May 22, 2025 • 69 mins
From A&R meetings to ab workouts, Angelique Miles has lived many lives—and in this episode of Mixed and Mastered, she’s telling all. Join us for a powerful, no-holds-barred conversation as Angelique takes us from her roots in Queens, NY, to the boardrooms of Warner Chappell and Universal, where she helped shape the sound of hip-hop and R&B alongside legends like Michael Jackson, Missy Elliott, and Busta Rhymes.
But the journey doesn’t stop there.
Angelique opens up about navigating personal loss, the shifting tides of the music industry, and how she boldly stepped into a new chapter as a wellness and lifestyle influencer. We talk beauty, balance, the art of the pivot, and why being over 50 is just the beginning. Get ready for a masterclass in reinvention, resilience, and staying real in a world that’s constantly remixing itself.
Hit play—you don’t want to miss this one.
Mixed and Mastered is produced and distributed by Merrick Studio, and hosted by music industry veteran, Jeffrey Sledge. Tune in to the discussion on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you catch your podcasts. Follow us on Instagram @MixedandMasteredPod to join the conversation and support the show at https://mixedandmasteredpod.buzzsprout.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
On this week's Mixed and Mastered, we're joined by
Angelique Miles.
Angelique has published some ofthe biggest names in music,
including Missy Elliott,timberland, busta Rhymes and Old
Dirty Bastard.
Since then, angelique hasreinvented herself as a leading
beauty and wellness influencer.
Angelique tells us her journeyof resilience and reinvention.
(00:22):
It's never too late to rewriteyour story.
This is Mixed and Mastered withAngelique Miles.
Welcome to Mixed and Mastered,the podcast where the stories of
the music industry come to life.
I'm Jeffrey Sledge, bringingyou real conversations with the
people who have shaped the soundof music.
(00:43):
We're pulling back the curtainon what it takes to make it in
the music business.
These are the stories you won'thear anywhere else, told by the
people who live them.
This is Mixed and Mastered.
Mixed and Mastered withAngelique Miles.
(01:06):
The infamous Angelique Miles.
How are you, angelique?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I'm great.
How are you Good?
You're looking good.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Thank you, you smell good.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I do.
I always smell good, Even ifI'm going to the gym.
I spritz on something clean.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
People fucking in the gym is nasty.
Yeah, fucking people in the gymis nasty.
Well, you people in the gym isnasty.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
It's like Well, you know I go to like this private
studio, so that doesn't happentoo often, but there are some
stinky people in the other gym Igo to.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
We're going to get to that.
We're going to get to that.
We're going to start from thebeginning.
So, born and raised in Queens,new York, that's right Southside
, to be exact, south South sideto be exact, south side.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
No, no, no, no.
Oh, you're not.
I'm from Charleston, I'm notfrom the South Side.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Okay, excuse me, my fault, my fault.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
I'm from a nice community, not that the South
Side isn't, but I live closer tothe borderline.
I grew up closer to theborderline of Nassau County.
Okay, so tell me about that.
Tell me about growing up inQueens.
Growing up in Queens, I had agreat experience growing up in
Queens.
It was, you know, I grew up inthe seventies.
(02:12):
There was very that not justLaurelton but Jamaica Queens in
general was very Afro, you know,like it was very Black power
time going on.
So my friends my best friend'sbig sister had us doing plays
for block parties, like recitingpoetry and wearing African garb
(02:37):
and learning Swahili.
We even had like a LaureltonResearchers Club where we
researched the history of wherewe lived.
My friend's older sister didthat for us.
It was like a group called theLaurelton Researchers Club.
So we found out that Laureltonwas named for the Laurel Bush
and at that time there werestill some Jewish people living
(03:00):
in the neighborhood.
So we interviewed them and theywould tell us, like Merrick
used to be a stream.
And so, yeah, I had a greatchildhood, I went to Catholic
school so.
I didn't really get to meet alot of people in the
neighborhood because I went toCatholic school.
