QLS Classic: Monie Love

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. It is March,
which means it's Women's History Month, and we're celebrating here
at QLs. We're going to look back at the classic
episode from twenty twenty one with Money Love. Since her
career started, Money's been in the middle of everything. You
see the pun there, music, radio, activism, and more. Listen back,

(00:34):
ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Course Love Supreme.
I'm your host, Quest Love. We have teams Supreme with us.
Let's see, we have Sugar, Steve Hi. Everybody right now
your live on location.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Where you at, Steve, Yeah, I'm outside of radio study
music Hall, recording live for up frame.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
Right.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
Nice. Nice, And our fan base is out there. That's
awesome looking on the street, on the street. Yeah, exactly,
Steve it is. That's where his fans are on the
street out there. So we have unpaid bill. Yes, sir,
how's it going on? How's the how's the wine bar?
What are you drinking?

Speaker 4 (01:19):
Tonight, little ship pain, let's call it tonight delicious pain.
It's it's for the pain. It's pro paid, it's pro
it's this is tastes your favorite.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Part of the day when you when you get down
to you.

Speaker 4 (01:34):
Yeah, I get to see my friends have a drink
and you know, talk about the ship.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
I see, all right at you cool and yeah. I
can't say yeah, waiting me to say north.

Speaker 5 (01:52):
See whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
I need some other. I might need some other. I mean, yes,
I believe you know your state very well, but I need.

Speaker 6 (02:00):
Some know the witnesses, because anybody any nigga saying that
ship is over fifty Okay, ain't no, ain't no young
nigga saying that ship.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
We don't say that cold like nah nah, bro. Is
there a Philadelphia equivalent of there, like Philadelphia some ship shah?
Yeah yeah, but then it became kiladelph in two thousand
and six, so ended that. Uh yeah, Marcaret, Yeah look

(02:33):
at you. Yeah yeah, Margaret, I forgot I forgot the
mark in the house. Yeah we did, ladies and gentlemen.
I will say that our esteemed guest today is definitely
hip hop Royalty. And I'm not making that reference because
she's UK based. She came first to our at Tension

(02:53):
as a member of what I think is one of
the most innovative collectives in music, not just hip hop,
but music and I'm speaking, of course, of the native tongues.
She's one of the first generation international mcs. She's made
her mark, given memorable verses on singles for a vast

(03:15):
array of people, be it Whitney Houston, Fine on Cannibals, Prince,
the Jungle Brothers, Daylight, Soul Rass Cast Common least we
forget or not forget her classic performance on the Anthem
Ladies First with Queen Latifa and I'm also at the
top of the new millennium. She shifted her golden voice

(03:38):
to radio, especially in my hometown of Philly. Remind me
to ask you about that Gez conversation by I've never
spoken about that. I've heard a lot about it. I'm
you know, I'm Philadelphia and I got it. I always
wanted to ask you that also Atlanta George's as well
as well as her nationwide show on Serious FM Ladies First.

(04:00):
Probably the biggest marvel here about our guest is her
refusal and her inability to age as a mother of four.
I assume four fully grown kids and a grandmother. I

(04:20):
swear to God our guests will remain about twenty eight
years old until the year nineteen thousand and eighty four. Okay,
what can I say? Longtime coming, ladies and gentlemen, please
welcome mony love to quest Lofe Suprie. Yes, all right, look,
I'm as as a man. I'm learning lessons post twenty twenty.

(04:47):
Not to comment on people's physicality or their age or whatever,
but this has to be spoken about what is your
secret to youth?

Speaker 5 (04:57):
I don't have a secret to youth. I mean, I
don't know why everybody keeps everybody always says that, because
trust me, my knees have got more cracked than Harlem
in the ages.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
I feel you.

Speaker 7 (05:10):
But what you being on at night?

Speaker 5 (05:12):
Though?

Speaker 1 (05:12):
Yeah, I'm like Chris, like what is it?

Speaker 5 (05:17):
I don't you know. Honestly, I drink and I drink
a lot of water, that's for sure. I really do.
I really do. And it sounds really corny, but I
really do drink a lot of water. And aside from that,
I'm still keeping up with the kids. Like I've still
got kids that I'm chasing around the house and so
on and so forth.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
You know, how old is your youngest?

Speaker 5 (05:38):
Twelve?

Speaker 1 (05:39):
Okay? Well I see, yeah. I mean there's sometimes where
like I can't tell the difference between you and Charlena,
and you know I can't like, you.

Speaker 5 (05:52):
Know, half the time, I get it, yeah, because it's
like that either.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
Your your daughter must have taken your iPhone and posted
a picck on I g r ever, but yeah, more
more more power to you. I want whatever you're drinking,
you have it. I want to live forever. So yes,
the water right now, as you speak, what is the
environment in Atlanta? Because to the rest of the United States,

(06:20):
we're just we're kind of side eyeing, not the residents,
but you know more or less no, well not even
what's your name, Keisha, Not even Keisha, because I know
where she stands. But right now I'm just hearing like
everything that Atlanta is sodom and more like.

Speaker 5 (06:43):
Basically, honestly, no, honestly, I can understand why everybody else
is looking at Atlanta like that because to a lot
in a lot of areas like things should be closed
that are not closed. So I understand why everybody else
is looking at it, like what are you guys doing
out there? Honestly, me speaking for myself, I'm going with

(07:03):
the train of thought as we're not supposed to be
doing a bunch of a bunch of stuff, you know,
I do a to B I leave, I leave the house,
I go to the radio station. I do the radio
station the show. I come home. I might stuff at
the grocery store, pick up groceries for the kids and
what have you. That's about it, you know, I just
I don't really do too much. I need to do

(07:26):
my kids. You know, everybody's homeschooled, which is I share
my laptop, I share my desktop, which is why nothing
in my house is sacred anymore. But they are, They're
doing too much. They're doing too much in general.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
Is there a kind of like is there a true
awareness of at least for you know, I know it's
for everybody, but even for black people like that, there's
a danger out there. I understand that, you know, at
least some of the hotep cats that.

Speaker 5 (07:59):
I know that are Are you allowed to say that.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
Hotel?

Speaker 5 (08:05):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (08:07):
Yeah, that's a real.

Speaker 5 (08:09):
Starts that starts like fights.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
I mean, you know, if the shoe fits. I'm just saying,
like we just we just live in the time in which,
you know, I mean, where facts are optional and everyone's
everyone's opinion is sort of subjective to what they think,
you know, right, And I mean it's bad enough with

(08:35):
my family, Like I me trying to convince certain family
members that they should get the vaccine. And you know,
I understand the the history that we've had within in
trepidation and all that stuff, but I mean, it's just
exhausted enough arguing nine family members about this. I mean,
I can't even imagine what it's just like in Atlanta

(08:56):
where I mean I've seen clips of All Star Week
and where people were just like.

Speaker 5 (09:01):
Yeah, I'm crazy I skipped.

Speaker 7 (09:03):
So you haven't had the whole study parties or anything
like that down there.

Speaker 5 (09:07):
Well I did, Uh no, I did, Actually I did.
You know what I did. I went to Tampa and
I did The super was a driving concept and that
was me and alumni. It was me special Ed, Chubb, Rock,
Kuame and Dana Day and we did that and that

(09:28):
was a driving That was my first driving concert. So
that was Yeah, that was interesting.

Speaker 1 (09:33):
Do people respond by a honking their horns? Absolutely so
when it starts doing nightmares like people were like, it
was amazing.

Speaker 5 (09:46):
That was my first experience with that and it was
absolutely that. Like when you say make some noise.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
It's like, ah, wait, next time you wrapped a Chubb,
tell him that I'm want to pay his two thousand
dollars debt to Prince Paul if Paul tells the story
one more time. Man, I'm like, all right, I'm gonna

(10:12):
just cover this dep.

Speaker 5 (10:16):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (10:17):
No, okay, So of course I know some areas of
your life. But for our listeners who don't know what
part of were you born in the UK? What part
of the UK?

Speaker 5 (10:30):
Yeah? Absolutely, South London, Chelsea. I was born in since
in Chelsea and that is South London.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
Okay, South London. Can you talk about the environment of
of what South London was when you were growing up?

Speaker 5 (10:46):
Yeah? Okay. Being black and in England, you're either Caribbean
descent or straight up Africa, like your parents come from
Ghana on Nigeria or mostly Ghana and Nigeria, or your
parents come from any of the Caribbean So it could
be Trinidad's, it could be Grenada, it could be Barbados,

(11:09):
Saint Lucia, Jamaica. My family is or from Jamaica and
that's what makes up the black population pretty much when
I was growing up in England. Now it's it's a
lot people from everywhere, more places, But back then that's
what it was and the reason why it was that
is because I think like in the fifties, they England

(11:31):
reached out to its commonwealth countries to bring in manpower
to help to rebuild the country after the last series
of wars, and so they reached out to their commonwealth,
the British Commonwealth, which is all the countries that they owned. Exactly,
thank you Ante.

Speaker 7 (11:54):
Yeah, basically I'm so light, so polite about it.

Speaker 5 (12:01):
I love it. And so my grandfather was amongst them.
And so what happened was families, the heads of families
went over to England and then bit by bit they
send for their wives, and they send for their children
and so on and so forth. But by that time
my grandfather had already had my grandparents had already had
five kids that were older and left. My mother was
of the last five. She was at younger five. So

(12:23):
she had to get shipped off to her parents in England,
which racking for her, she told me, because she she
didn't even know what a coat was. So yeah, she
got to England and it was like it's cold, you know,

(12:44):
So yeah, and then that's what that's pretty much how
a lot of our parents, people in my age bracket,
how a lot of our parents got England, so hence
we were born in England. My generation of generation in
my family born outside of Jamaica.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
Okay, So I don't know when this will air exactly,
but we're sort of speaking right now, right when UK
is on the sort of the forefront of the news
with how the monarchy and its relationship with an American community.

Speaker 5 (13:20):
Yeah, American community.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
I'm sorry, I'm so used to saying that the black
community of the UK. Okay, man, I just did a
patrise O Neil thing. You know when Patrice jokes that
when he goes to European countries and still calls them
foreigners like that, that's actually.

Speaker 3 (13:39):
And not even the term that you say mo like, No, no, no,
that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (13:44):
I did not hear the term African American until I
came to this country.

Speaker 7 (13:47):
No, but what do you call so do they? Do
you say the blacks of the UK?

Speaker 5 (13:50):
Like?

Speaker 7 (13:50):
Is that something that you say as a black.

Speaker 5 (13:52):
We just we just say black people a black person.

Speaker 7 (13:56):
Like British right right right?

Speaker 1 (13:59):
Right?

Speaker 5 (14:00):
No, not really, But.

Speaker 1 (14:01):
What I the thing is, you know, I was watching
the news today and they had, you know, a bunch
of news pundits on talking about uh well mainly marco
versus old boy from the Peers, here's Morgan. And you know,
when he was speaking of his disgust of certain figures

(14:24):
in the media and especially with the Prime Minister there,
I mean, I noticed that he was using talking points
that I thought were just exclusively for African Americans in
the United States, Like I thought, just I thought, basically
like post slavery stereotypes of black people, Like he was
saying that the Prime Minister was on the record once

(14:47):
saying that you know, like every black person here in
London has watermelon smiles, and was using terms like pickaninny
and things that I thought were exclusively just for like
based in down South American terms mm hmmm that I've
never heard used in Europe before, which I mean I foolishly.
I mean, of course I know that racism is worldwide

(15:11):
is nigger, right, But that's the thing, Like I.

Speaker 5 (15:14):
Know, I never heard that until I came to this country, right.

Speaker 1 (15:17):
But I'm saying that's the thing. I haven't heard the
terms used for us in the United States over there.
So I wanted to know, like, what what.

Speaker 5 (15:27):
Was our version of your version, our version of the
n word was wog, w o, g wog. You're a wog. Yeah,
So the.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
White person calls you wog, then it's time to start
throwing hands.

Speaker 5 (15:42):
If if a white person calls you a wog, they're
going to be tons allness.

Speaker 3 (15:47):
But do other black people call themselves walks? No, so
then they're.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
So there's not a term's.

Speaker 5 (15:56):
W w And the word wog comes from the end
of golliwog, and a golliwog if you look that up,
was one of those like black face dolls. It's like
a rag doll, right, So it's made out of material,
and it's black face with wool hair, right, and it

(16:18):
looks like actually kind of like it's dressed like how
Al Jolson is to dress. So it's a rag doll.
It's a rag doll that's dressed like Al Jolson. It's
black face with wolf coat. And that's a golliwog.

Speaker 1 (16:34):
And I'm curious if that even has a relationship to
the word poly. I was thinking that too. I've heard
that used in many punk rock or something like that.
So to me that I don't pog is like a
little like toad or something. Right, It's like a.

Speaker 5 (16:56):
Yeah, I think that is, that is, but Golliwog was
a doll.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
Ain't that?

Speaker 7 (17:00):
Yeah? All right? Now I ain't never all right, got it?

Speaker 5 (17:02):
All right? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (17:04):
But growing up what you know, for for some of
the onand as a tadpole, okay, tadpole, but growing up
and over there? How long were you over there before
before you came to the United States?

Speaker 5 (17:16):
I left, I left England for good when I was
seventeen and changed.

Speaker 1 (17:22):
Okay, so up until that point, what was was there
a racial tension at all?

Speaker 5 (17:28):
Or absolutely? Absolutely? It's just like it's just like, forgive
the similarity, but it's like a cool a kool Aid
of a different flavor. Well, because it's like, you know,
whereas you may consider the kool Aid slavor over here
of the f ship that was going on, you might

(17:51):
consider that red. Okay, well, but it was orange, you
know what I'm saying. But it was still but it
was still part of the kool Aid. Oh yeah, it
used to be this group of you couldn't like you
would have fear, I'd have I have an older brother.
I would have fear for my brother to be out
past a certain time because I would be scared that

(18:13):
he'd bump into a group of National Front guys. National
guys were skin heads. Yeah, they were skin heads with
hides up to Martin boots and then green.

Speaker 1 (18:29):
Jacket, the red suspenders and the yeah yeah.

Speaker 5 (18:33):
That stuff right, and you get you know, they black boy,
a couple of black boys get caught wrong side of town,
it's late or whatever, they'd get done in. They'd get
done and beat to a pulp death, you know. See.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
Okay, that's that was my next question. Whereas you know,
teenage me, my dad would probably have more fear that
the police would do that to me first and then second,
you know, going in the wrong side. I mean, we
never Philadelphia really didn't get caught up in gang culture
similar to if I were going.

Speaker 5 (19:08):
But there was that because there was a lot of
markings on the wall saying National Front rules and go back,
go wogs, go home and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah,
it existed. And the parents would be scared mainly for
their sons because the sons would always be the ones
that would be prone to be out. The daughters would

(19:28):
be at home, you know, and they would be scared
for their sons running into groups of National Front kids
and kicked in. And also the sad the sad vans,
and the sad vans are paddy wagons, and that's what
we used to call them, sad vans.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
Are you have you watched Small Acts? Yeah? No, And.

Speaker 5 (19:53):
You know something, I just got told about it. I
just got told about it about and I was like,
I need to watch it, I really And then I
saw some of the trailers for it, and I'm like,
oh my god, this is exactly, yeah, this is exactly
how we came up over there, exactly how we came up.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
Yeah. People, the first two to me were did you
watch the rest of it? Fante?

Speaker 6 (20:15):
Or I watched I just watched Lovers Rock. I haven't
seen the other ones.

Speaker 1 (20:19):
Are you just seen the second one? The house party one?
On the house Party one, I gotta watch the.

Speaker 5 (20:22):
One with and love Us Rock is a whole genre
of music that we used to listen to.

Speaker 1 (20:28):
Absolutely I see music music wise. You know, I guess
for us, even though he'dn't paraded as as hard as
I expected him to, you know, slick Rick was sort
of our I guess, our introduction that hip hop is
a worldwide thing and not just a local New York thing.

(20:51):
But like, what what was the the environment as far
as hip hop was concerned, like how did it reach
you over there?

Speaker 5 (21:00):
Okay? Uh? Through videos? Through videos, through Wild Style videos,
breaking videos, graffiti videos. It came to us like that.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
We didn't get just firstlegs.

Speaker 5 (21:14):
We do well, I think bootlegs tapes of like Wild
Style and and then that led onto actual real releases
of like Breaking and Beach Street. But that's how it
that's how it got to us when we got hip hop.
We didn't get it in its music form first, we
got it in its art form as far as the

(21:36):
movement end of it.

Speaker 1 (21:38):
First that you didn't have a rappers Delight on radio?
What the hell is this?

Speaker 5 (21:44):
Yeah? We did, but it was it was kind of discoing.
We didn't we we didn't make the connection between hip
hop the culture that that that came out of the rubble,
you know, we didn't make that connection with we saw
rappers Delight on Top of the Pops, which Top of
the Pops is like a British version of American bandstand.

