QLS Celebrates Womens History Month Part 1

In honor of Women's History Month, Questlove Supreme has gathered a series of clips reflecting achievements, experiences, and accomplishments by women. In Part 1 of this three-part series, listen back to excerpts from conversations with Rapsody, Sheila E., Faith Newman, and more—with some recent reflections from Questlove.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Welcome Back to Quest Love Supremes March and as this tradition,
we are celebrating Women's History Month with some special programming
drawing from the archives.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
This is part.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
One, you know, kind of my positioning.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
While I have a platform, be.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
It music, movies, be it podcasting, you know, it was
always important to make sure that we right the wrong
and give some agency to people who otherwise won't ever
have that platform. And this is the lesson that I
learned from Richard Nichols back when we were developing the

(00:55):
Black Lily Jam sessions and making show that there's a
shout out to lay you that there's a balanced voice,
and you know, especially in the early episodes, you can
definitely hear fighting for her space to get her words
at it. You know, as wise, which is necessary, you know,

(01:16):
and as history has shown us, women have been leading
the way and as a.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
Result we should celebrate them.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
You know, it's unfortunate that we're all relegated one month
a year. It should be this way all year round.
But definitely the history of a lot of our favorite artists,
especially with the women that have come through QLs, is
important to hear. It's important to know the history, and
we will continue to elevate and escalate the stories.

Speaker 3 (01:54):
As we celebrate Women's History Month.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
One of the musicians who's done so much to elevate
women in the last decade is Without a Doubt Rhapsody
twenty nineteen album Eve was inspired by women black women, specifically,
with each of the sixteen songs named after a figure
of history, and in our QOLS conversation, rhaps City spoke
about that album and even before, how the team at

(02:19):
rock Nation, including a strong female staff.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
Motivated her to partner there.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
You should definitely check out the Eat Records Timeless album
if you haven't.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
Along with her new Grammy winning work or Please Don't Cry.
All right, So, what was.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
The process in the decision to roll with Rock Nation
for yourself?

Speaker 4 (02:42):
We knew that, you know, as an indie label, we
can only do so much like budget and marketing wise,
and really getting the exposure that I wanted. So, you know,
when we took the meeting with Rock One, I'm a
big j fan Offgate, but walking into the building and
at the time, Shaka Pilgrim was president and you walk
in and fifty percent of the staff of women and

(03:03):
it's so so many different cultures and we came in
with Lailor's wisdom probably eighty percent done. And they didn't
ask us to change a single whow not one single thing.
It was always all right, what do y'all want to do?
What even envision? Like what are you thinking of the music?
They never every eve they didn't ask to change or
touch anything. And so to me, like the energy and

(03:26):
just how much they love the culture. It didn't seem
like I've been to death jam I think in Atlantic before,
but this was this was different. This was all about
culture and just music and they were really about growing
with me. Like they wasn't pressure to have a radio
single or it was just like, you know, we believe
in you and your talent.

Speaker 5 (03:44):
We just want to how can we help? That's what
it was. So that's why.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
And how did you feel the morning that the nominations
came out?

Speaker 5 (03:52):
Yoh, And I don't know.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
What feeling for you. It's kind of first phone.

Speaker 4 (03:58):
Call, yo, think was the first one that hit me
because I was in LA This was like five in
the morning, so he hit me.

Speaker 5 (04:04):
He was like, yo, you're you nominated and you nominated?

Speaker 4 (04:07):
Uh? It wasn't twice, Yeah, twice, So I was like, yo,
what like yo to be nominated, but to even be
nominated twice like that was crazy for me. It was
just like people were calling me. I couldn't even answer
the phone. I had to just sit back and reflect, like, Yo,
we're here, Like this is a different bar to be
recognized at the highest level of music when of award

(04:30):
show and then not have no Billboard hits and no
platinum records, and to be in a category with Jay
Z and Kendrick Lamar at the same time, It's just
like man as not have to change nothing, not even
have to put it on the tight dress. I cried
a little bit, you know, but yeah, I was thankful
that I stayed the course of anything.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
So I have to say that your your whole process
of crafting the Eve album, it's just some amazing ass ship,
you know, Like where did the idea even come from
for crafting this album as an homage to the spirit

(05:11):
of the black woman in America in the world and
their effect like where's the Genesis and the seed born?

Speaker 4 (05:18):
Last summer summer twenty eighteen, I was doing an interview
for the Oxford and this guy named Lamar Wilson. He
was writing a piece on the lineage of Carolina musicians,
and so he was connecting me with Nina Simone and ROBERTA.

Speaker 5 (05:35):
Flat So like I was just like, yo, I.

Speaker 4 (05:39):
Didn't I never thought of me connecting with them in
that way because we just seemed like to like I
just look, I put them up here, like there's no
way like reconnected. But the way he broke it down,
like you're both soul for you know, you're both lyrical.
You know you both reflect the times and talk about
what's going on in the community, your storytellers. I was like, man,
I never thought about it in that way, like I

(06:00):
do come from their family tree. And it made me think, like, yo,
when I do interviews and people say, who are you
influenced by? Yeah, I say creen my teeth and MC
like Lauren Hill. But I talk about Sicily Tyson, I
talk about I talk about.

Speaker 5 (06:12):
Nikki Giavanni, you know, Maya Angelo.

Speaker 4 (06:15):
And I'm just like, man, when I think about who
I am and who I'm inspired by. Of course, you
have your village, your mom, but there are so many
black women that I look up to. And two, it
gave me away creatively to show that there are so
many different sides of me too. You know, people like
to say or kind of put me in a box
sometimes based on the music that I make that you

(06:36):
know I had. We were in a studio one time
and the dude was like, Yo, we thought, like a
party for y'all is just like burning incense and y'all
listening to my dude and all this, And I'm just like, bro,
like what are you talking about? Like I grew up
on Luke, I listened to Go Go, growing up, like
I'm from snow Hill, North Carolina, Like That's the Sticks,
like Boon's Fall, Like we listened to everything. So there

(06:58):
were so many sides of me. So it's like this
is a way where I could take a different woman
to not only describe like my different personalities, but also
talk about them and continue their legacies and say that
we all are we all come from a family tree.
I think after I did that interview, like I went
home and I'd always wanted to do a song about
being a tomboy, especially in this day and age and

(07:19):
what that looks like.

Speaker 5 (07:19):
And I did it.

Speaker 4 (07:21):
And because of the way I started the song when
Aaliyah was alive and I was like, i'mnna just call
it Aaliyah And as soon as I did that, it
all just clicked came together. Yeah, the conversation, it's like, oh,
I got this song, Alia, I could do this with this,
with this Felicia Rashad taught me about motherly love.