I didn't go to the schoolaround the corner, but my mother
(03:22):
was a teacher at August MartinHigh School.
A lot of people knew her but no, I had a great childhood.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
So tell me about your kind of first clicks, that you
were a music lover.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
I became a music lover because my uncles both of
them had huge record collections.
So my uncle Bernard came tolive with us Well, my father's
from DC, so I traveled to DC alot.
My uncle there had a hugerecord collection.
And then one of my uncles, myfather's other brother, came to
(03:59):
live with us for a while and hebrought his record collection
with him.
So I would sit in the livingroom you know that's where the
record player was and listen tomusic with him and he was a big
earth, wind and fire fan andmaze and parliament like before
it was parliament funkadelic, um.
And I used to read the linernotes.
(04:21):
And it was so funny because Ijust saw a social media post
yesterday that was talking aboutSkip Scarborough and that
specifically Skip Scarborough'sname always stuck out to me as a
kid because I guess because ofSkip Wind, fire fan.
And I remember particularly thisone time.
I loved Heat Wave's BoogieNights.
(04:51):
So I would listen to the radioall day, waiting for Boogie
Nights to come on, and my mothergot sick of it so she finally
bought me the album.
Either she bought me the albumor one of my brothers did.
Somebody bought me the albumand my uncle worked nights.
So I went to school.
I came home and he was likealways and forever is the cut.
(05:12):
I was like, okay, but you know,to this day I'm like wow, he
knew.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
He knew.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Always.
Forever was the cut.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
It still is.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
It still is the cut.
But uh, then my other uncle indc, he had a different kind of
collection so I used to listento whenever we visited my
grandparents he lived with mygrandparents I would just lock
myself in his room he was neverhome and just um listen to his
music.
And I got got into PattiLaBelle Okay, singers like that
(05:48):
Through my other uncle's recordcollection.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Okay, so I know that you're also a big club music fan
and was on the club scene.
Did this happen before you wentaway to school or after you
came back, or was it like during?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Well, I like companies, but also I'll take it
back.
I love Go-Go because I was inDC a lot traveling to see my
grandparents and my god sisterwould have me with her at Howard
Theater, the Panorama Room.
And I loved Go-Go.
During my high school years Ihad the Red Essence records.
(06:27):
I brought all that stuff in DCand brought it back home.
I love, love, love Go-Go.
I think I got into club musicin college because that's when I
started going to the ParadiseGarage.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Like 1985.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
I was a to the Paradise Garage Okay, like 1985.
And I was a freshman at Hampton, so that got me into clubbing,
just being in that environment,and I think the radio must have
been playing some of it.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Yeah, new York radio playing a lot of it, yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Friday and Saturday nights was Mr Magic and Red
Alert of course, but then therewas some kind of time that club
music came on too like.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Timmy.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Wedgesford.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Especially on BLS.
Yeah, yeah, they did a lot.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
And at the youngest 15, I went to clubs.
Like back then you could sneakinto a club with fake ID.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Yeah, plus you're kind of tall, so you know.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Yeah, so like my older brother's girlfriend would
sneak me in with her toJustine's and stuff like that.
So I got into club music thatway, but mainly going to the
Paradise Garage.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Yeah, so wait, before we get deep into that, tell me
about your experience at HamptonUniversity.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Hampton was like a kind of a culture shock for me
because I went to an all-girl,predominantly white Catholic
high school I never went to.
I didn't go to high school withboys, so when I got to Hampton,
crazy Black college boys.
But you know, to their credit,hampton had us for the first six
(08:10):
weeks freshman, first six weeks, you on a curfew.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Really.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
You couldn't just be out in the street.
So yeah, we had a I think itwas 12 o'clock curfew.
But we had a curfew.
You had to be in a room by acertain time.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Wow, and if you wanted to go away for the
weekend or go, you know you hadto sign out, so I used to sign
out you had to be outside.
I would go stay with, like myolder friends in their dorm,
yeah, you know.
