Questlove Supreme: Rapsody

Grammy nominated emcee Rapsody talks about growing up in North Carolina, as well as her plans for the future!

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Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Fante Come Back.

Speaker 3 (00:07):
Supreme Supreme, Roll Supreme Supremo, Roll called Supreme Supremo, Roll
call Supreme Supreme.

Speaker 4 (00:22):
Roll God, I don't want to alarm Yeah, or across hysteria. Yeah,
but all the great talents. Yeah, we're born Aquarius Supreme.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
I forgot my.

Speaker 5 (00:37):
Supreme role.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
My name is Sugar.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (00:40):
I love McCoy Tyner Yeah and any rapper. Yeah from
North Carolina.

Speaker 7 (00:47):
Supreme Supreme, Roll Suprema, So Supremo roll call.

Speaker 5 (00:55):
It's like em yeah and than me.

Speaker 7 (00:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (00:59):
Ain't nobody, Well, it may be rhapsody.

Speaker 7 (01:02):
WHOA call Supremo Sun Sun Supremo, Roll call Supremo Supremo.

Speaker 5 (01:10):
Roll they call me rap.

Speaker 8 (01:12):
Yeah, I'm on this show.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:14):
Freestyle at the top.

Speaker 5 (01:16):
Yeah, that's all I know.

Speaker 7 (01:18):
Ro Suprema su su Supremo, Roll call Supreme Supremo, Roll
call Supremo Sun Sun Suprema Roll Suprema Sun Sun Suprema.

Speaker 4 (01:34):
Roll Come get it all right, I did it.

Speaker 5 (01:38):
Got a little one. That's cute.

Speaker 4 (01:41):
Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to another episode of the nerdiest
rabbit hole and informative program ever created for music. This
is Quest Love Supreme. I am quest Love and I
be sixty three. Shout out to my team Supreme crew,
Sugar Steve, who I think.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Is what five? Ten eleven?

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Exactly? Well, it depends what part of me you're talking.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
You'd be five hr anyway, and shout out to Laya.

Speaker 5 (02:11):
What is it?

Speaker 9 (02:12):
Five?

Speaker 1 (02:13):
What you about? Five? Eight?

Speaker 5 (02:14):
That's right, alright, that's good question.

Speaker 4 (02:16):
I was going to say you more like six feet
when you rock the stilettos, when Leonard uh, when Leonard
Kravitz is in proximity of you, are you gonna go
my way? Anyway? Ladies and gentlemen, our guest today, I
should pretty much have music fans and real hip hop
hits mad excited. Hailing from North Caakalac, she made her

(02:41):
professional debut on ninth One is Dream Merchant project way
back in like two thousand and seven. That's ever as
a member of the Koli High Collective and also releasing
I Can't Forget Buzzworthy mixtapes, she's pretty much been bubbling under,
releasing The Idea of beautif Full in twenty twelve, getting notable

(03:02):
co signs from like Mac Miller, BJ's Chicago Kid Charles Gambino.
Of course, twenty seventeens Lia is Wisdom, Layla's Wisdom, Layales.
I'm sorry, all right, I saw the name and just
started saying your name like you, Layla's Wisdom with spots
from k Dot and andest In Pat and someone else

(03:22):
named black Thought, whoever that is. The new rock Nation
signee got her first round of Grammy nominations, and of
course we cannot forget twenty nineteen's Eve with an astounding
Metacritics score of ninety. Let me just let you know, medical.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Like I use that Metacritic is kind of like it's
an aggregate.

Speaker 4 (03:46):
It's like rotten tomatoes. So a combination of everyone who's
reviewed your product. Wow, you get a basically a score.
So to get ninety is that's some acclaimed that shit.
Like you know, I prayed just to get eighties, like
seventy five to eighties. She's getting straight out, she's getting straight.
A's over here, you know, Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome

(04:09):
to Quest Love Supreme, the one and only Rhapsody here.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
You're lad for yourself too, because I want to, I
want I want to.

Speaker 9 (04:17):
Huge in the Bengals three right, see they running sixt deep.

Speaker 8 (04:26):
Gold Bot straight up from the fingers to the neck.
You know what it is.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
You were telling us where your shine came from.

Speaker 8 (04:32):
Oh yeah, yeah yeah, so I actually, you.

Speaker 4 (04:35):
Know what, I like the return. I feel like it's
going to be a righteous return to gold.

Speaker 8 (04:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
That's something that.

Speaker 4 (04:42):
I was not able to experience as a kid. I
was in the plastic phase.

Speaker 5 (04:47):
Of like mcdowia African Medallion, stop Watch. Oh yeah, I
was allowed.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
I wasn't allowed to have anything back.

Speaker 4 (04:54):
I have to stop Watch because I grew up in
the era where they would snatch your snatch, your snatch everything,
you your sneakers. I couldn't wear Jordan's nothing, hip hoppy,
no king gold, no nothing, So that's real.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
But I could get a stop Watch.

Speaker 8 (05:08):
Yeah, nobody didn't want that.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
So where did you? Where did you?

Speaker 9 (05:13):
I've always like Gold. I mean I went through the
Wood Medallion stage. I went through that, you know, Zoo Nation,
African Pictic. But I've always been a fan of Gold.
I just actually loved Rock Nation.

Speaker 8 (05:23):
And one of the security.

Speaker 9 (05:24):
Guards was like, the history behind gold and Egypt was
that the kings who loved their wives would adorn them
and all this gold so you always see the women wearing.

Speaker 4 (05:33):
Mad Yes, that kind of was my first time in
rock Nation.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
They were just having dice games and.

Speaker 5 (05:44):
Day, okay, I like.

Speaker 10 (05:46):
Your gold combo because it's like you got the banks
on the chest, but then you were telling me you
got the thrift on the arms. But it's all shining
at the same level of shin nasty.

Speaker 8 (05:54):
One of these chest joints is thrifty.

Speaker 5 (05:57):
That what sot reputee?

Speaker 8 (06:00):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 4 (06:01):
As far as no, no, not you, I'm like, as
far as I.

Speaker 9 (06:05):
Put it in could, I'm always rock fake goal like that,
I'm keeping with you.

Speaker 8 (06:12):
There you go, this this never this never TD might
be real. Just the Marry J. Blige and uh some collection.

Speaker 5 (06:19):
There's a Mary J.

Speaker 8 (06:21):
Yeah, she did a collaboration with.

Speaker 9 (06:23):
L Rife Samon. So this is the Sister Love m
G m j B collection. It's right here.

Speaker 8 (06:29):
And yeah they got this and they got the double
never TD ear rings. I got those. I got that
fire Google.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
She's literally googling can we finish the episode?

Speaker 8 (06:40):
Sister Love m j.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
B bringing out the credit card right now?

Speaker 5 (06:44):
I just want to get his sister some live black business.

Speaker 4 (06:47):
We got that, we got that all right, So where
I start with every episode of Quest Love Supreme, of which,
like I'm really interested in how your creativity has evolved
throughout the years, I always start with the question is
where were you born?

Speaker 8 (07:03):
Oh?

Speaker 9 (07:04):
I was born in Whilson, North Carolina. It's a small
city in the eastern part of North Carolina. But I
grew up thirty mention from there in snow Hill, North Carolina.
And that's an even smallest city, population two thousand.

Speaker 8 (07:18):
Like, that's where I was born, around a lot.

Speaker 9 (07:19):
Of woods and fields and you know, going to the
grocery store with no shoes on, like playing with your
cousins all day in the dirt.

Speaker 5 (07:28):
You know, your shooters out there. You a shoot.

Speaker 9 (07:31):
I shot B B gun. That's about it. You know,
I ain't doing nothing more than that. But yeah, that's
that's how I grew up. I didn't go to my
first hip hop concert until maybe I was thirteen.

Speaker 8 (07:41):
Montel Jordan does that count?

Speaker 5 (07:45):
So I went on the bill.

Speaker 8 (07:48):
I think that he was the only rapper.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
Bro that's Williams.

Speaker 5 (07:54):
Trying to play my faith. This is how we do.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
It's funny. It's funny.