(22:07):
So when we saw them on top of the pops
doing Sugarhill Gang doing Rapids Delight, we didn't make the
connection with the hip hop culture. Yet he started, we
started a simulating our own pseudo movement of hip hop
in England once we started seeing going on and as
far as tapes of wild Style and as a matter

(22:30):
of fact, somebody that helped deliver us more so with
the culture, more so than Sugarhill Gang for England at least,
was Malcolm McLaren because he included them breaking in his.

Speaker 1 (22:41):
Video Oh for Buffalo Girls.

Speaker 5 (22:44):
And we saw that and that's another way that we
started making the connection, and so we started we developed
cruise again. I was spinning on my back. I was
I wasn't rhyming sons.

Speaker 1 (22:58):
So you started off dancing, you started off, yeah, yeah,
what was his what was his true role over there?
I mean, you're Malcolm's name mentioned of course with the
sex pistols and then you know it's early for a
raison to electronic hip hop in eighty two eighty three,
But I mean, was he this Spingali Warhol figure over

(23:21):
there or like.

Speaker 5 (23:21):
What absolutely, that's exactly his position, that is exactly his position.

Speaker 1 (23:28):
Parties or you know.

Speaker 5 (23:30):
No, no, I wouldn't say that, or if he did,
I certainly wasn't in that crowd and none of my
peers were in that crowd. But what he did do
and where we did make a direct connection with Malcolm
MacLaren is that he ushered in the the dance art
form of hip hop culture. He ushered that he helped

(23:51):
usher that in to the to watch British kids for
us to look at that and be like, how are
they doing that? How wen about how to do that?
How are they doing that? Now?

Speaker 7 (24:01):
I was gonna say, do you remember what, folks, what
was before a hip hop then?

Speaker 1 (24:04):
Like?

Speaker 7 (24:04):
What was what? Were young kids listening to the police?

Speaker 5 (24:08):
We were listening to the We were listening to the police.
We were listening to we were listening. Yeah, we were.
We weren't you know, we wasn't. We weren't doing anything.
We didn't get hit by the hip hop cultural bug yet,
you know we all we.

Speaker 1 (24:23):
Had was police makes sense though the scar the school
it was.

Speaker 5 (24:28):
No absolutely because it was a very heavy A lot
of the British bands were heavily influenced by the Caribbean
population in England. So you know there's this there's this
group called Bad Men and they were like a scar
band too and bad Manners and they were, yeah, they
were a scar band. Two. Of course we mentioned the police,

(24:53):
night Runners, the specials, The Specials, that's another one. Heavily spy.
There was two Jamaican guys in the group.

Speaker 1 (25:04):
So you mean like wred they Okay, explain this, What
the hell's are Rudy. I hear the term rudy.

Speaker 5 (25:12):
White white shirt, white shirt, skinny, black tie, black jacket.
But yeah, yeah, yeah, drain pipes.

Speaker 1 (25:23):
That's to look like fish boone. Are these white guys
or black guys? Like every time I hear a Rudy,
is that like rude boy or something?

Speaker 5 (25:29):
Or yes, it's it's the British version of what Jamaicans
would call rude boy.

Speaker 1 (25:36):
I see no, because you know, when I heard Sky songs,
they're always talking about Rudy, and I thought, like, kind
of that Johnny, what was Johnny Taylor's word? Like, oh joy, Jody, Jody? Right,
I thought that Rudy was just like this fictional character
or whatever that just woman while you was away, Right,
That's what I thought.

Speaker 8 (25:56):
But no, No, a Rudy is a British version of
what Jamaicans call rude boy.

Speaker 5 (26:07):
Okay, Like if you look at early pictures of Bob
and Bunny and Petere Tush, right, look at early pictures
before everybody got locks. They were rude boys.

Speaker 3 (26:20):
Oh well, since you brought it up, can you talk
about your daddy?

Speaker 5 (26:25):
Yeah, my dad's My dad was a rude boy. My
dad's and my dad is full fledged rasta right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
my dad's full fledged raster ita. He's you know, all
my life, his lucks is now under his feet.

Speaker 1 (26:45):
Oh wow, music at all? Or yeah?

Speaker 5 (26:49):
My dad played trumpet. Yeah, my dad played trumpet when
I was growing up, So the house was very musical.
Sundays was his days when he would practice. So he
would put on a Louis Armstrong or a Miles Davis
and he would play along to it, and that would
be his practice. And that would happen on Sundays. And

(27:10):
once I hear the trumpet going, that means I have
to get up, and I have to clean the bathroom downstairs,
and I have to clean my room. It was intuitive,
you know, you know what's happening. Yeah, So, yeah, played
trumpet and he was in a jazz band and England
when I was growing up, were.

Speaker 1 (27:30):
You I'm not trying to stereotype. I don't know. It's
just a lot of a lot of the black people
that I met in the UK when they're talking about
growing up in the seventies. They would tell me that basically,
like a lot of their parents were super super conservative,

(27:51):
so you know, they didn't have experiences of like sneaking
out the house at thirteen to go to whatever a
studio fifty four was or that sort of thing. Like
were you a club kid at all? Or was cool
Heirk's version of hip hop your music experience where you
know there's playing on the streets or no.

Speaker 5 (28:15):
I we well, let's see when I started breaking and
stuff like that. We would go to Covent Garden during
the day in the afternoon and that's where and I
would make sure all my chores were done so that
I could bounce, and my parents wouldn't have anything to
say but be back at a certainly, and I would
go to Covent Garden meet up with my friends and
we would just pop and break and just practice all day,

(28:38):
either in Covent Garden Square or in the Charing Cross
Tube station because the floors were really smooth in the
Charing Cross Tube station, so we could so we could
get some really good windmills in then backspins and down there.

Speaker 1 (28:52):
Oh so you were a serious b girl, Yeah, oh okay, okay,
I didn't know your level was I don't know it
was curiosity.

Speaker 5 (28:59):
Or like, oh yeah, no, we would battle. We would
battle each other. It was all different crew. Seriously, we
developed fake beef with North Londoners just for no reason.

Speaker 1 (29:11):
Because you needed somebody to battle. Yeah wait, that's that
would be my side of town. Okay. So did did
people like go to different territories or was it territorial?

Speaker 5 (29:24):
It was very Yeah, it was very territorial. It was
very territorial. You know. We took it seriously. And there
were fights sometimes and.

Speaker 1 (29:32):
Yeah, like you would not be caught on in Camden
Market or any like, only.

Speaker 5 (29:39):
If somebody came over and was performing and they were
at a place called what was the what was the
name of the Electric Ballroom in Camden Town and sometimes
there would be performances like I saw Chuck Brown and
the Soul Searchers at Oh wow, yeah, I saw I
saw Chuck Brown and Soul Searchers at in cam In

(30:00):
Town at Electric Ballroom absolutely really yeah. I also saw
Steps the Sonic in that same venue really yeah yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:09):
Hip hop hip hop wise, like how how big was
the the local talent? Because again, like there was I
knew of Slick Rick. There's a there's another dope rapper
that was out like in nineteen eighty seven. I'm having
a brain from the UK. From the UK the Derek

(30:32):
b Cookie Crew, not Cookie Crew. But it's like this guy.
He he always ended his verse with shopper then a
heart attack, but he was rhyming over Bobby Birds. I'm coming.
It's like they played it a few times in like
eighty eight. I forget his name, but then a heart attack.

(30:58):
It's my wrong the fact like, no, but I liked
him because that sounded like a nigga from Snap. This
is the thing. I like him.

Speaker 5 (31:14):
Because don't say this, don't say that everybody is yo.

Speaker 6 (31:19):
And I still and I'm still not convinced that that
guy is not Vin Raims. I'm sorry, I'm still I'm
still not convinced.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
I've never seen the Snap. I never seen him in
the same place.

Speaker 5 (31:33):
No.

Speaker 1 (31:34):
But the thing is is that with with most UK artists,
they lose their accent once they start singing and rapping.
But he maintained that that accent throughout. And that's why
I liked him. But I wish I knew his name.

Speaker 5 (31:51):
But when I get off this podcast. I'm gonna hear that.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
I'm sorry. How did they look at that stuff? Though?
B Oni like like Derek B and Cookie Crew? How
were they received in the UK?

Speaker 3 (32:07):
Well?

Speaker 5 (32:07):
They they were received very well because they were our
first generation of born and bred British art.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
First wave was from there too, right yea proper girls?

Speaker 5 (32:19):
Yeah yeah, yes yeah. Cookie Crew were my man as
I was babysitter. I used to roll with them everywhere
to all their shows, be at their sound checks. I
learned a lot from being around them.

Speaker 1 (32:30):
Really.

Speaker 5 (32:31):
I came up, Yeah, I came up under Susi Q
and Debbie D. I came up under them.

Speaker 1 (32:36):
I love them, man, like I remember buying they They
once played in a different world, on a different world
the first season. There's a clip of of Dwayne and
uh Denise back when Lisa but her name was on
the show doing the wop to what's the first single

(32:56):
Females get on up?

Speaker 5 (32:58):
Females?

Speaker 1 (32:59):
Yeah? And I remember I don't know, like back then,
if if a song was on a sitcom, then you
asked about it the next day and then you got it.
So yeah, yeah you made but like, what do you
know what they're doing now?

Speaker 5 (33:15):
Or well, I know I Wid still, I mean Remedy.
Remedy is her name, Remedy, not Debide. WID's another of
my uh, another of my female mcs that I look up.
Tobd's Remedy is out of the Cookie Crew and I
speak to her. She's on really well, she works. She

(33:36):
actually heads her own marketing company still in London now
and she still works very much within the music business,
specifically because she had first time knowledge of being herself.
So she works has her own marketing firm in the
entertainment business in England.

Speaker 1 (33:55):
Okay, so how did you get the How did you
make that transition into becoming an MC and taking it
serious enough to actually doing it right?

Speaker 5 (34:12):
When did it? Was? Pretty much? When did it stop
being a hobby or a secret that only was shared
between me and the bathroom mirror with a toothbrush?

Speaker 1 (34:21):
Oh you was el for real?

Speaker 5 (34:26):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (34:27):
So yeah, like who pulled you out of your sidness
and said you should do this?

Speaker 5 (34:33):
You know what it was? It was a bit of envy,
and the envy came from I did a wait October
December January February, I did a five months stint at
George Wingate High School, in Brooklyn, New York. My mother
was in transition of possibly moving to the United States.

(34:54):
She had a job for a respected Jewish lawyer and
my Manhattan at his office, and he was going to
sponsor my mother. She came over, you know, she worked
for his family, took care of his children or what
have you, and in return he was going to, you know,
do her bees there in the paper. That's how a
lot of people did it back then. And she bought

(35:17):
me with her because I was the youngest one. We
were living in Brooklyn on East twenty eighth Street between
Clarence Till You and I went to Georgia and Gate
High School and they had metal detectives, which is something
I had never seen before.

Speaker 3 (35:33):
He went from living around place where they the cops
didn't have guns to a place where them I went.

Speaker 5 (35:38):
I went from Catholic school, not for dame or girls
uniform with a crest on my blazer wearing. Okay, I
went from that to lean on me for cron Yeah,
you know. So it was quite a culture shock for me.

(36:02):
But I found off in the same high school as
mc light. Mc Light was already an aspiring MC and
I would have to listen to her talk about how
she was at Latin Quarters and so this is where
the envy kicked in quarter.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
Well, I'm sorry, I just came back in the movie.

Speaker 5 (36:31):
Okay, So that's where the MV came in. So I
when I left and went back to England after doing
like six months going to school in Brooklyn, and I
went England, and then I was like, if only light new,
I'm just as dope. I'm dope too, I could rhyme.
It was a secret. I never told anyone, you know, Yeah,

(36:52):
it was a secret. I'm just I'm a wordsmith. English
was my favorite language. Poetry was my favorite thing. I
love words, you know, and so it was I had
a knack for So I kept it a secret that
I would write poems and write poetry and stuff. And
so by the time I went back to England, and
then I would be like, I should have told her,
I should have told like that I'm dope to and

(37:15):
blah blah blah blah blah. Right, So through all of that,
I started letting it out, you know, I started letting
it out that I could do this. Once I got
home to England, so I made a name for myself.
So the next time I saw a light, right, The
next I saw light she came over to England to
do a show, and I went to that show, right,
and I made sure that I got backstage right. And

(37:38):
then when I said huh, She's like, oh my god,
you're you know you're back. You're back here. And I
was like, yeah, I said, guess what. I was like,
I could rhyme too, let me bust a verse. You wrote.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
How old are you at this point? How old are you?

Speaker 5 (37:55):
Like sixteen? And changed, Oh, I hadn't. I hadn't turned
seventeen yet. Yeah. Yeah, those are the best auditions, right,
do you remember you remember? I don't remember the first,
but I do remember her saying, why didn't you tell me?
You did this all this time? You were we were
in school together and you could do this and you

(38:16):
never told me? And I just was like, I don't know.
I just I guess I wasn't ready yet, or I
was nervous. You know. You would go and telling stories
about going to like and being in the same club,
in the same room as Eric, being Rakhim and all
of them, and I was like, you know, I just
was like little on me, secret or what have you.
But but we was. We were tight in high school

(38:39):
and then we developed an even stronger bond afterwards. When
she saw me again in England and I bust my
little rhyme for her whatever, she was very encouraging. She
was very encouraging. She's like, I wish you would have
told me you did this, you know, maybe we could have.
I was like, I couldn't came to lettin Quarters with you.
I was like, my grandfather's Jamaican. He meets me from
school with a goddamn great Dane. Like nobody, oh wow,

(39:02):
like that. Yeah, I'd come out of the school right
and I'd be like this, Oh my god. You see
those movies where people kids are at the doorway of
their school and they're like, oh my god, that's my
mom across.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
Letting me off a black beforehand.

Speaker 5 (39:14):
My grandfather would be across the street with a great Dane.
I'm like, oh my god.

Speaker 1 (39:20):
Wait, Simon, have you ever told that story before?

Speaker 5 (39:23):
Like, no, no, no, no.

Speaker 1 (39:28):
It's not. Everyone knows that Busting and jay Z went
to school together, and everyone knows that Tribe and Jungle
Brothers went to school together. I think it's a big
fucking deal there. You MC light went to the same school.

Speaker 5 (39:41):
Yeah, yeah, and.

Speaker 1 (39:42):
That you know that you guys had this bond that
apparently the world doesn't know about.

Speaker 3 (39:47):
No.

Speaker 5 (39:47):
And it's funny that you say jay Z because during
that time, after I had gotten back to England, I
met jay Z in England's phil during my sixteenth turning
seventeenth year.

Speaker 1 (39:58):
The Wyan Sophie period exactly.

Speaker 5 (40:01):
He was there. Oh my god, you should have seen
his such an apartment. That's why when people tried to
there was a period of time when people would be like, oh,
what people about in their rhymes ain't real from how
their lively was, and then they would try to pin
jay Z in that pigeonhole, like oh, he's talking about
shit that he didn't really live. I would be the
first person to be like, yes, he bloody did, he did, Yes,

(40:25):
he bloody saw his apartment. I live in England, I
was born in England and I've never seen an apartment
that slipping we call him flat. I never seen a
flat that bi Christ. It was huge. It was just
like I always compared it to this movie that I
saw with Harrison Forden regarding Henry where he went to
the Okay, do you remember, do you remember bloody apartment.

(40:51):
It was an apartment. It was massive. Yes, that is
what jay Z had in England him and and I'm
walking around and flat, like how the fuck do you
guys have this? And I never in this country? Upstairs

(41:12):
downstairs duplex him back like what he listen. They had
the lavish life in England and he was there. They
were there for like maybe four or five months or
something like around. Yeah, we're around the same age. He's
only like probably a year older than me or something,

(41:33):
and so yeah, and that was when I met him,
and then and then from there it was like it
was like big brother everywhere I go when I came back,
when I came back to and I would go places
wherever it would be. I don't know why. He's like,
what is that thing where somebody pops up out of
a garbage can? Everywhere you go? But he would just

(42:05):
be everywhere like how did you get here? With how
you getting home? I've been places when I first came
back to America, I've been places right where he'll in
the same accurate that he talks about in his music
that he had from back in the day, right when
he was pushing accurates and all of that. That's why
I tell people, yes he did. Yes, He'd be like

(42:26):
he did, right. He'll pop up and be like, how
are you getting home? And I'll be like, I can't
up my friends, I'm chilling. No, get in the car
and take me. Yes, and I'll be like I'm grown,
you know, I was seventeen and change them. He would
take me right home and that that yes, Guardian home.
That so many times and to the point where I

(42:48):
used to get like bloody hell, like what do I
have like a tracking device? Like how are you always?
How is he always? Did?