But Hampton was great because Igot to connect with I don't
know.
Growing up in Queens you justsee one kind of person.
(08:46):
You know what I mean.
And at Hampton I saw all kindsof Black people.
You know, affluent Black people, people who got there the same
way I did, people who got thereother ways, just people from all
walks of life but all differentand I'm very grateful that I
was able to experience that,very grateful that I was able to
(09:08):
experience it.
Hbcu, like Hampton, was a greatexperience.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I always tell people that, because I went to Morgan,
another black college, and Ialways tell people it's the kind
of thing with you Like when Iwent to Morgan I was like, oh,
we're all black, but we ain'tall the same, Right.
No, we all black, but we ain'tall the same, right, you know,
because people from Philly areway different than the people
from Chicago, and the peoplefrom DC are way different than
the people from New York, and soon and so on.
(09:34):
It was a culture shock kind ofthing, and some people have had
mad money, some people werereally struggling, some people
were like middle class, you know, kind of just making a way, and
it was just this melting pot ofblackness, you know, and I
loved that.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
And yeah, it was so, because we used to go to
people's houses on the weekends,like it would just be like, oh
yeah, a group of us would go andstay at you know, my friend
Ernest, we used to go to hishouse all the time he was from
Mitchellville, Maryland.
That's the first time I everheard of Mitchellville, but we
(10:11):
used to just go to his house forthe weekend.
His mom would cook breakfastfor us, we would go party, we
would just, you know, and theylived.
You know his family was verysuccessful.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yeah, mitchellville's nice.
That's where the company's fromMitchellville yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Yeah, and you know, we're friends to this day and
his younger sister and I arefriends.
The whole family went toHampton basically and but yeah,
things like that, and peoplewould come to my house for the
weekend too.
My mother would wake up andthere'd be like seven of us on
the floor.
Yeah, there'd be like seven ofus on the floor, yeah, in the
(10:48):
living room you kind of laid out.
But I remember just going topeople's houses and like wow,
people live like this.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
This is wild black people like living like really
well, you know, um so.
So when did you feel realizethat?
When did you want to make musica career and when did you
realize that was possible?
How did you realize that?
When did you want to make musica career and when did you
realize that was possible?
How did you realize that waspossible?
Speaker 2 (11:08):
okay, this is a funny story because my friend, terry
haskins, who also went tohampton she was friends at the
time and still friend but uh, Iwas working at sherson lehman
hutton on the 102nd floor ofWorld Trade Center, really, and
I was like this cannot be life.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
It was too cold, too boring.
What?
Speaker 2 (11:32):
It took an hour and a half to get to Wall Street from
Queens and I had to be at workat 830 in the morning.
This is the late 80s and theboss the head of mutual funds at
the time did not want womenwearing pants to work.
That's how crazy it was.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
I forget his name.
Remember that movie was out.
What was the movie?
Wall?
Street.
What's the one with the women?
Oh fuck, Working Girl.
Exactly that was like real lifeyou know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
I was wearing my sneakers to work with the skirts
and all that.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Nine to Five is the movie I was talking about, but
same kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Working Girl is the same thing with Melanie Griffin
and I was just like this can'tbe life, this is not how I want
to live my life.
So I just quit one day, really.
And my mother was just like howare you just going to quit your
job?
I was like I'll temp.
How are you going to quit thatgood job?
Right, you're not gonna justlay up here and not work.
(12:31):
I was like the fact that sheeven thought I would do that was
crazy to me, because I was likeI like money, I like hanging
out like there's no way I'm notworking yeah so, um, but I was
like I'm gonna take a week or soand then I'm to start going out
to these temp agencies.
And that's what I did.
I went to because I typedreally fast, like my mother made
me learn how to type, and Itook typing in high school like
(12:55):
all-girl Catholic high schoolsthey taught you to type.
So I would just go around thetemp agencies.
I'd type like 80 words perminute.
I'd get hired for receptionjobs or secretary jobs, just to
you know.
