyone your BMW just for that?
Speaker 4 (24:36):
So hellow talk.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
So there's one person that can put their life on
the fact that they believe they slept together, But the
rest of the band's like, nah, I think he was
just lying.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Right If that's and that was this day.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
After the song you want Me to Stay, that's never
that fus.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Yeah, I told you she knows how a rabbit hole
just like the best of us. What was the first
concert you went.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
To Stevie Wonder opening for The Supreme.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
I thought you said the Rolling Stones, because I was like,
what were you doing there?
Speaker 2 (25:10):
They couldn't find a babysitter.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Come on, come on, how old old were you? I
was like, four, man, do you have memories of it?
Or is it fit?
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Here's It was at the Bowl, the Bowl in New Haven.
It was it was outdoors, it was the summer, and
Stevie kept he did like fifteen encores and I just
remember my mother going, you know, I really came to
see Diana Ross and the Supremes and I was like,
I was like, I like this man.
Speaker 6 (25:42):
I like him.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
So your mom was just like I was a little
opening at kid.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Yeah, she grew to love him, she could love him.
And then I had a very memorable concert with the
Jackson five with my mother and father, and that famous
memory is it was at Madison Square Garden and my
father at like all these screaming kids and my father's like,
that's when the Horn and Hearted Automatic restaurant was right
(26:12):
across the street. There wasn't you know the train station
all that. My father's like, I'll be in the Horn
and Heart it having some tapioca pudding because you.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Want to come.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
He couldn't take it. It was just like all these
you know, prepubescent girls screaming be like.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
A parent today at a BTS concert, Like, I don't
want to see that, so let me I'll be across
the Harry restaurant right.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Exactly what did your parents do for starting?
Speaker 2 (26:39):
My mom was an aircraft engineer, and my dad, who's
an immigrant. He's from Columbia, South America.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
He was a rebel, radical and a businessman.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
In in my back of my mind, I was trying
to Okay, let me figure out where.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Okay, so the whole Pacific coast Afro Colombian. Are you fluent, Lisa?
Do you speak of Spanish when I need to cuss
somebody out? And where's the bathroom? I mean, I think
those are the most important language.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Skills to have, but not busting people, because my favorite
thing is when I've hung with people that people might
think like, oh, they're black or some whatever, and they'll
talk shit and then.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Right and then and then you go uh and then
they go right.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Exactly, we everywhere, baby, So when when was the moment
that you were like, I want to get in the industry.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Nine years old, I convinced my mother to let me
go to the children's Theater Workshop, which was a dance
school run by Miss Connie, and they put on many musicals.
I'm trying to get on your next show, and so
we did Gypsy. So you can imagine, you know, from
(28:00):
three year old kids to teenagers doing once. I was
a Schleppa, now a miss Mazeppa, you know, like, because
Gypsy is a musical about a stripper, and I had
been very it.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Was you want to be in that musical?
Speaker 2 (28:13):
I was, I do it all the time?
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Wait, I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Yeah, Stephen Sondheim. And it's the story of Gypsy Rosalie
and how her sister was going to be the star
and their mother pushed the sister forward and then the
sister ran off with one of the dancers because it
takes place in the vaudeville time, and then Gypsy they
end up in a shitty show and the mother's like,
you're going to be an exotic dancer, and Gypsy goes
(28:42):
on to become one of the famous vaudeville strippers.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
Time.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
I was in this play in like fifth grade and
didn't realize how many kids.
Speaker 7 (28:50):
In these plays. I don't understand what a y'all doing
this play.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
This kid's a performing art.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
Well at my school, it was like from first grade
to twelfth grade, so it was the older kids, but
they found like roles for like the elementary kids to
play in.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
So I didn't really did show Boat. We did Mame,
we did gypsyme.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
Yeah, I was very Charles's assistant. Well, my sister played
Vera Charles and I had to. They made a role
for me Bullet Cherry.
Speaker 6 (29:16):
I did hair in high school. I was hood.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Were you naked? Fuck? Okay? Then you didn't do hair?
Speaker 6 (29:22):
Yeah, I mean it was a very a very tame
down Republican version of air. But I did it.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
You were here, you were bald.
Speaker 7 (29:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (29:31):
I grew my hair out. But like they wouldn't let
us do all the new all that, we wasn't doing
that shit plays.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
So I found my voice. I went my mother, get
your grades up. I got my a's, and I auditioned
and discovered that I could sing, and then I loved
movement and performance and connecting. Fast forward this summer I
was fourteen, when everybody rebels, I locked myself in my
(29:58):
room and I just listened to Ella's Gershwin songbook, Cole
Porter songbook.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
I just not heat wave, not.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Of course Evelyn Champagne King, you know, I mean my
father's playing Celia Cruise. I mean there was a lot,
a lot of music. And I also read the back
of albums and I was like, who is this mixer?
I just I you know, I would bathe myself in music.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
You found bath you said rebelling, So in my mind,
I'm like, oh, okay, this is when like she discovers
bad brains or sex pistols or the ramos, And I'm like, GIRs,
when your parents dream, but your.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Peers are like, what the And then I discovered hip hop?
Speaker 1 (30:47):
What was your first hip hop record?
Speaker 2 (30:48):
I'd say it's it's rappers Delight?
Speaker 1 (30:51):
How are you when rappers the like came out? I don't.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
I don't talk about age younger than springtime?
Speaker 1 (31:01):
I got it? Okay, So how do you nuance your
way into was Maroon era? Depth jam? You're a deaf
jam or black label def jam?
Speaker 2 (31:11):
You're Jenia, No, I'm Maroon, I'm nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Tell me everything about it.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Okay, this is one of my favorite How do you
get in the music business when you have no connections?
So I went to Yale and when I was there,
I had this incredible group of friends. One of them's
sister named Lisa Jones Mary baraka Starter.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
We were just these young, feisty kids and we were
working on a magazine that Lisa was putting together. She
was part of that great crew at the Village Voice
at that time, and she wanted to do a magazine
called Diva d'cooning. I was into hip hop and I
was like, I want to write about women in rap.