Speaker 3 (42:56):
I think it's so fascinating a job like the same
age people don't even think about numbers? Is like that, yeah, yeah, yeah,
both of them.

Speaker 1 (43:04):
Are regressing in age. That's the Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 7 (43:08):
It's a lotion. They're not sharing it with us, but
that's cool.

Speaker 1 (43:11):
No, I'm gonna find that. God damn it.

Speaker 5 (43:14):
It puts the lotion on its skin.

Speaker 1 (43:21):
So I think the first time I heard you on
record was there was a remix for Fine Young Cannibals.
She drives me crazy. I didn't know it was you
at the time.

Speaker 5 (43:35):
How did you not know that was me? And Mary? Well?

Speaker 1 (43:37):
Because no, no, no, no, I didn't know what a money
love was at the time when I heard it.

Speaker 5 (43:41):
Wait what Moyes right?

Speaker 1 (43:45):
No, no, no, no, I knew of your name, Like I
guess the first time I heard you was doing our
own thing, I think on Jungle Brothers, but I believe
She Drives Me Crazy remix kind of predated that a
little bit. But I remember like you had a very definitive,

(44:10):
like a very sexy voice. You had your accent. Yeah,
you know, I know, I'm knowing you for decades. So sorry, no, no, no.

Speaker 5 (44:22):
But I just that's interesting because I definitely wasn't trying
to be that.

Speaker 1 (44:27):
No, but it's I mean, it's something. I mean, obviously
it had to been something because you know, Prince reached
out to you too. It was something very distinctive that
didn't sound like any well. I mean, first of all,
I'm not saying that it's far and few between, uh
with women in hip hop, but I mean they're they're there.

(44:52):
It's been slow to come to fruition, and I'm again
I'm not saying that there's been a lack of female mcs,
but there's definitely been a kind of the facet has
been slow for the powers that be that will let
them have a platform. But how did you But I
remember that really making an impression on me, like got it?

(45:14):
I liked it? I like the song, like I would
spend that version in the club, that remix instead of
the regular version. How did you like? Was that your
your first time on WAX at that.

Speaker 5 (45:27):
Point, no, no, no, no no, I had. I had
already had my own singles. Listen the first their single
that was ever put together. I was in a group
and we were called Don't Last Okay, all right? I
was in a group and we were called just bad Productions,

(45:48):
you know because like Bookie da Production.

Speaker 1 (45:50):
Like, oh wow, y'all was JBP okay a little bit
of a sting. I see where he was going for Amonia,
I'm a which So we were.

Speaker 5 (46:05):
It was four of us. I was the only girl.
It was me, DJ MC, Jo MC mellow and Sparky.
Sparky was the beat guy. He programmed all that beats.
Mellow was another MC and DJ Pogo. They were three
really like known DJs from the UK.

Speaker 1 (46:26):
So you're saying that being in JPP wait j B
JBBB bad Productions JBP we bad productions, all right? So
Oh my god, what.

Speaker 5 (46:46):
We put a record out? We put a record out
and it was under Tim Westwards label.

Speaker 1 (46:49):
Oh wow, wow were freshter week? How old were you?
How old were you that time?

Speaker 5 (46:56):
Oh? Fifteen?

Speaker 1 (46:58):
Just okay. I've heard so many stories. I've heard so
many stories about Tim Westwood. What does he represent to
hip hop culture for the UK? I've heard the best
things about him and I heard the worst things about him.

(47:20):
The first person I heard to get shot I was.
I was there the night that he got shot in
the ass. Boy, I used to live in London. We
were shocked. We were what was the name of that
that junglest crew?

Speaker 6 (47:34):
What so solid, so so solid, so solid crew, so
solid crew.

Speaker 1 (47:39):
Yeah, we we we had did a gig all I remember, No, no, no,
we didn't do a gig. Tribe had come over to
the UK. This is right when min Maratists came out.
Whatever happened? Uh When we got home, we found out
the next night that that Westwood had gotten shot in
the ass by one of the sole Solid people or

(48:00):
one of those Jungleist crews. And it was at that point,
you know, up until that point, I thought he was
like an untouchable luminary because you know, he's on the
intro of public enemies, nation of millions. But it wasn't
until you know, when we got news of this happening.

(48:20):
Then I'd started hearing like some of the shadier things
or whatever. But what what was Tim Westwood's role in
hip hop? And you know, again, I always think that forever,
whoever the poster boy is of the movement, there's always
some unspoken hero that really did the work or whatnot.
So I never know who to believe, Like is he

(48:42):
a hero? Is he a villain?

Speaker 5 (48:43):
Is he let me say, all right, let me tell
you how realist is gonna get with me? Right? Okay,
talking about Tim Westwood. I don't care for Tim Westwood, Okay,
I have I have no inhibitions of saying that, knowing
that he's going to see this. You know, I don't.
I don't care for you. You noticed him, however, he
was everything to hip hop and provided us a place

(49:07):
and a space to be able to listen to the
music of the be, able to battle each other from
all the different corners of London. He was the only
person that got us a venue. And you was about
as big lean to the side. Yeah, it was about
as big as that, right, The venue was about as

(49:30):
big as that with the Michael Jackson, Billie Jean dance
floor right with the you know, absolutely right, and it
was only for two hours on a Saturday, so it
was a lunch time jam. So he didn't he didn't
even get a space, a big space for a long time.
He started off tiny with a amount of time that

(49:53):
he's still a space and a place where we could come.
We could listen to hip hop music and we could
battle each other, right, and we could expel us within
the culture. He did that and then from there what
he further did was got himself a small pocket of
time on BBC Radio. It wasn't BBC back then, it

(50:14):
was the other one. I can't bloody remember the Capital.
He got a radio show on Capital Radio where it
was a very short show, but it was the only
one that existed that played hip hop music. He is
the can't do it. He is the reason why there
were groups that were able to come over and do shows,

(50:34):
because without us being able to hear the music, and
without us being able to have somewhat of a scene
in England, there's no reason for us to want to
go out there to see any of your artists performed,
because we would not have been familiar with them if
it wasn't for Tim Westwood. He was the can't do
it for hip hop. He was one of the main
can't do it for hip hop culture. So this and

(50:55):
when I said to you in the beginning of me
even talking about you know, this is how real I'm
going to get it. If you hate me, give you
an speaking about somebody where I say to you, I
don't really care for them too much, but yet and
still I follow that by by telling you how important
this was to the culture as far as its progression

(51:16):
in Okay, you know what I'm telling you. You know
what I'm telling you is real.

Speaker 1 (51:21):
Oh yeah, I mean I can see that. Like Suge
Knight is a villain, but I won't deny the power
of death Row. Nobody's really good. Nobody wants to get
on this platform with me.

Speaker 6 (51:38):
No, no, no Sugar for real. I mean the thing
with Sugar, I mean he even said it. The things
that he was doing back then, like you know, signing
artists to like, okay, we get a piece of.

Speaker 1 (51:49):
Your publishing, your shows, your this.

Speaker 6 (51:52):
You know, at the time, all the labels was like ah,
sugar is ripping y' all off.

Speaker 1 (51:56):
That's bullshit.

Speaker 6 (51:57):
But now they're all doing it now deal, Yeah, they
all is shuging your head. So he was in the
criminal he was just ahead of his time, right, exactly.

Speaker 1 (52:06):
Exactly.

Speaker 5 (52:08):
Comparison, I was going for that.

Speaker 1 (52:14):
Supreme moment. Yeah, we can say, we can say if
you want to, are.

Speaker 7 (52:19):
Based on my cluess loves supreme experience.

Speaker 5 (52:21):
Prince m.

Speaker 6 (52:25):
Pregnant pause, yeahgnant, Prince how give it to its like
break it down?

Speaker 3 (52:30):
No, just because just on the perception of somebody doing
great but at the same time talking to like the
revolution and seeing on an individual level and as a
person he may not have always been like the nicest
and always exactly.

Speaker 7 (52:43):
So I'm just saying that.

Speaker 5 (52:46):
No, no, no, no, that's that's remember when you when you said, uh,
there was some disparaging stories and some people kind of
started coming out saying, oh, well, Tim, what's what did this?
And he did that? Fante would did you just say?
What was the word?

Speaker 3 (53:02):
Okay, okay, so they got something in there.

Speaker 7 (53:05):
You go, he's a dicks.

Speaker 1 (53:07):
There, it's a lot of dicks.

Speaker 7 (53:08):
That's you're doing a lot of great things. We're learning
that's what I want.

Speaker 5 (53:13):
But but what can never be denied is that Timrod
Tim really provided a place in this space. But he
at least a single with just bad Prisons. And the
contract looked like you know how fact paper used to
come out with perforated parts the side. That's what the

(53:33):
contract looked like, right, And that's what the contract looks like.

Speaker 1 (53:37):
Next to paper bag.

Speaker 5 (53:39):
Yeah. Well, I had to take it to my parents
because I was too young myself, and I took it
to my dad and my dad did like this. My
dad just looked at it and went and that I

(54:01):
didn't sign that, and then that was you know, that
was that. But yeah, so I got found by a
legit label, which was Chrysalis, and I got signed to them,
which essentially got I think they got swallowed by EMI later. Yeah, yeah,
but back then they were predominantly a rock label. But

(54:23):
of course everybody was going around looking for the next
best trend. Hip hop was the next best trend. I
got found at a jam that I was participating in
and offered a record deal there, and their contract didn't
come off with fax paper with the perforated edges.

Speaker 1 (54:41):
Wait. Actually, speaking of Westwood shows, I found out Carol
Lewis is still my agent twenty five years later, and
she told, Wow, she told me something really hilarious last year,
which was I didn't know about. So there's there's like
a slew of second generation hip hoppers like rock Him,

(55:07):
like Caine, Kaine not so much anymore, and Carris one
that have a fear of flying, yes, and has never
gotten on a plane.

Speaker 5 (55:24):
I know, Kristen, Kristen. When Chris come over to do shows,
it would be like a month before he gets there.

Speaker 1 (55:32):
Right, so ye. Carol Lewis told me that in May,
if she would book gigs for either Eric being Rock
Him or BDP and at the time Kane, they would
have to get on the Queen Mary for two weeks.
It takes two weeks to get from New York. Damn. See,

(55:55):
I was about to do it inappropriate Chris middle passage joke. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
it was hard for rappers so to get over there.
So like, how how often? At what point was seeing
American artists in the UK a normal thing and not

(56:20):
just a novelty?

Speaker 5 (56:21):
Oh no, it became a normal thing put quickly, God
bless him. I don't I don't know if you ever
had an to meet this guy. But Dave Funking Clin,
Dave Klin, Yeah, Dave Funking Clin, he was the main ambassador.
Shows would be booked and he would bring artis over.
He was the main ambassador US ambassador to bring. He

(56:45):
bought over. I met my first American boyfriend through Dave
Funking Clin. He bought over Latif for True Mathematics, Chill,
Rob g and the for a Strigger shows in Camden Town.

Speaker 1 (57:03):
I'm gone to the Jungle Brothers.

Speaker 5 (57:05):
I went to the show and I met the Junger
Brothers at ding Wolves, which was a club in Camden Town.
Over by day Funk and Klimb and one of the
Jungle Brothers, and I started dat Internet was Africa from
the Jungle Brothers.

Speaker 1 (57:20):
Okay, all right, so I'm gonna do my first conflict
of Ventures comment right now. Okay, now this is my
first Conflict.

Speaker 5 (57:30):
Adventures conflict of interest comment.

Speaker 1 (57:32):
Well, no, because Gracie told me something. Now here's the
thing I forgot the yeah. Yeah, So the Jungle Brothers, like,
you know, it was like everything to me and Tarik
the second we saw them. Trek was like yo, everything
we were going into to Banana Republic. We dressed it

(57:53):
in all khakis and da da da da da, walking
around with sticks and staffs and all that stuff. So
we were like even before the zation all that shit,
like we were Jungle Brothers heads first. So I was
explaining to her that, you know, everything about Africa was
so cool to us, like his ad lips and everything,

(58:13):
and in our minds we thought that he was just
like he just sounded like a really cool forty year
old and Gracie was like he was the op. He
was like a mama's boy, like he had to like
get She's gonna kill me for saying this that you
know that Like in my mind, I'm thinking like when

(58:34):
Africa talks like he has a pipe or you know,
smoking tobacco and like doing old grandpop shit, and She's like, no,
like he had to get permission from his mom to
come out and stay out late and all these things.
And I just, in my that just totally ruined my
perception because I can't imagine this this cool ass sounding

(58:56):
dude like asking his mom permission to hang out on
the weekends.

Speaker 5 (59:00):
Oh yeah, yeah, that's right, right.

Speaker 1 (59:02):
So basically they're there, you're plug into what would become
the connection.

Speaker 5 (59:07):
Yeah yeah, yeah, because what happened was personally, Africa and
I started dating, and then professionally Africa was responsible for
recording half of my album. Oh yeah. And then that
is how I met where A deliberates his beats from

(59:30):
and has uh you know, brainstorming sessions with where he
gets his beats from. So that meant Juju from their.

Speaker 1 (59:38):
Beat from the beat Nuts.

Speaker 5 (59:40):
Yeah, so that's how I met Juju. And then obviously
that's how I met cut Tip also and Pass and
and uh May. That's how all of that transpired.

Speaker 1 (59:53):
Okay, because I didn't hear that. You know, the beat
Nuts are official or unofficial native tongues, but I know
they did pretduction on your record. So basically absolutely was
that the first time they did production.

Speaker 5 (01:00:05):
No, they are, they were beaten. Us were like the sauce,
the creative beat sauce for Africa and and uh q
Tip and this was all early.

Speaker 1 (01:00:19):
I would have ill records. You should use this, you
should use this. We're not necessarily credited, but I get
it now. Okay, I see.

Speaker 5 (01:00:29):
You're right saying you do. You're right in saying, oh
my god, yeah, you do have to do a beating
up because, oh my god, I cried my eyes out
one time when Juju came and he didn't have my address.
So when they when you get there and they ask you,
what are you here for business? And he was here
he said pleasure and they're like, where are you stay?
And he's like, I don't know because he didn't have
my address. Oh my god, and they searched him. Oh

(01:00:52):
my god, and he called me and I was crying,
Oh my god, it was horrible.

Speaker 1 (01:00:56):
And I was did they send him home? No?

Speaker 5 (01:01:00):
They luckily they didn't send him home, but he had to.
They strip searched him. Oh my god, it was I.

Speaker 1 (01:01:05):
Was going to say that London, I've never Canada might
be slightly I say, yeah, Canada, Yeah, Canada. Yeah, Canada's
lacked up. I don't know if Canada has lacked up
or is this the fact that people my age now
are the authority figures? Right, So whoever's thirty and forty

(01:01:26):
and fifty are now like, hey, quest love you guys
do want to show here, which wasn't happening back then
for ten years of my career.

Speaker 5 (01:01:33):
Yeah, that was awful. I'm not going to give you
the whole thing. Please when you speak to Juju, just
ask him. And to this day, I think maybe four
days four days ago, I apologize to him again for
the fifty millionth time on Instagram on one of my fiends.
In some comments, I was like, oh my god, I'm
so sorry.

Speaker 1 (01:01:49):
Anal probe and rappers in the UK. Oh there's I mean,
most rapped about it, most wrapped about it on his record.
The shit happened to me. I know at least five
others like yeah, yeah, I was, no doubt, no doubt upset.

Speaker 5 (01:02:07):
Talk to Juju about that when you talk to him.
But yeah, that's it.

Speaker 3 (01:02:10):
Everybody deserves twenty four hours of preparation before something.

Speaker 5 (01:02:12):
Oh my preparation is the wrong word to use. Oh
my god.

Speaker 1 (01:02:20):
A classic Richard Nichols movement. Rich Rich told us the
way that we remedy that seriously, we would go to
the UK. Rich would just be like, don't don't wash
your nuts or your ass for three days straight and
they'll skip it. And sure enough, no, I'm dead serious,
Like we would go on a Friday, I might not shower,

(01:02:44):
you know, wear the same underwear or whatever. Nobody I'm
serious like they would they would be. It was that's
just very.

Speaker 7 (01:02:50):
Jack is an interesting sacrifice.

Speaker 4 (01:02:53):
This is a fascinating episode of Quesse. I'm dead serious
ship that I've learned today.

Speaker 1 (01:03:00):
As racists, as racist as they are, they do not
want to touch your black salty nuts. They don't want
to search that bad. Hey.

Speaker 4 (01:03:10):
I never heard a better SoundBite by life than what
I just heard in my ears.

Speaker 1 (01:03:15):
Wait a minute, wait a minute, this is bad all right?
So my iPhone is right next to me. Oh, he
literally sirie google salty nuts. As racist as they are,
they don't want to touch your black salty nuts.

Speaker 5 (01:03:30):
My god.

Speaker 1 (01:03:31):
And I'm turning the phone off. T shirts. Yeah, I'm
turning my phone off, all right? So why am I.

