June 10, 2026 • 36 mins
This week on Teach Me Something, hosts DJ Prostyle and Penny Dellas sit down with legendary singer and songwriter Brenda K. Starr for an unforgettable conversation about her remarkable career, lasting legacy, and the evolution of the music industry. From dominating the freestyle scene of 1980s New York to becoming a celebrated salsa artist, Brenda shares the stories behind her biggest hits, including the timeless classic "I Still Believe."
We dive into her early days in music, the vibrant New York freestyle movement, and her pivotal role in helping introduce Mariah Carey to the world. Brenda opens up about the challenges and triumphs of navigating multiple genres, staying relevant across generations, and what has kept her passion for performing alive for decades.
Throughout the episode, she reflects on the lessons she's learned in the music business, the importance of her Puerto Rican heritage, memorable concert moments, and the realities of being an artist in today's social media-driven world. Brenda also reveals what fans can expect next, her thoughts on legacy, and which song holds the deepest personal meaning for her.
Whether you're a longtime fan of freestyle, salsa, or simply love hearing inspiring stories from music icons, this is an episode you won't want to miss.
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🎙️ Hosted by @djprostyle & @pennydellas
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, what's up.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
This is DJ pro Style and this is Pennydellas, and
this is Teach Me Something.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
Brought to you by Berkeley College.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Ladies and gentlemen, Boys and girls. We are back.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
This is another episode of Teach Me Something, presented by
Berkeley College. I am Pro Style and I am Pennydellas,
and we are twinning today.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
We are today, and we're sitting closer today. For those
of you that are not watching, uh about Alba with
my big broke?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
All right, so we are joined today by what you
want to call celebrity, superstar, icon, global.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Recording artist, a mother, a philanthropist, a trendsetter, or a
trailblazer in her own right. There's so many things we
could say, but I just want to jump into interviews.
I'm so excited. Yes we have friends.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Thank you excited to be on Teach Me Something.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
So excited, and thank you for coming in because you
know the traffic outside is discussing so it is.
Speaker 5 (01:00):
You know what it's worth. It's worth the traffic. But
I think the heat is worse. You know how we
complain about how cold it is, how cold it is,
and now it's so hot. Have my hair already to
go feel and fly. I got outside and poof, I
was like, Oh, we're just gonna put it up in
a little cliff. But thank god, you.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Know, I'm I'm not going to knock you on the
hair thing because I understand the pain with that now
I don't understand personally.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
But you have to wait when we have to fix it.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
But it's funny because I tell people of times like
I don't want to hear anybody minus obviously because that
complain about the heat after the winter we've had out here.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
That winter was.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Rough, Bruto, that rough until you like sin of sitting
snowing out your hair?
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Yeah, can you walk outside? That's why I can't.
Speaker 5 (01:42):
It's crazy because I want to move to Florida so bad,
but then I think of the humidity. So a lot
of Florida days for me is just slick it back,
you can't, you know, or curly like Penny because you
know that beautiful curly hair and you know, and the
latinas en us be sometimes.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
But yeah, so but I'm glad to be here and I'm.
Speaker 5 (02:01):
Excited to have especially you know, the whole theme with
the Berkeley College thing. As you know, Penny, when we
first met each other. I talked about how on the
Freestyle cruise, and you talked about how highly involved you
were with the college, and it was just like something
like that kind of made me look back on like
how important it instilled so much to me.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
And I loved how your energy was.
Speaker 5 (02:23):
And I think that's how we all cross paths and
why we met and how this all came about.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Called it the twenty week cruise that we were on.
It wasn't twenty weeks. It was nine days.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
It was seven days. It was it was seven days
or long cruise. Well, people showed up three days I have.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
That's a lot of that's a lot of it's a
lot of days.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
My wife loves cruises, like we went on like I
feel like I went on like a two year rant
with cruises, Like.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
I love cruises, but it was my first cruise.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I so much.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
They would just tell me about the Freestyle cruise. It
was Penny actually on the cruise making things work. Yes,
you were handling business.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
I did some interviews. You were just singing and drink.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
Gave me some marketing tips, interviews about marketing as an artist,
and it just was really free up on her time.
In terms of like giving some inspiration on things you
can do, like in marketing, and always as an artist,
you could always feel like too much information is not enough,
so just getting some more info and some more insights
about the business, because you can never take too much
(03:22):
information and learn from it.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
So she was very like.
Speaker 5 (03:26):
Inspiring if that's the word inspiring, and just giving such
great ideas. And you know, it's nice I met her sister,
you know on that because you just meet a lot
of nice people. And me, I'm I'm a partyer, like
not party or like that way. I just love to party,
have a good time.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
And it's.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Very every guest we've had here we always agree on
the same thing. And it's all about networking. Yes, that's
whether you're in the office, on the street, on a cruise,
wherever you're at.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
If you could grow your net, your your network.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
You know, I was working on that cruise.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
She was. I was.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
I actually thought you were working.
Speaker 5 (04:05):
You're like, no, I came with my sister Sal I
a Tello Fever record.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Sal had me doing Facebook lives. We were working.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
He always got somebody to work for him, right, He's like, hey,
can you give me a favorite a favorite turns into
a job.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
But that's honest. And speaking of jobs, you have been working, yeah,
since the age of thirteen thirteen.
Speaker 5 (04:26):
Yeah, Well, I first did a movie when I was
nine with Paul Chevino. John Gafflson shot a movie called
Slow Dancing in the Big City and I played a tomboy.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
I played a.
Speaker 5 (04:35):
Girl named Punk and Bear Grant was the writer of
the movie. So I did that first with Paul Chervino,
and then I got offered another movie that, honestly, I
don't even need to mention it was not my vibe.
So I didn't do well, but it was something that
I paid. I played a daughter, a sister of a
girl who used to date some guy. It was not
a great movie anyway. Fast forward, sheik Le yoga commercial
(04:57):
I did at four thirteen, and and then after that,
I just got my first record deal when I was
almost fifteen. So I was in Beach Street at fourteen,
going on.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Are you trying to do your whole life? This is
what you wanted to do? Be in an entertainment business.
Speaker 5 (05:11):
I always loved it. I always loved it. I lived
in the Wife Tower projects and for me, I love
to sing. My dad was in the group the Spiral Staircase.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
He was Harvey k. He was the organist.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
He was the founder of the group, and they have
that song I Love You More Today Than Yesterday. And
pad Upton most part of the group. And I always
knew I loved to sing, and I wanted to be
in the camera. I was always in the mirror with
a brush, you know, in the mirror the spidio.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Thinking God was all that. My mother would be like you,
I'm all kinds.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
I don't have hair to have a brush, but no
you do.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
We don't have to send you to Turkey.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Yeah no, no, no, no.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
Not too long ago.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
I had, you know, my hair pulled back into a
little like a man bunish. Yeah that's the grease.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
I that's my dad got good hair too, I got
that gay.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
But yeah, I've been I've been working a lot. I've
been working a lot since very young. Also because my
mom was a single mother and I knew the struggles,
and my sister and my brothers were in college and
I just really wanted to help.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
And I knew that if God.
Speaker 5 (06:09):
Gave me a gift and my mom saw it and me,
like kids for their birthday, would want to party it's
my thirteenth birthday.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
She's like, what do you want to do for your birthday?
And I'm like, I want to go to a recording studio.
And my mom's like a recording studio. I'm like, I
want to make a record.
Speaker 5 (06:20):
Yeah, And I remember hearing like Stacy Lattasol and listening
to Tina Marie, Donna Summers, Barbara Streuisen.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
And I was like, I really want to like make music.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
And that's where I got the bug of wanting to
really work and just really stay focused.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
And I've been working since I'm a kid.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
And you put out your first record from was Was Taken?
Nineteen eighty five?
Speaker 5 (06:40):
Well, that's the first one that came out after the
contract was avoided because I was under a production deal
very young, and because I was young, I was taken
out of that production deal and able to have it
released at nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
But I've been recording since I'm fourteen.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Fifteen, Yeah, even nineteen eighty five, by the way, even
to take it back to the early eighties or whenever
it was right, Yeah, did you ever think that fast
forward all the way to twenty twenty six, you'd be
on cruises and still performing around the world and performing
these records.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
And I mean you came straight here from Columbia.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
I did.
Speaker 5 (07:11):
I was at Lima, Peru, and Cali to Italy, Spain,
We're going to Chile, Argentina.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
But no, I mean I knew I wanted to do it.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
But if it didn't work, I had another game plan
which I was going to go in andto. I was
probably going to go into like the medical field or
social working. I love working with kids and giving back.