So I talked to her stepsister Dominique diu Prima, you know,
(31:53):
in the in the Bay. I talked to the sister
Tequila Mockingbird, who was kind of in the punk scene
in Los Angeles. And I really loved this article. And
a friend of mine who worked at Spencer Beck worked
in Interview magazine, and I told him about this article
and I was like, I'm really excited about because nobody
(32:14):
knew there was women in rap. And so he said,
you should go talk to Bill Adler. He is the
publicist at def Jam. So I just called and Bill said,
come on in. So I'm just chatting with Bill. He's
the most amazing, giving, knowledgeable person. And a guy across
the room said, who did you talk to in La
(32:37):
and I said, oh, Tequila, Mockingbird. That guy was Lee
or Cohen. So two weeks later, what are you doing?
So Tequila shows up in New York and I bring
tequila to the office. I'm a good baker. I made
this ginger cake and I brought my resume and we
(32:57):
all hang out body ba and Jimmy Spicer was the receptionist.
What Jimmy Spider never picked up the phone with the
different calls because he'd be chatting some woman up. So
I didn't get the job.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Wait you stop.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
This is the second time that we've heard the story
of someone charming the deaf GM staff to nuance a
job via pastries. Because you also remember Kevin Lyles with
his girl, you know, his chew money. Every morning at
six a m. Would buy everyone orange juice, and le
Yor was like impressed, Like this guy's clean up the
office and buying us donuts and that's how he got
(33:35):
Like Russell was like, get away from you, kid, But
pastries timeout, Jimmy Spicer's dollar bill.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
What So I'm this kid.
Speaker 4 (33:51):
Love it when he does voices.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
I have to say that.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Oh yes, So I keep trying to, you know, roll
up in there and you know, press them and you know,
it was pretty chaotic, but it was also very small.
There was not that many people there. And I've went
to a Luther Vandro show. I conned my way into
the party backstage because you know, you just got you
(34:19):
got to get in, or actually you just need to
make a whole. You don't even fit in, you make
a space. And I run into Leor, who was friends
with Shep Gordon, who was Luther's manager and ll Cool J.
And I walk up to Leor and I go, hey,
you remember me. I gave you my resume on the
(34:39):
good paper. It was like the heavy weighted paper. It
was cream color, that matter. And he said, well, you
know what, I actually need someone, I need an assistant.
Speaker 4 (34:47):
Call me.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
So I keep calling, calling, calling, and then I got
him on the phone one day and I said he
picked up because Jimmy Spicer was talking to some woman
and did not pick up the phone. And I said
to Or, you know, I don't really know if you know,
you'll like me or I'll like you, but I'll come
and work for you for half a day for free.
(35:10):
And then half a day turned into five years a lifetime.
Speaker 6 (35:14):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
So from eighty six to ninety one. Wow, okay, so
licens Bill was about to start to come out.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
I was there when original concept is definitely yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Yeah, And I was there when we mentioned to ninety
eight Elizabeth Street, right when Chuck came in and met
with mister Bill, Bill Stephanie and uh, you know they
signed the Public Enemy.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
What is leear like then?
Speaker 7 (35:43):
Because the lear are we like, no, now, it's such
a big personality and he was.
Speaker 9 (35:48):
He was he was big yeah, and look you know
what he so he was always that person like the
way that people a flower, Yeah, the way people imitate Laurens.
That like Lauren and Leo are the two most imitated
execs that I know, but they always have a sort
(36:08):
of disapproving father and untouchable.
Speaker 7 (36:10):
They're untouchable, like it feels like in ways right they
sit and glad like you can touch Lauren, but Leon
and laurna in that way kind.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Of I know, softer in leor now like Leo.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Is like he's more right right, right, So it's that
Bali effect from Russell.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
Let me ask you at the time, because I know
that it's hard, like I'm such a history buff, but
you know, I think people don't appreciate something until like
time has passed, like five years later or ten years later,
you're like, wow, I was really part of the team
that brought one of the biggest hip hop records selling
records to the world, like Licensed to Ill or you
(36:47):
know that sort of thing. But like for you though,
is are you recognizing that history is being made on
the spot or was it just like man whatever?
Speaker 2 (37:01):
They became my family because the crazy thing is the
first week my dad died when I was fifteen, and
the first week that I went to work there, my
mom died.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Oh no.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
And you know this small group from Russell le Or
Heidi Smith, Bill Adler, Simone who was our receptionist, Bill Stephanie.
They you know, they took care of me. They loved me.
I remember one day I got mugged and Eric b
and rock him. They came to the office and they
(37:33):
heard like I was like, Lisa, I got a black eyes,
Like god, you got got mugged and use York I
lived in the real deal And they were like, well,
if you'd like, we could find somebody who could get
for you a nice little ladylike gun with a with
a mother of pearl inlay I was like, nice style,
(37:58):
and that's what lovely.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
In A nice voice too, pretty gun a very nerdy voice.
Nothing scares me more than nerdy thugs.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
You know that's rare.
Speaker 7 (38:09):
I just want to tell you, as a woman, especially
in hip hop, it's rare to hear this level of
feeling protected and loved and all of that.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
So I'm just get it because I also fought for them.
You know, people will tell you we because this is
right before everything blows up. I worked very closely with
Leor putting together that Adida steel because I actually wrote
a letter to Fila because Houdini had a song called
do the Fela, and I wrote him a letter and
I was like, you guys need to do a deal
(38:38):
with Houdini because they're speaking to this market. Because I
was an American studies major, I like popular culture. I
like seeing, you know, how we as black people start
stuff that is then going to take over the world.