Speaker 5 (07:37):
Nikki Giovanni taught me the power words and blackness.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
Like yeah, in the videos, which I also feel are
crucial components to the vision of that, Like what were
the concepts for the well, not the concepts, but you
know as far as like I personally want you to
make a video almost for every song.

Speaker 5 (08:00):
I know too too.

Speaker 4 (08:01):
I'm trying to make it happen right now. We just
did a Feenie too long ago. Yeah, we did a Phenie.
I still want to add to it. It ain't all the
way right.

Speaker 6 (08:09):
Wait, so so far you got a Phoenie. What videos
do you have for which?

Speaker 4 (08:14):
Yeah, oprahaj Phenie will be the third one. The next
one I probably want to do Cleo, whoop be Alia, Serena.
I want to do one for every song like I
see it, So no problem putting this list together.

Speaker 5 (08:27):
So the list putting.

Speaker 3 (08:29):
Because you mentioned that you left earth Kit. Was it
just for spacing on the.

Speaker 4 (08:34):
Album or just say see the first draft we had
twenty three songs. You know, we we knew like it's
too long because people today can't digest music the way
the same way like they they tap out it. At first,
I was going to do a part one and a
part two, so sonically, you know, we have this one
and the part two is gonna be It was gonna

(08:55):
be way more soul for and more boombap heavy. That
was gonna be like for Lisha Rashad DJ Spenderella, she
has a song.

Speaker 3 (09:05):
Who we are going to get a sequel?

Speaker 7 (09:07):
Harriet?

Speaker 5 (09:08):
I was like, I got different ideas, there's more music coming.

Speaker 6 (09:11):
I love you what it's so journal route and you
said I'm not going to do to Harriet, So I
was like maybe there's Yeah.

Speaker 4 (09:17):
I was Harry, which one do I name it? But yeah,
so but as there's I did like forty women.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
As far as where you are right now, like what
do you feel that your goals are, Like do you
have do you have a five year plan as far
as like this point from now, like developing other acts
or like just make more music.

Speaker 4 (09:41):
Or definitely make more music. I think it's the foundation
of everything. But I want to expand artistically because you
know the way I write, Like I want to get
into not only writing songs that I want to write films.
I want to get behind the camera and produce documentaries.
I was in the in the rock office with TII
to day. He was like, you need rites or beat

(10:01):
pop records. It's like, you know, so you know, I
definitely want to try it. Like I'm just like, let's
try and see what happens. Just but just do a
lot of more things artistically. I thought about starting a label.
I don't know how I feel about that yet, but
Mesa Hilton's son, Nico Brehm, he's an EMC, so I
want to help. I'm helping it because you can produce

(10:23):
his album. That'll be my first time like taking that role. Okay,
but yeah, just like really expand on that, but always
putting out music.

Speaker 3 (10:30):
Giving back to what was given to you. Okay, I
see that. That was Rhapsody who worked with Ji or Eve.
Next up is Sophia Chained.

Speaker 2 (10:41):
Sophia spent years managing the JIGSA and Sophia's a powerful
woman in the industry, known her for years with her
association with Wu Tang Klin and she speaks about that
union and recalls an illustrating story of method man standing
up for a woman towards somebody he seemingly came up with.

Speaker 3 (11:00):
All right, here's Sophia.

Speaker 8 (11:04):
I think that I have a unique lens into the
wouniverse because of who I am, but also who they
allowed me to be and how they let me come
into their world, and I think that speaks volumes about them.
I also managed, so I managed all three three letter
members of Wu tang Od B, r z A and GZA.

(11:27):
I managed Riza what I call his extracurricular activity. So
I did not manage him as an MC, and I
did not manage him as a producer, but I managed
him as a composer and then his beginnings his transition
into Hollywood. Yes, so his first his first kid composing
was ghost Dog. That was not me, Uh, that was Nemo,
who was very close. I believe he's Jim Jarmis his nephew,

(11:49):
and Nemo brought Riza into UH to Jim, and then
I kind of picked it up from there. So it
was kill Bill and it was Blade and I believe
it had soul plane. So we did that stuff together,
and he had all already started writing and directing. But
you know, the thing that I say about Rizza is
he is truly living his childhood dream. So when I
was a kid, I wanted to be a doctor. I

(12:10):
wanted to be a fashion designer. I never thought that
I'd be doing this and I love my life. But
Rizza as a child, growing up one of I believe
eleven children of a single mother, growing up in the
projects of Staten Island in Brooklyn, he watched Kung Fu
movies and he imagined and dreamt that he would one

(12:30):
day direct. And now he's directing Kofu movies and he's
writing them and he is starring in them. And I
actually don't know anybody else who had this vision. And
he is truly a visionary from when he was a child.
So managing Rizza was a delight. Managing Jigsu was also incredible.
I would say that Jizza was my favorite client because,

(12:50):
and you know Jizz like I do. He's incredibly low key,
and he's so gracious, and he is so magnanimous, and
he doesn't want to be recognized, and he doesn't want
to be famous. He doesn't want to be an of
those things. And he is so kind and I really
love managing him because he allowed me to transition him
into lecturing, and not every client lets you do that, right,

(13:14):
So somebody might say, I've thought about it, so, but
I don't really want to do it because there's this
thing I do and I'm so comfortable and I've been
doing it for decades and I'm getting paid and I
know how to do this, whereas lecturing is very very different.
You're basically standing naked. There are no pyrotechnics, you don't
have a hype man, there's no DJ, there's no lights,
there's no sound. And your audience they're not drunk, they're
not high, right, they're just all sitting there and they're

(13:37):
looking at you, and you're standing at a podium and
you are speaking. And literally the first place he lectured
was Harvard. That's the Korean in me. And literally the
first words out of his mouth were I'm so nervous,
and that's Jesus what. Yeah, he said, yeah, and you
know what, the same and you know what, I did

(13:59):
the same thing with Joey and say he said the
exact same thing.

Speaker 6 (14:02):
What was the I'm just curious what was what was
just his first lecture on.

Speaker 8 (14:05):
So he spoke about his love of science. You know
he he like is deeply intellectually curious. He spoke of
his love of science. He spoke about his his inspiration
and his creative process.

Speaker 6 (14:19):
Can you can you talk about real quick? In the prologue,
I had a moment I had a Mama where I
was jealous of you in describing the relationship with Wu
Tang because of a situation that happened with methad Man
and the god Jamal. And I was jealous because as
a woman who's been in the industry for years, we
all know what it's like. You know, you're telling beautiful stories,
but at some points, being that woman in the room

(14:39):
can be adversarial. It can be dismissive, yes and question
in that moment of no protection. Right, So I don't
know if you want to reiterate that story, but sure
also in a way, I also wanted you to tell
the the opposite of that story when it wasn't that
protection there with methad Man.