I've always done like after school programs and the gift
of music. So I thought something would like a voice
teacher or creating my own school.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
But did I.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
Think that this would be my future. I would still
be doing what I'm doing now, I would hope so.
Just because my worth ethics were always there. I wasn't
the kind of person that wanted to hang out and
be a with a bad crowd. My whole thing was
in the studio every day, even on the weekends. I
would go to take dance lessons. Like I just wasn't
the kind of person that didn't have my head on straight.
(08:04):
I knew to stay away from back crowds. I knew
that if I wanted this I needed to be dedicated.
So I think I was always dedicated and would hope
that I still had it. There were times in my
career that I didn't have a deal and I was struggling,
but I didn't give the faith. I didn't give up
on faith because I believe that you know, all your
caminos or your pathways can be open if you just
(08:28):
stay optimistic. And I just pray on it a lot,
and I know I'm not better than There's a lot
of amazing talent out there now, younger cats killing it
on YouTube on TikTok, and I say, wow, you know, like,
how can I still be in this game? And some
of them aren't even recognized. I always hoped that I
would be doing this, but I didn't bet on it
one hundred percent, because you're as good as your last hit.
(08:50):
As you know, in the music industry, they'll love you today,
a year or two years later, they'll get rid of
you and bring someone else in. So I just prayed
on it, and I'm really still doing it because because
I am creating my better tomorrow, I don't depend on
anyone to do it for me. I don't see myself
as a superstar or a global sensation. As Penny says,
(09:12):
I just feel that God has blessed me because he
knows that I've stayed focused. I've been diligent in my craft,
and you know, I still make music music that could
play in TikTok, that could play in clubs and may
not play on mainstream radio. Maybe the classics play on
mainstream radio, but a lot of my fans and the
DJs that believe in me played in clubs, play it overseas.
(09:34):
I just did they say, what's Betando? Which was my
very first album in Spanish? I re recorded the whole
album and I just put out the first single, No
digas Nada is doing insane in Peru, in Colombia. Is
it playing here in the US? It plays here sometimes
but not on mainstream radio. But it's really the fans.
But I did not think to date that I'd still
(09:58):
be having this. You know, I've had ardent end jobs.
Don't get it wrong, don't get it twisted. I mean
I've worked at senior citizen homes. I've I got my
license as a like a like a home attendant, and
I just got it just something to fall back on
because I needed insurance and being married.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
My husband had insurance.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
But with that being said, I knew that I had
to feed my kids and I didn't want to depend
on a man, and I knew I wanted the music,
but I needed something to fall back on when going
into that job.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
I end up.
Speaker 5 (10:29):
Teaching music therapy in the assisted living program and I
started working with people that had dementia. So I went
from being a home health aid and helping in the
senior center to becoming a music therapist. So that helped
me because I was still giving back to client foundations,
and right the foundations were there. There were people that
had dementia, and you know, the left side of the
(10:50):
brain is where the you know, the music's of the
music and whatnot. So I was just really singing old
school songs to them and doing like a lot of
cognitive and mode to school things with them in terms
of but I did it musically. I bought old school
music and people that didn't remember their families remembered the songs,
so they love me there.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
So I stayed there for like a year.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
And a half, but then I missed it and then
I wanted to go back into music, and I went
back to that. I mean, I did vocal lessons when
you know, when I was out of my dear after
I left Sony. But I never thought in a million
years that I'll be kicking sixty in October that I'm
still here.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
Happy, bir Yeah, I'm gonna be. Oh God, Sometimes I
don't know if it's happy.
Speaker 5 (11:32):
Or it's like yeah, you know, I guess and like,
you know, can I see the transformation that Penny made
and I look at her working so hard and I
love to see other women wanting to better ourselves and
she looks amazing.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Pro and I have lost a combined way. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
We started this competition last year, and is it a competition?
I'm winning, but it feels good.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
It crazy the amount of people that are in competition
with you that you don't know and they still lose.
Speaker 5 (12:04):
But you know what, it's great when it's more crazy,
just watching the transformation and looking in the mirror and saying, listen,
I'm looking at kids cats that are like in their
thirties and looking at me almost six, and I'm like, oh,
I'm not that bad.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
Like I'm not that bad, but I like you, like
you said, it really makes you feel good about yourself.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
You have to do it for you. Everything we do,
we do it for ourselves, feel self, love thing that
we have, and your passion for music has never wavered.
Right throughout everything you're saying and the different trajectories you've taken,
it always comes back to music and pro and I
have spoken about this in the past seasons of what's
meant for you? Is there for you right because we
(12:42):
always come back to kind of what we're doing and
taking it back because you spoke about Savasa, you know
there's some freestyle there, but taking it back to the
beginning of your career because I do want to touch that.
Did you know that I still believe was going to
be the hit that it was?
Speaker 5 (12:55):
You knew it from the very first moment I heard it.
I mean, when I did get the song, it wasn't
fully produced, it did have elements that I thought were amazing.
I was in my first relationship and knowing what love
was about, and I just.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
Really felt the lyrics.
Speaker 5 (13:10):
The bridge was a little different, and I changed it
around to make it comfortable for me, and I love
the way the way that I transformed it with your
mere Diodato.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
But I literally heard the lyrics that.
Speaker 5 (13:20):
Antonine Armado wrote and I just was like, this song
is going to be a smashed And after I heard
the production and I knew that Diodato was doing the production.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
He worked with Cool in the Gang.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
He had all those amazing hits were Cool in the Gang,
Cool in the Gang. And when he did the production,
I came in to cut the demo. The first it's
like a rough draft, and I did I still believe
in less than two hours.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (13:44):
I went and did the lead voke. When I remember
he treated me to Chinese food. He was like, take
a break. He's like, let's have food. And I was like,
he was what your favorite food? I was like Chinese
and he's like, all right, well, because you're gonna give
me a number one record, we're going to order it
and this on me and I was like okay. So
then the next day I went into the last touch
ups and within two days it was done. They mixed
and mastered it. But when I heard it, and it's
(14:06):
not about being cocky, but when I heard it, my
hair stood up and I felt I felt that the
song resonated with me because when I got home and
heard it again on the cassette, because we had cassettes
at the time.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
I cried. I cried because I felt that the lyric
was so.
Speaker 5 (14:22):
It resonated with me, and I knew that a lot
of people can identify with that song. But it's not
speaking like egotistically. But I knew that it was a
hit everyone from day one. Yeah, brought it up the
American Idol and her audition.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 5 (14:39):
It's funny how they did that, because they do a
long whole thing where they tell you, so, how are
you blah, and they talked about us, so what inspired you? Oh,
my mom's in music. My mom's name is Brenda Keystar.
And then that's when Jennifer's like, oh my god, I
know Brenda. We went to dance. You know. I used
to tell us teach me how to sing. I used
tell her to teach me how to dance. But it
made it seem like right away she just threw my
name in there. But I didn't get to see Jen
(15:01):
or any of the judges into the fourth or fifth
interview audition. This was a process. It didn't happen right
away from her behind the scenes.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
TV cuts it to sixty seconds.
Speaker 5 (15:10):
Yes, yeah, so, and I honestly did it.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
It's right that's right.
Speaker 5 (15:17):
I actually didn't want them to know she was my
daughter because I didn't want to see that there was
some favoritism.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
But after because I went under my.
Speaker 5 (15:24):
Married name, and then finally people started saying, oh, Brendan gay,
and it's like, oh, I didn't, and my daughter's like,
because I really don't like to my mom. It's the connection.
I don't want people to think that I'm favored. But
she did make it to number ten, which our kist
was great. She's very talented, but I have to be
honest at that age, she was an X Factor at
thirteen and she made top forty, and then she did
(15:46):
idle and she made top ten, and I thought that
that was good enough for her because it's a very
hard business. Number one, number two, it's a lot of
wear and tear, and I didn't think she was ready.
But I wanted her to do it for the experience.
And it wasn't about because I can put a record
out on my daughter tomorrow if I want. She writes
and co produces all her music. At this time she
decided she loved it. But she did the summer program
(16:09):
at Berkeley, she did the writing school, she did the
there's a jazz program, there's a rock and roll program.
So I think she did the songwriting and the pop program.
With that being said, she loves it, but it didn't
love enough to have thick enough skin. So I felt like,
I don't want you to do something where you feel
(16:30):
it's going to drain you, where that you lose yourself.
So she got into teaching. She's getting her masters, and
she works with kids in school. She's a teacher for
kids that have learning disabilities and she works with them.
She's a sixth grade teacher. And she still writes. She
writes all her songs, and she occasionally puts stuff up.
But I don't I don't think she loved it enough
(16:53):
to make it a career.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
In today's you know, back then versus now is different.