But Fela is like, oh no, thank you. But so
then when the Adidas time came, there was a lot
that had to be translated about why this group was
(38:59):
so important and.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
How much did they need though they needed some.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
There was a guy named Angelo Anastasio who saw it
and he was the advocate for it. But you know,
he was communicating with people in Germany. They did the
music had not spread there yet. And what I learned
in those days it still helps me now, is about
the power of community to cross over this music. You know,
we had Dave Funkinklin who later came to work there,
(39:27):
who was in Colorado playing this music. I don't know,
two o'clock in the morning. We had the car dealer,
drug dealer in Houston who would play our records and
bring our artists there. You know, we had Paul Oakenfeld
and Pete Tong were with London Records which put out
run DMC in the UK. Yes, and they were hip
(39:50):
hop heads and they would the first stop Oki yes
Oki Doki damn.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
He never most people on the other side of the
fence will go over time to like explain their hip
hop petigree. Like we toured with Oakenfell during the area
one tour and talked a lot. He never once gave
a like hip hop pedigree and da da da da
da da da really yeah, damn Hall when they would.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
Come over, the first stop is they'd come to ninety
eight Elizabeth Street like that.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
It was great.
Speaker 2 (40:21):
You know, everybody would come through there. And then when
him and Pete Tong become these Dan Selectro people, I
was like, wow, interesting. So there was this community. There
was some people from Japan there, you know, who ultimately
become a part of the groundswell of the music crossing
over and the ripple effect culturally. So these you know,
(40:43):
I remember we went to London and I, you know,
would make myself the European tour manager so I could
get a little holiday, and you know, we would they
we got kicked out of a hotel or people didn't
the food they wanted, and I would just like be like, no,
you cannot treat these guys this way.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
So you love them.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
I love them then. I love them now because I
recognized how ground I didn't maybe knew what I was in,
but I knew it was something exciting and groundbreaking and
necessary and a part of how our narrative as black people,
we were taking it to something new now, how it
was going to become. I didn't know that I was
(41:25):
young and dumb, but I knew in my heart that
they had to be treasured and that it wasn't okay
to be like, oh the rappers there, No, these are
the artists.
Speaker 6 (41:39):
Yo, Yo, what's up y'all?
Speaker 8 (41:40):
This is Fante Fontigelo. I hate the interrupt this beautiful
discussion we had with the great Relics of Cortez. But listen,
come back to part two. We would discuss her new
documentary Little Richard I Am Everything, while also talking about
her incredible contributions to music and film.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
We love this interview and we hope you enjoyed it too.
Speaker 6 (41:58):
It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 8 (41:59):
Oh and also in time got stream that new Little
Richard dot available everywhere. It's a beautiful film. I think
y'all would really like it. Appreciate y'all.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
Hi Payson, What's Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 3 (42:18):
For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
This is kind of weird.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
Well it's gonna be great. Welcome you mean the weirdness
of those those two guys in the corner.
Speaker 4 (00:13):
No, everyone, we're good.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
All right, let's go kids. Here we go.
Speaker 5 (00:19):
Supprimo Sun sub primo, roll sup primo, sub primo, roll
sudream Primo, roll sub cream su Premo.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
My name is quest Love. Shut up.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Yeah, So, ladies and gentlemen, Uh, this is another episode
of Quest Love Supreme. I'm your host, Quest Love. I
hope you are doing fine. We have a fan Tikeolo
and Laya and and Sugar Steve and on pay Bill.
And our guest today is the Emmy winning director in film.
Why y'all looking at me like there's a far tell
(01:00):
you alright, knows what time it is. My name is Spante,
so nice to meet you. Don't got the coat jam,
but it's Lisa, Lisa.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
My name is Sugar Glad. We're not on zoom. Yeah,
wop out of lubob Yeah, wop.
Speaker 6 (01:33):
Him on my mom?
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Pay Bill and what the what?
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Let's talk to the fruity and take it in the butt.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
It's live.
Speaker 7 (01:59):
Yeah, and I'm losing my mind.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah, I am everything. That's music doc of my time.
My name Isa and I can't rap, but I'm a
director and I'm gonna tell you about some little rip.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
I know why you left the rap label. I'm sorry
I was I didn't know. Actually, I agree with you.
It's one of the most important Yo.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
No for a ladies and gentlemen walking to another Quest
Love Supreme episode.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
All right, how are you guys doing doing?
Speaker 7 (02:53):
Good?
Speaker 6 (02:53):
Man?
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yo, we had a field trip.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
I got to make a butt tex rhyme.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
I'm good, Hey, yo, man shot yo unpaid building doing
some amazing ship.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Come on, yeah, straight up man, Even.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Though he got You're definitely gonna e got all right? Right, No, first,
jam Ban had showed us on YouTube kids. It's like
my favorite kids show since Yo Gabba Gabba. It is
perfectly made for people that like to get high and
watch television shows.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
Also featuring Fonte and like, yeah, yeah, yeah, she's.
Speaker 6 (03:26):
Killing as the book Yeah I meant to give you.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
So yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
So jam Van is great. And then his show and Juliette,
which is on Broadway. We saw it last night at
the Stephen Sun Theater. I'm not a musical person.
Speaker 6 (03:39):
At all.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Like ever, I was worried.
Speaker 6 (03:41):
That was my first Broadway show ever, first Broadway show,
not my first play.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
I mean I've been to play. I got culture and Ship,
but like iain't never been on Broadway. You've seen some
Sunday plays, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 8 (03:53):
Come on, I seen Mama and the Burning Up the
Chicken and y'all short the box with whatever. But no,
a Juliette bro we had a wonderful time, man, great time.
It's the music of Max Martin.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
So it's like all like the Backstreet Boys Ship and
Weekend and brit Britney Britney.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
That way and the way they used it. Yeah, I
was like, yo, that was that was clever. Yeah, and
everybody the Backstreets Back.
Speaker 6 (04:18):
That shit was funny. There's gonna be well. I don't
want to spoil it, but.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
But no, man, wait, can I ask a question though?
When you hear Backstreets Back?
Speaker 1 (04:29):
My prerogative? Oh not even damn. I didn't even give
to that.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
I was going to say, are there any other thoughts
in your mind when you hear Backstreets Back?
Speaker 6 (04:42):
Nah?
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Okay, it's only me only because that song is literally
the reason why Kel's got a guilty plea because you
know his whole thing of saying that you know.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
C G I or you know whatever, like that was
make me or whatever.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
But apparently someone has t r L on in the
other room and it was a Halloween episode.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
I guess that that song debuted on as a.