Speaker 4 (07:59):
You mentioned that I have a friend who is celebrating
like a milestone birthday. So he's trying to have like
a ninety steam rap party and have like his rap
favorites and he's really in the nineties R and B,
and he wants to get the most bang for his buck.
The thing is is that Montel, even though he's had
other hits, you know, this is how we do.

Speaker 1 (08:21):
It's kind of the Black national anthem.

Speaker 8 (08:22):
It is, so to speak.

Speaker 5 (08:24):
It's transformed too. It's like everybody's now.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
But that's the thing.

Speaker 4 (08:27):
But the problem is is I'm trying to push him
to get He can either get Montel Jordan or he
could get Drew Hill. And I told him he Drew Hill,
You'll least get four hits.

Speaker 10 (08:41):
At least the song at least bro so you you
got to well.

Speaker 5 (08:47):
They're the same price, Drew Hill, what are we talking about?

Speaker 8 (08:53):
Question?

Speaker 5 (08:55):
I'm sorry, that's next.

Speaker 1 (08:55):
That's next somebody? Yes, and uh there's two.

Speaker 5 (09:02):
Pieces like pieces calm girl. I don't forget what that's called.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
Right, But at least he's looking at me like, what
the fuck with you? Hill? You at least get four
hits and the thongs?

Speaker 5 (09:12):
Yes, right?

Speaker 4 (09:14):
And with Montel, you get that one. This is how
we do it, even though there's been other hits. You know,
he's had other top ten hits. I'm not trying and
the talk show, Yes, no, that's Montel Williams. And so
let's let's not totally rabbit hole off the you know,
the conversation. What I want to know is okay for

(09:35):
us as snotty Northerners that only come on. Now, let's
keep it one hundred. We know, we know, we know
like four cities. No, my family is from Greensboro.

Speaker 8 (09:48):
Yeah, y'all know Charlotte, Greensboro rally probably Now all.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
My family's from Greensboro. But that's all I know.

Speaker 4 (09:53):
And I know like in Greensboro not to talk to
any woman because I've heard that at least one out
of the before black women in that city is my cousin.

Speaker 9 (10:03):
Where you're going, We don't want to get into the
yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:07):
Yeah, yeah, no, no not at all.

Speaker 4 (10:09):
So like what major city are you was? It was
snow you said, snow Hill.

Speaker 8 (10:14):
Snow Hill. You're not going to know. The closest rally
rally is an hour away.

Speaker 9 (10:19):
Really, that's the that's the one that's maybe Fayettville, maybe, Yeah,
that's like an hour and a half where j Cole
is from.

Speaker 4 (10:26):
So you're saying that it's more so you're saying that
the environment was more backwoodsy.

Speaker 8 (10:32):
Yeah, definitely like this, it was closer to.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
My Daughters of the Dust or like, I just want.

Speaker 5 (10:39):
To know the reference because I'm that's dope. That's dope.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
That was dope reference with Darters of the Dust.

Speaker 4 (10:43):
No, well, I'm just saying that in terms of Okay,
there's when when slavery.

Speaker 5 (10:49):
And the gullers where you're going.

Speaker 4 (10:50):
Yeah, when slavery was ended, there's some freed Africans that
decided to continue the tradition of of their life as
they knew it in Africa by living off in the
far woods. Like really, my my peeps come from Mobile, Alabama.
So they started Africa Town and practice Yorba religion and

(11:11):
all that stuff. But they did that also gees in
North Carolina and whatnot. So I was trying to is
a movie.

Speaker 5 (11:19):
Yes, oh yes, yes, yes, yes, I know we need
that deep bro.

Speaker 8 (11:24):
Okay, because I don't do me like that.

Speaker 9 (11:29):
Come on, look at me, Look how I'm dressed, baby,
I need that far.

Speaker 1 (11:37):
I mean they had a corner store, Okay, I see
I see you got to.

Speaker 10 (11:45):
Ask her about the second hip hop show. I'm gonta
redeem herself.

Speaker 1 (11:49):
How big was your household?

Speaker 2 (11:51):
Like?

Speaker 1 (11:51):
Are you the only child or.

Speaker 9 (11:54):
I'm one of five, three older sisters, one younger brother.
Me and my brother are a year apart. I'm I'm
the knee baby, which is next to last. That's that's
some country ship. Yeah, knee baby, so I'm next to last.
So yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1 (12:10):
Are you the over achiever of the family.

Speaker 9 (12:13):
I think we all over achievers. I'm probably second in
line though, the middle child. My sister Amanda, she was valedictorian.
You know, she just did everything right. But I I
am the overachiever now because.

Speaker 4 (12:24):
I always feel like the middle child or the indistinguishable.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
I'm the last.

Speaker 8 (12:33):
Yeah, I'm the last girl.

Speaker 9 (12:34):
But all of us did good, like I could say
my parents did well.

Speaker 8 (12:39):
Yes they did.

Speaker 4 (12:40):
Was your first musical memory that concert? No, what was
your first musical?

Speaker 9 (12:45):
My first musical memory was Michael Jackson. That's the oh
for like oh music period period is Michael Jackson. So
that's what had me hooked from the jump, Like man
in the mirror, the girl is my all of that,
Like me and my dad would sit up on like
Saturday mornings and watch video soul tape them on VHS

(13:07):
and you know we watch them again during the week.

Speaker 8 (13:09):
Yes, I do that.

Speaker 9 (13:10):
I watch your MTV raps like those are my biggest memories.
But it all started with like R and B and
soul music. So Saturday mornings cleaning up, you know, my
mom's playing Tina Turner.

Speaker 8 (13:19):
Patty the Bell. My dad is a huge Luther.

Speaker 9 (13:22):
Vandrass fan, so I've heard every Luther Vandrass song that
there is known to man. But those are my first
musical memories.

Speaker 4 (13:32):
Do you remember the first album that you purchased that
not just had in the house, but the album that
you wanted was the first album you purchased.

Speaker 9 (13:40):
The first one I purchased was Aliyah's first album, He
Ain't Number the Number. The first album that I owned
was Warren G's Regulate, but my aunt had to get
it for me because of that sticker. My parents were
not going for that. I beg her she got it
for me. That was the first album that I had.
But the one I bought was Aaliyah It's.

Speaker 4 (14:00):
Called Rap Contraband. When I was young, I couldn't have
the first UTFO album.

Speaker 1 (14:08):
There was there wasn't even that's crazy. It's a funny thing.
The funny thing was there was no cursing on it.
But on one.

Speaker 4 (14:18):
Of those on rox Sannes version of Roxanne rox Sand
which is like buried on SIDEB, she said like one
term like all you received was a kick in the ass.
And then my dad like just took the tape out
and destroyed the tape.

Speaker 9 (14:31):
So I got one of those the tape I destroyed
which one It wasn't even like a bigger artist, was
like a local group that I got from fourth grade.

Speaker 8 (14:40):
And the look was like a.

Speaker 9 (14:41):
Tisket, a task and a condiment a basket. My mama
came through that door so fast.

Speaker 5 (14:47):
Fourth grade.

Speaker 9 (14:49):
Yah, it was a white tape with black letters. Look,
I ain't think I was a boy. I survived that day.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
So was it a religious house hold?

Speaker 9 (15:00):
Or I grew up with Jehovah's witness So my mom
is Jehovah's witness.

Speaker 8 (15:03):
My dad was non denominational.

Speaker 9 (15:05):
Still no, no, no, I'm uh inactive.

Speaker 8 (15:10):
Is I'm more spiritual than religious?

Speaker 5 (15:14):
That's my line?

Speaker 8 (15:15):
So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (15:16):
Wow so uh man mm hmm no, no, no, but that's
always I find it that those who are in the
entertainment business that I have to sort of pass through
the portals of especially with Jehovah's.

Speaker 10 (15:33):
Them know right, like have you found like your brothers
and sisters? And because Jill used to be a Jill
Scott Scott.

Speaker 8 (15:42):
Jill Scott general sound way with T D E.

Speaker 1 (15:45):
Wow, yeah, I know. Michael Jackson started as friends.

Speaker 9 (15:50):
Joahill got some nice you know, spoke in my circles.

Speaker 8 (15:57):
Come over to this side.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
Wait, when's the last time you went to Kingdom?