Speaker 5 (01:03:37):
Thinking about South Park right now? Never mind?

Speaker 1 (01:03:39):
Go ahead, chock the salty balls. You know that song
was number one in the UK because when he passed away,
When he passed away, and I think it was either
his New York Times obituary or whatever, like they were

(01:04:00):
like and Hayes was enjoying a comeback of sorts. His
his hit shot with salty was the top ten, was
the top ten. I don't think he wants that as
his legacy. Yeah, it was a little crazy, all right.

(01:04:24):
Can I ask, is I know what you're going to say,
so you might as well just pop the balloon and
deflate it. Are our third generational, our third generational people
like me and Fonte and Bill. Whatever are we making
and romanticizing the myth of native tongues more than what

(01:04:47):
it was?

Speaker 3 (01:04:49):
Now?

Speaker 7 (01:04:50):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:04:52):
I mean at its height? What was the environment like
between nineteen eighty seven to eighty nine?

Speaker 5 (01:05:07):
It was a commune filled with creative waterfalls.

Speaker 7 (01:05:12):
That's a lot of sex. Well, a commune and waterfalls.
You gotta put them.

Speaker 5 (01:05:21):
I said created but I said creative waterfall? You did?
You did?

Speaker 1 (01:05:25):
But I was just reading between the lyrics. I wasn't
going there.

Speaker 5 (01:05:30):
I mean, I mean, I mean there was there were
there were inter relationships, yes, okay, there were, there were
definitely those, But it was just like it was like
it was like my kids made. My youngest thought made.
She has me watching Mixed Dish with her every time
they clicked back to the old scenes of when they

(01:05:51):
were on the commune or what have you, right right,
the commune. Okay, it was like that. It was like that,
So it wasn't fake. It's it's like the romanticizing that
you envision it was real. It was a real thing.
It really was real.

Speaker 1 (01:06:08):
I'm glad I asked you because you know, Dave and
Pass will like roll their eyes like here it comes
again with more. So, guys, what was it like when
you guys discovered this breakfeat whatever?

Speaker 5 (01:06:20):
So David past first of all, because when we were
in it, David Post were rolling the rise.

Speaker 1 (01:06:32):
Wow, you know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (01:06:34):
When we were in it, David Post was rolling the rise.
Because that's just that's just who they are, you know
what I'm saying. The beats here right, and David pasta.

Speaker 1 (01:06:42):
Like doing the opposite, you know, and that's.

Speaker 5 (01:06:48):
Just who they are. That's just that's just who they are,
you know what I'm saying. It was just so freaking
like nothing was a problem, Like if everything was just
so cool. I remember one night, Masio was one of
the last people to leave them. Like because first of all,
when I say commune, I really meet commune. And the
place of the Commune's existence main office was Calliope Studios

(01:07:09):
in Manhattan. Ah okay, everybody's sessions was in Colliopees. It
doesn't matter if it was cute, if it was tribe,
if it was Dayla, if it was jungle. If it
was me, if it was Latifa, it didn't you know,
if it was black sheet dress and law, it doesn't matter.
It was always Calliope Studios. We were always in Calliope Studios.

(01:07:31):
Calliope Studios was the everything. It doesn't matter whose session
it was, we were always there. And it was always
egg flu young Why I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:07:42):
Because very convenient.

Speaker 5 (01:07:46):
Oh it was th like, oh it was never it
was always needs food.

Speaker 1 (01:07:54):
All right, So obviously you guys are post Latin order,
or at least what you represent. And here's the thing,
like everyone that's been on the reason why they were
joking at the top, I want to know what that's
the thing again, I'm I'm a guy that romanticizes and
fetishizes everything, the lore of whatever. So you know, I've

(01:08:19):
heard many stories about the Latin Quarter. So you know,
half our guests that have been on the show are
you know, Latin Quarter luminaries. And so it almost became
like the inside joke, like how long until a mere assay?
But the thing I also didn't understand was that, like,
why would somebody really want to risk their lives the

(01:08:44):
way that I see it, Like you go to the
Latin Quarter and you're either going to have the time
of your life and here's something really mind blowing, or
you know, you might get your chain snatched or you
might get stab shot, killed, or hurt. And to me,
that wasn't risky enough just to hear, you know, ELL's

(01:09:05):
booming system for the first time played by Red Alert
or whatever.

Speaker 5 (01:09:08):
Yeah, but maybe maybe maybe it's because you're generation why
you feel that way, because yeah, that was real, and
that was it, and that was a risk that we
were prepared to take.

Speaker 1 (01:09:19):
That was the only place you could get it exactly.
So what was by the time you came to the
United States, and please explain that missing that playing back
to London reference?

Speaker 5 (01:09:33):
Well, okay, missing the plane back to London reference. First
of all, everybody was in the studio still I left.
I was supposed to go back to for a few days.
And the specific occasion I was supposed to go back
to London for is Stevie Wonder's birthday party at Wembley Arena.
Boy George not boy George George. Michael and I were
supposed to seeing Happy Birthday to him.

Speaker 1 (01:09:55):
Yeah, wow, wow, Well, assuming there was nineteen.

Speaker 5 (01:09:59):
Ninety I missed, Yeah, it was I missed the plane.

Speaker 1 (01:10:03):
Whoa and wait wait you were damn for real?

Speaker 5 (01:10:08):
Yeah, And so I got back in a cab and
I went back to Calliope and I went back session
and they were doing doingthing and uh Africa and them
was like, all right, you got you got eight, go
do it. And that's exactly what I did.

Speaker 1 (01:10:26):
Wow. I never knew that reference.

Speaker 5 (01:10:30):
Okay, yeah, but I felt like I felt like shit,
like I didn't. It was an achievement to go in
and kick some rhymes. But those rhymes were real rhymes
because I really I was like, I'm going to get
in some people. Oh my god, like because I really
did just miss the plane and I'm supposed to be
at Wembley Arena in London for Stevie Wonder's Happy Birthday celebration.

Speaker 1 (01:10:52):
I mean, do you still regret it?

Speaker 5 (01:10:55):
I do regret it because I was I don't like
not being where I'm supposed to be, and it was
like giants, I was supposed to be on stage.

Speaker 1 (01:11:04):
Yeah, but you gotta you have you have an immortalized verse.

Speaker 5 (01:11:09):
So I do have an immortalized verse, but it's for me.
It serves the purpose of reminding me that I fucked up.

Speaker 1 (01:11:17):
I understand, I understand. We go bro.

Speaker 5 (01:11:22):
Well, yeah, because it wasn't a real reason. It wasn't
a real it wasn't a real reason for me to
be late. It was some some vain ship. I left
this particular top that I wanted to wear, and I
made the bloody driver go back to the house so
I could get it.

Speaker 1 (01:11:38):
For good fellas, I don't fly it out my hat.
I don't fly it right, You're lucky. So what was
the now? The one thing I don't know is post
Latin Quarter? What was now? The night Life eighty nine,
ninety ninety one, Like, what's where do you? What's your

(01:12:02):
weekly schedule in terms of like we hang at this
club at this night and the Night and.

Speaker 5 (01:12:06):
The World on Little thirty Street in the meat Market
section of Manhattan, on the west side Little thirty Street. Yeah,
the World. The World was a club that Paradise run
the door to Paradise Okay, yeah really, And it had

(01:12:30):
five floors and on the roof it was it was
a floor, but it was open obviously because it was
a roof, and they used to do barbecue up there.
So there's a house floor, there's the hip hop, the
reggae floor, there's a cool out floor and then there's
a barbecue on the roof.

Speaker 1 (01:12:46):
Okay, wait, I do have a question again, your your
your speaking voice, in your rhyming voice or night and
day like at that period in your teens, were you
code switching a little bit in.

Speaker 5 (01:13:04):
Terms of unintentionally yes. And the reason here's where the
code switching happened. It didn't happen because of music. It
happens because I was going to school at George Wingate
High School in Brooklyn, which was metal Detectors and like
Brooklyn's version of Joe Clark. And it was just I
didn't want the attention that I was getting. I had

(01:13:25):
a Tony Braxton haircut before Tony Braxton, Okay, when I
was going to school in Brooklyn. It was like eighty six, right,
and I cut all my hair off. It was super
super short, but it was it wasn't just cut. It
was cut into a style for a sixteen fifteen, sixteen
year old girl to have her hair or cut off

(01:13:46):
in a sleep out like that done yet in Brooklyn.
I'm from England. I've got this crazy haircut. My style
of dress is different, and I'm getting viewed and called exotic.
I don't like that term.

Speaker 1 (01:14:02):
I don't so when people will walk up to you, like,
just say something exactly, So, how did you what is
your what is your Americanized New York?

Speaker 5 (01:14:13):
I studied, however spoke? I studied how everybody spoke?

Speaker 1 (01:14:17):
So how did you speak? Can you switch it? Right now?

Speaker 7 (01:14:18):
She goes in and out anyway?

Speaker 5 (01:14:20):
I do. I do come in and out anyway. We say,
like to have me say something or say something to
me that's gonna demand and answer and then I'll still
do it.

Speaker 1 (01:14:30):
What what did you have for breakfast?

Speaker 5 (01:14:31):
In then?

Speaker 1 (01:14:32):
What did you say?

Speaker 5 (01:14:34):
Wait a minute, Wait a minute, wait wait, wait, wait
a minute. First of all, okay, wait first, first of all,
I don't even understand what you're saying.

Speaker 1 (01:14:44):
What you want your chop cheese?

Speaker 5 (01:14:46):
I don't eat know chop cheese. That's the Philly ship.

Speaker 1 (01:14:48):
No, it's not, that's New York.

Speaker 7 (01:14:51):
I don't even know.

Speaker 4 (01:14:52):
That's pretty good chop cheese is a New York Philly
cheese steak.

Speaker 1 (01:14:57):
Never heard of that ship, neither Cameron made it famous.
You know, it's it's basically taking hamburger. It's making a hamburger,
but then chopping up the Hamburger and putting on a
hero role.

Speaker 5 (01:15:10):
That must be specifically some Harlem shit because it's.

Speaker 1 (01:15:15):
Chop Cheese got its fame around ninety seven, ninety eight. Yeah,
on one hundred there's a spoint one hundred and tenth Street.
It's at one point it was getting out of hand
because like a lot of tourists were coming up there,
like risking their lives in front of the projects to
get the authentic Yes, the authentic chop cheese.

Speaker 5 (01:15:35):
It's a cheeseburger, a cheeseburger, cheese berger.

Speaker 1 (01:15:39):
I mean, you're you're dismissing it, making it sound like that,
but it's okay.

Speaker 9 (01:15:42):
But for we never said we never said here I am,
and this is it and this is what this is
what it sounds like. And I used to go on
Emphire and get either a blimpy sandwich or the Wendy.

Speaker 1 (01:15:59):
Is this fucking person?

Speaker 5 (01:16:02):
Person?

Speaker 1 (01:16:05):
Do you ever want your kids with that voice?

Speaker 4 (01:16:07):
Because that's like the next level ship when when yeah, yeah,
angry McFee.

Speaker 5 (01:16:16):
Yeah, angry McPhee is right, it's straight brit I can't
even when I'm talking to them and it gets there.
But yeah, that's what that's that's the switching. And that's
the studying that I did. I study how everybody else
spoke like, you won't come, you won't come, get something
to eat, You gon eat the school lunch. Now I
don't want the school lunch. I'll come with you. Where
we go in we go to white Where we go
with the White Castle.

Speaker 1 (01:16:36):
Oh all right, mooney, you know this question is coming, alright.

Speaker 5 (01:16:45):
Go ahead, you know it's coming, Okay, like it is
a part of this too. I'm just I'm gonna just
go ahead.

Speaker 1 (01:16:50):
No, no, no, we ain't even talking about Jesus. Okay, nah, okay,
Oh wait, actually have to build up to it because
we're still needed tongues. Fuck it, I'm going right to it.
No built up, Yeah, no, built up.

Speaker 7 (01:17:07):
Let's see, we'll.

Speaker 1 (01:17:10):
Can you Well. I don't want you to tell the
Big Daddy King story. However, I would like you to
tell me what hip hop touring was like during that
time period because and the reason why I really want
to know is because I didn't realize that my group

(01:17:31):
sort of set a precedent that I didn't realize wasn't
the norm. Now. You know, you talked about you talked
about jay Z's penchant. Uh, for the finer things whatever.
But Tarik is very much the same way in you know,
in his clothes and whatever. So I thought it was

(01:17:54):
just we thought, or at least I thought it was
some normal ship to be staying at a four seasons hotel,
hell and these deluxe tour buses and all this shit.
But I didn't realize that was basically Turk demanding the rich, like, yo,
I want to travel and comfort if I got to
be on the road.

Speaker 5 (01:18:11):
Three Wait a minute, right, So by the time I
met you guys, that's what the fuck you guys are.

Speaker 1 (01:18:23):
Yeah, and but wait, here's the deal. Here's the deal.
It took care to tell me. No, mere See, the
problem is, you guys get hotels every night. Everyone gets
their own suite every night, one to a room. You
guys spend money. She got story, thousands of dollars. I
didn't realize that the way that bands really do it
is that if there's a show that night, they all

(01:18:44):
shower at the venue, they sleep on the tour bus,
and only on days off they might get a day
room at a holiday inn or Sheridan. I mean, there
was a disapperiod where it's like, yo, man, where's.

Speaker 5 (01:18:57):
Our money break down. Okay, there's there's an area. There's
an area in between what you're saying you guys were
doing and what you just described, because I wasn't doing
no showering and there's no day room ship with no
I wasn't no no, no, no, no no, I wasn't.
I wasn't. There's I am very much a British girl, okay,

(01:19:20):
and I will that.

Speaker 7 (01:19:22):
With a crest on your pocket. Would a crest on
your pocket exactly?

Speaker 5 (01:19:26):
But what it was it was when I say middle
of the road in between what you describe both things
that you described is, yes, we did. We would ride
the toil there's during the night, so we would be
in out since we would pull up not at a hotel.
We would pull up firstly at the venue. By the
time we pull up to a venue, the sound guys

(01:19:47):
and stage guys they'd all be in there. Ship would
have already been put up. We get in there, we
do sound check first, then we get back in a
bus and roll over to wherever the hotel is. Now
the hotels would be your modern day. What they've turned
them into is all these nice, these nice holiday in
the type ones that have like the many apartments in

(01:20:09):
the kitchen businesses. Yeah, that's today, that's what they are
back then, good times. Bathroom very basic, two beds, two beds,
full beds or twin beds. Bathroom very basic, right, And

(01:20:33):
you know, now when I look at it, I'm like,
oh I would not. But back then, man, when you
when you're drunken, you want to lay down, oh my god,
it's like yes please. Yeah, So that's what it was.
They weren't. They were probably like two stars, three stars,

(01:20:54):
two stars, so.

Speaker 1 (01:20:55):
Slightly above a Super eight. Who would be on tour
around these times?

Speaker 5 (01:20:59):
Okay, best tour that I was ever on. Give you
an example of who would be on these types of tours.
And the interesting thing about the tours was they were
also interchangeable what territories you go to. So, for instance,
the tour was the Big Daddy Kane Tour, right, Big
Daddy Kane, Headlines, Digital Underground, Queen Latifa, and Third Base.

(01:21:24):
Those are the base groups Big Daddy Kane, Digital Underground,
Third Base, Queen Latifa. At that time, I was a
part of Queen Latita's camp because she Ladies First was
apart very much a part of her show, and so
I was on that entire tour. So those are the
base groups always, right, So that's the base of your sandwich.

(01:21:45):
Put it that way. But depending on what territories you
go to, they would add this that would be EPM D.
Or they would add some tomatoes which would be uh
too sure, you know what I'm saying. So that's what
I'm saying. It was like, and I'm using the sandwich

(01:22:07):
analogy because it's like, depending on where you go, different
ingredients are added to the show.

Speaker 7 (01:22:14):
But still a hamburger.

Speaker 5 (01:22:15):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So they were and they were fun
and it was interesting because I learned how to do
the humpty hump while I was on that tour, and
this time he taught me how to do humpty hump.

Speaker 1 (01:22:32):
What was his job in Digital Underground during that period.

Speaker 5 (01:22:36):
He was a roadie and a dancer. Wow okay, Yeah,
And he figured that me and him were the same
because he was a part of Digital Underground crew and
I was a part of Latifa's crew, so he kind
of figured we were the same. I tried to assure
him that I had a much more president position than

(01:22:56):
because I was actually rhyming on a song her say,
oh you.

Speaker 1 (01:23:02):
And me are kind of the same, right, Nah, yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:23:05):
He was, he was. Yeah, he was trying to do that.
We know we're the same. And I was trying to
tell him, no, one of these kids is doing his
own thing, like you sets me street mofo go away.
You had so you hadn't heard him rhyme at all
before I did, because he made sure too. He walked
around with a he walked around with a book of
He never let that finger, he never let that thing goer.