And it was actually.
It was a great experiencebecause I got to work all over
(13:16):
the city, meet all kinds ofpeople and one day they sent me
to Capitol Records in ourdepartment.
That's how it is.
But it was a mission.
I manifested it because after Italked to Terry, okay, when I
was working at Shearson LehmanHutton, you know you have a
regular job.
They you get off.
(13:37):
Christmas day, but then you gotto go to work the next day.
So I was talking to Terry onChristmas day and I was like
hell yeah, so we got to go towork tomorrow.
She was like, oh no, she workedat RCA and I forget who she
worked with.
She was assisting someone.
And she said, oh no, the wholeindustry has off for the week,
like we have off from Christmasto.
(13:59):
I was like I need to be in that.
I was like I really need to bein that industry.
I was like I really need to bein that business.
I was like that's great, Idon't have to work, you don't
have to go work.
So I was like I should be inthe music industry.
I love music.
I don't know what I want to doin the music industry, but I
know I want to be in it.
And I remember interviewingwith Laverne Perry.
(14:22):
I thought maybe I should be apublicist.
If she had hired me, I wouldhave become a publicist.
But because I went to CapitolRecords A&R and I worked with
Josh Deutsch for a couple ofdays, people were calling full
force, like Bo Legalu andFreddie Jackson, those were the
(14:43):
big people at Capital at thetime.
And Suzanne Baptiste was workingwith Kenny Ortiz right across
from me, and I was like well, Ireally want to work in the
industry.
Do you know of any availablepositions?
She was like well, doreenAlexander, upstairs at EMI, is
looking for an assistant.
Give me your resume and I'llgive it to him.
(15:03):
And I did and I got the job.
That's how I got.
So I worked for an A&R person.
That's why I became an A&Rperson, I think.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Who was some of the first acts you worked with?
Hmm, who was some of the firstacts you worked with?
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Who did Dwayne have?
It was a group he told the UBCor something like that.
They weren't successful okay hehad taken over Scott Folk's
position, but we had Jazz.
That's who he had Jazz.
That's how I met Jay-Z back inthe day, because he used to come
(15:42):
up with Jazz, so I guess thatwas the most successful.
But at EMI that's how I metJay-Z back in the day, because
he used to come up with jazz,they had a lot of jazz, so I
guess that was the mostsuccessful.
But at EMI there was, like RedHot Chili Peppers, emf,
unbelievable Jerry.
What was Jerry's last name wasthe head of A&R Black Eye, and
that's when Barnell Johnson wasthere too.
(16:04):
Gwynese Coleman people like that, and that was a great
experience too.
My first experience was Iworked for good people.
Dwayne Alexander was very goodto me and he had a special thing
.
He was like these are thepublishing divas.
So if Rochelle feels JodiGerson or Brenda Andrews calls,
get me on the phone.
You know, just find me.
I was like publishing divas.
So if Rochelle Fields JodiGerson or Brenda Andrews calls,
(16:25):
get me on the phone.
You know, like, just find me.
I was like publishing divas.
Who are these people?
So yeah, that was my first jobin the business And-.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
How long were you there?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
I think about a year or so.
I think they let Dwayne gobecause that's how you know
there was a new regime.
They let go the head of A&R, soeverybody had to go.
Then I worked for KimberlyThornton at Busted Records,
(17:01):
which was Hammer's label, and Iwas pregnant at that time.
So throughout my pregnancy Iworked Hammer's label and I was
pregnant at that time.
So throughout my pregnancy Iworked for Busted.
Then, after I had my son, pariswas over at Epic.
So I went to Epic and workedfor Paris Davis, who signed
Groove Theory, and Terry andMonica, which is a whole other
story, but his main signing wasGroove Theory.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
So wait before we go.
How was it working withHammond's people?
Was Hammond, he was Can't Touchthis, and All that was out at
the time.
What's?
Speaker 2 (17:33):
that.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Can't Touch this and All that was out at the time.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Yeah, no, he was huge he was selling 10 million
records a pop.