Speaker 8 (14:57):
Right, I mean so when I when I was are
doing a and R, I was insecure around it. Right,
I'm thinking I'm a Korean Canadian French lip major and
do I really deserve this job of being a gatekeeper
and an arbiter of a culture? Again that is not mine?
Right and so, but the way that hip hop embraced
me was really fortifying and gave me a lot more confidence,

(15:19):
but nothing more than when Wu Tank claimed me. So
it was very very early on. I might have met
Meth once before. I go to the studio to see them,
and he says, Sophie, you got to see I just
got my video in for method man. And so he
takes me to the back lounge, whisks me past everybody,
takes me to the back lounge and he sits me
down and he plugs in the tape and he stands
on the wall, doesn't sit with me, stands against the

(15:41):
wall to watch me because he wants to see my
response to the video, and sitting next to the television
facing me. So this gentleman is not watching the screen.
He's looking at me, as Meth is is this guy
jamal So the video play is, and I'm super excited.
I'm like, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,
because I'm already in love with Meth. And so the
video play and as soon as the video ends, he

(16:02):
looks at me and he says, where are you from? Now, anybody,
any person of color, will tell you that's a loaded question.
If you ask a white person that they're going to
be like, oh, I'm from Columbus right, or or you
know my parents are whatever, But this is a loaded question.
So I am a petite Asian woman in the inner

(16:22):
inner sanctum of Wu Tang, of Wu Tang's world, and
it is clear to him, and I could see the calculations.
It is clear to him. I'm not sleeping with any.

Speaker 5 (16:31):
Of those boys.

Speaker 8 (16:32):
He also knows that I don't manage any of them
at this point, I don't an r any of them.
So who is this? And how did she get in?
And again to this day, when I'm around Wu Tang,
I am almost always the only woman in the room,
and that's a very privileged place where I sit. So
he keeps and so I feign innocence, and I say, well,

(16:53):
what are you asking me? Where are you from?

Speaker 7 (16:56):
Well?

Speaker 8 (16:57):
I don't really know what that means. Where are you from?
And then I broke and I said, okay, well, if
you're asking where I was born, I was born in Vancouver,
my parents are Korean. If you're asking where my parents
are from, there from you know, Korea, if you're asking
where I live. But before I could even finish answering
this in this very methodical way, Meth just flew in
between us. I don't know if you've ever met him
in person. He is six four and he is notoriously

(17:20):
the nicest with his hands of the Klan. Wow and yeah,
no no, no, oh boy, no he can they can all
throw the fuck down. Yeah, but Meth and Ghost forget
about it. So he flies in between us and she
just expands like the Hulk. And he was like, that's
Sophie Chang and she's down with wou tag. She's some
shallon motherfucker. Don't you ever who the fuck are you

(17:43):
to ask her where she's from?

Speaker 9 (17:44):
Don't you ever.

Speaker 8 (17:45):
Disrespect her again? And I was like, oh my god,
my god. Now nobody had ever defended me like this,
and I was just it was just this extraordinary moment.
But so the demonstration was amazing. But to deconstruct in
what I think I want people to understand is he

(18:07):
knew exactly what the fuck that guy was saying. Do
you know what I'm saying? He totally understood that it
was there was there was a racial subtext to it,
and there was a gender subtext to it. Right, he
didn't give a shit where I was from, because essentially
he wasn't asking a question. He was saying, what the
fuck are you? And what are what the fuck are
you doing here? Because you don't belong here? I belong here,

(18:28):
You don't belong here. And you know, again wanting to
tell people about the humanity of Wu Tang. Now, Meth
has known this guy for I'm sure a long ass time.
This might be the second or third time he's met me.
And his feeling was like, nah, Bie, we're not fucking
doing that because she's ours. And what I say about

(18:51):
Wu Tang is that, Look, I had several friendships in
hip hop and enduring ones that I have to this
day before Wu Tang. I was embraced and I was welcomed,
but Wu Tang claimed me.

Speaker 6 (19:04):
That's special.

Speaker 8 (19:05):
So it's a thing that you're talking about to mere right, Like,
So what I'm saying is that everybody knew that they
were going to be huge, and there were hordes and
hordes and hordes of people surrounding them, and for whatever reason.

Speaker 1 (19:15):
They just went like this, you're coming with us.

Speaker 8 (19:21):
We're keeping her right here. And I feel that way
to this day that I will never ever leave that
breast pocket.

Speaker 3 (19:30):
Oh boy.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
Okay, the Scieta Garrett episode from twenty seventeen.

Speaker 3 (19:33):
That's one of my favorites. So we were wrapping the
interview and.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
Layah asked a question about a T shirt that showed
how an amazing singer songwriter is making a way for
women to learn computer coding skills.

Speaker 6 (19:49):
Because aren't you involved this T shirt that you're wearing.

Speaker 9 (19:51):
Yeah, black girls code?

Speaker 6 (19:52):
Can you just talk about that?

Speaker 7 (19:53):
Real, dude.

Speaker 10 (19:56):
I was at a graduation for some some people that
are are learning code and learning how to impact uh
technology through art and music and business, and we wanted
to this.

Speaker 7 (20:12):
This movement is to teach.

Speaker 10 (20:14):
Black girls that they can code their own computer games
and they can program their own uh they can they
can compute themselves, and they don't have to be young
white boys to learn how to uh to to code
and and create your own video games and and computer programs.

Speaker 3 (20:33):
You could.

Speaker 5 (20:33):
Black girls can do it.

Speaker 10 (20:35):
And I think the movie Hidden No Hidden Fences, I'm
just kidding. Hidden Figures did a lot to sort of
show people that math is good for girls, and you know,
black girls can compute some ship. So I'm just here
to support that that every black child looks at a

(20:58):
video game or looks at something on their program on
their computer or an app or something and think I
wanted to be able to think, Hey, I can improve that,
or I can make a map for this, or I
can do that. You I don't think they don't even
teach that in school, so nobody really hasn't an idea
that they can aspire to do something like that. So

(21:18):
I'm here to be the liaison and just to be
a vessel to promote that message. Black girls can do it,
we can code, we can do some shit up in here.

Speaker 5 (21:29):
So yes, a a.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
Friend who has two daughters that are like their dream
is to be video games.

Speaker 8 (21:37):
And black girls code.

Speaker 3 (21:39):
Okay, that's crazy.

Speaker 2 (21:40):
Yeah, Sheila, what can you say? She's made so much
history as a musician, as an activist, as a woman,
and in the segment you're about to hear, she was
speaking about her musical family and if she ever felt

(22:01):
discouraged as a young woman at the drums, and her
answer is so powerful, as.