(01:23:27):
He walked around with that he was pestering. I joined
the tour maybe two shows in because I went to
Canada to see my mother first, because my mother lives
in Toronto, so I went there first, and then I
picked up the tour from Toronto. While I was still
at my mother's house, this guy makes Kika and Allison,
who were Latifa's two dancers, get on their phone to

(01:23:48):
call me up to ask me when are you coming?
You supposed to They're like, cause you please get her
already because this Tupac guy is getting on our nerves.
He wants to meet you. He's really annoying, and so
where are you coming? And I'm like, who is this
weirdo that you guys are too, and I'm hearing him
in the background like why is she coming. I'm like,

(01:24:08):
don't put him on the phone with me. I don't
know him, Like who is this weirdo anyway? And They're
like he's part of digital Underground. I'm like, okay, well, guys,
when I get there in two days time, but no,
I don't want nobody I don't know, but like by
and so when I get there, he's all like a
kid in a candy store to meet me. And what

(01:24:29):
it was was I have never met a bigger sand
of hip hop period than that man. Like Wow, Tupac
is the most enthusiastic, biggest sand of everything authentic in

(01:24:49):
this culture. So that's where all the excitement was coming from,
you know, back then. But you know, I'm the British girl.
I'm a little bit reserved and I'm kind of like, okay,
like you're you sit down, You're just too much. We
ended up being really good friends. It's funny because misconception
on somebod on an interview that I did while back,

(01:25:12):
where I said, yeah, we slept together, And it's funny
because it's like the misconception was uh slept together being
taken for more than a way exactly, because yeah, we did.
We did sleep together because Alison and I, uh one
of last season zisters and I we shared a room
and Parc shared a room with Shock G. But if

(01:25:36):
shot G had.

Speaker 3 (01:25:39):
A right, had more than Park because who was Park
at the time.

Speaker 5 (01:25:43):
Exactly, And if that happened, Pop would come to our
room and he would sleep Me and him would sleep
in the same bed. And that's what that was when
we saying, you know, we said because we were like
the three Stooges, you know, three of us were always together.
And as a matter of fact, we even had packed
that in those hotels at the time, those two three

(01:26:03):
star joints whatever, they would have the buffet breakfast every morning,
but it happens exactly at six o'clock. A wee get
on there soon after six o'clock to leave to go
to the next town. If you weren't downstairs up ready,
bright eyed, bushytailed, then in that room for six o'clock
when that breakfast spread is put out, you're gonna miss it.
And all of those places used to have the pancake special.

(01:26:26):
We had a packed that we would always wake each
other up to make sure that we don't miss the
pancake special, right, I forgot to wake pack up one morning.
He missed the pancake special, and he stopped speaking to
me for two weeks of the tour. He was very
petty pancake. He stopped speaking to me.

Speaker 1 (01:26:48):
Yeah, that's justifiable. Yeah, let's just he stopped.

Speaker 5 (01:26:53):
He stopped speaking to me. He he also hid the
tabasco that I used to walk around with to put
on my corn beef. How she hid it?

Speaker 1 (01:27:02):
Your own personal tabasco collection memory? Yes, I see. Okay, okay,
the moany in the middle story. Can we can we.

Speaker 6 (01:27:13):
Get clarification because what what is the big Daddy Kane
story that you mentioned?

Speaker 1 (01:27:18):
This is the money in.

Speaker 6 (01:27:19):
The middle story and the moaning middle story of.

Speaker 7 (01:27:23):
The build up. This is the build up that he
was talking.

Speaker 1 (01:27:25):
About, Like in my mind based on the video. You know,
I thought the past point Dexter character was just some
Steve Erkle dweeb. And I didn't know that it was
a taste of chocolate. So okay, but I do know
what even though stories, even though I know this story,

(01:27:49):
and I know that you know a lot of my
generation male rappers have fragile, a fragile egos when it
comes to get rejected. I have to give him a
little bit of points for coming up with the most passive,
aggressive way to figure out if you were into him
or not.

Speaker 5 (01:28:09):
And that's what I give him props for. To listen,
from beginning, from beginning to end, you must understand that
Big Daddy Kane is absolutely the number one student of Dolomite. Okay,
he is the number one student of Dolomite. Big Daddy

(01:28:31):
Kane does not play himself. I need you to understand this.
Big Daddy Kane does not put him put himself in
a position where he can be viewed as playing himself.
It just does not happen.

Speaker 7 (01:28:43):
That's why they love you.

Speaker 1 (01:28:44):
Okay, So talk about the system.

Speaker 5 (01:28:47):
The system. This is the McDonald's system that Big Daddy
Kane came up with, Okay, in order to understand whether
I liked him in that way or not. Okay, is
this real life?

Speaker 7 (01:29:01):
You're saying? Real life?

Speaker 1 (01:29:02):
Y'all? Yes, we're officially hearing the Money in the Middle story.

Speaker 5 (01:29:07):
This is the story that inspired Middle.

Speaker 1 (01:29:09):
But there's some crazy ship.

Speaker 5 (01:29:12):
I've told you this you okay, all right, So we're
we're in d C. I can't remember the name of
the hotel. But there's this one specific hotel that everybody
whenever you go to d C, it was, that's the one.

Speaker 1 (01:29:30):
I only know this because old Daddy Bastard once crashed
the car into one.

Speaker 5 (01:29:36):
Of the because I remember, Yes, that's the same, Yes,
it's the same hotel. Do you know?

Speaker 1 (01:29:43):
All right, Fronte, you got to know this days in
when when you're going to d C. Well you too,
you know that days in check.

Speaker 7 (01:29:53):
It's a whole strip of hotels everybody using.

Speaker 1 (01:29:55):
Yes, but every rapper stays when they first start. Now
in that days in all right lutely.

Speaker 5 (01:30:00):
So I attracted I don't know, the ladies first, and
the whole nine yards and the vibe that it gives
us a lot of women, a lot of girls on
the sister Girl girls, sister power. You know. I attracted
a lot of girls. And all the girl and all
the girls had cars. All the girls had cars. So

(01:30:23):
the guys that were all in whose room were they in?
They were in Cane's room. Latifa was in there too.
They were playing steel and they were stealing everybody's per
diem money. Damn yeah, And so everybody get hungry. I
was with I was actually dating. No, I wasn't dating
him yet, but I liked him. Uh, scrap lover one

(01:30:51):
of one of the big day Knees dances. Okay, but
he didn't know it yet. I didn't say anything. I
just peeped him. I thought he was cute whatever. So anyway,
they come to me, Scuba Scrap come to me and
they're like, oh, everybody in the room wants to see
if they could get something to eat. Do you think
one of your girlfriends would A couple of them would
drive us over to the McDonald's. There was a McDonald's
close by, so I was like, I'll ask, and I

(01:31:12):
asked a couple of the girls. They're like, yeah, money
will do anything for you. We'll drive over to the
Who do you need us to take? So three cars
when we had three cars for three different girls going
over to the McDonald So scuper Scrap was getting everybody's orders.
So we get to the McDonald's, we're standing online and

(01:31:32):
then Scrap Bother turns to me and says, all right,
this is how this is gonna go. Cain wants to
know if you like him. It's what's gonna happen If
you do, you walk in. You hold his food when

(01:31:54):
we get back, and you hand it to him, and
that way he'll know, yes, you do like him. If not,
then I'll just give him his food regular just myself.

Speaker 1 (01:32:06):
Place it on the night stand or on the far
table right.

Speaker 5 (01:32:10):
So then so then to Scrap, well, it looks like
you're going to be giving him his food. And he
was like why, and I was like, because I like you.

Speaker 1 (01:32:23):
So just just so we know, this is this is
this is the Black Serrano diversi act stories of which
Kane ask Sereno diversi act is telling his boy give
her instructions on how let her know if it's on
or not. Yeah, it's like fist grade. I love it.

(01:32:46):
It's like it's like scrap and Scrap says he Scrap says.
It looked like I'm gonna be giving him back tonight. Wait,
what was Scrap throwing off? Did he know that you
dug him?

Speaker 5 (01:32:58):
He didn't?

Speaker 7 (01:33:00):
Did he give him the bad he gave?

Speaker 5 (01:33:02):
He gave Kanu's food and then and then you know,
he gave Kanu's food and then came you know, Caine
didn't make no face or nothing like that. It just
was what it was.

Speaker 1 (01:33:13):
That that to me, is that yeah, that that's the
next level of yes no, or maybe.

Speaker 5 (01:33:19):
It is like the little note that you send.

Speaker 1 (01:33:22):
But it was a quarter founder or not? Wow, what
inspired you to make a song about it?

Speaker 5 (01:33:31):
Don't no, I have no idea why. I it started
talking to me when I started hearing the beat, because
of course Monium Noddle was produced by the Faiyan Cannibals
by Andy Cocks and David Steele. And when I heard
it was the runaway breakbeat. Correct, Yeah, So when I'm
listening to it, it just started talking to me, and
I just started replaying that whole DC night in my head,

(01:33:56):
and I was like, I was in the middle. I
was in the middle.

Speaker 1 (01:33:59):
I was definitely in the Actually wait, wait, I gotta
correct myself. And only only because Sheila Sheila E corrected
me on this is that we call that. We call
that drum track the runaway break, But we only found
out that because of the way that they rhythmically segued

(01:34:23):
that album Runaways technically the last thing said on the
song before. But because it's in rhythm, every DJ that
spends that break thinks that it is the top of
the break, when actually it's just ending the song before it,
and then the breakbeat starts and it's if I could

(01:34:43):
start my life over things you learn? Right? Yeah? No, no, no.
For the longest told me, well no, like every every
producer is like saying it wrong because it's the song
before and then if I had to start my life
over is actually the name of the you know is

(01:35:04):
wow break so so so you went so to be clear,
so you went scrap ended up dating later? Did y'all
got with dating? And you kane never dating? Okay? Gotcha?

Speaker 7 (01:35:16):
And mo was your birth control?

Speaker 3 (01:35:18):
Because it's funny because I would have never known how
hard money in the Middle actually is to perform until
I actually did it one day for your birthday. But
your breath control is kind of crazy. Was it always
like that?

Speaker 5 (01:35:31):
Or did? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:35:32):
Really?

Speaker 5 (01:35:33):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:35:34):
It sounds like control.

Speaker 4 (01:35:39):
To make sure I was one, I was like, this
is I know.

Speaker 5 (01:35:43):
Her birth control?

Speaker 7 (01:35:44):
Her birth control wasn't crazy?

Speaker 5 (01:35:45):
I know. No, my birth introl sucks?

Speaker 7 (01:35:47):
Yeah yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:35:49):
Time out Yeah all right. Wait, we should also clarify
that the lyrical the lyrical complexity of that song, which
I believe you're talking about the hook is two people.
And this is also a good time to bring Lashawan absolutely,
so wait I always wanted to know because I never

(01:36:11):
got to talk to Lashawan. And of course Lashawan is
the voice of ellll Is doing it absolutely and Shana
of Biddies in the BK Lounge, the woman of a
billion voices and the original doing it well. On what

(01:36:32):
role was she in this native tongue universe because we
first heard her on Biddy's in the b K Lounge
and eventually on Mooney in the Middle, and she went
under the name I'm and Joy was she eventually?

Speaker 5 (01:36:48):
Like?

Speaker 1 (01:36:48):
Who was she the protege of? And how she started
hanging around?

Speaker 5 (01:36:51):
She's an MC in her own right. And I don't
know how she met the Jungle Brothers, but I met
her because I was date in Africa and she was
actually dating Sammy b and she and t have a
son together. Her first child is Sammy Beat okay. And
so I was fresh from England and she wanted people

(01:37:11):
the women that I met when I came here to
this country as Africa's girlfriend, you know, Africa's girlfriend who
has a record deal, who he's producing the rest of
her album. And she's one of the first women that
I met, and she and I became sisters real quick.
She's Brownsville, Brooklyn girl. She don't play.

Speaker 1 (01:37:31):
By that voice. I can tell it.

Speaker 5 (01:37:33):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:37:34):
Were there immediate plans to like get her a deal
or she?

Speaker 5 (01:37:38):
Oh? No, she was. She was an artist in her
own right. She had the deal. She was signed to
Wild Pitch the original doing it right.

Speaker 1 (01:37:45):
But as I'm enjoyed, did she ever get no?

Speaker 5 (01:37:49):
No? No. She was signed as Alma Joy. That's her
artist's name. Her real name is Lashawan. She was signed
for Wild Pitch as Almond Joy doing it well, God
flips on.

Speaker 1 (01:38:00):
I totally what's the name of the song on the
B side?

Speaker 5 (01:38:04):
Totally awesome?

Speaker 1 (01:38:05):
Okay, I see so okay. In doing Ladies First, which
you know has has gone down in history, how did
that collaboration come to be?

Speaker 5 (01:38:17):
Well? Number one, I told you that Dave Funking client
bought True Mathematics younger brothers ChIL Rubg and Queen Latifa
to England and they did a stream of shows and
they were at Camden and that's where I met them.

Speaker 1 (01:38:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:38:27):
Well, after that they had they drove over to England
on a tour bus that they picked up in Germany
and it was a German bus driver. And he couldn't
make heads and tails of the UK maps to be
able to get from A to B to their next shows.
So funking client asked me, would I mind riding the
bus with them getting the maps out, sitting next to
the bus driver to help me, which is why in

(01:38:50):
the documentary that you did quest And when Shaquin was
talking he said money was kind of like a tour guide.
He's right. I was like a road manager at that
young age because I got the maps out. I was
sitting at the front of the bus with the bus
with the German. I was the GBS the original original series.

(01:39:13):
And from doing that we wound it up, and we
wound up excuse me. In Bristol one night they had
a show. It was on a barge. So it was
do you guys know what I mean when I say
barge right, it was like a house boat club, like
a club on a houseboat right on the river Virgin

(01:39:34):
And okay, and so Latifa and I was in were
in the back. She was waiting like a little green
room or what you know, if you may, and she
and I were talking and she was like, you know,
I heard you rhyme. You know I'm saying let me
hear it or something, and I gave her a looks up.
She's like, that's dope. Sound together. We didn't ladies first
until maybe six seven months after that convers but that

(01:39:58):
was the night in Bristol or on a barge that
Latif and I had the conversation about doing a song together.

Speaker 1 (01:40:10):
Speaking of the uh, the the allure of native tongues.
When do you officially, when do you officially feel like
the movement that was once the native tongues is over? Now?

Speaker 5 (01:40:27):
I still don't feel like that. Oh okay, yeah, maybe
that's just me. I still don't feel like that. I
don't feel like that. I think we're I think we
are in the midst of the strangest and longest hiatus ever.

Speaker 1 (01:40:44):
Okay, how but there was a period where it got
awkward awkward.

Speaker 5 (01:40:49):
But no, no, that's a good word. No no, no,
keep that it's a good word awkward.

Speaker 1 (01:40:54):
And since and since you're my closest connection to Africa,
and since I just paid about fifty bucks for that
freaking record. Uh, they just re released the original Crazy
Wisdom Masters, which is really not that different. They okay,
so the third album after done by the Forces of

(01:41:15):
Naister was called crazy Wisdom Masters, and so I guess
the way that the story went was that by the
time that Benny Medina had really come at the Helm
of Warner Brothers, he was like, nah, it ain't happening right.
He sent the record back and then they made a
crazier record.

Speaker 5 (01:41:37):
Which was I just I don't understand Africa. No, no,
I don't understand him.

Speaker 1 (01:41:46):
Wait he was you were on warners.

Speaker 5 (01:41:49):
I just yeah, but you would you would think that
I don't know, I don't know. I just I guess
I can't meet people and and have such close ties
with people and and have so much involvement with people
and then just completely drop them afterwards. I don't know
how to do that. He knows how to do that

(01:42:10):
very well.

Speaker 1 (01:42:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:42:15):
Did you even know that he was my oldest child's
god and he forced himself to be like he really
made it a big deal to be like I want
to be her golf Like why because it's like years later.

Speaker 7 (01:42:28):
She doesn't even know him.

Speaker 5 (01:42:30):
He no, oh wow, Yeah, it's an interesting dude. But anyway,
you were saying.

Speaker 1 (01:42:36):
Well, no, I it just hit me now that he
was also I guess assuming that he was head of
your division as well. It's so weird because if I
could mark the sort of weird point of Warner Brothers,
at least with Kane's career, with Prince's career.

Speaker 5 (01:42:57):
Also he also he also or frustrated that whole Peter,
that whole Prince thing with me.

Speaker 1 (01:43:06):
Right when he came aboard, things got a little different.
Now I'm personally cool with him.

Speaker 6 (01:43:11):
But Na when she know whack that was like Warner
if you just I you were a DJ, if you
saw a Warner brother sticker and you knew it was
some bullshit off rip, you was like, nah, it's wanted
this ship whack right, and.