Speaker 7 (05:15):
Halloween costumes and the videos and stuff, right, and.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
So I guess you can hear in the background like
special Halloween. There's a world premiere of Backstreets Back but no, no, no,
no no. So it's almost like every time I hear
that song, I think like, wow, this is the song
that finally, after years and years, is what got call.
Speaker 6 (05:34):
I did not know that.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Yeah, that was a deep dive.
Speaker 6 (05:38):
I won't be thinking of that when I hear that song.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Sorry, I'll just be doing that.
Speaker 6 (05:45):
Man, Like great job man the music show. Like we
had a wonderful time.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Man, glad you guys got to go.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
I appreciate it. It was amazing, cool and that was
your experience last night. Fantastic. I went to see New
York New York just Open on Broadway, uh with John
Deeler and Linn Miranda, and it was wonderful. He's in
it no, he just wrote some additional lyrics.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Okay, I got it.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
I got I saw Vanessa Williams though, who I believe
worked with our guest here, and that was quite a night.
Speaker 6 (06:09):
Vanessa L.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Williams sure, okay, right.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Yeah, and I got to rhyme about a butt. So
I'm happy.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
It's a good day. I feel you, befo yo o.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Our guest today is h I mean, winning director, film producer,
and she's part of the team that brought us.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Oh Precious. Wait, can I ask, how's life are you?
I was just messing with you.
Speaker 7 (06:41):
Go ahead, ask your question, boy, whose.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Idea was it to make?
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Like why it wasn't just simply called Precious and not
Precious a film adaptation?
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Yes, I asked that was your idea? Yes?
Speaker 7 (06:56):
Why?
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Why was that?
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Precious was the character? But the source material was so
important and I wanted to make certain that that connection
was there at the end of the day. Shorten it,
yeah if you want, But I wanted people to connect
to the book that you know, back in the nineties
on the subway going to Brooklyn, everybody was reading Push.
So based on the novel Bye Push.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
At thirty Rock.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
That's always been like an inside joke where people will
never say Precious. They'll be like, oh, you're talking about
Precious based on the novel, by push and by like literally,
they'll give the whole biography or description of the book.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
And I was like, why do you guys keep saying that?
And I guess it's them.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Like also, because if it was just going to be Precious,
I didn't think that gave enough. We worked on that
film for so long to get Sapphire to give us
the rights option it, to develop it, to write the script,
to have one director, to then have Lee step in,
to have cast the main character, and four weeks before
(08:00):
we're gonna start shooting, Lee's like, we have the wrong person.
I'm like, oh, no, we have the right person because
we're gonna start shooting in four weeks. And then we
went out and we found Gabby Sidibe. So there's such
a deep, deep history. We worked on it forever as
she was she was the right person, but they let
me introduce our guests first.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Wait, I know that anyway.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
There's also the Apollo Theater documentary, which she was part
of the production team. She also directed Remixed Hip Hop Times, Fashion,
All Right, Got It, and Before her life in film,
she was an exec at Mercury and Deaf Jam. Very
interesting story of how we're connected. Well, we'll talk about
that later, but I will say that her newest film,
(08:51):
which I will go ahead and say an instant classic,
and that's not questlove, hypercole or over exaggeration, which of
course world famous for it.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
But I will say that it is an immensely what
you just called yourself world famous for exaggerating, which was.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
I will say that it's an immensely powerful and important film,
especially where we are today in terms of erasure, in
terms of understanding that all people are in a monolith,
that we have different spectrums and different cultures and different
aspects of our lives, and you know, and basically the freedom,
(09:35):
the fight.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
For the freedom to be free.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
And I guess we had quest of supreme want to
do everything in our power to amplify this very powerful documentary.
Of course I'm speaking of Little Richard the well the
full title, because of course.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
No it's called Little Richard. I am everything. Ladies and gentlemen,
welcome Lisa Cortel.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
I just want to say it's so good to see
you all. I listen and I thought these are my
imaginary friends.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
And they're real.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
There's no going.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
So before I get to your story, I have to
say that you are very, very, very key and instrumental
in my career.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Do you remember a conversation that you had with Richard
Nichols right when? So assuming that your years at Mercury
you were part of the Kenyata Bell ed Eckstein Dave gossip, Yeah,
rejection demos.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
That's my favorite line. So do you remember the story
of our the connection with the roots of Mercury Records?
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:49):
All right, Well one I want to ask what happened
the day after?
Speaker 3 (10:52):
So I've told this story millions of times, but the
shortest version is, you know, we started busking on the
streets in nineteen ninety two of the actually all of
nineteen ninety three, we start fishing for a deal, winds
up into I won't say it, bidding more, but we
damn near went to every label, and then at the
last minute Mercury was going to be that label. And
(11:15):
then the way that I believe the story was when
either Kenyada Bell's assistant sent us the contracts because of
our intricate spelling of our names, three of the group members'
names was misspelled, and our lawyer was like, well, instead
of you guys initially it, tear this up and have
them send back new contracts with your name spelled correctly.
(11:37):
And Kenyata Bell's assistant, I was supposed to send new
contracts the next day and she forgot to do it,
but not to worry. Look, I'll send it on Friday
and then you guys will get it, you know, Monday
and sign. But that Saturday and Sunday is when Wendy
Goldstein decided to throw a hat in a ring. Now,
(11:57):
we had no intentions on signing with Get From Record
because we're like this rock label.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
They don't off of staff.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
We're good, but we wanted the free dinner, like we
liked the whole whining and dining courting part of getting
a record deal.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
So thus, you know, we did the steak and lobster thing,
We're three to go and all that ghetto shit.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
And then just to mess with her Rich and I
decided to call her Bruff and we just literally like
just started naming everything like you know, we want you know,
pathminder and three apartments and da da da da da
da da da da da long story short or longer Sunday.