Speaker 3 (22:07):
Is the rest of the clip.

Speaker 2 (22:08):
When your assert herself as a visionary who refuses to
back down.

Speaker 3 (22:14):
All right, Sheila, the.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
Roots never practice as a band like we just you
do three hour shows for three hundred and sixty five
days out the year.

Speaker 3 (22:25):
Then it's right, So you.

Speaker 6 (22:26):
Just jam with your family and now, yeah.

Speaker 9 (22:28):
Just jamming and stuff. Yeah, But to sit down and
say I'm going to learn a rhythm and a part
so i can get better, I'm sorry.

Speaker 8 (22:35):
No.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
See, my parents made me practice to keep me from
going out on the streets.

Speaker 9 (22:39):
And they did the right thing.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
Right, But I'm saying, like, but you grew up in
the household with other musicians, so I'm certain that it
was more like a jamming thing.

Speaker 9 (22:46):
It was. Well, yes, that.

Speaker 3 (22:48):
Weird though, I mean, is it?

Speaker 2 (22:50):
I also I I I'm not not that I'm big
on jamming, but there's something very vulnerable about a jam
session that makes it very hard for me to do
in front of people.

Speaker 3 (23:04):
I know. Okay, so the first the first day of.

Speaker 2 (23:12):
Taking the Tonight Show gig, and it's just the eight
of us facing each other, sort of like the circle
we're in now, it was the hardest thing in the
world to do. Like, I stopped the session after five
minutes and call my manager like, I don't know what
to do, Like, what do.

Speaker 3 (23:27):
You just just start playing a song?

Speaker 2 (23:29):
Like cause I think it's it's a it's a vulnerable
intimate thing almost. I hate to be creepy with the
metaphorical thing, but I mean it's like intimacy, and you know,
the thing is that you have to be on I mean,
we're on good terms with each other as a band,
but it's it's sort of like I think that you

(23:50):
also socially have to be in tune with the person
that you are playing with in order to get that
the desired result. And so it's I think that's it's hard.
So I'm it means that you were able to jam
or borderline envious that you're able to like play with
your family.

Speaker 9 (24:10):
Like, yeah, we grew up like that. So I mean,
anytime the opportunity, if they were sitting out, let's go play,
all right. We started getting into this whole thing and
then taking solos and going into different rhythms and like
just jamming.

Speaker 3 (24:23):
In the house, in the backyard, outside, absolutely in.

Speaker 9 (24:26):
The house in the backyard, at the parks down at
Berkeley College and on telegraph all the time. We were
down on the streets just jamming in the mission in
San Francisco. Yeah, yeah, for real?

Speaker 6 (24:42):
Your brothers and sister like oldest, youngest, how does.

Speaker 9 (24:47):
Yeah, so I'm the oldest, my brother one, my brother
Peter Michael, my sister Zina.

Speaker 6 (24:51):
Because I was wondering why you got I was like,
how does she get picked out of everybody to go
jam with dad and do the direction? They played too,
they played with it seemed like you guys had a.

Speaker 5 (24:59):
Special relationship you or your dad.

Speaker 9 (25:01):
Yeah, I was first, So there you go answer my question.

Speaker 3 (25:05):
So how unusual in your childhood was it?

Speaker 2 (25:08):
For I know that drums are normally associated as a
more masculine us uh instrument to play, So how unusual
was it? Like did you get any ribbing whatsoever? Tease
like you played the drums, or like why don't you
play piano or why don't you play guitar?

Speaker 9 (25:27):
Like or people?

Speaker 3 (25:30):
Well, I'm just saying, was there anyone to discourage you, like, well, that's.

Speaker 2 (25:32):
Not a young lady shouldn't be playing? Like do you
have a grandmother that said like she.

Speaker 3 (25:37):
Shouldn't be playing the drum?

Speaker 6 (25:38):
Can't wear a dress and play the drums?

Speaker 9 (25:39):
Oh no, my family. No one in the family ever
said anything.

Speaker 3 (25:43):
So it was a supernatural to supernatural.

Speaker 9 (25:45):
No one ever said my parents, my uncles, cousins, they
all play. No one ever said you can't play because
you're a girl, because everyone would pick up something and
just play. My mom plays Guido, she plays a little
bit of Conga's, she tap dances, she sings. You know,
it's just a entertaining family. And every time we go
to a party, even with the family, we'd put on
Jackson five, Temptable, whatever, James Brown, and we just start

(26:08):
imitating people. So we grew up like let's let's who's
going first, and the and the the way to get
to the party. Well, in the party, as soon as
my mom would starts singing da d everyone start running
to the living room. It's like the time for that's
the intro.

Speaker 7 (26:28):
Time.

Speaker 9 (26:31):
Oh yeah, oh yeah. Then my mom would break right
into tap dance and then we'll see who's gonna play
what record and start dancing. So I was never told.
Never ever, until I left uh the house and started
performing with other artists did people say things. But even
in school, no one really said, oh, you know, you
can't play because you're a girl.

Speaker 3 (26:48):
I don't.

Speaker 9 (26:49):
I mean it was always cool. It's like, you know,
everyone was in school was like stope.

Speaker 2 (26:55):
Well, I mean on the other side of the coin,
like did they make a big deal of it because.

Speaker 3 (27:00):
You were dope or you know, it was like yeah,
every time you play, like like it's a novelty thing
that we're watching or whatever.

Speaker 2 (27:08):
Because yes, I think with the exception with the exception
of what's her name, I think her name was Cookie,
there was there was a Jersey based group in the
seventies called Ecstasy, Passion and Pain Odness. Uh, the mom
deep sample, the realist.

Speaker 3 (27:30):
Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do. I'll
play it later, but yeah, there's they were. I mean
they had a.

Speaker 2 (27:39):
They had a run from like seventy three to seventy six,
but they did like three appearances on Soul Train. So
oh wow, that's the first time I saw like a
woman playing.

Speaker 9 (27:47):
Drums but she was actually playing drums. Yeah, oh yeah,
I gotta check it out.

Speaker 2 (27:51):
So yeah, I was going to say, did you have
anyone that you looked up to that was Smith?

Speaker 3 (27:57):
Yes, but they call it Cookie. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
Did you have anyone that you looked up to that
was a woman that was playing drums when you were
coming up at all.

Speaker 9 (28:06):
The only woman that I saw play ever, especially drums,
was Karen Carpenter when her and her brother had their
variety show. Yeah, and she was killing it, you know.
And as soon as I saw around television, I turned
to Pops and said, how come I don't have a
TV show like nine or something? What do you mean?