Obviously it's always been. You've always had to have a
thick skin to be in this industry, right, but with
social media these days, especially if you pay attention to it,
you know, especially for new.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
Artists, well now, because it's so it's so everyone.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Has an opinion.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
Oh, I get it all the time. I get it
all the time.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
But you know what, someone the other day talked about
my glasses that.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
I wear like, why do you wear such big glasses?
Like they do horrible on a pair of seeing glasses.
I show you they're so big and she's like like,
why would you do that? And I told that I said,
I'm sorry you don't like them, but I like them.
Speaker 5 (17:35):
Yeah, I don't have them with the there with a car,
but I was like, but I like them. And it's
like that, or if I wear an outfit or if
I look thick or heavy and a certain outfit, I'm like, listen,
everybody's gonna have an opinion. You know what they say
about when you have an opinion, you know, keep your
opinions to yourself as long as it's it's.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
If that's not anymore right now, your opinions on social media,
that's you know, the commons.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
It's everywhere you turn.
Speaker 5 (18:01):
And for me, sometimes the things that they do say
I take into account and like, oh, you know, it
didn't sound great.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
That show that night, Like a voice wasn't on point.
It kind of.
Speaker 5 (18:12):
Inspires me to say, Okay, I maybe need to work
on this song a little better. Because you're not going
to always have a good night. There are going to
be certain nights that you're off, Like I mean, I've
been traveling. My throat is tired. Now I go to
a vocologist. I try to get as much rest as
I can. And sometimes it's tough on you because you
want to work and stay relevant. But how long do
(18:33):
we have to do this? I mean, there's a lot
of younger cats down there.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
But yeah, I was.
Speaker 5 (18:38):
Proud of my daughter doing American IDOL. I thought it
was a good experience. It's something for her to remember
in her life that she could tell her children when
she's having her first daughter in July. Yeah, so this
will be my sixth granddaughter. I've only got girls and
I only have one son, so we got no boys
in the family. My daughter got pregnant at COVID. She
(18:58):
dated her junior high school boyfriend. They got married. They
had three girls in COVID. She got pregnant, just go
maybe it's the boy. It turned out being another two
girls and it was a set of twins. So now
they got five and then the daughter that is now
getting married to a Colombian.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (19:16):
They have been danny on and off since their fifteen
they're twenty seven and they're gonna have their first daughter.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Her name is Eleana, and they're gonna have her in July,
so I'll have six granddaughters.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
It's a blessing you that I love.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
I'm a house full of girls. I feel bad for
their dad. I feel bad for their dad, but you know.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
I have a house for the boys, so we'll just
bring them over there.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
And how ironic is that because my mother had five boys. Yeah,
and me and my sister were the only two girls.
So it's like, now I got coming my wife.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
We only have boys, me and my wife, right, really,
and she wants to have a girl, so she wants
me to she now she wants me.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
She's like she would have a boy, and she's always
says it's gonna be a boy.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
And then her family, she has a cousin who they
have have there's nine boys, but they had ten kids
and they did have one girl and it was like
the eighth kid or something like that, or the ninth kid,
and then they.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
Tried to have some frog. Ten kids. That's a lot.
Speaker 5 (20:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Yeah, well, you know when you get to a point
then your oldest start taking.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
Helping out, but the other ones.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Yeah yeah, But to rewind your conversation about performances, I
wasn't there, but I heard you killed it.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
At the iHeart Women's.
Speaker 5 (20:26):
It was a day where a lot of women got
together that were powerful, and it was really about talking
about how to love yourself. I wrote a song called
set Me Free, which is just basically a song about
my life and my trials and tribulations of not only
being in a relationship, being married, being in for thirty
two years and thirty one married, and how in relationships
(20:47):
and in jobs and just life overall and being accepted
and not learning how to love yourself and doing for
everyone else.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
So Set Me.
Speaker 5 (20:56):
Free was a song of like freedom, a chance to
come within your own And I think the day was
basically women empowerment, and it was telling women that you know,
it's okay to be okay in your own skin. You
shouldn't depend on anyone, and you should let go of
what's negative and learn how to recreate, you know, not
only yourself, but realign.
Speaker 4 (21:17):
Your thoughts and just really learn how to love yourself.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
I think I've been such a mother, such a wife,
such a la love I mean grandma, and I've been
pouring into them and pouring into my job that I
lost myself, and within losing myself, I just became so
mentally drained that after you lose yourself, you really don't
know how to love yourself at one point, so I
(21:45):
stepped away from all my situations, not as a mother,
stepped away up in my marriage.
Speaker 4 (21:49):
I never ever, you know, we're not divorced.
Speaker 5 (21:51):
We were separated, but we're the best of friends and
we still work at seeing whether it can work. But
it's a it's a time in my life where I
wrote this song where I needed to find my freedom
and spread my wings and fly and learn how to
know that I can't be codependent on this person because
for the rest of it, I didn't come in life
(22:12):
with him.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
I came here alone. I'm going to go out alone.
Speaker 5 (22:14):
And it was just a song that really gave me
some substance of like, you know, Brenda, you're badass, bitch,
like you know, learn how to love you again, and
your relationship should be a stem of who you are,
but it should not be your crutch.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
And I leaned on it for so much.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
He's my manager, he's my best friend, he was my husband,
he was this he was that you know, and I've
never spoke on it. Today is literally the first interview
that I've ever spoke about being separated and still working out,
trying to see.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
Where our paths will lead us.
Speaker 5 (22:47):
You never know, and I don't give up on love,
but I have to remember I have to not give
up on me yourself, and that was.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
What the song was about.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
So I guess beforming it that day it made me
so emotional. And he was there at the shit and
you know, he works with me, so he's like, I
really felt weird when you did that, and I was like, well,
don't be because what it shows is that, no matter
if you are in a place it's divorce should not
always be the first option. You can step away and
(23:14):
start working on yourself. You work on you while I
work on me, and whatever's meant to be will bring
you back together.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
So set me free.
Speaker 5 (23:22):
I platformed it that particular day, Women's Day, for the
first time I ever performed it, so I think they
felt what I felt because I don't know. I try
to be transparent, but more than transparent, I just wanted
to let everyone know it's okay to not be afraid
of the space that you're in.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
If that makes sense, do you get me?
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Thank you for being so vulnerable open with us. It's
and you did that day, and you preface and you
shared a lot of this that day, and everyone was
emotional in the room as we're getting now. But it's
so important to be aware and to say it's okay
not to be okay.
Speaker 4 (24:03):
It's very hard.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
And we all go through our trials and tribulations, and
we spoke about my health and all these things, and
we bonded on that beach on the cruise, But we
all go through something, and I feel that this anthem
that you've created is going to resonate with everyone for
different reasons, right within their lives. And sometimes we're so
(24:27):
stuck in survival mode and we continue to let the
wheels turn and we continue and we continue, we continue
that we don't take a moment to sit down, breathe
and reflect, reflect and say okay, I need a second
because the world is so fast paced. So I love
the chorus.
Speaker 5 (24:47):
Sometimes it makes me sad because it's such an amazing
song and I wish I could get it played at
every station. But with that being said, I have so
many people that hear it on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and
I just shot the video and I think that little
by little it's stating presidents and it's getting what it deserves.
And I think even the people that hear, like the
(25:08):
one kid that told me, you know, when I heard
set Me Free, it friendly gave me the chance and
gave me a little concept. I wanted to add it
in my video, but it was too late. About a
young boy who told his mother that he was gay
and he was afraid she was going to disown him.
And the father and the mother sat with him and
they said, listen, this is who you are.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
We love you. We want to meet who you were with.
And he met them and he said it.
Speaker 5 (25:30):
And the only reason why he did it was because
after hearing my song, it really sat with him and
he thanked me. He's like, thank you for writing this song,
because it made me realize that I have to learn
how to live for me and not everyone else. And
that's what you do when not only as a mother,
as a wife, as being afraid to come out of
your you know, come out of your I guess your shell,
(25:52):
or come out of the closet the per se. That's
the saying. But for me, it's just about living life
and set Me Free. I think it's just a song
for not only vulnerability, but to be happy with who
you are.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
Just be you.
Speaker 5 (26:06):
Be you, because tomorrow's never promised to anybody, so don't
live for everyone else other than yourself.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
That's also it sounds like this song is the culmination
of your career, right, because you've gone through so many transitions.
Yeah right. You started off like let's talk about the ballads,
and you went into freestyle, you went into satisa, and
through your trials and tribulations that you've been very open
about throughout your career, you've continued to persevere and you've
(26:32):
continued to motivate, empower and inspire, and this song seems
to be the culmination of that.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
I mean, I've had so many ups and downs. I
mean I've been on major labels, I've been on independent labels.