Speaker 1 (01:43:25):
Ah, so yeah, I was going to ask what was
it like being under that, Like did you did you
have a relationship with Moe Austin at the time or
I didn't.

Speaker 5 (01:43:36):
I didn't. My relationship was Peter Edge, Benny Mezina time out.

Speaker 1 (01:43:41):
Peter Edge was at Warner too, Pizza.

Speaker 5 (01:43:43):
Edge, I'll do better than at Wanna. Pizza Edge came
from England to the United States to Warner Brothers, made
that transition during my first album. During my transition, Pizza
Edge was my an r at Chrysalis, cool.

Speaker 1 (01:44:02):
Tempo okay, yeah, so exactly.

Speaker 5 (01:44:09):
So Peter Edge came from there with me. It was
like the trinity. It was like my liver, Puddle and manager,
Steve Finnan and Peter Edge. Three of us came from
England to the United States.

Speaker 1 (01:44:23):
Peter Man like God, the there was a night where
listen a mayor.

Speaker 5 (01:44:31):
I gave him so much ship. I gave him so
much ship about that Prince thing. I didn't want to
do it. I was annoyed. I was like, what does
this have to do with hip hop? I gave Peter
Ridge so much ship and he was so smart, he
was just so smart with it. And I just the
plane ride, the plane ride to Minneapolis, I was being
a bitch. I don't want to be here. I don't

(01:44:53):
want to be on this plane. Why am I going
to Minneapolis? What does Paisley have to do with hip hop?

Speaker 3 (01:44:59):
And I didn't prince at all, like you know, no,
not even with his legacy.

Speaker 5 (01:45:05):
And I loved his I loved him for him, But
you said I could not understand the mass.

Speaker 1 (01:45:09):
You're afraid of your credibility of doing something? Absolutely yeah,
And the thing was from for me.

Speaker 6 (01:45:15):
It's just so interesting to hear the way you talk
about the money, because to me, in a word or two,
is the only time that Prince ever got hip hop
halfway right, Like like, you know, I loved that song,
you know what I'm saying. Like, I loved that song,
you know what I mean? And I thought I always
thought it was very unique. How you you know what

(01:45:35):
I'm saying. Were the MC were the only time that
Prince ever got hip hop right because all the rest
of that ship, when you tried to do some rap shit,
that Gold Nigga album and all that shit, no.

Speaker 1 (01:45:47):
No, But in a word or two, I love that song.
I was like, what was it like? And how long
did you stay at Paisley Park?

Speaker 5 (01:45:55):
Oh? My god, I was there forever he had. He
made a comment for my husband at the time, he
made accommendations for my brand new baby, which is Charlene.
At the time, he was like, whatever it is going
to be to keep her happy, for her to be
here for a long period of time to work, That's
where I'm going to have her. And even to the

(01:46:18):
point where he had shows to do at Earl's Court
in England. So I thought we were going to break
and we were going to get to go back to
New York for a little while. Nope, he made He
pulled me and my husband and my brand new baby
to England also for the duration of his shows in England. Also, wow,
the same hotel.

Speaker 1 (01:46:38):
Was the prime purpose to strictly write for Carmen or
was it like, Okay, I'll do Carmen's album and I'll
do your record as well.

Speaker 5 (01:46:47):
Yes, that's what it was. Because See the thing is
when Peter rech first sat me down and told me
the whole thing. You know, he wants you to write
for Carmen Electure, I was like, all right, cool, but
then it was like, and he's going to do a
certain amount of songs on your album. That's when I
was like, nahna that that's what I was like, why, why,
why can't I just do that?

Speaker 1 (01:47:08):
All right? So my first visit to Paisley Park one
of the most shocking things that I discovered. I went
to his office is connected to like Studio A, and
you know, while Fimi Jay I was sort of looking
the other way, I snuck on Prince's office just to
look at his record collection and see like what was
into So I saw a CD player and I was

(01:47:34):
shocked that Midnight Marauders was in it.

Speaker 5 (01:47:37):
Oh wow.

Speaker 1 (01:47:38):
I was like, oh shit, Prince listen to tribe. That's crazy.

Speaker 5 (01:47:41):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:47:41):
What was his IQ into? As far as like hip
I was concerned how much did he know about you?
How much did he know about all those things?

Speaker 5 (01:47:51):
He did not talk to me about native tongues, He
did not talk to me about hip hop period that
he knew everything about me. He knew the songs that
I had released prior to coming to America, prior to
coming prior to being signed to because he knew my
cool tempo. Shit, you know what I'm saying. He knew that. Yeah,

(01:48:15):
he knew that ship. He even knew he even knew
my Just Bad Productions release.

Speaker 3 (01:48:21):
As we remind our younger listening audience that the Internet
was not around at the time, So this is a
big deal.

Speaker 5 (01:48:27):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, he knew. He knew about me enough
to be able to It wasn't just It really wasn't
a cold working environment. It was going to be a
teachable moment for you. Momy these weeks that your hair
is going to be a teachable moment for you. Learn

(01:48:47):
I learned. I learned to stop fighting fighting creativity because
that entire experience with Prince was just a damn flusit
flowing of creativity that I was fighting because of a
general pig headed bias of non hip hop and I

(01:49:07):
gotta stay hip hop and I can't. I can't get
involved in any other type of influence of music to
interfere with my hip hop. Prince taught me to relax.
Something you are the hip hop. Whatever you do is
going to be the core of what you want to express,
but allow some of the other sources to flow through

(01:49:31):
you because it's going to make you grow on a
creative level.

Speaker 1 (01:49:36):
Exactly was there any fear or in trepidation in your
husband at the time in his mind that Prince was
just trying to groom you to being a long line
of muse slash Prince Johns.

Speaker 5 (01:49:59):
No, because I was too fat. I just had a baby,
right I was.

Speaker 1 (01:50:06):
Yeah. I think, yeah, I think the baby might have
saved you.

Speaker 5 (01:50:11):
You know. I mean although although listen to this, though
he was with my Tay at the time, and he
this was prior to them their their child, you know. Blessed,
Blessed the little angel in heaven.

Speaker 1 (01:50:27):
In fact, his name was a mirror Wow.

Speaker 10 (01:50:30):
Wow Wow, and and he had a fascination with babies
because he had me bring her to a show one
of the shows that he did in Earth's Court when
I had to go to England when he was doing
shows at Earth's Court.

Speaker 5 (01:50:43):
And I went to the show and I had her
in my arms and during the middle of during an
eight bar break in it, oh sexy, sexy, m f right,
he came to the side of the stage and was like,
go do eight bars right now. I'm like what, I
had the baby in my arms. He was like, give

(01:51:03):
me the baby.

Speaker 1 (01:51:05):
Yeah, really, yes, that's crazy, and.

Speaker 5 (01:51:08):
He said give me the baby. So I handed him Charlena.
So he's standing at the side of the stage with
Charlene and he's like, go ahead, go do eight bars.
So I went out. I went out there, I totally
blacked out did eight bars because it was shocked and
it was fair and it was just like, I went
I did the eight bars, I came back off, he
handed me the baby. He ran back out and continued.

(01:51:31):
And these are the things that he taught. He really
encouraged me to conquer any fears that I may have had,
whether it be in performing or whether it be in creating,
and pancakes are a real thing. Pancakes are a real thing.
That pancakes are a real thing. Yes, yes, he made

(01:51:52):
me the pancakes dressed as Prince I don't wear.

Speaker 4 (01:51:58):
Everything comes down to pan cakes in this particular episode fantastic.

Speaker 5 (01:52:02):
Oh my god, it was really it was. It was
so strange, but but I didn't realize. I didn't make
the connection until years later when I was watching the
Chappelle Show m hm, and then I was like, and
then I was like, holy ship, he does this pancake ship?

Speaker 1 (01:52:20):
He does that?

Speaker 3 (01:52:21):
Does this mean most that you were actually in the
studio with Carmen Electra, like you had.

Speaker 1 (01:52:25):
To, dude. She wrote everything go all this ship?

Speaker 7 (01:52:29):
So what is that like?

Speaker 5 (01:52:30):
Like?

Speaker 7 (01:52:30):
Because this is the first.

Speaker 1 (01:52:31):
Time I want to ask about all that.

Speaker 7 (01:52:34):
Now because no, we there, We're there there.

Speaker 1 (01:52:39):
Right, Okay, So for those who don't know, in one
of these strangest what was what was the old boy's
name that Jane Finder used to be married to? Wasn't
he would like colorize all his classics? Yeah? And right,

(01:52:59):
So for Prince fans, he took the Adore reels and
redid a door with Carmen called all that and yeah,
it didn't go down to too well. But what was

(01:53:21):
it like working with Karma Karma Carmen at the time period?
I mean you you basically built her, You built it was.

Speaker 5 (01:53:30):
It was fun. It was fun. She's she's absolutely, she's
she was. Actually she was actually the hip hop fan
in the room.

Speaker 1 (01:53:40):
Wow.

Speaker 7 (01:53:41):
Really yeah, because because where's Carmen from?

Speaker 5 (01:53:44):
I can't remember? But it was ghetto as fuck, really
really really really yeah, like it was.

Speaker 1 (01:53:52):
It was And she didn't come in the door as
that image or that name. So during this period you're
getting to know her as whatever, what is it? What
is it? Room Electric? Damn? It's terribly Patrick, Damn. How
did you know that?

Speaker 4 (01:54:09):
Because I got because I got Google, Bitch, you knew
that already.

Speaker 1 (01:54:14):
Yeah, comfortable. That came from a recalled memory.

Speaker 5 (01:54:22):
Does it say where she's from.

Speaker 1 (01:54:24):
Working on that as we spoke, Yeah, because he has
just because I don't know off the top exactly she's
from Sharonville, Ohio exactly.

Speaker 5 (01:54:34):
Can you go meth lab? There you go?

Speaker 1 (01:54:39):
Right, the four meth labs were a thing. She was
like the first meth labber An Electric could have been
she could have been the first Nikki Minaj at.

Speaker 5 (01:54:46):
This bitch exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:54:48):
Well, he tried it.

Speaker 5 (01:54:49):
Let's see what what I'm saying is, I remember that
she was from some place that that wasn't you know,
hoity toity, you know, pretty city. She he was from
someplace rough. And that's from speaking to her and and
developing a friendship in a relationship with her to this
day me and Carmen a lecture a call to this,
you know what I'm saying, which is so dope, but

(01:55:11):
to this day, and that's that was the rap fan,
and that was the real hip hop fan in the
in the in the room. Is that way she knew everything,
She knew everything, she knew everyone.

Speaker 1 (01:55:21):
I could tell she was a fan, like you know, wow.

Speaker 5 (01:55:26):
Yeah, which is which is another reason why like which
is another reason why she caught my ship Like this,
like this, and I write, I don't write specifically to
cater to uh people that can't breathe, you know what
I'm saying, Like, I write specifically intricate. I write in

(01:55:49):
a manner in which I don't want people to be
able to recite my ryme. Yeah, that's how I write,
you know. I specifically write complicated, double double.

Speaker 1 (01:56:03):
I still can't say the word Mary Lee exactly. You
can't say to either, oh my gosh, Charlie Patrick, what

(01:56:31):
I'm here?

Speaker 5 (01:56:32):
But yeah, she she that girl is incredible. She's and
it's like she's not the first person. She's not the
first woman to have although it might be the first
woman with her lyrics written by a woman. The first
woman is Rhyman with her lyrics written by another woman.
That might be a first exactly, But she caught everything

(01:56:55):
she caught. And that's why I bet you when you
heard get On Right, I bet you when you heard
that song you said to yourself, that sounds like money.

Speaker 1 (01:57:09):
No, I mean you know I knew that someone. I
believe that at the time, the same could be safe
for Tony m there there. It was like that the
DNA was real hip hop at the time, like what
you were doing when rock Him was doing, what Kine

(01:57:30):
was doing, like all that iambic pentameter. You know so, yes,
moan so in your transition to radio, how awkward was
it at the time in doing that?

Speaker 5 (01:57:51):
Not awkward at all. I didn't. Again, again, I can't.

Speaker 1 (01:57:55):
I can't even say diversiac. So you know, I'll be.

Speaker 5 (01:58:00):
Hold on.

Speaker 1 (01:58:01):
You just turned into a different bird. It's like, there
should be no reason why I sho know syrh I
know syranh though, Okay, I would just say take the
diverse rect I like it. Take the dice you, Steve Barton,
there you go. References on the phone for you up man, Wow,

(01:58:22):
what timing anything like that or in proper nowns that
Amir does not know how to.

Speaker 6 (01:58:28):
Say, Mary Lee, Oh damn.

Speaker 1 (01:58:36):
You were not cricature. Best wedding gift ever.

Speaker 4 (01:58:43):
The caricature You're still clutching something loud and wrong, so loud,
go loud.

Speaker 5 (01:58:49):
Proud and you said that loudly.

Speaker 1 (01:58:52):
Yeah, full of people.

Speaker 7 (01:58:55):
It was a lovely cricature.

Speaker 1 (01:58:56):
Me and my wife at his wedding.

Speaker 4 (01:58:58):
They gave everybody their own care and we all like
what was like, what the fricature?

Speaker 7 (01:59:05):
Yes, so money you need to teach these guys. Maybe
some English.

Speaker 4 (01:59:07):
Lessons, Yeah, I ambic pentameter, what the fuck?

Speaker 1 (01:59:11):
Go ahead? Well yeah, but the thing is money is
that assuming that you didn't go to communications school to
learn to do this in front sale and back sale
or whatever. See, I'm even forgetting the terms for a radio.
How how much of a crash course did it take
for you to master it?

Speaker 5 (01:59:29):
It was like night school, and honestly, a whole sitcom
could be made out of night school on radio actually
learning how to broadcast during the unsociable hours of the
morning to the point, to the point. And it was
me and miss Jones together.

Speaker 1 (01:59:44):
Fuck it was Miss Jones. Yeah, you started in Philly.

Speaker 5 (01:59:49):
No, we both saw it at Hot ninety seven in
New York.

Speaker 1 (01:59:53):
Okay, okay.

Speaker 5 (01:59:54):
And Steve Smith?

Speaker 1 (01:59:56):
Who what did that? Who offered that? How did that
come to be?

Speaker 5 (02:00:00):
They had they had ed and Dre in the morning,
they had funk Master Flex, they had Angie from whatever
station it was before flipped and they kept Angie and uh,
somebody's bright idea to Steve Smith, who was the person
that flipped the station, was like, you should seek out
some other bonafide potential personalities that you think would fit.

(02:00:22):
My manager got the call to bring me in to
meet with Steve Smith. I went in. He said, how
do you feel about being on the radio? And I
said for why? Like why would I want to be
on the radio?

Speaker 7 (02:00:35):
You know at the time, are you still were you eat?
Were you auditioning still?

Speaker 3 (02:00:38):
Or you were just like the one one acting thing
that I'm out or was that before I'm trying to
put the timeline together.

Speaker 5 (02:00:44):
Doing what now?

Speaker 7 (02:00:45):
Acting?

Speaker 1 (02:00:45):
What did I miss acting?

Speaker 7 (02:00:47):
Because she did?

Speaker 5 (02:00:48):
I did? Who's the man? And strapped?

Speaker 1 (02:00:50):
Strapped?

Speaker 5 (02:00:50):
Yeah, yeah, I mean that type of stuff was happening then.
I was still recording music, you know. So it's like,
what do I want to be in a radio for?
I know nothing about being on the radio, Steve Swistel,
Because like, I will teach you and I will get
your FCC license for you. What the heck is an
FCC license?

Speaker 1 (02:01:06):
To day? I was going to ask that and do
we need it?

Speaker 7 (02:01:09):
No?

Speaker 5 (02:01:10):
But you no, you don't. But you on terrestrial radio
you had to have an FCC license back in the days.

Speaker 1 (02:01:17):
Be able to pronounce terrestrial radio. Yeah, I was going
to skip that word because you know.

Speaker 7 (02:01:23):
And where you and where you got secrets?

Speaker 3 (02:01:25):
Because I know sometimes see in radio they let you
come in at night too, because they want to surprise
everybody and be like, hey, and mony love is.

Speaker 7 (02:01:32):
Now to the radio station.

Speaker 5 (02:01:34):
Yet they didn't announce us as announces yet, but they
were training us. And let me tell you something, me
and miss Jones would be messing up badly at night time.
They'd they'd be dead there for like forty five minutes
and then then and then the mics will be up
and we're talking about I hate that guy. I went
out with him and he was such a piece of
ship and did and then she get a phone call like, uh,

(02:01:56):
you guys have the microphone on. No, like we was
doing the dumb ship at night time. It was like,
you know, three four o'clock in the morning, and Limus
Jones was just fucking up badly.