Our lawyers like, uh, she agreed to everything you guys
(12:36):
asked for and more. And then we're like, but we
told Kenyata Bell We're going to sign the Mercury Records,
and you know, the price was way different because you
know how much rap labels were paying back then, and
Rich basically had to break the news to you guys.
Kenyada was severely depressed about this, and I believe he
(12:57):
also spoke to you. He said, Lisa Cortez told us, HM,
get from records. I hope y'all take racial sensitivity training
over there. And I was like, wait, what does that mean?
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Rich? And we found later found out in the longest
twenty year lesson of.
Speaker 6 (13:17):
Its longest fuck around and found out ever.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Literally and so whenever the bullshit happens, we always used
to joke.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Lisa Cortez told us this is going to happen.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
So do you know, like what was the aftermath of that,
because you know, we should have signed to that label,
Like you guys took us to the Legion.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
I think the Legion was shooting a jingle jingle, jangle wow.
Speaker 6 (13:43):
Everything literally, like we.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Went to the jingle jingle said, we met dress and everything,
We're like, oh shit, we're going to be stars, you know.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
And then you know, so I remember when you guys
did a showcase for us at SR Yes, like on
fifty something something kind of proxidity, and it was fantastic.
I was the VP and I had hired all those
guys like Dave Gossip had gotten fired a deaf jam
(14:12):
and I was like, come over and work with me.
And you know, Kenyatta came in and I didn't know
this thing about the spelling stuff. See that's the thing
when you give the keys to the car to the kids,
like sometimes they don't tell you stuff that.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
You know. Our parents were naming us like you know,
it's like, don't do that, twelve names. So yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
I do remember though, telling Kenyatta that because you know,
I wanted to do the deal and I wanted to
support my team because if somebody came to me and
like Lisa, we have to sign, we have to and
they had so much passion, they had a vision. I
saw you guys. I knew the long tail that we
(15:04):
could make an investment in. And when I heard you know,
and it's like I just always blame it on the managers.
I'm like, who's the manager who like the ship go down?
But with grace, you know, I was Connecticut.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
He said, you did it very Claire Huxtables, like the
very stern.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Hmm, motherfucker. But I love you, bless you and so.
But I was just like, I also, as an executive,
saw different spaces, and I knew Wendy Goldstein had a
great heart and she was there. But the ecosystem, the
bigger ecosystem you were going into. It was like, you know,
(15:50):
when working for Ed Eckstein, and the Ed story is
really interesting how we connected. But you know, he was
the president. A black man was the president. He let
all of us do our thing, you know. Like I
got a tape from Red Alert. It was the Black Sheep.
I was like, I want to sign them. It was
a real jankie tape too. But I was just like,
(16:11):
I really like these kids from North Carolina, let's do it.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
He was all.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
I was like, I didn't know what Stanford.
Speaker 6 (16:16):
I did not know that.
Speaker 5 (16:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
I got a tape on a spoken word artist, Reggie Gaines.
I was like, I want to do a spoken word record.
He's like, sure, I would Produce didn't sign Regie Gaines.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Okay, okay, no, We're always.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Kind and gentle. So when all of this happened, I
just was like, yes, they should be here. But more importantly,
I'm a prayerful person, so I was like, I'm just
praying that the right people besides the one A n
R person who loves this group, is going to come
on board, because I know how that happened, like I
would love things and I could not get the rest
(16:56):
of the company on board. And then and you know,
like Buju, I worked with Boujious for so many years
from signing him to finally getting to tell Shiloh, and
there was a lot of resistance. You know, when you're
the sole A and R person in the woods going
they're the best, they're the greatest. Come to the show,
Let's do this at retail. Come on, let's get him
(17:18):
on this tour. And everybody's going, you know, when's the
new X record gonna drop? It's it's very disheartening.
Speaker 8 (17:27):
Were you did you sign el Al Scratch as well?
M okay, yeah, how did that come about?
Speaker 2 (17:33):
I think that might have been someone might have been
Bernadette Williams, who's my assistant, and then she became an
A and R person. You know, I did a record
a label deal with DJ Pooh because I had known
Pooh from you know, back in my days before. And
I think, if we're going to Mercury, the most interesting
thing talking about Vanessa Williams is when I was at Rush,
(17:57):
I started a company there called Rush Producer Man RPM,
and I represented you know, the Bomb Squad, Eric Vietnam, Sadler,
Larry Smith, Sam Sever, the jam Master, Jess Williams, and
so the late great Gary Harris.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
Ah.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Gary.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
You know, every conversation I ever had with Gary was
always like I don't even know how to visually describe,
but he'd just be like one of those cats that
would always cover his mouth like uh, like it's it's
a casino, like yeah, like the is watching the right
right right, But he'd be like, yo, this kid named
DiAngelo like whatever.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
It was part of the D'Angelo team at Emi. But
he was at Mercury first.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Well, he was friends with Ed. He never went there.
So Ed had Wing Records, and he had Tony Tony Tony.
He had Vanessa. They were trying to blow her up
and Gary said, Joe, you need to meet Cortez. She's
working with all the hot hip hop producers. So Hank
Shockley Bomb Squad did a remix of the Right Stuff, right,
(19:05):
and then I Edward was in California. He would come
to New York. You know, we'd take him to Nels,
we take them to the Fever, you know. And so
I knew all the people out there, the producers, you know.
I would sleep in the studio at Green Street, like
when we did Ice Cubes first album, the Bomb Squad.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
You were there to witness that.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Oh yeah, jesus, I'm a hip hop zelig.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
All right. You were born in Connecticut, Yes, all right,
So what was your first musical memory?
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Okay, I was born in Connecticut, but I grew up
between Connecticut and Harlem. So I always liked to put
that on the map because I'm, you know, I'm kind
of like Green Acres. I'm like the city and the country.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
I can tell already this is gonna be my favorite
interview of this whole entire series, Like, oh, she just
has an energy first memory.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
I'm down on my knees. I'm begging you please cause
I'm busted. Ray Charles, Yes, ingredients and a recipe for soul.