I've wrote for companies and did like publishing deals with
Sony Music. I mean I've been countless times, you know,
taking advantage of in terms of in the business. I
had to learn I how to be a one woman show.
I had to be the agent. I needed to be
the artist. I needed to be the director. I needed
(27:00):
to be the producer. I needed to find the team,
put the team together. It was exhausting. But I think
some people take it as desperate, or some people take
it as you know, like she's on a survival mode.
Speaker 4 (27:10):
It's I'm not doing it for them. I'm doing it
for me because I love what I do.
Speaker 5 (27:13):
But I've had so many doors closed, but I never
ever gave up because I had to push to prevail,
and that's what I do.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
It's like I think, if.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
I sit and wait for somebody to make it happen
for me, then it makes me lose the authenticity of
loving what I do. I do it because I love it.
I don't do it because I want to be a
superstar and I want to get awards from Grammys to
American Music Wars, Red Carpet. I'm happy where I'm at.
I'm doing music. I'm successfully being.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
Able to.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
Still live and have a beautiful legacy. But you know,
it just goes to show. Like you said, I did pop,
I did freestyle, I did Saiysa, I've done musical theater,
I've done commercials. Love music overall and that's my healing power.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
While Branda, we're gonna get controversial freestyle or salsa.
Speaker 5 (28:07):
I'm sorry every day, all day. I love I'm not
gonna tell you why I do love freestyle, But not
only was it not given the recognition it deserves, it's
and I'm not saying for the producers. I just feel
like we need to evolve with freestyle. We need to
do remixes of the originals so that the originals can come.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Back to life.
Speaker 5 (28:28):
I feel like everything is still staying in a box.
For me, I considered Saisa only because I have the
vulnerability of doing my music, expressing myself with my music.
I play thing ballads, I play gongas, I sing ballads,
I sing Saysa, I do remakes of Selia, I do
La Lupe. But for me, I think freestyle is great.
(28:49):
But if it wasn't so controversial, and it wasn't so
in a box and nobody lets it expand, it's not
given the it's I'm not giving the flowers it deserves.
And it's not saying that it's not great music. It
is great music.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
But for me, I feel like I'm more and I
wasn't a freestyle artist.
Speaker 5 (29:10):
I was a pop artist. For me, Over and over
was closest to freestyle or so in love. I did
a remix with Tony Moran, I did do the demo
of Scars of Love. Originally I was the one who
did that. So I mean, I have a taste of freestyle,
but I consider myself more of a pop artist. I
consider myself more like a Tale of Dane Lisa Lisa
(29:30):
top forty freestyle like it you say dream girl, you
do I dream girl, You're my dream boy, dreamgirl, Cynthia
and Johnny. That's a pop song, George Lamm that's a
pop song. Freestyle is put in a box. But that's
more like Latin hip hop. So it's not growing because
it doesn't have the support it deserves.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
You want to hear it.
Speaker 5 (29:53):
Hear it on TikTok, hear it on with Bad Boy Richie,
hear it with Triple Threat Radio MDWRA. You know, like
I love KTU all due respect, I love iHeart, but
it doesn't give it a platform enough to make it
successful that where it should be as VERSAA. I get
all Latin radio. I'm everywhere. It's feeding my kids. I
(30:15):
do do some freestyle, So if I had to choose,
you're gonna put me in the SASA because the SASA
is literally blown up for me. I won two Latin
billboards with that. I've done the Duds with as Victim. Well,
I'm getting ready to go into a studio with an
artist I can't even say who he is that I
can't even believe I'm recording with this guy because I've
been a fan. But I'm doing a Latin record with him.
(30:36):
I created my own Latin label, Star Records. I do
some some pop, which is what I do. You know,
set me freeze pop record. It's a pop dance record.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
But no, I.
Speaker 5 (30:47):
Don't disown my roots. I love freestyle. I've been traveling
with TKA George Lamont. We did No Matter What together.
We've done so many tours Sin THEA cover girls.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
But you need to get on these tours, you know,
not of fun.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing you actually perform. So
you know about the one sixteenth Street Festival. Yeah, so
Brenda will be there.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Amazing.
Speaker 4 (31:09):
That's strict I think that's strictly side. But I made
through a couple of freestyle.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
So it's going to be a great, great stage because
the artists that are surrounding you also on that. It's
you know, Champaul's doing it, Cataloona's doing it.
Speaker 4 (31:21):
Oh wow, I didn't even know that that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
And then we have some some other people doing it too,
I think, so versatility. Yeah, yeah, it's going to be great.
It's going to be great. Hopefully the weather is nice
and then be one hundred thousand people there.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
Yeah, oh no, it's going to be packed.
Speaker 5 (31:33):
I played I played the one sixteen Street Festival a
couple of years back for a Latin station out here
from the city.
Speaker 4 (31:39):
That brought me through for that.
Speaker 5 (31:41):
But I mean, like, I'm doing another show in June
is where sat Sian beats freestyle, So the first twenty
five minutes is all freestyle, and then I'm going into
a whole Latin production. So I still try not to
abandon my mind I'm doing I'm doing.
Speaker 4 (31:56):
Beatstock this year.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
That's freestyle.
Speaker 4 (31:58):
I'm doing that freestyle pop pop. Yeah, they mix it up.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
They have hip hop artists.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
I think Naughty by Nature is going to be there.
Speaker 4 (32:06):
We're doing Atlantic City November fourteen. I's got the mikasup.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
You know like that anyway, because even as a DJ,
like I play everything, so it's like, why just be
in a box playing one thing?
Speaker 4 (32:17):
You know? Everybody.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
I'd rather go to a concert and hear a mixture
of music. You know, a nice reggae hip hop area.
We like everything.
Speaker 4 (32:25):
Music is universal, That's what I say. It's healing, and
it should be.
Speaker 5 (32:29):
It should be able to give the opportunity for everyone
to love it. And I don't like to stay in
the box eating. So I mean, I'm going to be
in Florida for the Mikasuki Resort and Casino show on
July twenty fourth, a couple of days before my daughter
gives birth. So now I'm really losing it because I
totally forgot. My agent booked it, me and my husband.
He booked it, and I'm like, and so now I'm
(32:49):
going to fly out and perform, and I'm leaving at
the five am flight to come back because I'm a
nervous wreck.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
Hopefully she'll get birth after.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
But you know what, agentes and to our listeners, half
an hour is not enough with the Brenda case.
Speaker 4 (33:03):
Because I talked too much of we're gonna have to
bring you back.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
No, we need to bring you back.
Speaker 4 (33:07):
We didn't.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
We didn't get into a lot of what we had
to cover, so we definitely have to bring you back
for a part two, which will be phenomenal. You'll be
the first artist come back for a part two. But
you know what, We usually close our episode out one way,
but I feel like we have to close it out
a different way this time.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
You want to close it out today.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Give us a little bit of set me free, bron.
Speaker 5 (33:25):
That's what we're doing acapella of the song Oh my God.
I don knows if I ever have a museum. Set
me free, let me go, Send me free. You never
know I was going with you well blind, No, I'm
taking back was mine. Let me be, Yeah, send me fee,
(33:50):
set me free from all this pain, Let me breathe
don't speak my name. You said you love me, but
not the way I need you. Help me close. But
clip my wings had a time and we had a spark,
but I was fading in the dark. But now I'm
asking baby, just let me be. I want to spread
(34:15):
my wings and fly, touch the stars. Light up this
guy normal hiding who I am inside?
Speaker 4 (34:25):
It's my time some let me rest, let me go.
I'm a little sick, but that's a little bit as
But yeah, I have a really bad upper respiratory infection.
I know it's no excuse, but if I knew I
was gonna do an acapella probably.
Speaker 5 (34:45):
You guys, don't hit a little cracking list. It's all rough,
but semi freeze. It's a great song.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Well, thank you so so much for stopping by. B Yeah, lad,
I love the bridge.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
I like that stay.
Speaker 5 (35:02):
I broke, I bled, you took my light and left
me dead. But now I'm dancing do the pain.
Speaker 4 (35:12):
You lost my game. I'm not the same seven free.
I feel like I hear all the claps.
Speaker 5 (35:19):
I just like not because I wrote it, but I
honestly feel that it's just it's I love it. Even
if it never made it the number one anywhere in
the radio or this or that on the billboards or whatever,
it's number one for me because I finally have put
my words on paper that it's just something that will
always resonate for me to forever.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
It's beautiful baby Free.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
I think that's how we're gonna close it out. Brent,
thank you for being here with us. You can follow
her brand's a case star on all platforms. Follow us
on pod dot. Teach me something pro. I want to
take us out.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
That's right till next time. Thank you for rocking with
us over here. I teach me something presented by Berkeley College.