Speaker 8 (16:00):
Go on?

Speaker 1 (16:01):
Bro, No, no, no, I'm only asking.

Speaker 5 (16:05):
Because past needs everything full.

Speaker 4 (16:09):
I've never spoken to someone what goes on, so I
know that most like the Black of course with Black
Church experiences and Baptist Church is like.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
Yeah but more conservative and Kingdom Hall Kingdom Halls.

Speaker 8 (16:25):
It was.

Speaker 9 (16:25):
It was honestly, it was like Bible school, like you
know you have you know of the watch Tower and
the ways when we come to the paper whatever.

Speaker 8 (16:32):
Yeah, So a lot of times they'll give you Bible readings.
You go home, you go through the Bible, find the
verses they give you the watch Tower.

Speaker 9 (16:39):
They'll have paragraphs that pertain to a certain topic, whether
it's life after death or what do you do about
blood transfusions? And read through the paragraphs. At the end
they have questions. You go find the Bible verses and
answer them. And the next day, you know, they'll have
a main person that gives a talk, but they're like
the preacher, but we call it given a talk. And

(16:59):
then the second an hour you answer the questions as
a group and then you sing hymns, yeah, but no clapping,
sing so the whole.

Speaker 1 (17:14):
Like that.

Speaker 4 (17:14):
You know, you're just from behind me of when we
did the Prince episode. His assistant has a really hilarys
story of Prince Dragon to Kingdom Hall and she was
shocked that she thought it was gonna be like a
black again a black Southern gospel hooting and hollering music thing,

(17:35):
and you know, the music was very proper, and you know,
and Prince was singing it and she just couldn't.

Speaker 1 (17:40):
She was like, who are you? Like? What were you doing?

Speaker 4 (17:45):
So you're you said that Montel was your first How
old were you when we went to this Montell Jordan concert?

Speaker 8 (17:50):
I was in seventh grade, so that it was Montel
Jordan boys.

Speaker 9 (17:53):
To me, that was the first concert I went to
the first real hip hop concert I went to.

Speaker 8 (18:00):
I was in college. I don't remember. It might have
been common common.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
Was Yeah, where did you go to college?

Speaker 8 (18:07):
North Carolina State University.

Speaker 4 (18:10):
Yeah, that's that's kind of the Yeah, I'll say that
on the East coast, at least down south, at least
like North Carolina was definitely a common no pun intended central. Yeah,
there's at least five or six college stops that you
can make down Oh wait, I'm about to tell you
a story, like there's one time when I met a

(18:30):
ninth Wonder and this band I forget their name, oh
Little Brother, Yeah, I forgot.

Speaker 8 (18:38):
I have heard that story.

Speaker 1 (18:40):
Yes, yep, thank God for that rain storm.

Speaker 4 (18:42):
I want to well, I mean the show was outdoors,
so it was like an electric electric storm. So we
only did like one song, and I felt bad for
everyone that like stood out there to watch it.

Speaker 10 (18:52):
So, like, yo, who was Carolina hip hop before Little Brother.

Speaker 8 (18:57):
Before a Little Brother?

Speaker 5 (18:58):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (19:02):
But even then, that's just like, were there any to
your knowledge?

Speaker 1 (19:06):
Was there anyone?

Speaker 4 (19:08):
It's weird that Okay, it's weird that you're asking that
because I know that in ninety seven ninety eight, ninety
seven ninety eight, there was a major migration of New York.

Speaker 5 (19:22):
Rappers, right school rappers.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
That moved down there. I know that special Edge, Specialleed
was early.

Speaker 4 (19:28):
Big Daddy came as early, and they were telling us,
you know back then, like yo, y'all better hurry down
and get some property before gentrification. Like you could you
could buy like a twelve room mansion with like marble floors,
Like you could get some scarface property maybe.

Speaker 1 (19:47):
Like yeah, for like cheap to them.

Speaker 8 (19:50):
You know, Madland?

Speaker 1 (19:52):
Is it that way now? Or has gentrification caught up?

Speaker 8 (19:56):
And I mean it's it's still pretty affordable.

Speaker 9 (20:00):
We're growing like rapidly, so downtown it might get a
little pricey, but compared to up here, is still cheap.

Speaker 1 (20:06):
Now what city do you live in now?

Speaker 8 (20:07):
I live in Raleigh?

Speaker 5 (20:09):
So are you?

Speaker 4 (20:10):
And you consider that home? That's where you would like
to stay?

Speaker 1 (20:16):
I wanted to say, is that where you want to die?

Speaker 9 (20:19):
Well, but that's where you want to settle down?

Speaker 8 (20:24):
Settle down is a better word. Yes, I would.

Speaker 9 (20:26):
I would like to settle down North Carolina, but I
definitely want to move. I've been there my whole life,
Like I want to live in New York. I want
to experience l a like maybe go to Africa for
a little bit. Who knows, you.

Speaker 5 (20:37):
Know, you haven't done it yet.

Speaker 8 (20:39):
I'm found South South Africa. If I could take all
my family there, I moved there.

Speaker 10 (20:43):
You seem like the type that would circle back and
reinvest in whatever Carolina has going on.

Speaker 9 (20:47):
Oh definitely, definitely that's home always. So you got to
reinvest in home.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
What was your come to Jesus moment as far as.

Speaker 4 (21:04):
Knowing that you had something, as far as love for
hip hop culture, like this is what I want to do.

Speaker 9 (21:12):
Oh I felt like that was early, like like I
was around ten or eleven, Like I fell in love
with it when I saw EMC Light's Poor Georgie video.
So that's the first time, like I saw a female
doing it and it's just like yo, that video cool.
So that that was the first time I was like, Wow,

(21:33):
what is this? And then you know, you you get
more into it, you know, listening to Warren G. Like
I said, uh Aliah's hip Hop Flavor Style, Queen Latifa,
then you know, I listened to Jay's Reasonable Doubt.

Speaker 8 (21:47):
But it was Lauren Hill that really you locked me in.
I saw the food.

Speaker 5 (21:51):
The food is a score.

Speaker 8 (21:52):
I knew what I wanted to do.

Speaker 5 (21:53):
Then I saw that you said.

Speaker 10 (21:55):
It's funny always want to ask people because you said
that the score was your ship.

Speaker 5 (21:58):
Nobody ever says anything. I'll blunt it.

Speaker 8 (22:04):
The vocal the remix rock.

Speaker 5 (22:06):
Okay, here's a little one.

Speaker 1 (22:09):
In fact, I've heard bln on reality and its entirety.

Speaker 8 (22:14):
Of course, I couldn't get through it, not so much.

Speaker 5 (22:19):
You know, I ain't mad at you.

Speaker 1 (22:21):
No, no, no, it wasn't no, no, no, it was which one
was that love? All right, I'm gonna tell you a
little story.

Speaker 5 (22:28):
They were in the way. We weren't We weren't all
right in the beginning, weren't all right?

Speaker 1 (22:33):
Here's the deal. Yes there was.

Speaker 4 (22:36):
Now that I'm older and wiser, I know not to
react off of ninth hand information. Okay, And this is
me closer to my fifties than you know. This is
like if this that Dave Chappelle sketch where like you know,
twenty three year old mirror is talking versus me. Now,

(23:01):
it was just that, Yes, I felt some sort of way.
It's okay, Like we were on tour together and it
was a doggy dog territory and they got out the
gate first. The score came out, and Ate The Score
came out in like February ninety six, and Hiladelph Half
Life came out in September ninety six. So they got

(23:22):
out the Gate first had three you know, they sold
eleven million by the time we came out. But I
was a little salty, he really, I was salty that
their show slowly started to morph into our show, which
you know, when they first came out, it was about

(23:43):
the ritual with the you know they were doing like
voodoo rituals and all those things, you know, representing Haiti.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
Yeah, they were lighting candles.

Speaker 10 (23:51):
And something not those direction. What did he saying? But
it's okay, what are you talking about?

Speaker 1 (23:55):
You really?

Speaker 5 (23:55):
You serious? I don't remember I remember them wrapping in Japanese.