(28:27):
I said, I played drums. I played just like her.
How come can't we just get a TV show? He goes, sure,
you can. I mean, it was never like no, you
can't play because you're a girl that no one else.
That was never said.

Speaker 2 (28:37):
But in your formative years, did anyone think like, yo,
there's no one that we know of that can fill
in the slot, and you'll be the first to like yeah,
that time would have been revolutionary. So I'm saying, like, right,
was there anyone thinking like dollar.

Speaker 3 (28:51):
Signs like, No, we didn't.

Speaker 9 (28:54):
Actually, As a matter of fact, when I first started
playing and sitting in with other bands and they wanted
to pay me, I thought it disrespectful to pay me
because I know it's kind of weird. Yeah, I thought
it was disrespectful because I loved it so much. It's like,
don't pay me for something I really love. I'm just

(29:15):
I just want to do it, like this is my passion.
I don't And then Pop was like, come here.

Speaker 3 (29:23):
He took me in the kitchen.

Speaker 9 (29:25):
Yeah, he took me in the kitchen, open the kitchen door, refrigerators,
like we need some food. You gotta it's okay to
get paid, It's okay. And I'm like, oh, okay, all right, cool?

Speaker 6 (29:35):
Were you at that moment?

Speaker 9 (29:37):
Fourteen?

Speaker 2 (29:38):
So I was gonna ask at what age were you
when you were like a total Jedi master, as in,
like I could close my eyes and know.

Speaker 9 (29:51):
I haven't got you, I haven't gotten there yet.

Speaker 2 (29:53):
Good answer, Good answer. Now I gonna ask you again
this time just dropped up.

Speaker 9 (30:01):
No, I'm so serious. I'm being honest.

Speaker 2 (30:04):
I'll ask you at what age were you when other
musicians took you? Totally serious as in I want her
for at what age were you when you started?

Speaker 9 (30:14):
You know, they still sometimes don't take me, say, sister,
can't get a call for a gig nowhere me, I'm.

Speaker 3 (30:22):
Telling you.

Speaker 6 (30:24):
Because you're beyond. They're like, I can't afford.

Speaker 3 (30:29):
I was like, oh I could have called you. See
that's what happened.

Speaker 6 (30:34):
That's not nothing to do with That's that.

Speaker 3 (30:36):
That's because we're afraid of you.

Speaker 6 (30:39):
You're at a mountain top and now it's about of climbing.

Speaker 9 (30:41):
It's like, yeah, no.

Speaker 2 (30:45):
I mean, I know you're not owning the superhero thing,
and I know that artists hate the fan worship thing, but.

Speaker 3 (30:55):
Your existence is kind of a big deal.

Speaker 9 (30:58):
So no, thank you. I mean I underst stand it now,
But seriously, when when growing up, I mean, I didn't
get it, and I don't think we realized it even
Pops until later on it's like, okay, well wait a minute.

Speaker 3 (31:09):
You know that wasn't ignoring you. That was more like
we're not worthy.

Speaker 2 (31:14):
There was one time I think I was going to
call you for a things and it's only because I
saw that you did was it loving you?

Speaker 3 (31:25):
Right?

Speaker 2 (31:25):
And I saw your credit and then I was like, oh,
oh she would, she would come down to earth and mess.

Speaker 9 (31:35):
At what point in.

Speaker 6 (31:36):
Your life were you thinking like this because you said,
you know now you understand now why people weren't calling,
But like, at what point?

Speaker 9 (31:41):
Because until I started speaking with people, it's like you know,
how you doing? Oh you know, like and then I
was like, wait a minute, you know, I'll come and
do a session, you would, I mean.

Speaker 6 (31:54):
And Stevie wanted to play the piano, and you said.

Speaker 9 (31:56):
No, Listen, this guy, this dude, this producer called me.
I could have lapped in through the phone. He called
me and he said, hey, Sheila, I just want to
know something, all right, okay, yeah, what you need I'm doing.
I'm producing this record on this girl. I want to
know how to get the Sheila, und do you know anybody?

Speaker 3 (32:18):
But you're on the phone with her right now.

Speaker 9 (32:21):
I did. I said, wait a minute, how can you
my sound? You want to you want me to refer
you to somebody else?

Speaker 7 (32:29):
Dude.

Speaker 3 (32:30):
Okay, here's another thing, and we're skipping. We're skipping the
line here.

Speaker 2 (32:34):
But I believe that the the number one weapon of
the Purple Cloud period, or just that period with Prince,
the number one weapon was mystery and anybody associated any

(32:55):
at least in my eyes, like you know, when I
was ten, eleven, twelve, seeing you guys, it was like
it was some untouchable. We're too I don't mean arrogant,
like we're too good for that, but you know a
different yeah, even like that, we are the world perception like, oh,
we never do that like in our minds, we're just

(33:16):
like you guys would only do your music and you're
laughing at us mere mortals like.

Speaker 3 (33:23):
Brand kind of like that.

Speaker 9 (33:25):
But we weren't gonna say no, no, no, no, no,
we you know what the it's weird. It's like it's
like being in this room, all of us here, we
just start playing and jamming and next you know, four
days later you might have cut another record. I mean,
it was just like we love being in a studio,
and after being with everyone, you know all the time,

(33:48):
you kind of forget that there's a world happening, there's
something's going something is going on. At one point, Prince
and I just we felt like we're in a bubble
and and until we woke up at the end of
Purple Rain, it's like, wait, what just happened? We didn't
even we didn't understand it at all.

Speaker 3 (34:04):
Okay, so now I know that you're available for TESSI
warton what was it? The important thing?

Speaker 9 (34:10):
Yes? I am so.

Speaker 2 (34:11):
What was your very first gig as a professional percussions.

Speaker 9 (34:20):
Pops playing his percussion player got sick. He had a
band called that Techas signed to Clive Davis. They were
touring out with Temptations, Stevie, Wonder, earth Wind and Fire.
Pops's percussion other percussion player got sick and I said,
I'm fifteen, Pops, I know all the music.

Speaker 3 (34:36):
You know.

Speaker 9 (34:36):
Let me play this show.

Speaker 11 (34:37):
And I was like coach.

Speaker 9 (34:39):
He was like, no, you can't do it. And I
was like, Pops, come on. He said, you're only fifteen.
You can't you know they're out on tour with all
these bands. No, you can't do it. You're only fifteen
years old. And I said, moms, Pops won't let me
play in the band. Well, thank you. So I got
my way, and so I played that show in San
Francisco for I think it was then Mayor Moscone I think,

(35:04):
and it was for three thousand people and the band
was killing. You know, fifteen years old, like I've been
playing with these a couple of other bands and they
were like knockoff some Santana music. So we knew all
that stuff. And my dad was in Santana right before
having the band ass Teca, and that band ass Techa
was formed with When Santana's band broke up, Carlos broke

(35:25):
up his band half the band with with my dad
Neil Sean Lenny White on drums. All those people were.