I am pro Style, I Am Penny Dollas and the
amazing Brenda cay Starr.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Thank you again, Thank.
Speaker 5 (36:04):
You guys for having me, stay tuned, keep listening in
to Teach Me Something.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Let's go.
Speaker 4 (36:08):
Definitely worth it. We're keeping that.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
Drop Peter all right, good time. Hey, thanks for listening.
Tune in next week
Speaker 2 (36:15):
For all new episode of Teach Me Something, brought to
you by Berkeley College
Hey, what's up.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
This is DJ pro Style and this is Pennydellas, and
this is Teach Me Something.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
Brought to you by Berkeley College.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Ladies and gentlemen, Boys and girls. We are back.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
This is another episode of Teach Me Something, presented by
Berkeley College. I am Pro Style and I am Pennydellas,
and we are twinning today.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
We are today, and we're sitting closer today. For those
of you that are not watching, uh about Alba with
my big broke?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
All right, so we are joined today by what you
want to call celebrity, superstar, icon, global.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Recording artist, a mother, a philanthropist, a trendsetter, or a
trailblazer in her own right. There's so many things we
could say, but I just want to jump into interviews.
I'm so excited. Yes we have friends.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Thank you excited to be on Teach Me Something.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
So excited, and thank you for coming in because you
know the traffic outside is discussing so it is.
Speaker 5 (01:00):
You know what it's worth. It's worth the traffic. But
I think the heat is worse. You know how we
complain about how cold it is, how cold it is,
and now it's so hot. Have my hair already to
go feel and fly. I got outside and poof, I
was like, Oh, we're just gonna put it up in
a little cliff. But thank god, you.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Know, I'm I'm not going to knock you on the
hair thing because I understand the pain with that now
I don't understand personally.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
But you have to wait when we have to fix it.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
But it's funny because I tell people of times like
I don't want to hear anybody minus obviously because that
complain about the heat after the winter we've had out here.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
That winter was.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Rough, Bruto, that rough until you like sin of sitting
snowing out your hair?
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Yeah, can you walk outside? That's why I can't.
Speaker 5 (01:42):
It's crazy because I want to move to Florida so bad,
but then I think of the humidity. So a lot
of Florida days for me is just slick it back,
you can't, you know, or curly like Penny because you
know that beautiful curly hair and you know, and the
latinas en us be sometimes.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
But yeah, so but I'm glad to be here and I'm.
Speaker 5 (02:01):
Excited to have especially you know, the whole theme with
the Berkeley College thing. As you know, Penny, when we
first met each other. I talked about how on the
Freestyle cruise, and you talked about how highly involved you
were with the college, and it was just like something
like that kind of made me look back on like
how important it instilled so much to me.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
And I loved how your energy was.
Speaker 5 (02:23):
And I think that's how we all cross paths and
why we met and how this all came about.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Called it the twenty week cruise that we were on.
It wasn't twenty weeks. It was nine days.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
It was seven days. It was it was seven days
or long cruise. Well, people showed up three days I have.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
That's a lot of that's a lot of it's a
lot of days.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
My wife loves cruises, like we went on like I
feel like I went on like a two year rant
with cruises, Like.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
I love cruises, but it was my first cruise.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I so much.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
They would just tell me about the Freestyle cruise. It
was Penny actually on the cruise making things work. Yes,
you were handling business.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
I did some interviews. You were just singing and drink.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
Gave me some marketing tips, interviews about marketing as an artist,
and it just was really free up on her time.
In terms of like giving some inspiration on things you
can do, like in marketing, and always as an artist,
you could always feel like too much information is not enough,
so just getting some more info and some more insights
about the business, because you can never take too much
(03:22):
information and learn from it.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
So she was very like.
Speaker 5 (03:26):
Inspiring if that's the word inspiring, and just giving such
great ideas. And you know, it's nice I met her sister,
you know on that because you just meet a lot
of nice people. And me, I'm I'm a partyer, like
not party or like that way. I just love to party,
have a good time.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
And it's.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Very every guest we've had here we always agree on
the same thing. And it's all about networking. Yes, that's
whether you're in the office, on the street, on a cruise,
wherever you're at.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
If you could grow your net, your your network.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
You know, I was working on that cruise.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
She was. I was.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
I actually thought you were working.
Speaker 5 (04:05):
You're like, no, I came with my sister Sal I
a Tello Fever record.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Sal had me doing Facebook lives. We were working.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
He always got somebody to work for him, right, He's like, hey,
can you give me a favorite a favorite turns into
a job.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
But that's honest. And speaking of jobs, you have been working, yeah,
since the age of thirteen thirteen.
Speaker 5 (04:26):
Yeah, Well, I first did a movie when I was
nine with Paul Chevino. John Gafflson shot a movie called
Slow Dancing in the Big City and I played a tomboy.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
I played a.
Speaker 5 (04:35):
Girl named Punk and Bear Grant was the writer of
the movie. So I did that first with Paul Chervino,
and then I got offered another movie that, honestly, I
don't even need to mention it was not my vibe.
So I didn't do well, but it was something that
I paid. I played a daughter, a sister of a
girl who used to date some guy. It was not
a great movie anyway. Fast forward, sheik Le yoga commercial
(04:57):
I did at four thirteen, and and then after that,
I just got my first record deal when I was
almost fifteen. So I was in Beach Street at fourteen,
going on.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Are you trying to do your whole life? This is
what you wanted to do? Be in an entertainment business.
Speaker 5 (05:11):
I always loved it. I always loved it. I lived
in the Wife Tower projects and for me, I love
to sing. My dad was in the group the Spiral Staircase.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
He was Harvey k. He was the organist.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
He was the founder of the group, and they have
that song I Love You More Today Than Yesterday. And
pad Upton most part of the group. And I always
knew I loved to sing, and I wanted to be
in the camera. I was always in the mirror with
a brush, you know, in the mirror the spidio.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Thinking God was all that. My mother would be like you,
I'm all kinds.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
I don't have hair to have a brush, but no
you do.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
We don't have to send you to Turkey.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Yeah no, no, no, no.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
Not too long ago.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
I had, you know, my hair pulled back into a
little like a man bunish. Yeah that's the grease.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
I that's my dad got good hair too, I got
that gay.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
But yeah, I've been I've been working a lot. I've
been working a lot since very young. Also because my
mom was a single mother and I knew the struggles,
and my sister and my brothers were in college and
I just really wanted to help.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
And I knew that if God.
Speaker 5 (06:09):
Gave me a gift and my mom saw it and me,
like kids for their birthday, would want to party it's
my thirteenth birthday.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
She's like, what do you want to do for your birthday?
And I'm like, I want to go to a recording studio.
And my mom's like a recording studio. I'm like, I
want to make a record.
Speaker 5 (06:20):
Yeah, And I remember hearing like Stacy Lattasol and listening
to Tina Marie, Donna Summers, Barbara Streuisen.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
And I was like, I really want to like make music.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
And that's where I got the bug of wanting to
really work and just really stay focused.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
And I've been working since I'm a kid.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
And you put out your first record from was Was Taken?
Nineteen eighty five?
Speaker 5 (06:40):
Well, that's the first one that came out after the
contract was avoided because I was under a production deal
very young, and because I was young, I was taken
out of that production deal and able to have it
released at nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
But I've been recording since I'm fourteen.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Fifteen, Yeah, even nineteen eighty five, by the way, even
to take it back to the early eighties or whenever
it was right, Yeah, did you ever think that fast
forward all the way to twenty twenty six, you'd be
on cruises and still performing around the world and performing
these records.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
And I mean you came straight here from Columbia.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
I did.
Speaker 5 (07:11):
I was at Lima, Peru, and Cali to Italy, Spain,
We're going to Chile, Argentina.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
But no, I mean I knew I wanted to do it.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
But if it didn't work, I had another game plan
which I was going to go in andto. I was
probably going to go into like the medical field or
social working. I love working with kids and giving back.
I've always done like after school programs and the gift
of music. So I thought something would like a voice
teacher or creating my own school.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
But did I.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
Think that this would be my future. I would still
be doing what I'm doing now, I would hope so.
Just because my worth ethics were always there. I wasn't
the kind of person that wanted to hang out and
be a with a bad crowd. My whole thing was
in the studio every day, even on the weekends. I
would go to take dance lessons. Like I just wasn't
the kind of person that didn't have my head on straight.
(08:04):
I knew to stay away from back crowds. I knew
that if I wanted this I needed to be dedicated.