Speaker 4 (23:59):
No no, no, no, no, oh dude in So here's the deal.
My last day intern at rough House Records, which coincidentally
was Santi Cole's first day. Santi was my replacement at
rough House as the intern, and upon leaving, uh, Chris
Wartz pulled me aside and said, hey, I know you

(24:20):
guys are having a signing party for you guys signing
to Geffen Records.

Speaker 1 (24:25):
How many acts you happened. We're like, well, we got
Jay with the Damager Gang Star is going to come
and perform some local philiacs. We're really full.

Speaker 4 (24:32):
But then I thought he did give me that money
for our first video. Wow, what's up? And he says, Yo,
we got a group that's sort of like in the
lane of you guys, and can they go on and
do like, you know, like.

Speaker 1 (24:43):
Two or three songs whatever? And I was like, okay, okay,
I did it. Why do you want to add to this?
I'll just sign. So here's the thing they get.

Speaker 4 (24:55):
They get to sound check, and the first thing I
said was, now, let me let me just preface by
saying that I was the family DVR.

Speaker 1 (25:05):
So it was my job.

Speaker 4 (25:07):
My uncles and my aunts and my mom and everyone
really didn't know much about programming a VCR and someone
had to program all their stories. So every Friday, I
had to come and reprogram myself so they go watch
their stories during their week on VCR. So I was
very familiar with all the CBS soap operas. So when

(25:28):
she walked in, Oh yeah, at the it's like yo, yeah,
yeah for Master World terms, and she looked at me
like like I was calling her out, like I think
she was expecting the sister act too, But I was like, yo,

(25:50):
Shem was like and looked at me like like I
was like, I didn't realize that, like I'm about to
blow your cover that you're a professional soap opera actress.
And so no, and we became cool and we toured together.
But the thing was then when they first started, they
were like lighting the stage with stages and and.

Speaker 5 (26:13):
You know, when they finished White Clubs playing a guitar, like.

Speaker 4 (26:17):
I think what we showed them, what we showed them
was that, oh, you can sort of do like the
karaoke hip hop tribute thing, which you know once we're
like used to well, I mean the thing it was like, okay,
third verse, we're going to rhyme over this caros one break,
and the second verse we're going to do a breakover
this black Moon break and that and when we you know,

(26:39):
and then as they started doing it was like then
they called why am I wasting?

Speaker 1 (26:44):
All right? Anyway?

Speaker 5 (26:46):
Hip hop history, for.

Speaker 8 (26:48):
I needed to know why you didn't finish the whole score.

Speaker 4 (26:51):
Now anyway, So my point is that I'll say that
in ten ninety six, it was it was tense it
was very tense. So it's hard for me to as
a listener to listen to that particular album.

Speaker 5 (27:11):
Do you find it interesting?

Speaker 10 (27:11):
He still hasn't listened to What I Do because it's nineteen.

Speaker 1 (27:14):
But here's the thing. It's so classic you can't avoid it.

Speaker 4 (27:17):
It's almost like it's almost like Bruce Springsteen is born
in the USA. All but three songs are singles, so like,
I know it.

Speaker 5 (27:25):
All and that's the whole album. I just know that song.

Speaker 4 (27:27):
No, but you've heard Dancing in the Dark, cover Me
and I'm on Fire and Glory Days and like it's
damn near thriller, Like you know all the songs.

Speaker 1 (27:37):
Anyway, this is not about me.

Speaker 5 (27:39):
Welcome to quest of Supreme Rhapsody anyway.

Speaker 4 (27:42):
So I shot, I will say I love it is. No, well,
at least I'm man it is.

Speaker 8 (27:50):
That's that's a nice fact. That's a good question at
the time.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
No, but I know all the songs, like I would
DJ like the joint the Zealots and.

Speaker 10 (28:00):
I dare you to throw vocab in the next party.
Can be just can me just get it?

Speaker 1 (28:03):
I love vocas I know.

Speaker 5 (28:04):
I'm just saying nobody does blunt it. That was back
to my original.

Speaker 4 (28:07):
Oh yeah, no no, but I was saying off that
first record, I loved vocab.

Speaker 1 (28:11):
That was that was my join. That was my join anyway,
So back to you.

Speaker 6 (28:18):
So you like Lauren Hell huh, I'm trying to get
back there. Yeah, she was.

Speaker 2 (28:26):
A big influence.

Speaker 4 (28:27):
So what was what was the community like? And the
one question that I'm glad that you kind of what
I call matrix dodge is, especially with people that are
not that familiar with you and they're asking you all
the time like, well, what's it like being a female
and rap and you.

Speaker 1 (28:46):
Know, underground d da da da da? But what was
the environment?

Speaker 4 (28:52):
Because I'll be honest with you, by the time that
like the turn of the the the millennium, uh, by
the end of the nineties into the early aughts, Like
I personally was rather shocked that there was a boom
bap element or appreciation in North Carolina, which really shocked

(29:14):
me by when I listened to you know, Little Brother's demo.

Speaker 1 (29:17):
The first time, I was like, wait, where are they're from?

Speaker 5 (29:19):
Yeah, exactly, same thing, what rhapsod he does, same thing.
I appreci it. I don't even hear.

Speaker 1 (29:23):
Right, So for me, like, how did you.

Speaker 4 (29:28):
Avoid what we up north sort of associate most hip
hop from down South, which I guess you could say
in the nineties we thought that South was booty music
or that's you know, or the early early stages of trap.
Like how did you find a hip hop community that

(29:53):
was you know about the aesthetics of what quote real
hip hoppers in New York strive to be.

Speaker 9 (30:02):
Well, For one, I think people have a slight misconception
like if you look at North Carolina, we're more Middle
East than Deep South, so you.

Speaker 8 (30:12):
Know, yeah, and we're wanted.

Speaker 9 (30:15):
We're probably one of the states that have the most HBCUs.
So at the time, you got understand, ninety five runs
straight through North Carolina. So you have a lot of
artists or New Yorkers that are coming to come to
school in North Carolina and they're bringing the music with them.
You have drug dealers coming through, they're bringing the music
with them. So for us, it's like a melting pot too.
You got people from Atlanta coming, so, you know, not

(30:37):
only that's how we got the music, Like, you know,
there was so much northern influence where we lived, just
from the colleges and people that came through, you know,
that's a lot of what we listened to. So we
listened to boom Back, We listened to a lot of
New York music, but we all listen to Atlanta.

Speaker 8 (30:52):
We also listen. So when I think about North Carolina,
it's just a melting pot.

Speaker 9 (30:56):
Like you know, we didn't have like a true Southern
identity like a Texas you know, but it's still car culture.
So you got to ride the eye music at the
same time. So I think that's what it was where
you know, everybody I know, like we wore tims, you
know what I'm saying.

Speaker 8 (31:12):
Like they they had they were the headbands.

Speaker 9 (31:14):
They had some you know, people from the South some
time to get the New York accent.

Speaker 8 (31:18):
Like that was heavy where I was from.

Speaker 9 (31:20):
Like my cousin used to call itself nas because you know,
the music and everybody from the colleges that were in
there was just heavily influenced on us.

Speaker 4 (31:29):
Speaking of I'm jumping way ahead, but you mentioned car
culture and writing. Indeed, I'm just gonna ask in the
video for Eve to Hush Yep, where did that car
come from?

Speaker 8 (31:42):
Oh man, we made a call somebody, somebody brought that through.
Like that's a rental today.

Speaker 1 (31:47):
Damn it, wait for that for the video.

Speaker 8 (31:50):
Yeah, the green joint with the mcm insize. Yes, yeah,
Mysa Hill.

Speaker 11 (31:55):
I'm about to say, and she dripped the inside outm
but somebody they own a car that people use the
videos and they let us, they let us drip it out.

Speaker 1 (32:05):
Okay, I I thought that was your personal riding.

Speaker 8 (32:08):
No, we ain't there yet.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
You know you will be there.

Speaker 4 (32:11):
Let's start with the affirmations, not even goals effects.

Speaker 5 (32:15):
But when you get there, you probably won't want the
car with mcm I don't know.

Speaker 8 (32:19):
That's kind of fire with the mcm cs.

Speaker 5 (32:23):
This, this is give them too much.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
Listen.