My mother would play that like three times and the
house would be She had these records she would play
to clean the house and she'd be like, I buy
him three times and the house will be clean. So
that was one, and then Dinah Washington this Bit of Earth,
(20:22):
and then there'd be an occasional show too. So I
love musicals. I don't, said the man on his way
to it Eco.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
I mean, can I ask a question, speaking of Busted?
Have you ever heard this version of Ray Charles doing Busted?
And then someone walks on the stage to suck a
punch Ray, because I guess Ray.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Slept with this woman.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
Like literally, they're going and he's going through the verse
and then all of a sudden, you know the the bands,
you know, like on television when they messed up, like
literally that moment and someone's.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Like you a dog.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
You're a motherfucking dog and.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Racist, like bless your hearts, someone, someone come and get
this gentleman off.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Fuck you dog.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Why'd you do that to her? You dog? You dirty,
disgusting dog.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
And then something did you hear like dog dog, someone
please come get him off me? And my part was like, wait,
why is the band letting Rachel's get beat up like
that speaks more than because they knew, right, And so
you hear them dragging him to him off like fuck you, Raychel,
(21:36):
and you hear him like out the door, and I blessed,
blessed this kind of hard all right, two three?
Speaker 1 (21:41):
And then literally you never heard that, never never.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
That's like my favorite thing, next to like Freddie Ubbert
cursing out the band and Buddy Rich Germany.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Yeah, all right, sorry, Well, you know it's funny when
you were vamping there. I think for a kid, they're the.
Speaker 7 (22:02):
Right.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Even though I didn't know the lyrics. I love the melody,
So I think that's why I always remember that so
strongly as at musical memory, and just how it motivated
my mother to get the house together.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
You know, that's called I learned that. I learned this
this morning. Okay, I'm doing the slide movie.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
It's called Counterpoint, where oh damn, Bill just literally came
alive like rum hello, I know you have to get
music nerdy.
Speaker 6 (22:30):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Yeah, Counterpoint, I guess.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Uh. Well, Sly also took advantage of this well where
Ray has a gospel bass, but the melody is more
like a nursery rhyme. So it's sort of like, you know,
the the Rece's theory of mixing chocolate and your peanut
butter and that sort of thing. So sometimes people intentionally
write songs where, you know, some super funk like Slide
(22:55):
will do something super funky with the drums and the bass,
but the horns and the melody will be like no, no, no, no,
like play schoolyard ship mixed with funk and knowing that
that's how you get the kids and the music heads together.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
So can I ask you a question? Yes, did he
sleep with Doris Day?
Speaker 1 (23:17):
All right, so that's one of the most asked questions
of this thing.
Speaker 6 (23:23):
So far.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
He was like, what are you talking about?
Speaker 7 (23:27):
So far?
Speaker 1 (23:27):
I have four no's and two yes's, and the nose
might have it.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
However, dars Day's son, who was like Slies engineer doing
that there's a ride going on, was also his Well, no,
they Sly live across the street from the Beverly Hill
Billy's house. This is when they went to bel Air
but turn it real like hood. Dars gave Sly her
BMW and I guess that's how that rumor came.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
But Sly every every interview sly sort of.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
Sinuated like, yeah, you know, dars Day gave me this BMW,
so you know, they're like, wait, are you dating dars Day?
Speaker 1 (24:02):
I don't know. Am I dating dars Day? So I
don't think you know.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
You know Sarah everybody you know I'd be in the
Beauty Paul with my mother and then people be like, okay,
Sarah cy Doris Day.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
But the thing was, I looked in seventy three and
I was like, okay, so slies twenty nine, Dars's forty four,
and I looked at her in seventy three and I'd
be like, all right, that motherfucker hit.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
So like, would you give anyone your BMW just for that?
Speaker 4 (24:36):
So hellow talk.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
So there's one person that can put their life on
the fact that they believe they slept together, But the
rest of the band's like, nah, I think he was
just lying.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Right If that's and that was this day.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
After the song you want Me to Stay, that's never
that fus.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Yeah, I told you she knows how a rabbit hole
just like the best of us. What was the first
concert you went.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
To Stevie Wonder opening for The Supreme.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
I thought you said the Rolling Stones, because I was like,
what were you doing there?
Speaker 2 (25:10):
They couldn't find a babysitter.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Come on, come on, how old old were you? I
was like, four, man, do you have memories of it?
Or is it fit?
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Here's It was at the Bowl, the Bowl in New Haven.
It was it was outdoors, it was the summer, and
Stevie kept he did like fifteen encores and I just
remember my mother going, you know, I really came to
see Diana Ross and the Supremes and I was like,
I was like, I like this man.
Speaker 6 (25:42):
I like him.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
So your mom was just like I was a little
opening at kid.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Yeah, she grew to love him, she could love him.
And then I had a very memorable concert with the
Jackson five with my mother and father, and that famous
memory is it was at Madison Square Garden and my
father at like all these screaming kids and my father's like,
that's when the Horn and Hearted Automatic restaurant was right
(26:12):
across the street. There wasn't you know the train station
all that. My father's like, I'll be in the Horn
and Heart it having some tapioca pudding because you.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Want to come.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
He couldn't take it. It was just like all these
you know, prepubescent girls screaming be like.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
A parent today at a BTS concert, Like, I don't
want to see that, so let me I'll be across
the Harry restaurant right.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Exactly what did your parents do for starting?
Speaker 2 (26:39):
My mom was an aircraft engineer, and my dad, who's
an immigrant. He's from Columbia, South America.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
He was a rebel, radical and a businessman.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
In in my back of my mind, I was trying
to Okay, let me figure out where.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Okay, so the whole Pacific coast Afro Colombian. Are you fluent, Lisa?
Do you speak of Spanish when I need to cuss
somebody out? And where's the bathroom? I mean, I think
those are the most important language.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Skills to have, but not busting people, because my favorite
thing is when I've hung with people that people might
think like, oh, they're black or some whatever, and they'll
talk shit and then.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Right and then and then you go uh and then
they go right.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Exactly, we everywhere, baby, So when when was the moment
that you were like, I want to get in the industry.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Nine years old, I convinced my mother to let me
go to the children's Theater Workshop, which was a dance
school run by Miss Connie, and they put on many musicals.