Wow, he was huge, huge, huge.
Him and Garth Brooks would bevying for the number one album
in the country at the time andeverybody, they were both
selling like tens of millions.
It was crazy numbers back thenand it wasn't.
(18:01):
It was very much a satelliteoffice experience.
We worked in the Capitoloffices, so it's almost still
like I worked at Capitol, causeit was like specifically the
blue note offices and BruceLundvall was still there.
Some of the old school guys wasstill there and um yeah, so that
(18:21):
after I had my son, a fewmonths later, I worked at Epic.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
And how was that?
Speaker 2 (18:27):
That was great.
That's where you know I met themajority of connections that I
that I would use throughout mypublishing career, because
Vivian worked there.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Vivian was on the show.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
I love Vivian and I'll tell you why.
Vivian Polly.
Anthony Hank Caldwell was there.
It was still running BlackBlack.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Music Division.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Hank Caldwell.
That's where I met Gwen.
Niles and I Both went toHampton at different times, but
I met Gwen when she was workingwith Vivian there and, um, just,
you know handful of good peopleand that's back then.
You recall they?
(19:19):
They had parties at the openingof an envelope, like it didn't
matter what was happening, whoyou were.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
And a big, big party at the opening of an envelope.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
It didn't matter what was happening, who, you were
New artists and big parties, biglavish parties, Big lavish
album release parties with openbars and food.
So as an assistant I would goto all the parties All the Like.
Every album release party I wasgoing to, you got to meet the
other assistants and otherexecutives.
I went to everything.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
What artists did you work with at Epic when you were
there?
Speaker 2 (19:52):
At Epic Groove Theory .
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Okay, you have any stories?
Speaker 2 (19:59):
about that, terry and Monica.
That album didn't do well butGroove Theory was huge.
It took a while to get that.
Album didn't do well, butGroove Theory was huge, so it
took a while to get that albumdone.
But through him, through Paris,I met Hiram Hicks, I met
Cassandra Mills.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
I met so many people working with Paris so do you
have any crazy, crazy air quotes?
Groove Story, groove Theorystories that you wanted that you
were willing to be talkingabout.
Nothing crazy, nothing crazy.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Okay, nothing crazy.
Bryce and I were from the sameneighborhood and Amel was.
She was very sweet breath offresh air, pretty, um, not that
I recall nothing crazy.
But paris, paris was very um,you know, perfectionist about
(20:52):
certain.
I remember being in the studioand he's like there's just
something that's not right.
That's a room for that.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Um, but nothing crazy okay, so after epic, what?
What happened next?
Would you go, you go next.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Well, at Epic.
That's when I'd had my son bythis time and I was having
issues with my son's father.
It was about money.
So I think I was at my deskcrying and Vivian walks by and
she was like why are you crying,Are you okay?
I was like I told her what washappening.
She was like you know what?
You need your own job so youdon't have to worry about
(21:28):
whether your son's father givesthe money on time or whatever.
So she's like give me yourresume and I'll give it to
Rochelle Fields.
Jocelyn Cooper is leavingWarner Chapel and opening her
own company, midnight Music.
So give me your resume and I'llgive it to Rochelle.
And that's the history.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
So that's when you turned from A&R into publishing.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Yes, I had no idea what publishing was like that,
except for what I heard fromDwayne.
So I think I'd met Rochelleback then or Brenda Andrews back
then, but he was like thepublic.
Actually, I'd interviewed foranother job.
I'd interviewed for the MCAmusic publishing job Cause Tita
(22:17):
gray, I think, was leaving.
Did she work at MCA music?
I had a Carol where Leon, wherehis wife, used to head the
publishing at mca music and Iinterviewed with her and she
didn't think I was ready.
But a year later I got to.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
you know it was between me and francesca sparrow
really yeah that's, that's yourfrances Sparrow so how did you
get your crash crash course inpublishing?