Speaker 4 (32:25):
This is the lesson that I want anyone listening to
learn for twenty twenty that most of the times we
come modest and humble, and we need to be We
need to be more about I am as opposed to
I am me and own it, own it instead of

(32:47):
you know, one of these days we'll get there.

Speaker 10 (32:49):
But you know this is funny because the three of
us have that whole twenty four hours between our birthdays.
So I'm really taking this to heart because I know
that's who you really are. You're fighting that anyway you
know and rhaps you know you're you're born to.

Speaker 1 (32:59):
Wait, why am I fighting?

Speaker 10 (33:00):
Day?

Speaker 1 (33:00):
I was born?

Speaker 10 (33:00):
No fighting that what you just said is a big
deal for us. Like we usually aquarium sometimes can be
like I am when we are dope as fuck instead
of being like I am like that's an aquarium things.

Speaker 8 (33:11):
Right, That's something I'm working on.

Speaker 9 (33:12):
This, This is what I'm higher vibrations and really owning
and manifest from.

Speaker 2 (33:16):
I am stoned right now.

Speaker 1 (33:20):
I am stoned.

Speaker 9 (33:22):
I am.

Speaker 2 (33:24):
I am stone.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
So when was the major at the NC State County?

Speaker 4 (33:30):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (33:31):
Really all right?

Speaker 5 (33:33):
Because you know why? Because I was a mass calm major.

Speaker 10 (33:36):
And I always told like the younger kids when I said,
when you go back, when you go to school, like
intern with your passion. But do some have some kind
of business major and learn all the information you know,
numbers wise and formula wise so you can you are
a business, you need to know how to you know,
run it.

Speaker 9 (33:50):
So yeah, when I get my taxes done, you don't
know the lank whatever. But I wish I had done
marketing if I was okay one, I wish I had
done marketing, but I did it because I was good
at numbers. My sister went to school for accounting. You know,
growing up in the South, it's like get a job,
get married, and get a job like an accountant a doctor.
So I was like, I'm good with numbers. I'm gonna
do that. But I'm way more creative than I am

(34:13):
with numbers. But I didn't figure out that that's not
what I wanted to do until my junior year. And
I was trying to transfer to NYU until I saw
that out of state tuition, so I chese to, I relaxed.

Speaker 8 (34:25):
I real still.

Speaker 4 (34:26):
That one I tried to be a New York College
student and it wasn't I wasn't too successful.

Speaker 10 (34:31):
You notice the difference between the HPC used tuition and
then the big school. Well, I'm gonna just be over
here at Mark and State.

Speaker 5 (34:38):
Then I don't know some of them HPC, Pricey.

Speaker 10 (34:43):
Well, Spelman's and the leader of the yesuse I went
to Clark, so they have no more of that.

Speaker 4 (34:51):
Yeah, indeed, I was going to ask Spellman doesn't have
any more of that C word one hundred million dollar donation.

Speaker 5 (34:57):
I don't know what they did with that money. I
don't even know her. His wife's name is on the
building anymore. We're talking about.

Speaker 1 (35:07):
Yeah we still have doctor.

Speaker 6 (35:08):
Okay, I made enough Cosby jokes over the years to
start now now you can't say.

Speaker 5 (35:16):
It the husks.

Speaker 8 (35:21):
I know what y'all was talking about.

Speaker 5 (35:22):
I know you didn't.

Speaker 4 (35:28):
What prompted the desire to go to New York? Like,
what did you So you're saying by your junior year
you wanted to get more serious about your music career.

Speaker 9 (35:36):
And definitely I didn't know at the time at that
point or we were. We were just it was more
h two oh, it was an organization.

Speaker 8 (35:43):
Before it was a hip hop group.

Speaker 9 (35:44):
So so explain what was a hip hop organization that
we started on campus where we we would throw like
rap battles and free shows and you know, we do fundraisers.

Speaker 8 (35:55):
We did one for J. Dillislopis.

Speaker 9 (35:57):
So it was just something for us to infuse hip
hop on campus and you get to use all the
campus you know, speakers and all of that for free.

Speaker 8 (36:06):
So you know, that's what it was.

Speaker 9 (36:08):
So you know, anybody on campus, and we extended to
the community, could be a part of the organization. But
you know, there were five of us that just hung
out more, did music together more, and we ended up
becoming Koli High.

Speaker 8 (36:22):
Okay, that's what that that's how that kind.

Speaker 4 (36:24):
Of So Kolia is a collective as opposed to a
group per se.

Speaker 8 (36:29):
Yeah, okay, collective that came.

Speaker 1 (36:31):
Yeah, so how did you grab the attention of.

Speaker 8 (36:34):
Nine Wonder at this time?

Speaker 9 (36:37):
This a summer and h two oh the organization we're
doing a mixtape, so you know, we got people from
the campus, people from the community. Everybody does something on
this particular mixtape. I wrote and recorded my first two songs.
My best friend knew that, you know, I loved hip hop,
wanted to rap, so he was just like, yo, just
do it for fun.

Speaker 8 (36:54):
Nobody gonna judge you.

Speaker 9 (36:56):
So I do this this these two songs put on
the mixtape, and another guy in the organization at the
time is shadowing Knife, like he's learning how to lose
fruity loops and all this. So he's like, well, nine,
you know, I got this organization, all these kids, do
you mind coming and talk to us. Knife was like yeah,
So we go to you know, this guy's his name
is Foolery, who's in Cooley Hot. We went to his house.

(37:19):
It was probably like fifteen to twenty of us. Nine
comes at the time. He plays us snippets of the
Minstrel Show because it's not out yet. Oh, I get
to hear a genius. He's telling us about you know,
how he got with Jay and recorded thread like.

Speaker 8 (37:34):
You know, we're just all these kids.

Speaker 9 (37:36):
It's like campfire, and you know, because he's at the
time for us, like the biggest thing from North Carolina
outside of Pete Popo. And after that, he listens to
the mixtape top to bottom and when it gets to
my song, it just caught his ear automatic.

Speaker 8 (37:50):
He listened to it probably ten times in a row.

Speaker 5 (37:53):
And the song.

Speaker 9 (37:56):
I listened to him was like, bro, the what you heard,
but it's it's called The Life. Yeah, the Life, And
he was like he looked at everybody and its sound
like we got people that are in groups that have
been doing music for years that you know, got shows
that are traveling, and he goes, that's your star right there.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
Oh.

Speaker 4 (38:15):
I remember him speaking on you early, I mean way
before social media like okay player and like other platforms,
just texting whatever. That he was like, yo, I found
the one I got. Like he was super early, you know,
with with with planting the seeds, with with getting your
name out there.

Speaker 1 (38:36):
But I mean at the time, what would you who
were your your.

Speaker 4 (38:42):
Your idols or at least your the mcs that you
kind of looked up to as far as like getting
your style from.

Speaker 8 (38:50):
And at that time, like I went, I want.

Speaker 1 (38:52):
To ask, like who are your top five rappers? But
I mean, like just.

Speaker 9 (38:56):
At that like I went through different phases of discovery
just because of who I were. I was from, Like
being in snow Hill, it wasn't like, you know, like
I said, you can go to a lot of hip
hop shows and we had like a record store on
the corner.

Speaker 8 (39:06):
I could just go get CD.

Speaker 9 (39:07):
So a lot of like hip hop artists I might
have got laid on like black on both sides. I
didn't he until I got in college, you know. So
at this time my phase J is still my favorite rapper.
But now I'm getting really deep into Most Death and
I'm listening to Common Resurrections so to lib quality, Like
I'm really diving into their catalogs and they're my biggest

(39:28):
influences at this time, you know though growing up, you
know and still Lauren, I listened to Lauren Clean my
Teeth for nas Biggie J. But at this time I'm
really getting into the rocket sound. So that at that point,
that's my biggest influence.

Speaker 4 (39:42):
Okay with what Ninth third, Like, how long was it
until you two collaborated on his uh his dream merchant?

Speaker 1 (39:50):
Yeah yeah, so.

Speaker 8 (39:53):
At the time he said that this was maybe like.

Speaker 1 (39:57):
Volume two, right, volume two, Yeah, seven, I remember that.