I'm trying to get on your next show, and so
we did Gypsy. So you can imagine, you know, from
(28:00):
three year old kids to teenagers doing once. I was
a Schleppa, now a miss Mazeppa, you know, like, because
Gypsy is a musical about a stripper, and I had
been very it.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Was you want to be in that musical?
Speaker 2 (28:13):
I was, I do it all the time?
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Wait, I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Yeah, Stephen Sondheim. And it's the story of Gypsy Rosalie
and how her sister was going to be the star
and their mother pushed the sister forward and then the
sister ran off with one of the dancers because it
takes place in the vaudeville time, and then Gypsy they
end up in a shitty show and the mother's like,
you're going to be an exotic dancer, and Gypsy goes
(28:42):
on to become one of the famous vaudeville strippers.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
Time.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
I was in this play in like fifth grade and
didn't realize how many kids.
Speaker 7 (28:50):
In these plays. I don't understand what a y'all doing
this play.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
This kid's a performing art.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
Well at my school, it was like from first grade
to twelfth grade, so it was the older kids, but
they found like roles for like the elementary kids to
play in.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
So I didn't really did show Boat. We did Mame,
we did gypsyme.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
Yeah, I was very Charles's assistant. Well, my sister played
Vera Charles and I had to. They made a role
for me Bullet Cherry.
Speaker 6 (29:16):
I did hair in high school. I was hood.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Were you naked? Fuck? Okay? Then you didn't do hair?
Speaker 6 (29:22):
Yeah, I mean it was a very a very tame
down Republican version of air. But I did it.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
You were here, you were bald.
Speaker 7 (29:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (29:31):
I grew my hair out. But like they wouldn't let
us do all the new all that, we wasn't doing
that shit plays.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
So I found my voice. I went my mother, get
your grades up. I got my a's, and I auditioned
and discovered that I could sing, and then I loved
movement and performance and connecting. Fast forward this summer I
was fourteen, when everybody rebels, I locked myself in my
(29:58):
room and I just listened to Ella's Gershwin songbook, Cole
Porter songbook.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
I just not heat wave, not.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Of course Evelyn Champagne King, you know, I mean my
father's playing Celia Cruise. I mean there was a lot,
a lot of music. And I also read the back
of albums and I was like, who is this mixer?
I just I you know, I would bathe myself in music.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
You found bath you said rebelling, So in my mind,
I'm like, oh, okay, this is when like she discovers
bad brains or sex pistols or the ramos, And I'm like, GIRs,
when your parents dream, but your.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Peers are like, what the And then I discovered hip hop?
Speaker 1 (30:47):
What was your first hip hop record?
Speaker 2 (30:48):
I'd say it's it's rappers Delight?
Speaker 1 (30:51):
How are you when rappers the like came out? I don't.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
I don't talk about age younger than springtime?
Speaker 1 (31:01):
I got it? Okay, So how do you nuance your
way into was Maroon era? Depth jam? You're a deaf
jam or black label def jam?
Speaker 2 (31:11):
You're Jenia, No, I'm Maroon, I'm nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Tell me everything about it.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Okay, this is one of my favorite How do you
get in the music business when you have no connections?
So I went to Yale and when I was there,
I had this incredible group of friends. One of them's
sister named Lisa Jones Mary baraka Starter.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
We were just these young, feisty kids and we were
working on a magazine that Lisa was putting together. She
was part of that great crew at the Village Voice
at that time, and she wanted to do a magazine
called Diva d'cooning. I was into hip hop and I
was like, I want to write about women in rap.
So I talked to her stepsister Dominique diu Prima, you know,
(31:53):
in the in the Bay. I talked to the sister
Tequila Mockingbird, who was kind of in the punk scene
in Los Angeles. And I really loved this article. And
a friend of mine who worked at Spencer Beck worked
in Interview magazine, and I told him about this article
and I was like, I'm really excited about because nobody
(32:14):
knew there was women in rap. And so he said,
you should go talk to Bill Adler. He is the
publicist at def Jam. So I just called and Bill said,
come on in. So I'm just chatting with Bill. He's
the most amazing, giving, knowledgeable person. And a guy across
the room said, who did you talk to in La
(32:37):
and I said, oh, Tequila, Mockingbird. That guy was Lee
or Cohen. So two weeks later, what are you doing?
So Tequila shows up in New York and I bring
tequila to the office. I'm a good baker. I made
this ginger cake and I brought my resume and we
(32:57):
all hang out body ba and Jimmy Spicer was the receptionist.
What Jimmy Spider never picked up the phone with the
different calls because he'd be chatting some woman up. So
I didn't get the job.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Wait you stop.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
This is the second time that we've heard the story
of someone charming the deaf GM staff to nuance a
job via pastries. Because you also remember Kevin Lyles with
his girl, you know, his chew money. Every morning at
six a m. Would buy everyone orange juice, and le
Yor was like impressed, Like this guy's clean up the
office and buying us donuts and that's how he got
(33:35):
Like Russell was like, get away from you, kid, But
pastries timeout, Jimmy Spicer's dollar bill.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
What So I'm this kid.
Speaker 4 (33:51):
Love it when he does voices.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
I have to say that.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Oh yes, So I keep trying to, you know, roll
up in there and you know, press them and you know,
it was pretty chaotic, but it was also very small.
There was not that many people there. And I've went
to a Luther Vandro show. I conned my way into
the party backstage because you know, you just got you
(34:19):
got to get in, or actually you just need to
make a whole. You don't even fit in, you make
a space. And I run into Leor, who was friends
with Shep Gordon, who was Luther's manager and ll Cool J.
And I walk up to Leor and I go, hey,
you remember me. I gave you my resume on the
(34:39):
good paper. It was like the heavy weighted paper. It
was cream color, that matter. And he said, well, you
know what, I actually need someone, I need an assistant.