Speaker 3 (35:31):
For a journey. Uh huh okay, yep.

Speaker 9 (35:35):
So they were playing with my dad in Azteca, and
so you got this caliber of musicians in these people
playing with an eighteen piece, you know, five six horns,
three singers, three percussion players, to keyboard players to guitar player.
I mean it was insane and all this music, and
it's like I wanted to play in that band. So

(35:56):
I got to play in the band. And it just
brings you. If you're set in a place, it's going
to force you to go somewhere you've never been before.
You know. I wanted to make sure that I was
there representing, and I mean I went for it.

Speaker 3 (36:08):
Well.

Speaker 9 (36:08):
You know, my dad turned to me at one point
and he said, you know, I want you to take
a solo. You know, like he's gesturing to me, you know,
play from your heart. I'm like, I'm so scared. I
closed my eyes and I started playing a solo and
black felt like a blackdown. I just left the planet.
And next thing I know, I remember looking up in

(36:30):
the sky. I was up in the sky, like floating,
looking at myself, playing in the looking at the entire
room with my dad looking at me. I'm looking at him,
and the crowd is just starting to roar it and
I saw it like from above. It was so weird,
and I when I finally with my eyes did I realize,

(36:51):
like all of a sudden, you know, like in a
movie and you hear the music like coming back in
out of nowhere. That's how I felt. And then I
started shaking because I got scared, like, wait, did I
just what happened?

Speaker 6 (37:02):
You know?

Speaker 9 (37:03):
And I felt like it was an odd of body
experience and my hands were shaking, and in the at
the end of my soul, I looked at Pops and
I was I just started crying while I'm still playing.
And then I heard the roar of the crowd and
just like and it just got loud and it was
a standing ovation and I was like, I don't even
know what's I was just looking. I was just crying

(37:25):
like crazy, and we ended the song. The show stopped,
went backstage, and I was like, Pop's daddy, Daddy, I'm
going out on tour with you. This is what I
want to do.

Speaker 3 (37:33):
That's what I want to do.

Speaker 9 (37:34):
I know, and I know what I know.

Speaker 6 (37:35):
This is it was that the first thing, the last
time you had that feeling like that moment.

Speaker 9 (37:40):
No, that was the beginning of my purpose. That was
the beginning. And Pops looked at me and then we
hugged and we just started crying. He's like, I don't
even know. How do you know all this? I was like,
I don't know. I think I was watching you. I'm
like a sponge. I don't know. We had no idea,
like all of a sudden, just on a jamma with

(38:00):
a local band for six months, and then I went
from that local band to professionalism. I don't know.

Speaker 3 (38:07):
So, okay, this is definitely the I.

Speaker 1 (38:12):
Gotta get a nass Techa record bro manc.

Speaker 9 (38:16):
There's two of them. You have to hear it. It's amazing.
Seventy six five something like that. Seventy five four.

Speaker 2 (38:28):
Okay, so you as a drummer and as a musician.
I was going to say that the one thing that
I think that you won't ever able to be, that
you'll never be able to avoid is the solo. Now

(38:50):
that's the dividing line between you and I, because thank God,
I've made a life in a career on the most
minimalist kind of of approach to drumming.

Speaker 9 (39:01):
That's a huge gift to have it. It's a dangerous
gift and a big responsibility.

Speaker 3 (39:06):
I know it's a dangerous gift. But the thing is
is that.

Speaker 2 (39:11):
In my age and as I get older, like okay,
so when I was in my twenties and my thirties
or whatever, especially uh, the way that my arms are now.

Speaker 9 (39:19):
With uh when you do carble.

Speaker 3 (39:24):
Tunnel on everything.

Speaker 2 (39:25):
Yeah, yeah, it's so painful now to take solo. So
it's like I'm taking them less and less on your chos.
How are you, especially when most of your solos have
to have this you know this this climatic uh uh
climatic applause from the audience, how are you able? Like

(39:49):
do you not do you have a fear of soloing
or no? Just but it's always expected of you, Yes,
I see, like the music stops.

Speaker 6 (39:57):
Like go and yours has to be extra acrobatic, like it's.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
Always, yeah, you have to be. You're not even zero
to ten. You have to go from zero to utter bond.
You got to zero auto bond in like five minutes.
And I'm just saying not even physicality or with with
with with age whatever, but maybe there's just some nights
you don't feel like turning it on and like. But

(40:20):
that's pressure because you have to go from zero to
a gazillion.

Speaker 3 (40:26):
It's expected of you at least two minutes.

Speaker 9 (40:28):
Yeah, it's interesting because I don't I don't think of
it as an I've got to be on on and
offer I don't feel like it. I've never put myself
in that position to feel like that. So I love
doing what I do and if people ask me, I
would love to do it. But I wouldn't walk into
a room to say I'm not gonna walk in there
because I don't feel like it. Then I should have

(40:50):
showed up. I never want to put myself in that
position and say, Okay, I gotta turn it on. No,
I'm excited. If someone asked me to play, I would
love to. So there's no on and off switch. You
asked me, It's always on.

Speaker 6 (41:04):
Can I just I'm not fast forwarding? But I just
have a quick question on that note, because I just
watched you do the view and in my mind I said,
she would not do this performance unless you have full
hundred percent like comfortable. They would say yes, and you
could do everything that you wanted to do. Is that
like an example of that moment, because it was kind
of amazing and groundbreaking some of the things that you
did within it.

Speaker 9 (41:22):
Thank you. It was it was a it's interesting. It
was a fight. It was a fight to get so
we had. It was a fight, and I'm grateful ended
up turning out good. But I always tell everyone, you know,
no doesn't mean you can't do it. No doesn't mean
you shouldn't a lot of time, no means opportunity. And

(41:44):
I was like, this has just been insane the things
that we had to do and change. And I mean
it was, you know, from one thing to another, and
I just kept saying, but no, this is the message.
We have to send a message. I have to stand for.
This is what we're trying to send this message. And
we need the flag and it needs to be upside down,
you know. And I need to put the the images

(42:07):
in the backs so people can see what we're talking about.
I need doctor King's speech, I need Kennedy's speech, you know,
I need Obama's speech. You know. So it was a
definite fight. But you know, again, how things turned around.
We were only supposed to just play the music, and
then it turned into two questions, and then there's then

(42:29):
once they understood what we were trying to do, then
they were behind us one hundred percent, and we're glad
that they understood what we wanted to do. And then
it turned into let's move you to segment five and six,
and it's like, oh, now I get to explain what happened.
But never give up, you know, never give up, and
know me as opportunity men. I wasn't coming through that
front door, but I came through that side door, you know,

(42:51):
and I wasn't going to give up. But I still
got there and it was better than it was going
to be initially.