Speaker 9 (40:01):
So I met him and he heard those two songs,
like September October of two thousand and five, we did
our first song together maybe like five or six months
after that, uh tab one in Coolie High hit Ninth
during Christmas one time He's like nine jokingly throw us
some beats and he just I am them three beats.

Speaker 8 (40:22):
Like Merry Christmas.

Speaker 9 (40:23):
So those were the first songs that I got to
rap over of his. The first then the next song
where you know, he was like come to the studio.
Like he always kind of took us under his wing.
It just be random, like I would be at work
at foot Action and I get a text like yo,
Ninth told us to pull up at the studio just
out the blue.

Speaker 8 (40:40):
So I'm just I'm like, bass, I gotta go, Like
straight up. I was like I gotta go, and they they.

Speaker 9 (40:46):
Were like so cool and supportive of that heard you
before they knew what out.

Speaker 8 (40:51):
I was a good worker. I was so good weird
they couldn't.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
Even front not inup. You remember Carmichael's story about for
that she was completely from North Carolina. His people were
not to see his potential.

Speaker 5 (41:06):
Guess he wasn't.

Speaker 1 (41:07):
I was expecting your story to go a whole another way. Yeah,
so you're was returning the Big Girl, your first mix,
your first solo.

Speaker 8 (41:17):
First solo project. Okay, this summer January twenty ten.

Speaker 4 (41:21):
Okay, yep, So how long did that take to formulate
and put together and execute?

Speaker 9 (41:28):
Let me see, I signed with nine in two thousand
and eight, two thousand and nine, and I worked and worked,
so we probably worked. I just was recording songs. I
don't think it was like I'm doing a project. I
was just recording songs. And I probably recorded songs for
two years. So we worked on it for two years,
just trying to get my cadence. I still had so

(41:49):
much to learn, like I go back, like tone of
my voice, inflections, keeping a consistent cadence, or knowing when
to switch it in the right spot.

Speaker 1 (41:58):
How is he as a coach great?

Speaker 8 (42:00):
Like night?

Speaker 9 (42:02):
People gotta understand before Knife wanted to be a producer.
He wanted to be a teacher, so he's automatically just
still super patient. So he was super patient with me.
I would get more frustrated with myself than he would.
So he's a great teacher. Like the way he explained
things and broke things down and you know, allowed you,

(42:22):
you know, to figure it out too, Like I didn't
have to be perfect, but he saw enough growth was like, okay,
we could put out your first mixtape and just keep
building on it, Like great teacher, phenomenal.

Speaker 10 (42:33):
Did you get to be in the studio and make
some of these songs with folks in the studio? Was
everybody like sending, oh no, you got it, Like you
gotta understand. Like when Knife creates, he likes people and
energy around him. So and at the time, the studio
is on North Carolina Central's campus, so it's open door,
so you might walk in some days it might be
twenty thirty people in there, and so like it was

(42:55):
so much pressure for me because I'm the opposite when
I create. You know, now I'm more about to ride
around anybody.

Speaker 9 (43:01):
But at that time, like trying to figure it out
and not being confident you step in the booth and
it's twenty people looking at you like what you're about
to do, and.

Speaker 8 (43:08):
Then you know you're doing it and it ain't all
the way right.

Speaker 9 (43:11):
So he keeps stopping you, trying to coach you, and
it's just like I'm going about to go.

Speaker 10 (43:15):
Crazy, and you folks like you got to be in
the studio with Rod Digga, like Matt Miller.

Speaker 9 (43:20):
Rod Digga, Jean Gray came and worked on I think
they were trying to work on Phoenix at the time.
I was there when Wile and Knife were working on
Back to the feature. Big Sean came through. He and
Knife were working on some joints.

Speaker 1 (43:34):
What was it like working with Mac Miller?

Speaker 8 (43:37):
And oh that was that was dope. That was easy.
That was fun.

Speaker 9 (43:41):
Not Mac pulled up. I don't even remember what year was,
might have been like twenty eleven. He was coming to
see ninth or whatever and just hey, you've met Mac.

Speaker 8 (43:52):
It's like, you know, how.

Speaker 9 (43:52):
Open and yeah, chill, his his spirit is so you know,
he heard like some songs. He was like, Yo, you're dope.
He was like, let's do some joints. Like it's just
that easy. Like you know, so when.

Speaker 1 (44:04):
You collaborate with artists. Is it more just like send
me a sixteen or like or do you work in
real time with them? Sometimes?

Speaker 8 (44:13):
And it's different.

Speaker 9 (44:15):
Earlier on it was just like, yo, just send me
some sixteens cause at the time I'm just trying to
prove I could rap. Now now it's different, like for
me to even reach out, I got to hear you
on the song. It don't even matter what your celebrity is.
If I don't hear you, like it could be a
new artist if I hear their voice, Oh, they be
dope on this and I'm calling you so it's gotta

(44:35):
fit right. A lot of times, you know, I tell
them what the concept is. But you know, I don't
like to box people in because I want people to
be as creative as they want to be. So in
the same way, Kendrick called me and told me, like, Yo,
this song is about complexion. You know, you know how
it goes, but boom, then I'm not trying to pigeonhole you.

(44:55):
So that's what it is for me. I like people
to be able to create how they create. And if
it he's tweaking and we'll work on it, or we're
just flipping and turn into something else, put a different
beat on it and make it a new song.

Speaker 8 (45:05):
But that's how we that's how I create.

Speaker 10 (45:08):
It's hard to say that's my favorite Rhapsody verse, but
damn that verse, that complexion.

Speaker 8 (45:13):
Oh thank you?

Speaker 5 (45:15):
Awesome. Can I just ask one more question because you
were talking about.

Speaker 1 (45:19):
It's your shoe too?

Speaker 5 (45:20):
Oh thank you.

Speaker 10 (45:21):
I don't want to fast forward to eve or anything,
but I just want to fast forward for a minute
on the subject. Because on that subject, how do you
propose to Queen Latifa, who doesn't do features like that?

Speaker 1 (45:31):
Time out? How did you get that verse out?

Speaker 8 (45:34):
That's what I.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
Don't want to sell short. I'm not how did you
get that verse out?

Speaker 5 (45:46):
But we just pulled up to a creer. We worked
on it.

Speaker 8 (45:48):
That she killed, that didn't she.

Speaker 1 (45:51):
I wasn't expecting that.

Speaker 4 (45:54):
I thought, all right, when I first heard it, I thought, Okay,
she's going to sing the hook.

Speaker 8 (45:58):
Or something a lot.

Speaker 4 (46:00):
And then when she started spinning, I was like, oh wait,
is Raps changing up? You know, because I'm similar, Like
we had a situation where demoed Big Daddy Kane and
and instead wound up doing it himself. So at first
I thought that's what you you were headed to do.

Speaker 1 (46:19):
And I was like, oh, ship, like he still has it?

Speaker 10 (46:25):
I mean when the last time we've heard in Queen
la tiva picture. I'm just I do anyone I thought
that you.

Speaker 1 (46:31):
One was super fire? I didn't.

Speaker 4 (46:34):
I didn't realize how long? What was the what was
the process or the least.

Speaker 1 (46:39):
Please the process of.

Speaker 4 (46:43):
Because no, this is what I'm asking and I'm not no,
I'm not even being snarky. Here's the reason for my asking.
It's it's a lot of times when you ask for
a favor or verse, especially from someone of stature, depending

(47:04):
on how they feel about you. And you know, there's
some people that like if Tarika asked them, you know,
I'll say that eighty five percent of the time, someone's
gonna bring their a game. But then there's sometimes when
people just like maybe phone it in and that I've
had We've had a few situations where the verse was
phoned in.

Speaker 1 (47:25):
Wow, and it's like well no, no, no.

Speaker 4 (47:29):
It was just like which one of us is gonna
say no, can you do it again?

Speaker 1 (47:35):
Like I feel bad when it's that situation where you
have to.

Speaker 8 (47:41):
And so.

Speaker 4 (47:46):
Yeah, like what's all right? This is all gonna ask
this is yes, no question. I feel like no, no, no,
this is yes. It was that her verse coming in
the door, and that was it and no more.