Because publishing and A&Rpublishing and the music side in
general are just so differentthe Donald Passman book oh so
(22:58):
you read the book, I read theDonald Passman book and just on
the job, training.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
But I feel like I was blessed and had good luck
because they gave me sammykhan's old office.
You know sammy khan.
Sammy khan is a writer who wrotestandards like let me see,
because I always forget not takeme out to the ball game, but
songs like that so he was like abro, a bro building kind of guy
he was a bro building kind ofguy but wrote some and they had
(23:28):
a big um Broadway catalog and soJulie Stein, this guy, julie
Stein, was still there and Ionly learned about these people
um working there because Ididn't know.
But let me see.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
And the way you look at it for the people who are
listening.
The Brill Building was thisbuilding in the Times Square
area.
I can't remember it was in the40s and they had all these like
little offices with like pianosin them and they had all these
writers that they would hire andcome and all day day people
(24:06):
would write songs, write songs,write songs, write songs.
And a lot of these songs becamestandards and classic, like
George Gershwin type records andCarole King, and these people
would just pump out.
That was their job to pump outsongs and stuff for TV shows,
for movies, obviously forrecords.
If you look on a lot of thoseold records in the 50s and 60s,
(24:28):
those are all real buildingrecords.
It became this massivepublishing warehouse basically.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
I'm looking it up.
And he and Julie Stein wroteLet it Snow, let it Snow, let it
Snow Damn.
He wrote songs like that theygo well.
He discussed me that January1993.
I started that January, aprilof 1993, and they gave me his
office, wow, wow.
I think that's part of thereason why I had just a great
(25:01):
career, a great tenure.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
You had good mojo coming out of that office.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Yeah, and back then they gave you a great tenure.
You had good mojo coming out ofthat office.
Back then they gave you afurniture budget like go buy
your own furniture for youroffice.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Yeah, that's over with.
That's over with.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Furniture budget, parking budget and the contract.
Actually, did I have a contractyet?
Speaker 1 (25:24):
No, but I still drove into work every day so who are
some of the people you startedworking with when you did
publishing?
Speaker 2 (25:33):
when I got there, before I signed anything, I
worked with Barry Eastman whodid all the Freddie Jackson
stuff.
Eddie F and UntouchablesJocelyn signed them, and also
Bernard Bell who wrote all thatstuff with Teddy Riley, skeph,
(25:55):
anselm.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Eric Stadler.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
Eric Stadler from Bomb Squad Yep, um, and then
Bomb Squad Yep, and then that'sall I remember.
I'm sure there were more.
There was also a woman whoworked there for a little while
named Kat Jackson.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
I remember Kat.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Jackson, you remember Kat Jackson?
Yeah.
She worked for Prince's.
Because Prince was published byWarner Chappell, so was Michael
Jackson.
At was published by WarnerChappell, so was Michael Jackson
.
At the time Warner Chappell hadthe happy birthday song before
it went back into public domain.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
It was crazy.
James Brown was there.
In fact, I have a picture withJames Brown Kiss me on the cheek
, because he used to come up tothe office.
These people would come up tothe office.
The James Brown catalog wasthere, dr Dre was there, so it
was an easy sell to be atWaterchapel Music.
(26:58):
It was like one of the RollsRoyces of the music publishing
business, so people were morecalling you than you were
calling them.
Yeah, it was a very high profileposition.
So that's how I got to know theattorneys, because they were
calling me the attorneys andmanagers.
They called Warner Chapel.
Wow, At the time there weren'tso many publishing companies as
(27:22):
there are now.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
There was some big independents, but not like so
did you ever get to meet Michaelor Prince?
Speaker 2 (27:31):
I did meet Michael later.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
I met.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Michael, me and Big John met Michael because Rodney
was in the studio with him, eventhough Rodney had signed to EMI
.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Rodney Jerkins.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yes, Rodney Jerkins I was with.
We were at a Jay-Z video shoot.
Okay, I think Rodney calledJohn and they were like come to
the studio now.