Speaker 4 (34:47):
Call me.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
So I keep calling, calling, calling, and then I got
him on the phone one day and I said he
picked up because Jimmy Spicer was talking to some woman
and did not pick up the phone. And I said
to Or, you know, I don't really know if you know,
you'll like me or I'll like you, but I'll come
and work for you for half a day for free.
(35:10):
And then half a day turned into five years a lifetime.
Speaker 6 (35:14):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
So from eighty six to ninety one. Wow, okay, so
licens Bill was about to start to come out.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
I was there when original concept is definitely yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Yeah, And I was there when we mentioned to ninety
eight Elizabeth Street, right when Chuck came in and met
with mister Bill, Bill Stephanie and uh, you know they
signed the Public Enemy.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
What is leear like then?
Speaker 7 (35:43):
Because the lear are we like, no, now, it's such
a big personality and he was.
Speaker 9 (35:48):
He was he was big yeah, and look you know
what he so he was always that person like the
way that people a flower, Yeah, the way people imitate Laurens.
That like Lauren and Leo are the two most imitated
execs that I know, but they always have a sort
(36:08):
of disapproving father and untouchable.
Speaker 7 (36:10):
They're untouchable, like it feels like in ways right they
sit and glad like you can touch Lauren, but Leon
and laurna in that way kind.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Of I know, softer in leor now like Leo.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Is like he's more right right, right, So it's that
Bali effect from Russell.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
Let me ask you at the time, because I know
that it's hard, like I'm such a history buff, but
you know, I think people don't appreciate something until like
time has passed, like five years later or ten years later,
you're like, wow, I was really part of the team
that brought one of the biggest hip hop records selling
records to the world, like Licensed to Ill or you
(36:47):
know that sort of thing. But like for you though,
is are you recognizing that history is being made on
the spot or was it just like man whatever?
Speaker 2 (37:01):
They became my family because the crazy thing is the
first week my dad died when I was fifteen, and
the first week that I went to work there, my
mom died.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Oh no.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
And you know this small group from Russell le Or
Heidi Smith, Bill Adler, Simone who was our receptionist, Bill Stephanie.
They you know, they took care of me. They loved me.
I remember one day I got mugged and Eric b
and rock him. They came to the office and they
(37:33):
heard like I was like, Lisa, I got a black eyes,
Like god, you got got mugged and use York I
lived in the real deal And they were like, well,
if you'd like, we could find somebody who could get
for you a nice little ladylike gun with a with
a mother of pearl inlay I was like, nice style,
(37:58):
and that's what lovely.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
In A nice voice too, pretty gun a very nerdy voice.
Nothing scares me more than nerdy thugs.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
You know that's rare.
Speaker 7 (38:09):
I just want to tell you, as a woman, especially
in hip hop, it's rare to hear this level of
feeling protected and loved and all of that.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
So I'm just get it because I also fought for them.
You know, people will tell you we because this is
right before everything blows up. I worked very closely with
Leor putting together that Adida steel because I actually wrote
a letter to Fila because Houdini had a song called
do the Fela, and I wrote him a letter and
I was like, you guys need to do a deal
(38:38):
with Houdini because they're speaking to this market. Because I
was an American studies major, I like popular culture. I
like seeing, you know, how we as black people start
stuff that is then going to take over the world.
But Fela is like, oh no, thank you. But so
then when the Adidas time came, there was a lot
that had to be translated about why this group was
(38:59):
so important and.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
How much did they need though they needed some.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
There was a guy named Angelo Anastasio who saw it
and he was the advocate for it. But you know,
he was communicating with people in Germany. They did the
music had not spread there yet. And what I learned
in those days it still helps me now, is about
the power of community to cross over this music. You know,
we had Dave Funkinklin who later came to work there,
(39:27):
who was in Colorado playing this music. I don't know,
two o'clock in the morning. We had the car dealer,
drug dealer in Houston who would play our records and
bring our artists there. You know, we had Paul Oakenfeld
and Pete Tong were with London Records which put out
run DMC in the UK. Yes, and they were hip
(39:50):
hop heads and they would the first stop Oki yes
Oki Doki damn.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
He never most people on the other side of the
fence will go over time to like explain their hip
hop petigree. Like we toured with Oakenfell during the area
one tour and talked a lot. He never once gave
a like hip hop pedigree and da da da da
da da da really yeah, damn Hall when they would.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
Come over, the first stop is they'd come to ninety
eight Elizabeth Street like that.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
It was great.
Speaker 2 (40:21):
You know, everybody would come through there. And then when
him and Pete Tong become these Dan Selectro people, I
was like, wow, interesting. So there was this community. There
was some people from Japan there, you know, who ultimately
become a part of the groundswell of the music crossing
over and the ripple effect culturally. So these you know,
(40:43):
I remember we went to London and I, you know,
would make myself the European tour manager so I could
get a little holiday, and you know, we would they
we got kicked out of a hotel or people didn't
the food they wanted, and I would just like be like, no,
you cannot treat these guys this way.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
So you love them.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
I love them then. I love them now because I
recognized how ground I didn't maybe knew what I was in,
but I knew it was something exciting and groundbreaking and
necessary and a part of how our narrative as black people,
we were taking it to something new now, how it
was going to become. I didn't know that I was
(41:25):
young and dumb, but I knew in my heart that
they had to be treasured and that it wasn't okay
to be like, oh the rappers there, No, these are
the artists.
Speaker 6 (41:39):
Yo, Yo, what's up y'all?
Speaker 8 (41:40):
This is Fante Fontigelo. I hate the interrupt this beautiful
discussion we had with the great Relics of Cortez. But listen,
come back to part two. We would discuss her new
documentary Little Richard I Am Everything, while also talking about
her incredible contributions to music and film.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
We love this interview and we hope you enjoyed it too.
Speaker 6 (41:58):
It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 8 (41:59):
Oh and also in time got stream that new Little
Richard dot available everywhere. It's a beautiful film. I think
y'all would really like it. Appreciate y'all.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
Hi Payson, What's Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 3 (42:18):
For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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Laiya St. Clair
Questlove
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