Speaker 1 (48:00):
No we were or was it worked on?

Speaker 9 (48:03):
And it was it was this is this is how
it happened. She invited me to a house to work
on the on the verse. I went to her into
her home in the studio, we talked, we worked on
the verse, and we got the song that song.

Speaker 1 (48:19):
Right. No, no, that's all I wanted to know.

Speaker 4 (48:22):
I wanted to know more or less, like how many
takes and how many redrafts and rewrites and that sort
of because one draft?

Speaker 5 (48:31):
Okay, can we can we ask about another hard to
get person? Can we ask? Can we ask about D'Angel?

Speaker 1 (48:38):
Did y'all pull that? Wait?

Speaker 4 (48:39):
I'm gonna tell y'all something. This motherfucker and something he
started and finishing. I'm gonna tell you something. Me and D.

Speaker 8 (48:49):
I love him.

Speaker 4 (48:50):
I just one day I decided to count the paces
from my house to his house. Currently, now me and
D have been neighbors. I'm gonna be knowiced to me.
I didn't know that we.

Speaker 1 (49:03):
Were neighbors for five years and then we've.

Speaker 4 (49:06):
Been neighbors for ten years, and one day I was like, wait,
let me count.

Speaker 1 (49:12):
I have a doctor's appointment that's somewhere towards his crib.

Speaker 4 (49:15):
So it's like I'm literally going to count the paces
seventy six steps.

Speaker 5 (49:20):
Yoed us wow, and the albums and a song title.

Speaker 10 (49:23):
I don't know what seventy six steps.

Speaker 4 (49:29):
We've lived seventy six steps from each other for the
last ten years and we ain't been to each other's
crib yet.

Speaker 8 (49:37):
That's crazy for the rect.

Speaker 6 (49:39):
Like six months in di'angelo time, So like, don't take
offense this guy.

Speaker 1 (49:48):
He and Steve.

Speaker 4 (49:50):
Steve was like one of the many engineers on Voodoo
and Black Uh, but say Black Messiah, Black Messiah.

Speaker 2 (49:59):
Yeah, so how I didn't do it?

Speaker 1 (50:03):
How did you get D'Angelo on the record?

Speaker 8 (50:06):
Yo?

Speaker 1 (50:06):
And he's doing a lot on that.

Speaker 4 (50:09):
He's doing arrangements on the record, so it wasn't even like.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
OK, I'm gonna send just this hook game. He went
in like he's even bobbing in and out. Whatever. How
did that happen?

Speaker 8 (50:21):
Bud, By the grace of God the universe, Like.

Speaker 1 (50:24):
You don't even know it that real?

Speaker 8 (50:26):
It was, it was.

Speaker 9 (50:27):
It's all chain reaction if we had to pick that sample,
if just didn't want to get on it, we don't.
We don't get D'Angelo like out the gate. I knew
I wanted to do a Wu Tang flip because of
Nicole Bus record that I I love that record. So
Knife was going through all the Wu Tang sample banks
and he ends up picking the Liquid Swore joints.

Speaker 8 (50:45):
So he's like, this is the one. He sent it
to me. He's like, what you think? It's like, let's
run with it.

Speaker 9 (50:49):
So he's like, well, if we do it, we got
to ask for Jesus blessing and ask him to get
on it because it's his bigger, biggest record.

Speaker 8 (50:55):
Bet we do that. Jesus says yes, so that that's
a feat in.

Speaker 9 (50:59):
It self for giggit or even one. Let us do
it and be like yeah, I'll get on it too.
So we're in the studio mixing with Young Guru like
like mixing and at the time, like the WU documentary
of Mike's and Minutes is out, so they're touring, so
we're trying to schedule like how we can get Jig
in the studio to get this verse while he's touring.
While I'm trying to meet deadlines. So he's talking to

(51:22):
you know, his man to handle that. But you know,
old boy on the other phone says, well, I'm also
working with D'Angelo and he happens to be big fans
of both Ninth One Day and Rhapsody, and I think
it'd be dope if y'all work together. So it's just like, which, well,
I mean what you want, Like I'm ready to do
like a whole new joint. Like I'm like, what do

(51:44):
you honesaid, I could send him the whole album, like
we could do some new stuff. I guess there's some
beats like whatever he wants. I say, he got something,
he can send it, I can finish it, you know.
And he was like, nah, I think I think the
joint that you send Jizzz, you know, would be dope.

Speaker 8 (51:57):
So we send it to him.

Speaker 9 (52:00):
I'm flying all over the place shooting videos, doing press,
trying to get ready for the album. So he calls
Knife at the studio and he and Ninth have a conversation.
But you know, he talks about he's a fan that
you know how much Wu Tang and the Liquid Swore
and Liquid Sword Song meant to him like everybody has
a memory attached to that song, and how much he

(52:21):
loves Jigs because you know, that was the first person
from WU that he worked with. So it's just all
these factors. So you know, he was like, I love
the record. I love to do it. So you know,
we got him in the studio. You know he likes
to record on tape. We probably waited maybe like two weeks.

Speaker 1 (52:39):
That is a record time waiting two weeks. That's like.

Speaker 9 (52:46):
Two maybe three at most, like but yeah, like he
probably went in the studio every day for like seven days,
even even when I was we paid for the studio,
but when like we paid for a certain time, even
when that was out, he was like, I'm not finished.
I'll pay for the rest to finish it. I'm just like, yo,
this is crazy.

Speaker 4 (53:07):
I was wondering because, yeah, I was wondering if he
did his thing on tape because it's all his vocals
are very speeded oppressive.

Speaker 8 (53:17):
But yeah, he killed it.

Speaker 5 (53:19):
He ain't featuring nowhere else either.

Speaker 2 (53:20):
What do you do background vocals? And you said you're arranged,
well arranged.

Speaker 1 (53:25):
Back, but he doesn't do mere background vocals.

Speaker 8 (53:27):
It's just the way he played with his voice.

Speaker 1 (53:30):
Like, yeah, it was crazy. Yeah, and that's majestic.

Speaker 9 (53:35):
And what was ill for me is I did like
a mock cook before I knew he was going to
be on it, like the place hold it. To hear
him sing it, like I was like, yeah, I was
like I thought he was gonna write something new like
that in himself was ill to me.

Speaker 1 (53:49):
But you know how to I mean people.

Speaker 6 (53:54):
We look up to our d'angelo's and think that they
you know, that there are another level, but there's still
big time music fans, you know, and they fall in
love with something when they hear it, and they don't
need to change it, they just recreate it.

Speaker 1 (54:09):
That's amazing.

Speaker 4 (54:19):
So what I'm sort of skipping to your second album
and so what was the process in the decision to
roll with rock Nation for yourself?

Speaker 9 (54:30):
Oh, we knew that, you know, as an indie label,
we can only do so much like budget and marketing
wise and really getting the exposure that I wanted. So
you know, when we took the meeting with rock One,
I'm a big j fan Offgate, but walking into the
building and at the time, Shaka Pilgrim was the president

(54:50):
and you walk in and fifty percent of the staff
of women and it's so so many different coaches, and
we came in with Lailor's wisdom probably eighty percent done.
And they didn't ask us to change or sing why
not one single thing. It was always all right, what
do y'all want to do? What you envision? Like what
are you thinking of the music? They never every eve,

(55:11):
they didn't ask to change or touch anything. And so
to me, like the energy and just how much they
love the culture. It didn't seem like I've been to
death jam I think in Atlantic before, but this was
this was different. This was all about culture and just
music and they were really about growing with me. Like
they wasn't pressure to have a radio single or it
was just like, you know, we believe in you and

(55:33):
your talent.

Speaker 8 (55:34):
We just want to how can we help? That's what
it was. So that's why.

Speaker 4 (55:38):
And how did you feel the morning that the nominations
came out?

Speaker 8 (55:44):
And I don't know for you, it's kind of phone call.

Speaker 1 (55:49):
Yo.

Speaker 9 (55:49):
Ninth was the first one that hit me because I
was in la This was like five in the morning,
so he hit me.

Speaker 8 (55:53):
He was like, Yo, you nominated and you nominated.