Speaker 1 (02:02:13):
Well, I consider this to be a lucky opportunity because
you know, I'm on a platform on iHeart, but I
kind of have some say in who I get to interview,
and I tend to gravitate to my tribe and who
I like and who I know. I've given a bunch

(02:02:34):
of news to people.

Speaker 5 (02:02:35):
Thats going no, no, no, I didn't even get there yet.

Speaker 1 (02:02:40):
But in doing to restre l, I don't know, just
four syllables is killing me right now. And doing terrestrial

(02:03:01):
extra terrestrial radio. In terrestrial radio, yeah, you don't necessarily
have a say in not even who you play, but
who you interview and all those things. So how do
you handle when you're you know, if you're five six
years in and you're interviewing your artists that you are

(02:03:24):
indifferent on or you don't know even now, Like if
NBA nothing against NBA, young boy, I'm just picking the
one one gen z name that everyone knows. Like how
much research do you have or do your producers already
write the questions out or no? If you just go
off the lead sheet what they tell.

Speaker 5 (02:03:45):
You, No, you you You got to read up on it.
If it's something you if it's a person that you
don't particularly care for, but you know, an interview is
demanded of that person because of whatever is going on. Uh,
they got something new coming out, they have a project whatever,
buth blah blah blah, whatever it is, that makes sense,
you have to read up on him and do a
little history so that you can prepare your questions. Doesn't

(02:04:05):
matter if you like him or not. You got to
put your personal shit behind you. Which is why I
couldn't understand that Penis Morgan guy.

Speaker 3 (02:04:12):
That was Yeah, well that's called white privilege. But that's
another conversation.

Speaker 1 (02:04:20):
Well it's also male tox sixty. I didn't realize that
he I didn't even realize that he had a relationship
with Megan Markle.

Speaker 5 (02:04:28):
He tried sociopathic lower scale. But sociopathic narcissist is what
that person is.

Speaker 1 (02:04:37):
Penis my Penis Myers. Yes, yes, Penis Morgan, there is
you know what you.

Speaker 5 (02:04:47):
Know what I said something. I was having a conversation
with my oldest daughter about it, right, and I said
to her, I was like, if I had to give
you a quick analogy of what that whole situation was
between the Penis Morgan guy and Magel Megan Marco, it
would be this. Remember back in the days when a
girl were brought past a bunch of guys. He'd be like, baby,
what's up, what's up? And you don't answer, and then

(02:05:09):
the guy goes, fuck you there, bitch. That's that.

Speaker 1 (02:05:12):
That's what there was. Yes, got you got curved.

Speaker 7 (02:05:19):
Yeah, because she didn't show up today. She met Harry
that night.

Speaker 3 (02:05:22):
And story that's that whom Harry appears.

Speaker 1 (02:05:33):
Okay, let's get into it. Oh you know the thing is,
I don't know this story.

Speaker 5 (02:05:43):
It's perfect if she's sitting here because she is the
reason why the ship went viral.

Speaker 7 (02:05:49):
Well yeah, because well yes, because.

Speaker 3 (02:05:54):
As Moni said, we were on we were on the
morning show together and it was funny because we knew
was coming. But everybody was really kind of more scared
of what I was going to say to him, and
I thought that was the fascinating part.

Speaker 7 (02:06:06):
Everybody was preparing me, like, you know, don't say this
because at the time I.

Speaker 1 (02:06:09):
Was let me just add that if y'all think, like
we're on at least what episode one, one six right now,
If y'all think is unhindl on this show, well not yet.
But he's the only person I know that would routine
Jailey like talk ship about jay Z.

Speaker 5 (02:06:31):
I'm sorry, I can't stop laughing.

Speaker 3 (02:06:33):
Well, Money Money was there that day too where I
got warned about us, and the problem was in the mirror.

Speaker 7 (02:06:41):
You know.

Speaker 3 (02:06:41):
The real problem was is that I was like a
whole roots warrior chick, right, So I was just like, and.

Speaker 1 (02:06:47):
I was on, you're about to stop the bag like that.

Speaker 7 (02:06:50):
Z was like, it's true, but it's true that person
to say that.

Speaker 3 (02:06:54):
No, no, yeah, But at the time that was when
the Roots was on Deaf Jam and as we know
all Pitt Pop fans, no, he didn't really do much
for the Roots brand, and I was like, what the fuck?
So yes, I asked him those questions. But anyway, and anyway,
so back to Gez though, Yeah, so I was the
one that was the girl that would you know, crush

(02:07:15):
fifty cent CDs Live on the air and stuff like that,
because I was just like, what is this ship is
killing the black community?

Speaker 7 (02:07:19):
Da da da da dae.

Speaker 3 (02:07:20):
Monie would even pull me to the side and say, like,
you know, be calm when he comes, just let him talk.

Speaker 7 (02:07:24):
Blah blah blah blah.

Speaker 3 (02:07:25):
Okay, money cool cool mony. So but then he comes
and I'm cool. I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing.
And this is this is the period when NAS had
the what hip Hop Is Dead?

Speaker 1 (02:07:37):
Album?

Speaker 3 (02:07:37):
Yeah, yes, yes, And now, Monie, this is where you
pick up the conversation.

Speaker 5 (02:07:45):
Now keep going, I will, I'll chime in.

Speaker 7 (02:07:51):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (02:07:52):
So we're talking about hip hop and I cannot remember
how Pooch picked how he started the conversation about hip
hop being dead, but money it was like she got
the holy hip hop spirit and she was like, yeah,
hip hop is dead.

Speaker 7 (02:08:04):
Now. Jeez didn't like that.

Speaker 5 (02:08:06):
No, okay, now I need to stop.

Speaker 3 (02:08:08):
He okay, O correct me.

Speaker 5 (02:08:11):
So, yes, Poosh brought something up about you know, how
do you feel? He asked Gezi the question, how do
you feel about NAS's new album and his saying that
hip hop is dead, and so JIZI basically said, well,
I feel like, how can you really say that? Like,
I don't really think that that's accurate to say that,
because that's how that's how I make my living, that's
how a lot of us are making our living. We

(02:08:34):
got stuff to say still, and so then I then
jumped in on us and he was He was like,
who is he to say that? And I was like, well,
I think that what Nas is trying to say in
that analogy is that once upon a time there was
there there were several aspects of hip hop that were
all getting light. All of them were getting light. It

(02:08:58):
wasn't just it was the aks this stuff. It's the
political stuff, it's the happy we just hit a party
type stuff.

Speaker 7 (02:09:05):
And definitely the stuff getting played on the radio right and.

Speaker 5 (02:09:08):
Then the more commercial stuff. It was it was all
of those aspects of hip hop that we're all getting
equal light. And I think what Nas was trying to
say at this time, and this is me talking to Jesz,
so I think what Nas is trying to say at
this time is that right now it's all one sided.
It's all about the street life and and and and
the bitches and the and the money and the cars

(02:09:30):
and the this and the that, and that's not everything.
So the the the aspect of hip hop's multifaceted self
is dead right now. I think that's what nas is
trying to say in that analogy.

Speaker 3 (02:09:46):
Yes, and at this time Gzi was not ready for
that intellectual breakdown. And at this moment, I'm not sure,
I think me and if we were not sure due
to his response to money and money you break down
the response because again okay, so.

Speaker 5 (02:09:59):
Then after that, so that after that, he was like
he he kind of got animated in his speech pattern
and was like, well, you know, you got a whole
different type of appreciation of hip hop, ain't you from England?

Speaker 7 (02:10:10):
And so then I was like, so this is when.

Speaker 3 (02:10:13):
Me and pooshe realize he don't know who he talking
to right now?

Speaker 5 (02:10:21):
Yes, well that's what that's what he thinks, because she
said that said it.

Speaker 7 (02:10:26):
I was I said it on the mic. I was like,
who you know who you're talking to right now? Right?
I swear to god. He didn't say money love.

Speaker 1 (02:10:34):
He was like, yeah, you were that money love.

Speaker 5 (02:10:39):
He was like, you got a whole different appreciation to
you know what. You know, we grew, we came up
listening to something else, And in my head, I'm saying
to myself, dude, you're not that much younger than me,
Like that's that's not gonna fly. You're not that much
younger to me. It's not that big of a difference.
And yes, I came up in in uh in England,
but it's the same hip hop. So basically we should

(02:11:01):
we should be pulling from the same waters, the same streams,
let me.

Speaker 1 (02:11:05):
Interrupt, to his credit, not to his credit, but hip
hop generations. It's like, if you're before the five or
after the five is night and day. So me being
born in seventy one, like anyone born after seventy five
is almost like you might they might as well be
twenty years younger.

Speaker 5 (02:11:23):
You know why that doesn't make sense to me. I'm
gonna tell you why.

Speaker 1 (02:11:25):
Exceptione, Wait, were you born I want seventy eight? Yeah,
like Fante has like a savants knowledge of music, but
anyone else I know, in seventy eight, I might as
well be talking to someone born now eighty six.

Speaker 5 (02:11:41):
As I sit here and I listen to you as
I sit here and I listen to you say that,
I'm going to say this. I now have an appreciation
for that factor. And so now right now I'll say,
you know what, he really could have been on some
different for real, genuinely on a different lanes and pulled
from a different string. But back then I was looking

(02:12:04):
at it like, dude, you're not getting a young card.
You're not that much younger than me. We should have
been pulling from the same streams. Why are you not
understanding this? Why are you not understanding NAS's analogy? Why
are you not understanding it? That's where my head was
at that moment. And then it was it was, it
was worsened. It was worsened because I am I don't

(02:12:28):
do well with over talking men, right, I don't do well?

Speaker 1 (02:12:34):
How are you on this show?

Speaker 7 (02:12:37):
She's just against.

Speaker 1 (02:12:42):
Each other?

Speaker 3 (02:12:45):
When his ass stood up though, because that's the part
I was trying to remember, That's the part when I
was like, wait.

Speaker 7 (02:12:49):
What what's going on? Why are you standing.

Speaker 1 (02:12:52):
Physical?

Speaker 7 (02:12:53):
No, he was about to know he's about to roll.

Speaker 5 (02:12:56):
He was, he was. He was like, well, who is
NAS to say this anyway? And at that point, okay, okay, okay,
so okay, so y'all remember Kim Wayne's and her missus Jenkins.

Speaker 1 (02:13:13):
Uh, you ain't heard it from me? Oh, don't you
talk about miss Yeah?

Speaker 5 (02:13:22):
Okay, okay, start crying, okay, okay, don't talk about don't
don't talk don't don't talk about nas. Don't do that.
Don't do that. Don't do that. That's a bad idea.
And so he stood up and was like, who is
nas to say this? And I was like, oh, oh,

(02:13:43):
and now you will tell you when I hit that
note of the oh, it's a problem when I when
you hear me say, oh.

Speaker 7 (02:13:50):
I thought it was it was a Nazis hip hop?
Was it a Nazis hip hop?

Speaker 1 (02:13:53):
He was likens?

Speaker 5 (02:13:57):
And then I was wait when he was like when
he said, who is not to say that? And I
was like, somebody that's been here for a very long time.
And when he says that, I was not gun got
niggas in the Feds. And I was like, and at

(02:14:20):
that point, if you watch the video, you will hear
me mumbling on the mic in a low mono tone voice,
it's dead. You just killed hip hop right now. It's dead,
right now, it's dead, right, it's dead right now? With
everything you're saying right now is dead. You just killed it.
You just stabbed it, you just shot it, you just
killed it. You hear me, You hear me saying that

(02:14:43):
at that point underneath. Now, in hindsight, I look back
at it, and I'm like, what I was trying to
relay to Giz in that interview is was simply that
the analogy that NAS was making wasn't wasn't to be
disrespectful towards him and his second term that the hip
hop Yeah, it wasn't. It wasn't anything to disrespect that

(02:15:06):
it was. It was something that was It was an analogy
that was made to bring light to the fact that
all the facets of hip hop music were not being
given and shown the same light and the same level
of respect at that moment in time. That's all NAS
was saying with that analogy at that time. But Jeeze

(02:15:27):
took offense, you know, And in hindsight I understand he
took offense. He took it personally like it was a
dig at him, right, So I get that part. Also,
perhaps the way that I was speaking in because I
was calling him brother and I was trying to be
polite and respectful while I was speaking to him, he

(02:15:48):
wasn't trying to hear He wasn't trying to hear that.
I think that's probably just Ego and Bravado being young.
And I was also trying to trying to have a
teachable moment with him as far as to say, protect
all the facets of hip hop today. Otherwise in ten

(02:16:08):
fifteen years time, when the new kids on the block
come up and you're not this geezy that you are now,
which is the it guy, When when it's ten to
fifteen years later, them new guys can push your ship
to the to the to the garbage in the garbage can.
So when I'm trying to have a moment with you

(02:16:28):
now to understand how important it is to preserve all
the elements and all the facets of it so that
you can have a place to survive ten fifteen years later,
you know what I'm saying. And it just it just
it just wasn't coming. It wasn't good, It wasn't coming
across Jesus, you know.

Speaker 1 (02:16:51):
Don't forget back then. He if you remember when, like
I think a month before he was I mean, was
clearly a fifty cent troll move. But he was talking
about like, you know, I'm gonna meet with John McCain
and see what he's about. This was like I remember that,
all right. He was he was a musical guest on

(02:17:13):
SNL I think in September October two thousand and eight.
It was kind of just putting out there, like, you know,
just because Obama's played on me, I'm gon vote for him,
so I'm gonna see what John McCain has. You know,
he had his arm around John mccainna SNL and it
was like, I'm gonna go to lunch with him, see
what he's.

Speaker 3 (02:17:28):
About and selling snowman shirts to little black kids, and
I don't do that.

Speaker 1 (02:17:32):
I remember, Yeah, that's when I had a problem. I mean,
he's cool now, you know, but.

Speaker 5 (02:17:38):
Yeah, you know, in essence, Laiah filmed the whole thing.
Did not know she was filming it, Okay, Laiah ran
out of the room as soon as that goddamn interview
was over, and she loaded that ship to every possible
blog in the world at that time, and that shit
went viral like a move so quickly, and was wait,

(02:18:00):
here's the here's the crazy, craziest part. Nobody knows. I
don't even know if you knew this, Layah. Nobody knows
that I had been undergoing a renegotiation with the radio
station six months prior to that day. And that day
was d day when I had to make a decision
on whether I was going to accept the contract that

(02:18:22):
they gave me. And what it was was there was
a little piece of wording in that contract that I
did not agree with which said that in order for
me to do anything using my face, my name, how
did you guys say, caricature, ricature, cricature, Okay, using my
face name, my curricature.

Speaker 7 (02:18:42):
Yeah, that's that's radio.

Speaker 1 (02:18:44):
That's radio.

Speaker 3 (02:18:44):
Shit, that's radio. It wasn't used to celebrities. So they
just regularly.

Speaker 5 (02:18:49):
Basically anything to do with my voice, anything to do
with myself. If I wanted to write a book, if
I wanted to be in a movie, anything, I would
have to go to the radio station for permission. And
that was the only problem with the contract that I had.
The money was great, we were at a good place
or with everything except for that. And my lawyers were like,

(02:19:10):
could we just change this wording to something that is
of a nature saying whatever that it is that I
have in the works of projects, A book, or whatever
it is, the station will be. It will be made
sure that the station knows about this and therefore that
it's mutually agreed upon as far as it's nothing to
hinder the names. Yeah, you know what I'm saying, Like

(02:19:33):
I'm not posing for Playboy. You know what I'm saying,
much to the dismay of many, But I'm not close.
You know what I'm saying. But the bottom line is
my lawyer was like, can we put some word in
like that in it? They were like no. So this
day that when just this cheesy interview happened, was the
last day. As soon as I go, as soon as
we signed off, I had to go into the office,

(02:19:56):
sit down with them, ask them, are you prepared to
change the wor just on that little part. They said no,
we're not. And then I said, well I cannot sign
this document. I left that. I left that, I left that,
I left that office. I left that office that day
at eleven thirty. By one o'clock in the afternoon, my

(02:20:17):
voice was completely stripped from the radio station. They cleaned
up real quick. And so that that turned into Jeezi
got me fired? Yes that is yeah, that turned into
that Geez got me fired, and I never corrected it.
I let it be. I never corrected it.

Speaker 1 (02:20:38):
Have you seen him since?

Speaker 5 (02:20:40):
I have not seen him since. But what's really interesting
is he worked on a song and he worked with
a producer called Ko. Ko is my child's, my son's godfather,
and my daughter was in Atlanta at the time. Yeah,
uh huh, and my daughter sang on a song the Greatest,

(02:21:00):
which was on one of Jez's mixtapes. Wow my child, Yes, yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:21:09):
Yeah, that's so crazy.