I was like, yeah, it was crazy.
So we went to Sony Studios.
(28:03):
He was there.
He had a bang on his nose.
Speaker 4 (28:08):
He had all these like Disney.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
I guess he'd gone to the Disney store so he had and
his kids were young so he hadall these stuffed animals
hanging from the ceiling andlike popcorn machine and he had
like the whole.
You remember they had that hugeallowed at Sony Studios but it
was like he had like the whole.
You remember they had that hugeallowed at sony studios but it
was like he had like I thinkthey were separated into
different rooms he had the wholething, wow.
(28:34):
And he had to sit down.
Well, I don't heal that night.
So he looked at me and johnjonathan platt, who's the ceo of
sony.
He's a coach, you know um it.
Wow, you guys are tall.
John is 6'6" I was probably 6'1in these heels.
We sat down with him and hewatched a Frasier Ali fight.
(29:00):
He was a big Ali fan.
He's going to sing Ali's, he'sa dancer, or something like that
.
He kept so he's going to singAli's, he's a dancer, or
something like that.
He kept saying he just keptpraising Ali.
So I'm just sitting there, meand John just sitting there,
like this is Michael Jackson.
Yeah, you're Michael Jackson,because of all the people that I
(29:22):
met at the time in the industry, because you meet a little bit
of everybody especially.
One thing I can say aboutWarner Chapel.
I was in so many rooms morerooms than I ever would have
been in working in records.
They had me at the Rock andRoll Hall of Fame dinners when
they were really small.
It would be in a ballroom.
(29:44):
You could just walk up to people.
I remember walking up to DianeCarroll and introducing myself.
Like you would just go up topeople and introduce yourself.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
I remember those small, small um rock and roll
hall of fame.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Yeah, it was a small thing, it wasn't a you know the.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Hilton hotel or something.
Yeah, it was at the Hiltonhotel.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
That and and, like the other galas, where they were
much smaller then than they arenow.
So you really got to meetpeople and Water Chapel would
have me in those rooms.
So I've met a lot of people.
Tony Bennett used to come up tothe office.
I've met a lot of people, butMichael Jackson is the only one
(30:21):
I was starstruck by because Iloved him since I was six.
You know what I mean so.
I remember calling my parentslike Mom, dad.
I just met Michael Jackson,like he was the only person I've
ever felt like.
I'm meeting.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
And we'll be right back, Ready to launch your
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And now back to our show Now.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
how long did you work at Warner Chapel?
Speaker 2 (31:16):
About.
I worked there from 1993 to2000.
I don't know, it felt like 10years.
Okay, it felt like 10 years, itwas only six years from 1993
that I left.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
And where did you go after that?
Speaker 2 (31:32):
I went to Universal.
Jocelyn Cooper hired me atUniversal to do A&R and it was a
culture shock.
I left for the money.
In retrospect I shouldn't have.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Tell me why.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Because records is a hectic job and you have like a
weekly, like a weekly reportcard.
It was just so much morepressure than publishing was.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
And I was working at Warner Chapel spoiled me, and I
was working at Warner Chapelspoiled me, and so they used to
kind of they gave, they gave meautonomy at Warner Chapel Like I
would go to LA and it mightsound vapid but I was able to
stay at like the peninsula everytime Nice hotels and stuff,
(32:23):
yeah.
And I remember the first time Iwent to la.
I'm only 26 years old and Iwent to.
I think it was like soul trainawards or something.
And um, I went to the office onsanta monica and she was like,
my boss was like where are youstaying?
I was like I'm staying at thehotel n I was so excited to stay
(32:44):
at the Nico Nico used to be hot.
She was like what, why didn'tyou stay at the Four Seasons of
the Peninsula?
I'd never stayed at the Nicoagain.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Wow, why are you not staying at the Superfly shit?
What are you doing?
Speaker 2 (32:58):
I was like why are you staying there?
Why didn't you stay at the FourSeasons of?