Speaker 9 (55:57):
Uh, it wasn't twice twice so I was like, yo,
what like yo to be nominated, but to even be
nominated twice like that was crazy for me. It was
just like people were calling me. I couldn't even answer
the phone. I had to just sit back and reflect, like, Yo,
we're here, Like this is a different bar to be
recognized at the highest level of music when a of

(56:19):
awards show and then not have no Billboard hits and
no platinum records, and to be in a category with
Jay Z and Kendrick Lamar at the same time.

Speaker 8 (56:26):
It's just like man as.

Speaker 10 (56:28):
Not have to change nothing, not even have to play
on the tight dress.

Speaker 9 (56:32):
I cried a little bit, you know, but yeah, I
was thankful that I stayed the course of anything.

Speaker 4 (56:40):
So I have to say that your your whole process
of crafting the Eve album, it's just some amazing ass shit,
you know, like where where did the idea even come
from for crafting this? This album as an homage to

(57:00):
the spirit of the black woman in America in the
world and their effect like where's the Genesis and the
seed born?

Speaker 9 (57:08):
Last summer summer twenty eighteen, I was doing an interview
for the Oxford and this guy named Lamar Wilson he
was writing a piece on the lineage of Carolina musicians,
and so he was connecting me with Nina Simone and ROBERTA.
Flat so like I was just like, yo, I didn't

(57:29):
I never thought of me connecting with them in that
way because we just seemed like too, like I just
look I put them up here, like there's no way
like reconnected. But the way he broke it down, like
you're both soul for you know, you're both lyrical. You
know you both reflect the times and talk about what's
going on in the community, your storytellers. I was like, man,
I never thought about it in that way like I

(57:50):
do come from their family tree. And it made me think, like, yo,
when I do interviews and people say who are you
influenced by? Yeah, I say Queen my teeth for MC
like Lauryn Hill, but I talk about Sicily Tyson, talk
about I talk about Nikki Giavanni, you know, Maya Angelo,
And I'm just like man, when I think about who
I am and who I'm inspired by. Of course, you
have your village, your mom, but there are so many

(58:11):
black women that I look up to and too. It
gave me away creatively to show that there are so
many different sides of me too, you know. People like
to say or kind of put me in a box
sometimes based on the music that I make.

Speaker 8 (58:25):
That you know I had.

Speaker 9 (58:26):
We were in a studio one time and the dude
was like, Yo, we thought like a party for y'all's
just like burning incense and y'all listening to my dude
and all this, And.

Speaker 8 (58:35):
I'm just like, bro, like what are you talking about?

Speaker 9 (58:37):
Like I grew up on Luke, I listened to Go Go,
growing up, like I'm from snow Hill, North Carolina, Like
That's the Sticks, like Boon's Fall, Like we listened to everything.

Speaker 8 (58:47):
So there were so many sides of me.

Speaker 9 (58:49):
So it's like this is a way where I could
take a different woman to not only describe like my
different personalities, but also talk about them and continue their
legacies and say that we all are coming all come
from a family tree. I think after I did that interview,
like I went home and I'd always wanted to do
a song about being a tomboy, especially in this day
and age and what that looks like. And I did

(59:10):
it because of the way I started the song when
Aaliyah was alive, and I was like I'm gonna just
call it Aliyah, And as soon as.

Speaker 8 (59:16):
I did that, it all just clicked came together.

Speaker 9 (59:19):
Yeah, the conversation, it's like, oh, I got this song, Alia,
I could do this with this this Felicia Rashad taught
me about motherly love, Nikki Giovanni taught.

Speaker 8 (59:28):
Me the power words and blackness like.

Speaker 4 (59:31):
Yeah, in the videos, which I also feel are crucial
components to the vision of that, like what were the
concepts for the well, not the concepts, but you know
as far as like I personally want you to make
a video almost for every song.

Speaker 5 (59:50):
I know too too.

Speaker 9 (59:51):
I'm trying to make it happen right now. We just
did a feenie too long ago. Yeah, we did a feenie.
I still want to add to it. It ain't all
the way right.

Speaker 5 (59:59):
Wait, so so far you got a Phoenie. What videos
do you have for which?

Speaker 9 (01:00:04):
Yeah, oprahj FENI will be the third one. The next
one I probably want to do Cleo, whoop be, Aliya, Serena.

Speaker 8 (01:00:11):
I want to do one for every song like I
see it.

Speaker 5 (01:00:14):
So no problem putting this list together.

Speaker 1 (01:00:19):
Because you mentioned the interview that you left earth Kit
was it just for spacing on the album or just spacey.

Speaker 8 (01:00:25):
The first draft, we had twenty three songs.

Speaker 9 (01:00:27):
You know, we we knew like it's too long because
people today can't digest music in the same way, the
same way.

Speaker 8 (01:00:35):
Like they they tap out it.

Speaker 9 (01:00:38):
At first, I was going to do a part one
and a part two, so sonically, you know, we have
this one in the part two is gonna be. It
was gonna be way more soul for and more boombab heavy.
That was gonna be like Felicia Rashad DJ Spinderella, she
has a song.

Speaker 1 (01:00:55):
Who we are going to get a sequel?

Speaker 8 (01:00:57):
Harriet? I was, I got, I got different ideas. That's
more music coming.

Speaker 10 (01:01:01):
I love you what it's so journal route and you
said I'm not going to do to Harriet, So I
was like, maybe there's a Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:01:06):
I was Harry's Journal, which when do I name it?
But yeah, so but there's there's I do like forty women.

Speaker 4 (01:01:14):
As far as where you are right now, like what
do you feel that your goals are, Like do you
have do you have a five year plan as far
as like this point from now, like developing other acts
or like just make more music.

Speaker 8 (01:01:31):
Or definitely make more music. I think it's the foundation
of everything.

Speaker 9 (01:01:34):
But I want to expand artistically because you know the
way I write, Like I want to get into not
only writing songs that I want to write films. I
want to get behind the camera and produce documentaries. I
was in the in the Rock office with Ti Ti today.
He was like, rap, you need writes, bet pop records.
It's like, you know, so you know, I definitely want

(01:01:55):
to try it. Like I'm just like, let's try and
see what happens. Just but just do a lot of
more things artistically. I thought about starting a label. I
don't know how I feel about that yet. But Missa
Hilton Son Nicole Brown, he's an EMC, so I want
to help. I'm helping because you can produce his album.
That will be my first time like taking that role. Okay,

(01:02:16):
but yeah, just like really expand on that, but always
putting out music, giving.

Speaker 1 (01:02:20):
Back to what was given to you. Okay, I see that.

Speaker 4 (01:02:23):
Well, you know again from the Bomber Arts, we really
thank you for your your your talent and your wisdom and.

Speaker 5 (01:02:30):
All that blackness, all that queenness. That's what I'm thinking.
You can't really say that, I'm just speaking for you.
Can for the sisters. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
I can think you can't thank you in the queenness.
We can say that too, you can.

Speaker 5 (01:02:46):
You didn't, so I was just feeling like Jewish, say.

Speaker 2 (01:02:51):
Have you been to Egypt? Because you.

Speaker 5 (01:02:54):
I'm trying to get that we should be together.

Speaker 4 (01:02:58):
Yeah, there you go the sugar Steve. Yes, I would
pay either well, that is, I should pay for us
to go. That's another episode, of course, Supreme. Ladies and gentlemen,
thank you one more time.

Speaker 1 (01:03:13):
Rhaps did he give it up all right?

Speaker 4 (01:03:18):
Or and behalf of light and Steve and bost Bill
and yes, even unpaid Bill and font Tiicola, who incidentally,
uh is still out getting cigarettes and he said he'll
be be back home any moment. Uh cigarettes, So hurry
up man.

Speaker 1 (01:03:35):
He said he was going to get some smokes two
years ago.

Speaker 4 (01:03:41):
He's fixing his bathroom now now it's now, let's getting
some cigarettes.

Speaker 1 (01:03:44):
All right.

Speaker 4 (01:03:45):
This is quest Love, and we'll see you on the
next go round, of course, Love Supreme.

Speaker 1 (01:03:49):
Thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:03:58):
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