Speaker 5 (02:21:10):
But what's fun? But what's crazy? She said. She met
him at what is Diddies at the Revolt convention in
two thousand and sixteen, I think it is, and she
said that she said to him, you know, I sang
on that song blah blah blah blah blah, and it
was she sang on it. And he asked, the story

(02:21:34):
is he acts Kao? You know? Kao told him who
it wasnt sang on it whatever, And he asked Ko
to put somebody else on it, like a known person
or whatever, take my daughter off of it, and Kao said, no,
the song comes with her. So if you're going to
use this, the song comes with her. And so he
kept it on his mixtape, but he never put it

(02:21:55):
on his album. My daughter was a little bit, you know,
she was a little crushed, crushed about that, and I
felt bad about it too, because I'm like, damn, it's
because of me, and you know, but at the end
of the day, it is what it is. You know,
you live, Charlena. I'm not going back on anything because
they threw me under the bus after I interview the way,

(02:22:16):
how the way, how it went was it turned into
the woman was the idiot? Oh, the woman. She was
off as soon as I walked in, you know, he
called Nas up, had a conversation with Nas. Nas called
me and was like, don't worry about it, don't worry
about it. Just don't worry about it.

Speaker 1 (02:22:35):
All right.

Speaker 5 (02:22:35):
I'm not going to tell you what the conversation was
between me and Jeezi, but yeah, he did to reach
out to me, And in my head, I'm saying to myself,
you're damn right he reached out to you because that
sounded ill. All of that do He got people in
the fad dude that like, dude, it sounded it sounded ill,
So you're damn right. He made sure that the man
made sure that he called the other man to have

(02:22:56):
a conversation, right, and then throw the woman under the bus. Oh,
she was off as soon as I walked in. Anyway,
something she, something was about her was off in the
fat him saying this is yeah, which was.

Speaker 7 (02:23:10):
Not ye, which was the opposite.

Speaker 5 (02:23:12):
That's funny, you know, I don't you know, I don't know.
I don't know what type of females at that time
he was used to having conversations with, and and I
don't know if perhaps I don't know if perhaps my
conversation may have been a little too quote unquote uppity
in his eyes at that time, you know. But but

(02:23:32):
the bottom line is the gz that I see today
is exactly who I thought I was talking to. It
was exactly who I was trying to reach. I knew
what you was talking to him. I knew I wasn't
talking to him back then, but I knew that that
person was going yeah, yeah, and I was trying to

(02:23:55):
talk to that person. Yeah. So that that's basically what
that was. I've never seen him since then. Is that crazy?
I've never bumped into him, I've never know a Yeah,
I've never seen him since then. How long ago was that? Was? That?
Eighteen years ago.

Speaker 7 (02:24:12):
Oh shit, don't do that. Don't do that.

Speaker 1 (02:24:15):
That was like, all right, when was it?

Speaker 5 (02:24:17):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (02:24:17):
That was yeah? Eight?

Speaker 5 (02:24:18):
If I was there, it was okay, all right, thirteen No, no,
it wasn't no, no, no no. I left that station
in February of two thousand and seven. That was two
thousand and seven. Wow, ok, yeah, that was two thousand
and seven.

Speaker 1 (02:24:32):
My final question is, now that you're at the state
in in your life and all that you've achieved in anything,
is there anything that you've yet to do? Do you
get these? Do you do you get? Is there an
itch that you I want to scratch as far as like.

Speaker 5 (02:24:53):
Aside from the one sorry second to last question.

Speaker 1 (02:24:58):
Ultra, Wow you went there, yeah, Ultra real quick. So Ultna,
what was it like.

Speaker 5 (02:25:06):
Working She's this tiny little powerhouse person. Oh my gosh,
Ultnata opens her mouth and it's like she has a superpower.
It's like she opens her mouth and everything turns into
a tornado as soon as she opens her mouth. And

(02:25:27):
she's so tiny, she's a small little package of just
terror as soon as she opens her mouth.

Speaker 7 (02:25:35):
Oh, I do have a question.

Speaker 6 (02:25:36):
She's singing on I was just saying to declared, but
She's the one to singing on Ring my Bell.

Speaker 5 (02:25:40):
Absolutely and that is ulternate and it was fun working well.

Speaker 6 (02:25:45):
She's a big house singer, like she's legendary singer.

Speaker 5 (02:25:48):
Huge, huge, legendary. I was so grateful to be able
to work with her. And again this comes from the
mindset of not getting in my own way as far
as creative, you know what I mean.

Speaker 7 (02:26:01):
Yeah, let me just ask because I know you guts
your last question. I just thought of something too.

Speaker 3 (02:26:05):
Can you mo as a as a legend in this
game and as a as a commentator as well? Can
you talk about like who some of the young folks,
because I know you tuned into the young folks as well,
but like who you're listening to and the younger sisters
as well when it comes to MC's because I don't
want to just ask you about female mcs, but I
was just curious.

Speaker 5 (02:26:24):
Honestly, try I'm trying to listen to a lot more.
I tune a lot of it out. My kids are annoying,
but for the sake of trying not to alienate them,
I do make a conscious effort to give them car
time when we're in the car and car DJ time

(02:26:46):
so they could play stuff. But the only thing that
I can't get past, and it's like I try not
to be this hypocrite, is there was a period of
time where we were cursing in our music and there
were curses and they'd be curses, but for some.

Speaker 1 (02:26:58):
Reason, not like this, what is this?

Speaker 5 (02:27:03):
What is it? I don't It's like every other freaking
word and I didn't. I do experments. I do experiments
in the.

Speaker 1 (02:27:09):
Car all the twee.

Speaker 5 (02:27:11):
Where I'm like, Okay, go ahead, play your stuff. Lacy's twelve,
that's my youngest, and shit, I'll I'll be like, all right,
play your stuff. And it's like, oh, put to give
me a head and the bitch and I'm like god, God,
and I'm like, I'm not a prude. We've said curses.
You know what I'm saying, day get a half all day.

(02:27:32):
That's that's our era, you know what I'm saying. Like
we have stuff, but it just it's just like it's
like I don't get a break.

Speaker 1 (02:27:40):
You're an adult.

Speaker 5 (02:27:41):
It's like I don't get a break.

Speaker 1 (02:27:42):
Well, wait, since you're talking about your kids, which one
of your kids has sort of inherited your your taste
because a lot of I'm always curious on how hip
hop parents raise their kids, Like do their kids know
who they are are the exact opposite, you know, like
which one has your taste? Like you can stop down

(02:28:05):
and be like, okay, this one, you know news the old.

Speaker 5 (02:28:11):
The oldest one, and it's by d four because she
was everything I really didn't. She just was around. It
was it was just a natural thing with her, the
oldest one, and she's thirty now. The rest of them,
they're just there. They're into what they're into. And I
try to listen. I do, and I do it often
because I don't went there to be too much separation
between us. I understand and appreciate that the times have

(02:28:34):
changed and that what they listen to is vastly different
from what I did. I mean, I used to be
in the car with the two oldest girls, and I
used to put on a freeway even though what we
do was wrong. And my daughter that's now going to
be twenty four, she'd be in the car seat in
the back, in the baby seat, and then my oldest
would be in the shotgun with me and she and

(02:28:54):
I would go even though what we do is and
then the baby would go wow, you know, we have that,
you know what I'm saying. The two youngest, my son
is eighteen and then my youngest daughter is twelve. They're
into their they're into their own thing. There are those

(02:29:16):
moments where they join in with with what I like
to listen to, but they're far in few, like.

Speaker 1 (02:29:22):
Yeah, we like old school, we like Beyonce right right, Grandmas.

Speaker 5 (02:29:29):
No more than anything, they bond with me on some rock.
Like my kids know food Fighters, they know Nirvana songs,
they know Stone Temple pilots, they know yeah they're because
I'm I'm a rockhead too, so they know that stuff
more than they know a lot of the hip hop
that I grew up listening to. They're more absolutely absolutely,

(02:29:59):
oh totally, but more totally, but more more. My twelve
year old knows Incubus like the back of her hands.
And that's because I am. Yeah, I am a huge
Incubist fan and never missed a show. Yeah, Ben and I,

(02:30:21):
Ben and I are tight. And it's partly because of you.
It's partly because of you, because you and I are family.
So then when when when when I reached out to
him one time, he was like, oh my god, you
have to come to the show and ever since then,
I've never missed a show. Ben and I are type.

Speaker 1 (02:30:38):
Damn this was up? This wait? I can't I have
one last question, but I have two because I got
to ask about how how did how did the alumni form?

Speaker 7 (02:30:48):
I can't let you.

Speaker 1 (02:30:50):
Your supergroup Uh special ed Chup rock Uh.

Speaker 3 (02:30:58):
I have to say Dave Locus Dave Locus because he
just texted me and said, make sure he gets his
shout out.

Speaker 5 (02:31:02):
No he didn't.

Speaker 3 (02:31:06):
Wow, damn day, please answer.

Speaker 5 (02:31:17):
Well, Dave was already managing Kwame. I don't know how
they all got this idea together, but they did. I
was the last person to be called. Kwame text me
and said he needed to talk to me about something.
Called me, spoke to me about the concept. Would I
be interested? I'm right, yeah, I'd be interested, and it was.

(02:31:38):
It was very quickly put together after that, and we
started doing shows almost immediately. But here's the thing, right, No,
something new happens every show. Every show, something new happens
because they it's like the eighteen. There's always some shit.

(02:32:01):
It's you know, Ed is stuck at the mall because
he had to go get some sneakers. I've got to
go get some sneakers, or Chubb got a flat twenty
one miles out and we need to send the van
to go get him. Dana done drink off the whole
damned green room already before we get on stage. By

(02:32:24):
the time we get on stage, it's not man, this appen.

Speaker 1 (02:32:31):
Well, y'all sound like Bingo Long and the Traveling All stuff.

Speaker 5 (02:32:35):
Listen. I will watch that show though, when I listen,
when I tell you that this is the most glorified
group of misfits ever, but it works.

Speaker 7 (02:32:46):
And how how does it feel to be able to
do that though?

Speaker 3 (02:32:49):
Because it was a time when like artists like y'all, like,
I feel like it was a resurgence of doing shows
and stuff. I mean, even though it's COVID now, but
it just feels good to be able to watch, y'all.
So how much good does it feel to be able.

Speaker 5 (02:32:59):
To do It feels great? Because here's the thing of Maror.
We don't get on and I do a set of songs,
and then I get off, and then Chubb comes on
and does a set of songs, and then he gets up.
It is absolutely I'm doing We're all on listen, We're
all on stage doing ad libs in each other's songs,
be in each other's hype. Man, check this out, I sing,

(02:33:21):
excuse me not saying I scatted the horn solo and
treat them right. Every show.

Speaker 9 (02:33:35):
I scat, I scat the entire horn solo of treat
them right.

Speaker 1 (02:33:43):
Everything between the five of you, like with all your
respective hits and the well loved classic album cuts. That's
that's a very tight, damn near could could be near
two hour extravaganza.

Speaker 5 (02:33:59):
It is. We condense it because a lot of shows,
whether we get on the bill, we only get like
you know, it might be twenty minutes, thirty minutes or
something like that. You have to we have to condense
the show, so we tail and make it according to
whatever billing we're on. And then please let us not forget.
We have a DJ set in the middle of our
show because DJ tap Money I said, yes, it's our DJ.

Speaker 1 (02:34:23):
Does he still have his half Roy.

Speaker 5 (02:34:26):
Yeah, no, he doesn't have it. He doesn't have his hat,
well he does, but it's on his belly now.

Speaker 1 (02:34:33):
Oh damn.

Speaker 5 (02:34:34):
Anyways, the way I know that is because he does
a belly He lifts his shirt up as part of
his DJ set and he's moved the fade with his belly.

Speaker 1 (02:34:45):
Wow.

Speaker 7 (02:34:45):
So yeah, yeow okay, this is perfectly yo.

Speaker 3 (02:34:49):
I should remind everybody you guys, mony's closing our women's
history mouff, and I just wanted to say, it's so
perfect because I don't think people give you flowers enough
and I'm so glad that you had this line to
stay with us like flowers. Cists like flowers flowers so much.

Speaker 6 (02:35:03):
No, man, I did not know that you know your
your I guess kind of the tentacles of your career
win as far as they did. And this is the
first time I'm hearing any of these stories, you know
what I mean. This is amazing, Like you really, you
really weren't inspiration and you know again, just in a
word or two for me, I was like, man, man,

(02:35:26):
that was the one I love that song and that's
the only time Prince got hip hop right for me.

Speaker 1 (02:35:30):
And the fact that he did it with you, I
think that says a lot about you.

Speaker 5 (02:35:35):
Definitely intertwined a lot. I'm really glad that you guys
have me had me on a mayor. One of my
fondest memories of the roots is I pledged myself to
be their sister, okay. And I was so serious about
being sister to the roots that when they won Grammys

(02:35:57):
that year, I drove by myself from New York to
Philly at night time by myself to go to their
Grammy party. At hah, that'd be a night.

Speaker 1 (02:36:16):
No, it wasn't like.

Speaker 7 (02:36:19):
Action and Adventure.

Speaker 1 (02:36:21):
No, only only because that was the night where they
where they played the clip of us winning and then uh.
I asked my girlfriend and I'm like, wait, what does
in theory mean? And she's like, that means he didn't
deserve to win it. And I was like, wait, did
Mope just say in theory the roots. She's like, yes,
he did. And I was like, I've never I've never Yeah,

(02:36:45):
I mean no, no, no we he we. I said that
in an interview once when he he said on the
red carpet that he loved Buster Rhymes so much that
even if Buster Rhymes is not the winner of that night,
that he he's going to declare Buster Rhymes the winner.
So of course, you know, when he's reading off the
nominees and says and the winner is, I was in

(02:37:07):
the audience like, oh, we're not gonna win. We're not
gonna win. We're not gonna win, and then everyone jumped up.
I was like, oh shit, we won. I didn't hear
what he said. So when we watched the Cliff that night,
and he was like, and the winner is in theory
the roots, and I was like, what does that mean?
And they're like, fuck movie, that means he's he didn't
think you deserved it like you technically wanted. And that's

(02:37:31):
just that's when I started throwing my Grammys in the
bathroom and you know.

Speaker 4 (02:37:37):
And no one feels like to get the fight with movie.

Speaker 5 (02:37:40):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (02:37:40):
Yeah, that kind of started that. That planted the seed
of me like not wanting praise and I don't deserve
this ship. That like that really did a number on me.
Like he he gave me a heartfelt email apology once.
I told a friend of his, like, you know what,
how bad that not hurt me, but just affected me

(02:38:02):
to the point where I was indifferent to that ship
and he felt really bad about it, so he apologized.
But yeah, that night I had a whole, you know,
a whole nother view of that Grammy party. Like I
never I hated flowers at that moment. So that's the
origin of the flower and a mer's anti flower movement.

(02:38:26):
But we're back giving you reclaim. It was my first
time hearing any of these stories.

Speaker 7 (02:38:35):
What's funny.

Speaker 1 (02:38:37):
He didn't even never ship.

Speaker 7 (02:38:39):
He didn't even talk about the real fight that went
down at the party. But we'll talk about that later.
That ship was illed.

Speaker 3 (02:38:44):
It was yes, mother to shoot the couple fight, A
couple against couple, Ruth's number, ruth member and girlfriend.

Speaker 7 (02:38:52):
And yeah, yo, name, can I tell it?

Speaker 1 (02:39:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (02:39:01):
Sure, real quick?

Speaker 5 (02:39:02):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (02:39:02):
Was it? Was it someone that was married in the band?

Speaker 5 (02:39:04):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (02:39:04):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, he was married. They were fighting the
first uh keyboard player, that's what they remember. It was
the first keyboard.

Speaker 1 (02:39:13):
Player and girl friend and yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:39:18):
Versus the new one and his gangster wife. All right,
I've done and money. Sorry he was to love, he
was getting love. I'm so sorry. Oh my god, oh
my god.

Speaker 1 (02:39:29):
Whoa Yeah, I did not know this. Okay. Revelations story
Storge Episode one.

Speaker 7 (02:39:37):
Yeah, can is this permission? Because this is just because
you said it on tape?

Speaker 1 (02:39:44):
Yeah? I don't see why not?

Speaker 7 (02:39:46):
Oh yod, thanks thanks mo.

Speaker 1 (02:39:49):
Thank you mom. I appreciate it. Thank you ladies and gentlemen.
Money love h question of.

Speaker 5 (02:39:57):
Supreme you guys still hear me?

Speaker 1 (02:39:59):
Yeah, yeah, this is the perfect way to end the show.
This is things going. Yeah, We'll see you next go
around on request Love Supreme. Thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (02:40:10):
Hey, this is Sugar Steve. Make sure you keep up
with us on Instagram at QLs and let us know
what you think and who should be next to sit
down with us. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast.

Speaker 1 (02:40:25):
What's Left Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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Episode Transcript

Hosts And Creators

Laiya St. Clair

Questlove

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