So I think I was always dedicated and would hope
that I still had it. There were times in my
career that I didn't have a deal and I was struggling,
but I didn't give the faith. I didn't give up
on faith because I believe that you know, all your
caminos or your pathways can be open if you just
(08:28):
stay optimistic. And I just pray on it a lot,
and I know I'm not better than There's a lot
of amazing talent out there now, younger cats killing it
on YouTube on TikTok, and I say, wow, you know, like,
how can I still be in this game? And some
of them aren't even recognized. I always hoped that I
would be doing this, but I didn't bet on it
one hundred percent, because you're as good as your last hit.
(08:50):
As you know, in the music industry, they'll love you today,
a year or two years later, they'll get rid of
you and bring someone else in. So I just prayed
on it, and I'm really still doing it because because
I am creating my better tomorrow, I don't depend on
anyone to do it for me. I don't see myself
as a superstar or a global sensation. As Penny says,
(09:12):
I just feel that God has blessed me because he
knows that I've stayed focused. I've been diligent in my craft,
and you know, I still make music music that could
play in TikTok, that could play in clubs and may
not play on mainstream radio. Maybe the classics play on
mainstream radio, but a lot of my fans and the
DJs that believe in me played in clubs, play it overseas.
(09:34):
I just did they say, what's Betando? Which was my
very first album in Spanish? I re recorded the whole
album and I just put out the first single, No
digas Nada is doing insane in Peru, in Colombia. Is
it playing here in the US? It plays here sometimes
but not on mainstream radio. But it's really the fans.
But I did not think to date that I'd still
(09:58):
be having this. You know, I've had ardent end jobs.
Don't get it wrong, don't get it twisted. I mean
I've worked at senior citizen homes. I've I got my
license as a like a like a home attendant, and
I just got it just something to fall back on
because I needed insurance and being married.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
My husband had insurance.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
But with that being said, I knew that I had
to feed my kids and I didn't want to depend
on a man, and I knew I wanted the music,
but I needed something to fall back on when going
into that job.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
I end up.
Speaker 5 (10:29):
Teaching music therapy in the assisted living program and I
started working with people that had dementia. So I went
from being a home health aid and helping in the
senior center to becoming a music therapist. So that helped
me because I was still giving back to client foundations,
and right the foundations were there. There were people that
had dementia, and you know, the left side of the
(10:50):
brain is where the you know, the music's of the
music and whatnot. So I was just really singing old
school songs to them and doing like a lot of
cognitive and mode to school things with them in terms
of but I did it musically. I bought old school
music and people that didn't remember their families remembered the songs,
so they love me there.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
So I stayed there for like a year.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
And a half, but then I missed it and then
I wanted to go back into music, and I went
back to that. I mean, I did vocal lessons when
you know, when I was out of my dear after
I left Sony. But I never thought in a million
years that I'll be kicking sixty in October that I'm
still here.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
Happy, bir Yeah, I'm gonna be. Oh God, Sometimes I
don't know if it's happy.
Speaker 5 (11:32):
Or it's like yeah, you know, I guess and like,
you know, can I see the transformation that Penny made
and I look at her working so hard and I
love to see other women wanting to better ourselves and
she looks amazing.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Pro and I have lost a combined way. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
We started this competition last year, and is it a competition?
I'm winning, but it feels good.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
It crazy the amount of people that are in competition
with you that you don't know and they still lose.
Speaker 5 (12:04):
But you know what, it's great when it's more crazy,
just watching the transformation and looking in the mirror and saying, listen,
I'm looking at kids cats that are like in their
thirties and looking at me almost six, and I'm like, oh,
I'm not that bad.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
Like I'm not that bad, but I like you, like
you said, it really makes you feel good about yourself.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
You have to do it for you. Everything we do,
we do it for ourselves, feel self, love thing that
we have, and your passion for music has never wavered.
Right throughout everything you're saying and the different trajectories you've taken,
it always comes back to music and pro and I
have spoken about this in the past seasons of what's
meant for you? Is there for you right because we
(12:42):
always come back to kind of what we're doing and
taking it back because you spoke about Savasa, you know
there's some freestyle there, but taking it back to the
beginning of your career because I do want to touch that.
Did you know that I still believe was going to
be the hit that it was?
Speaker 5 (12:55):
You knew it from the very first moment I heard it.
I mean, when I did get the song, it wasn't
fully produced, it did have elements that I thought were amazing.
I was in my first relationship and knowing what love
was about, and I just.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
Really felt the lyrics.
Speaker 5 (13:10):
The bridge was a little different, and I changed it
around to make it comfortable for me, and I love
the way the way that I transformed it with your
mere Diodato.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
But I literally heard the lyrics that.
Speaker 5 (13:20):
Antonine Armado wrote and I just was like, this song
is going to be a smashed And after I heard
the production and I knew that Diodato was doing the production.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
He worked with Cool in the Gang.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
He had all those amazing hits were Cool in the Gang,
Cool in the Gang. And when he did the production,
I came in to cut the demo. The first it's
like a rough draft, and I did I still believe
in less than two hours.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (13:44):
I went and did the lead voke. When I remember
he treated me to Chinese food. He was like, take
a break. He's like, let's have food. And I was like,
he was what your favorite food? I was like Chinese
and he's like, all right, well, because you're gonna give
me a number one record, we're going to order it
and this on me and I was like okay. So
then the next day I went into the last touch
ups and within two days it was done. They mixed
and mastered it. But when I heard it, and it's
(14:06):
not about being cocky, but when I heard it, my
hair stood up and I felt I felt that the
song resonated with me because when I got home and
heard it again on the cassette, because we had cassettes
at the time.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
I cried. I cried because I felt that the lyric
was so.
Speaker 5 (14:22):
It resonated with me, and I knew that a lot
of people can identify with that song. But it's not
speaking like egotistically. But I knew that it was a
hit everyone from day one. Yeah, brought it up the
American Idol and her audition.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 5 (14:39):
It's funny how they did that, because they do a
long whole thing where they tell you, so, how are
you blah, and they talked about us, so what inspired you? Oh,
my mom's in music. My mom's name is Brenda Keystar.
And then that's when Jennifer's like, oh my god, I
know Brenda. We went to dance. You know. I used
to tell us teach me how to sing. I used
tell her to teach me how to dance. But it
made it seem like right away she just threw my
name in there. But I didn't get to see Jen
(15:01):
or any of the judges into the fourth or fifth
interview audition. This was a process. It didn't happen right
away from her behind the scenes.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
TV cuts it to sixty seconds.
Speaker 5 (15:10):
Yes, yeah, so, and I honestly did it.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
It's right that's right.
Speaker 5 (15:17):
I actually didn't want them to know she was my
daughter because I didn't want to see that there was
some favoritism.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
But after because I went under my.
Speaker 5 (15:24):
Married name, and then finally people started saying, oh, Brendan gay,
and it's like, oh, I didn't, and my daughter's like,
because I really don't like to my mom. It's the connection.
I don't want people to think that I'm favored. But
she did make it to number ten, which our kist
was great. She's very talented, but I have to be
honest at that age, she was an X Factor at
thirteen and she made top forty, and then she did
(15:46):
idle and she made top ten, and I thought that
that was good enough for her because it's a very
hard business. Number one, number two, it's a lot of
wear and tear, and I didn't think she was ready.
But I wanted her to do it for the experience.
And it wasn't about because I can put a record
out on my daughter tomorrow if I want. She writes
and co produces all her music. At this time she
decided she loved it. But she did the summer program
(16:09):
at Berkeley, she did the writing school, she did the
there's a jazz program, there's a rock and roll program.
So I think she did the songwriting and the pop program.
With that being said, she loves it, but it didn't
love enough to have thick enough skin. So I felt like,
I don't want you to do something where you feel
(16:30):
it's going to drain you, where that you lose yourself.
So she got into teaching. She's getting her masters, and
she works with kids in school. She's a teacher for
kids that have learning disabilities and she works with them.
She's a sixth grade teacher. And she still writes. She
writes all her songs, and she occasionally puts stuff up.
But I don't I don't think she loved it enough
(16:53):
to make it a career.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
In today's you know, back then versus now is different.
Obviously it's always been. You've always had to have a
thick skin to be in this industry, right, but with
social media these days, especially if you pay attention to it,
you know, especially for new.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
Artists, well now, because it's so it's so everyone.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Has an opinion.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
Oh, I get it all the time. I get it
all the time.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
But you know what, someone the other day talked about
my glasses that.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
I wear like, why do you wear such big glasses?
Like they do horrible on a pair of seeing glasses.
I show you they're so big and she's like like,
why would you do that? And I told that I said,
I'm sorry you don't like them, but I like them.