Speaker 3 (42:57):
Sorry for those of us who don't watch the view kind.

Speaker 6 (42:59):
Of regular, don't have to move your neck like that
when you say the word.

Speaker 12 (43:02):
Okay, I just I don't watch most of the time,
So what can you just tell us what the performance was?

Speaker 9 (43:13):
Yeah, and you can go on Sheila YouTube channel to
watch it too, or my Facebook Okay, yeah, Sheeli drummer, she.

Speaker 3 (43:22):
Let's watch im.

Speaker 8 (43:25):
No.

Speaker 6 (43:25):
Uh.

Speaker 9 (43:26):
The beginning of it is I did the funky national
anthem I call it so the national anthem with some things,
and I had speeches in in the song as well.

Speaker 6 (43:37):
She kneeled while she played with.

Speaker 12 (43:40):
The speeches samples of the actual speeches or was somebody else, No.

Speaker 9 (43:44):
It was the actual Like I got the okay from
Doctor King's estate and family to use his images and
his speeches on my record. That was huge because they
just don't do that for anybody, for anybody.

Speaker 3 (43:57):
It was super political. It's funky national anthem.

Speaker 1 (44:00):
I got it, man, you gotta have me a funky.

Speaker 6 (44:03):
When I reposted it, I was like, it was nice
that they allowed you to show your love and your
frustration for this country.

Speaker 9 (44:07):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (44:16):
Emma's last segment, we're gonna speak to some of the
first ladies of Depth Jam. First, if you will, the
legendary Faith Newman, the woman who would later sign NAS
to Columbia and has been instrumental in getting.

Speaker 3 (44:28):
Day La Soul the rights back to the music. But
before all that, she was one.

Speaker 2 (44:31):
Of the first five employees at Deaf Jam Records. Emma's
brief clip she mentions Lisa Cortez, who will also tell
her story of getting down with the label and why
it was truly like family. Like Faith, Lisa went on
to do great things and music as well as film
Part two of her twenty twenty three QLs chronicles her
documentary Little Richard I Am everything.

Speaker 13 (44:57):
Well, you know, I started working at Deaf Jam in
eighty seven and right, so you know when I was
still in college, and it was just an amazing, amazing time.
Just some of the best years of my life were
spent there. I was one of the first five people
at the company, first woman.

Speaker 3 (45:17):
Right. I was going to say, if you.

Speaker 2 (45:20):
Were a woman in that environment, I know that you
have to have the toughest skin of all time. Yeah,
because you're like what you're around. You were around twenty
twenty one in that environment.

Speaker 13 (45:37):
Yeah, wow.

Speaker 3 (45:38):
Well, you know, there was no such thing as HR department.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
There was no HR department, there was no trigger warnings,
there was none of that shit.

Speaker 8 (45:44):
You know.

Speaker 13 (45:45):
You know what's interesting though, was that before def JAM,
I interned at Columbia Records eighty six and yeah, and
you can imagine what that was like then. You still
I don't know if you saw the show No, the
one that got canceled on HBO about the record thank You,

(46:06):
Thank You, thank you, It was like that.

Speaker 12 (46:08):
Like canceled yeah, yeah, yeah, one and done done yeah
damn next to or that was damn I was.

Speaker 3 (46:18):
Actually I was into it too. Yeah, I liked it
as well. But wow, but.

Speaker 13 (46:23):
Those guys you know in eighty six that were in
the record had been in the record business since, you know,
whenever the seventies were still there, and that's where I
got I experienced more harassment, you know what I mean.
And I feel like with hip hop though, it's like
I never could have gotten a job at Columbia unless
I wanted to be somebody's assistant, you know.

Speaker 2 (46:44):
But so you're you're saying that working at Columbia in
eighty six prepared you for the tough skin of the
battles that you would have to deal with.

Speaker 13 (46:54):
Yeah, you know, it's funny, like I don't know if
it's my youth or whatever, how much I loved hip hop.
It just I didn't think of myself as a woman first.
In hip hop. I just felt like, you know, that's
kind of how it was with everybody who worked at
Deaf Jams, Like we were all young and we were
just totally immersed in the culture. And you know, Russell

(47:16):
was known for hiring women. Russell was known for other
things a.

Speaker 3 (47:26):
Well chosen uh yeah.

Speaker 13 (47:29):
Hiring.

Speaker 3 (47:32):
Verb there.

Speaker 6 (47:33):
Yeah, were there any other women at the time. That
maybe because you know, you were the first at Deaf Jam,
but were there anything.

Speaker 13 (47:39):
There were women at Rush. So what you had was
in the in Elizabeth Street, you had Rush Management was
on the first floor, and you had Lisa Cortez and
Heidi Smith. Yeah Cortez who.

Speaker 6 (47:54):
Went on to work with Lee Daniels.

Speaker 13 (47:55):
Yeah, he's just doing great things in film.

Speaker 3 (47:59):
Women's the moment that you were like, I want to
get in the industry.

Speaker 13 (48:04):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (48:05):
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

(48:27):
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.

Speaker 3 (48:37):
Very it was you want to be in that musical?

Speaker 7 (48:40):
I do it all the time.

Speaker 1 (48:44):
Wait, I didn't know that.

Speaker 7 (48:46):
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

(49:09):
on to become one of the famous vaudeville strippers.

Speaker 2 (49:14):
I was in this play in like fifth grade and
didn't realize how many kids.

Speaker 9 (49:17):
In these plays.

Speaker 6 (49:18):
I don't understand what we're all doing this play kids
performing art.

Speaker 2 (49:21):
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 3 (49:29):
So I didn't really did show Boat.

Speaker 7 (49:31):
We did name, We did Gypsy Name. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:33):
I was very Charles's assistant. Well, my sister played via
Charles and I had to.

Speaker 7 (49:40):
They made a role for Meerry.

Speaker 3 (49:43):
I did hair in high school. I was hood Were
you naked?

Speaker 8 (49:45):
Fu?

Speaker 3 (49:47):
Then you didn't do hair?

Speaker 2 (49:49):
Yeah, I mean it was a very a very tame
down Republican version, but I did it.

Speaker 7 (49:56):
You were here, you were bald?

Speaker 3 (49:58):
Yeah. I grew my hair out, but they wouldn't let
us do all the news, all that we wasn't doing.

Speaker 7 (50:02):
That shit plays. So I found my voice. I went
my mother said to 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 the summer I was fourteen, when everybody rebels, I

(50:23):
locked myself in my room and I just listened to
Ella's Gershwin songbook, Cole Porter Songbook.