Speaker 5 (17:35):
Yeah, I don't have them with the there with a car,
but I was like, but I like them. And it's
like that, or if I wear an outfit or if
I look thick or heavy and a certain outfit, I'm like, listen,
everybody's gonna have an opinion. You know what they say
about when you have an opinion, you know, keep your
opinions to yourself as long as it's it's.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
If that's not anymore right now, your opinions on social media,
that's you know, the commons.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
It's everywhere you turn.
Speaker 5 (18:01):
And for me, sometimes the things that they do say
I take into account and like, oh, you know, it
didn't sound great.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
That show that night, Like a voice wasn't on point.
It kind of.
Speaker 5 (18:12):
Inspires me to say, Okay, I maybe need to work
on this song a little better. Because you're not going
to always have a good night. There are going to
be certain nights that you're off, Like I mean, I've
been traveling. My throat is tired. Now I go to
a vocologist. I try to get as much rest as
I can. And sometimes it's tough on you because you
want to work and stay relevant. But how long do
(18:33):
we have to do this? I mean, there's a lot
of younger cats down there.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
But yeah, I was.
Speaker 5 (18:38):
Proud of my daughter doing American IDOL. I thought it
was a good experience. It's something for her to remember
in her life that she could tell her children when
she's having her first daughter in July. Yeah, so this
will be my sixth granddaughter. I've only got girls and
I only have one son, so we got no boys
in the family. My daughter got pregnant at COVID. She
(18:58):
dated her junior high school boyfriend. They got married. They
had three girls in COVID. She got pregnant, just go
maybe it's the boy. It turned out being another two
girls and it was a set of twins. So now
they got five and then the daughter that is now
getting married to a Colombian.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (19:16):
They have been danny on and off since their fifteen
they're twenty seven and they're gonna have their first daughter.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Her name is Eleana, and they're gonna have her in July,
so I'll have six granddaughters.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
It's a blessing you that I love.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
I'm a house full of girls. I feel bad for
their dad. I feel bad for their dad, but you know.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
I have a house for the boys, so we'll just
bring them over there.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
And how ironic is that because my mother had five boys. Yeah,
and me and my sister were the only two girls.
So it's like, now I got coming my wife.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
We only have boys, me and my wife, right, really,
and she wants to have a girl, so she wants
me to she now she wants me.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
She's like she would have a boy, and she's always
says it's gonna be a boy.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
And then her family, she has a cousin who they
have have there's nine boys, but they had ten kids
and they did have one girl and it was like
the eighth kid or something like that, or the ninth kid,
and then they.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
Tried to have some frog. Ten kids. That's a lot.
Speaker 5 (20:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Yeah, well, you know when you get to a point
then your oldest start taking.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
Helping out, but the other ones.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Yeah yeah, But to rewind your conversation about performances, I
wasn't there, but I heard you killed it.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
At the iHeart Women's.
Speaker 5 (20:26):
It was a day where a lot of women got
together that were powerful, and it was really about talking
about how to love yourself. I wrote a song called
set Me Free, which is just basically a song about
my life and my trials and tribulations of not only
being in a relationship, being married, being in for thirty
two years and thirty one married, and how in relationships
(20:47):
and in jobs and just life overall and being accepted
and not learning how to love yourself and doing for
everyone else.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
So Set Me.
Speaker 5 (20:56):
Free was a song of like freedom, a chance to
come within your own And I think the day was
basically women empowerment, and it was telling women that you know,
it's okay to be okay in your own skin. You
shouldn't depend on anyone, and you should let go of
what's negative and learn how to recreate, you know, not
only yourself, but realign.
Speaker 4 (21:17):
Your thoughts and just really learn how to love yourself.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
I think I've been such a mother, such a wife,
such a la love I mean grandma, and I've been
pouring into them and pouring into my job that I
lost myself, and within losing myself, I just became so
mentally drained that after you lose yourself, you really don't
know how to love yourself at one point, so I
(21:45):
stepped away from all my situations, not as a mother,
stepped away up in my marriage.
Speaker 4 (21:49):
I never ever, you know, we're not divorced.
Speaker 5 (21:51):
We were separated, but we're the best of friends and
we still work at seeing whether it can work. But
it's a it's a time in my life where I
wrote this song where I needed to find my freedom
and spread my wings and fly and learn how to
know that I can't be codependent on this person because
for the rest of it, I didn't come in life
(22:12):
with him.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
I came here alone. I'm going to go out alone.
Speaker 5 (22:14):
And it was just a song that really gave me
some substance of like, you know, Brenda, you're badass, bitch,
like you know, learn how to love you again, and
your relationship should be a stem of who you are,
but it should not be your crutch.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
And I leaned on it for so much.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
He's my manager, he's my best friend, he was my husband,
he was this he was that you know, and I've
never spoke on it. Today is literally the first interview
that I've ever spoke about being separated and still working out,
trying to see.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
Where our paths will lead us.
Speaker 5 (22:47):
You never know, and I don't give up on love,
but I have to remember I have to not give
up on me yourself, and that was.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
What the song was about.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
So I guess beforming it that day it made me
so emotional. And he was there at the shit and
you know, he works with me, so he's like, I
really felt weird when you did that, and I was like, well,
don't be because what it shows is that, no matter
if you are in a place it's divorce should not
always be the first option. You can step away and
(23:14):
start working on yourself. You work on you while I
work on me, and whatever's meant to be will bring
you back together.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
So set me free.
Speaker 5 (23:22):
I platformed it that particular day, Women's Day, for the
first time I ever performed it, so I think they
felt what I felt because I don't know. I try
to be transparent, but more than transparent, I just wanted
to let everyone know it's okay to not be afraid
of the space that you're in.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
If that makes sense, do you get me?
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Thank you for being so vulnerable open with us. It's
and you did that day, and you preface and you
shared a lot of this that day, and everyone was
emotional in the room as we're getting now. But it's
so important to be aware and to say it's okay
not to be okay.
Speaker 4 (24:03):
It's very hard.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
And we all go through our trials and tribulations, and
we spoke about my health and all these things, and
we bonded on that beach on the cruise, But we
all go through something, and I feel that this anthem
that you've created is going to resonate with everyone for
different reasons, right within their lives. And sometimes we're so
(24:27):
stuck in survival mode and we continue to let the
wheels turn and we continue and we continue, we continue
that we don't take a moment to sit down, breathe
and reflect, reflect and say okay, I need a second
because the world is so fast paced. So I love
the chorus.
Speaker 5 (24:47):
Sometimes it makes me sad because it's such an amazing
song and I wish I could get it played at
every station. But with that being said, I have so
many people that hear it on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and
I just shot the video and I think that little
by little it's stating presidents and it's getting what it deserves.
And I think even the people that hear, like the
(25:08):
one kid that told me, you know, when I heard
set Me Free, it friendly gave me the chance and
gave me a little concept. I wanted to add it
in my video, but it was too late. About a
young boy who told his mother that he was gay
and he was afraid she was going to disown him.
And the father and the mother sat with him and
they said, listen, this is who you are.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
We love you. We want to meet who you were with.
And he met them and he said it.
Speaker 5 (25:30):
And the only reason why he did it was because
after hearing my song, it really sat with him and
he thanked me. He's like, thank you for writing this song,
because it made me realize that I have to learn
how to live for me and not everyone else. And
that's what you do when not only as a mother,
as a wife, as being afraid to come out of
your you know, come out of your I guess your shell,
(25:52):
or come out of the closet the per se. That's
the saying. But for me, it's just about living life
and set Me Free. I think it's just a song
for not only vulnerability, but to be happy with who
you are.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
Just be you.
Speaker 5 (26:06):
Be you, because tomorrow's never promised to anybody, so don't
live for everyone else other than yourself.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
That's also it sounds like this song is the culmination
of your career, right, because you've gone through so many transitions.
Yeah right. You started off like let's talk about the ballads,
and you went into freestyle, you went into satisa, and
through your trials and tribulations that you've been very open
about throughout your career, you've continued to persevere and you've
(26:32):
continued to motivate, empower and inspire, and this song seems
to be the culmination of that.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
I mean, I've had so many ups and downs. I
mean I've been on major labels, I've been on independent labels.
I've wrote for companies and did like publishing deals with
Sony Music. I mean I've been countless times, you know,
taking advantage of in terms of in the business. I
had to learn I how to be a one woman show.
I had to be the agent. I needed to be
the artist. I needed to be the director. I needed
(27:00):
to be the producer. I needed to find the team,
put the team together. It was exhausting. But I think
some people take it as desperate, or some people take
it as you know, like she's on a survival mode.
Speaker 4 (27:10):
It's I'm not doing it for them. I'm doing it
for me because I love what I do.
Speaker 5 (27:13):
But I've had so many doors closed, but I never
ever gave up because I had to push to prevail,
and that's what I do.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
It's like I think, if.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
I sit and wait for somebody to make it happen
for me, then it makes me lose the authenticity of
loving what I do. I do it because I love it.
I don't do it because I want to be a
superstar and I want to get awards from Grammys to
American Music Wars, Red Carpet. I'm happy where I'm at.
I'm doing music. I'm successfully being.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
Able to.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
Still live and have a beautiful legacy. But you know,
it just goes to show. Like you said, I did pop,
I did freestyle, I did Saiysa, I've done musical theater,
I've done commercials. Love music overall and that's my healing power.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
While Branda, we're gonna get controversial freestyle or salsa.
Speaker 5 (28:07):
I'm sorry every day, all day. I love I'm not
gonna tell you why I do love freestyle, But not
only was it not given the recognition it deserves, it's
and I'm not saying for the producers. I just feel
like we need to evolve with freestyle. We need to
do remixes of the originals so that the originals can come.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Back to life.
Speaker 5 (28:28):
I feel like everything is still staying in a box.
For me, I considered Saisa only because I have the
vulnerability of doing my music, expressing myself with my music.
I play thing ballads, I play gongas, I sing ballads,
I sing Saysa, I do remakes of Selia, I do
La Lupe. But for me, I think freestyle is great.
(28:49):
But if it wasn't so controversial, and it wasn't so
in a box and nobody lets it expand, it's not
given the it's I'm not giving the flowers it deserves.
And it's not saying that it's not great music. It
is great music.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
But for me, I feel like I'm more and I
wasn't a freestyle artist.
Speaker 5 (29:10):
I was a pop artist. For me, Over and over
was closest to freestyle or so in love. I did
a remix with Tony Moran, I did do the demo
of Scars of Love. Originally I was the one who
did that. So I mean, I have a taste of freestyle,
but I consider myself more of a pop artist. I
consider myself more like a Tale of Dane Lisa Lisa
(29:30):
top forty freestyle like it you say dream girl, you
do I dream girl, You're my dream boy, dreamgirl, Cynthia
and Johnny. That's a pop song, George Lamm that's a
pop song. Freestyle is put in a box. But that's
more like Latin hip hop. So it's not growing because
it doesn't have the support it deserves.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
You want to hear it.
Speaker 5 (29:53):
Hear it on TikTok, hear it on with Bad Boy Richie,
hear it with Triple Threat Radio MDWRA. You know, like
I love KTU all due respect, I love iHeart, but
it doesn't give it a platform enough to make it
successful that where it should be as VERSAA. I get
all Latin radio. I'm everywhere. It's feeding my kids. I
(30:15):
do do some freestyle, So if I had to choose,
you're gonna put me in the SASA because the SASA
is literally blown up for me. I won two Latin
billboards with that. I've done the Duds with as Victim. Well,
I'm getting ready to go into a studio with an
artist I can't even say who he is that I
can't even believe I'm recording with this guy because I've
been a fan. But I'm doing a Latin record with him.
(30:36):
I created my own Latin label, Star Records. I do
some some pop, which is what I do. You know,
set me freeze pop record. It's a pop dance record.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
But no, I.
Speaker 5 (30:47):
Don't disown my roots. I love freestyle. I've been traveling
with TKA George Lamont. We did No Matter What together.
We've done so many tours Sin THEA cover girls.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
But you need to get on these tours, you know,
not of fun.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing you actually perform. So
you know about the one sixteenth Street Festival. Yeah, so
Brenda will be there.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Amazing.
Speaker 4 (31:09):
That's strict I think that's strictly side. But I made
through a couple of freestyle.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
So it's going to be a great, great stage because
the artists that are surrounding you also on that. It's
you know, Champaul's doing it, Cataloona's doing it.
Speaker 4 (31:21):
Oh wow, I didn't even know that that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
And then we have some some other people doing it too,
I think, so versatility. Yeah, yeah, it's going to be great.
It's going to be great. Hopefully the weather is nice
and then be one hundred thousand people there.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
Yeah, oh no, it's going to be packed.
Speaker 5 (31:33):
I played I played the one sixteen Street Festival a
couple of years back for a Latin station out here
from the city.
Speaker 4 (31:39):
That brought me through for that.
Speaker 5 (31:41):
But I mean, like, I'm doing another show in June
is where sat Sian beats freestyle, So the first twenty
five minutes is all freestyle, and then I'm going into
a whole Latin production. So I still try not to
abandon my mind I'm doing I'm doing.
Speaker 4 (31:56):
Beatstock this year.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
That's freestyle.
Speaker 4 (31:58):
I'm doing that freestyle pop pop. Yeah, they mix it up.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
They have hip hop artists.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
I think Naughty by Nature is going to be there.
Speaker 4 (32:06):
We're doing Atlantic City November fourteen. I's got the mikasup.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
You know like that anyway, because even as a DJ,
like I play everything, so it's like, why just be
in a box playing one thing?
Speaker 4 (32:17):
You know? Everybody.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
I'd rather go to a concert and hear a mixture
of music. You know, a nice reggae hip hop area.
We like everything.
Speaker 4 (32:25):
Music is universal, That's what I say. It's healing, and
it should be.
Speaker 5 (32:29):
It should be able to give the opportunity for everyone
to love it. And I don't like to stay in
the box eating. So I mean, I'm going to be
in Florida for the Mikasuki Resort and Casino show on
July twenty fourth, a couple of days before my daughter
gives birth. So now I'm really losing it because I
totally forgot. My agent booked it, me and my husband.
He booked it, and I'm like, and so now I'm
(32:49):
going to fly out and perform, and I'm leaving at
the five am flight to come back because I'm a
nervous wreck.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
Hopefully she'll get birth after.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
But you know what, agentes and to our listeners, half
an hour is not enough with the Brenda case.
Speaker 4 (33:03):
Because I talked too much of we're gonna have to
bring you back.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
No, we need to bring you back.
Speaker 4 (33:07):
We didn't.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
We didn't get into a lot of what we had
to cover, so we definitely have to bring you back
for a part two, which will be phenomenal. You'll be
the first artist come back for a part two. But
you know what, We usually close our episode out one way,
but I feel like we have to close it out
a different way this time.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
You want to close it out today.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Give us a little bit of set me free, bron.
Speaker 5 (33:25):
That's what we're doing acapella of the song Oh my God.
I don knows if I ever have a museum. Set
me free, let me go, Send me free. You never
know I was going with you well blind, No, I'm
taking back was mine. Let me be, Yeah, send me fee,
(33:50):
set me free from all this pain, Let me breathe
don't speak my name. You said you love me, but
not the way I need you. Help me close. But
clip my wings had a time and we had a spark,
but I was fading in the dark. But now I'm
asking baby, just let me be. I want to spread
(34:15):
my wings and fly, touch the stars. Light up this
guy normal hiding who I am inside?
Speaker 4 (34:25):
It's my time some let me rest, let me go.
I'm a little sick, but that's a little bit as
But yeah, I have a really bad upper respiratory infection.
I know it's no excuse, but if I knew I
was gonna do an acapella probably.
Speaker 5 (34:45):
You guys, don't hit a little cracking list. It's all rough,
but semi freeze. It's a great song.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Well, thank you so so much for stopping by. B Yeah, lad,
I love the bridge.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
I like that stay.
Speaker 5 (35:02):
I broke, I bled, you took my light and left
me dead. But now I'm dancing do the pain.
Speaker 4 (35:12):
You lost my game. I'm not the same seven free.
I feel like I hear all the claps.
Speaker 5 (35:19):
I just like not because I wrote it, but I
honestly feel that it's just it's I love it. Even
if it never made it the number one anywhere in
the radio or this or that on the billboards or whatever,
it's number one for me because I finally have put
my words on paper that it's just something that will
always resonate for me to forever.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
It's beautiful baby Free.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
I think that's how we're gonna close it out. Brent,
thank you for being here with us. You can follow
her brand's a case star on all platforms. Follow us
on pod dot. Teach me something pro. I want to
take us out.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
That's right till next time. Thank you for rocking with
us over here. I teach me something presented by Berkeley College.
I am pro Style, I Am Penny Dollas and the
amazing Brenda cay Starr.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Thank you again, Thank.
Speaker 5 (36:04):
You guys for having me, stay tuned, keep listening in
to Teach Me Something.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Let's go.
Speaker 4 (36:08):
Definitely worth it. We're keeping that.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
Drop Peter all right, good time. Hey, thanks for listening.
Tune in next week
Speaker 2 (36:15):
For all new episode of Teach Me Something, brought to
you by Berkeley College
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