Speaker 3 (50:31):
I just not heat waved, not.

Speaker 7 (50:35):
Of course, Evelyn Champagne King, you know, I mean my
father's playing Celia Cruz. 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 (50:56):
You found bath you said rebelling.

Speaker 2 (50:58):
So in my mind, I'm like, oh, okay, this is
when like she discovers bad brains or sex pistols or
the promos. And I'm like, girls when your parents dream, but.

Speaker 6 (51:09):
Your peers are like, what the fu?

Speaker 7 (51:11):
And then I discovery hip hop.

Speaker 3 (51:13):
What was your first hip hop record?

Speaker 7 (51:15):
I'd say it's it's rappers Delight?

Speaker 3 (51:18):
How were you when rappers Alight? Came out, I'm not.
I don't.

Speaker 7 (51:21):
I don't talk about age younger than springtime, younger than Spring.

Speaker 3 (51:28):
I got it.

Speaker 2 (51:29):
Okay, So how do you nuance your way into was
Maroon era def jam?

Speaker 3 (51:34):
Your deaf jam or black label def jam?

Speaker 7 (51:38):
You're general, I'm Maroon, I'm nineteen eighty six.

Speaker 3 (51:41):
Tell me everything about it?

Speaker 7 (51:42):
Okay, it's it's 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 uh Mary Baraka's Starter.

Speaker 3 (51:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (51:59):
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 Dacooning. I was into hip hop, and I
was like, I want to write about women in rap.
So I talked to her stepsister, Dominique de Prima, you know,

(52:21):
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 I'm
really excited about because nobody knew there was women in

(52:42):
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 l A. And I said, oh,

(53:04):
Tequila Mockingbird. That guy was Lee or Cohen, So what
are you doing right right? 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 all hang out body BLA

(53:27):
and Jimmy Spicer was the receptionist. But Jimmy Speiser 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 3 (53:38):
Wait you stop.

Speaker 2 (53:39):
This is the second time that we've heard the story
of someone charming the deaf gm staff to nuance a
job via pastreets. 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 lee
Or was like impressed, Like this guy's clean up the
office and buying us donuts.

Speaker 3 (54:00):
And that's how he got.

Speaker 2 (54:02):
Like Russell was like, get away from me, kid, but pastries, timeout,
Jimmy Spicer's dollar Billy.

Speaker 3 (54:10):
What.

Speaker 7 (54:11):
So I'm this kid.

Speaker 3 (54:18):
Love it when he does voices.

Speaker 7 (54:21):
To say that, Oh yes, So I keep trying to,
you know, roll up in there and you know, impress
them and 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.

(54:41):
I conned my way into the party backstage because you know,
you just got you got to get in or actually
you 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 Jay. And I walk up to lee Or

(55:03):
and I go, hey, you remember me. I gave you
my resume on the good paper. It was like the
heavy weighted paper of his cream color that mattered. And
he said, well, you know what, I actually need someone,
I need an assistant. Call me. 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.

(55:26):
And I said to Leor, 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. And then half a day turned into
five years a lifetime.

Speaker 3 (55:41):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (55:42):
So from eighty six to ninety one. Wow, Okay, so
Dill was about to start to come out.

Speaker 7 (55:49):
Yep. I was there when.

Speaker 3 (55:50):
Original concept is definitely yeah, yep.

Speaker 7 (55:54):
And I was there when we made to ninety eight
Elizabeth Street, right when I came in and met with
mister Bill, Bill Stephanie and uh, you know the sign
the public enemy.

Speaker 3 (56:08):
What is leear like then?

Speaker 6 (56:09):
Because the Leo were like, no, now, it's such a
big personality.

Speaker 7 (56:14):
And he was he was he was big.

Speaker 11 (56:16):
Yeah, and look you know what he so he was
always that person like the way that people im Flower, yeah,
the way people imitate Lauren Michael is that like Lauren
and Leo are the two most imitated execs that I know,
but they always have a sort of disapproving father and untouchable.

Speaker 6 (56:37):
They're untouchable, Like it feels like in ways right they
sit like you can touch Lauren, but Leon and Laurna
in that way kind of.

Speaker 3 (56:44):
I know, softer in Leon now like Lear is like
he's right right.

Speaker 7 (56:51):
So it's that Bali effect from Russell.

Speaker 2 (56:54):
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.

Speaker 3 (57:14):
You know that sort of thing.

Speaker 2 (57:15):
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 7 (57:28):
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. Wow, oh no, And you know this small
group from Russell Lee or Heidi Smith, Bill Adler Simone
who was our receptionist, Bill Stephanie. They you know, they

(57:52):
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 heard. I was like, Lisa,
I got a black guys like God who got got
bugged and lived in New York. I lived in the
real deal. And they were like, well, if you'd like,

(58:13):
we could find somebody who could get for you, a
nice little ladylike gun with a with a mother of
pearl inlay.

Speaker 6 (58:20):
I was like, nice style, that's very.

Speaker 7 (58:25):
That's what love looks.

Speaker 1 (58:27):
Like in a nice voice, too, pretty gun, a very
nerdy voice.

Speaker 3 (58:33):
Nothing scares me more than nerdy thugs.

Speaker 6 (58:35):
You know that's rare. 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. So I'm just get it.

Speaker 7 (58:44):
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 le Or putting together that
Adida Steele because I actually wrote a letter to Fela,
because Houdini has a song called do the FeelA, and
I wrote him a letter and I was like, you
guys need to do a deal with Udini because they're

(59:06):
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 FeelA 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 so important and how much did

(59:30):
they need though they needed some. 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

(59:52):
Funkinklin who later came to work there, 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,

(01:00:16):
and they were hip hop heads and they would the
first stop Oki yes, wow Oki doki damn.

Speaker 2 (01:00:24):
He never most people on the other side of the
fence will go over time to like explain their hip
hop deedigree. Like we toured with Oakinfeld 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.

Speaker 7 (01:00:42):
Haul When they would come over, the first stop is
they'd come to ninety eight Elizabeth Street like that. It
was great, 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 the people from Japan there, you know, who
ultimately become a part of the ground swell of the

(01:01:04):
music crossing over and the ripple effect culturally. So these
you know, I remember we went to London and I,
you know, would make myself the European door 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

(01:01:25):
like be like, no, you cannot treat these guys this way,
so 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.

(01:01:48):
Now it was going to become. I didn't know that
I was 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 2 (01:02:06):
And thank you for tuning in and celebrating Women's History
Month with the QLUS.

Speaker 3 (01:02:10):
Come back next week from.

Speaker 1 (01:02:11):
FURTI Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

(01:02:35):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.