I was like enough said.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Exactly, oh, really, okay, I think I was like that.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
So when I went to Universal they hired me as a VP.
I thought I was just going togo to Peninsula.
They were like you can't stayat the Peninsula.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
And I was like what they were.
Like you can stay at the FourSeasons, Okay.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
I'll slum it.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
They were like cause Monty and Doug stayed there, so
I couldn't stay there, you knowwith the president and stuff.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
But I must say you know, before I got to university
I was also married to a man inthe business.
So you know I say that it's alittle on my own and with him
and business.
So you know I stayed at PencilLow on my own and with him and
it was a, you know, rudeawakening to not be able to just
roll like I wanted to roll.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
So you didn't like the record side too much.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
I hated it.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Really, who'd you work with while you were there?
What?
Speaker 2 (34:03):
artists DJ Rogers, that's all I can't remember.
I'm sure I worked with otherpeople, but I I like blacked out
that.
I'm like let me forget aboutthat.
It was.
I had so much going on in mylife in general when I was in
universal, but I met some greatpeople.
Um, gene Riggins was runningBlack Music at the time.
(34:27):
Dino DeValle, who signed CashMoney, was next door to me.
Kevin.
What was Kevin's last name?
Kevin Hershey, kevin.
He signed Nelly.
So Nelly was there at the timeand Lou Tucker was there at the
time.
That's why I met WardellWardell Malloy, who's at BMI now
, and Lou Tucker was there atthe time.
(34:48):
Like we had you know universal.
That's why I met Wardell WardellMalloy, who's at EMI now.
Wardell was my assistant and um, wow, yeah, that's some great.
Wendy Washington was there atthe time, jackie Reinhart, um.
So I met some good people, butI didn't like working for
records, working at all.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
So what happened after that?
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Um, I got let go from that and uh, then I went to EMI
like a year later.
I didn't like EMI.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Okay, so tell me about your EMI experience.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Um, it was the New York office.
So it's like I worked with EvanLamberg and it was just a
different.
Like I said, warner Chapelreally spoiled me, like I was
the person in the New Yorkoffice and I kind of built the
(35:44):
R&B stuff there from you know,while with Denise Weathersby in
LA, I kind of built that, like Igot in there and I signed Tim
and Misty and Junior Mafia andBusta Rhymes and ODB, like as
far as 90 signings.
I really built that when I gotto EMI.
(36:08):
It's already built, there'salready a system.
It was Big John and Tubby.
They already had their ownestablished way of working.
I don't think there was reallyroom for me there.
I got you.
Room for someone to kind ofneutralize me.
(36:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Yeah, so wait.
So let's go back a little bit,because I didn't ask you this.
So tell me about when yousigned Missy, tell me the story
of that, and tell me the storyof when you signed Busta.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Tim and Missy.
You know, louise West is mygirl and Louise brought me other
things too, but Tim and Missyare the most notable.
I also signed Anthony Hamilton.
Anthony Hamilton.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
Through Louise.
She'd been telling me about Timfor a while because they were
up in Rochester working withDevante and Missy kind of
started making a name forherself because she'd written
for 702.
And you know she did a thingwith Gina Thompson, so she was
(37:18):
already making a name forherself.
But she finally brought Tim tome.
It must have been 96.
Darryl Williams was in myoffice at the time.
I tease him about this to thisday because Darryl Williams was
an A&R guy who was huge at thetime because he signed Brandy
and he signed DJ.
So he was in my office and shebrings Tim.
(37:41):
He was very shy at the time andshe's like well, they worked,
they did most of the Aaliyahalbum, but Barry won't give us,
barry Hankerson won't give usthe songs to play you sound like
Barry.
Right, but he was able to playPony.
For me, that's the only thinghe played and I was like I'm
(38:03):
signing him right now and Iasked Darryl.
I was like I'm signing himright now and I asked Darrell.
I was like Darrell, what do youthink?
He was like, it's just allright.
I was like you know what?
Thank God, I trusted my ownears.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
You know and didn't trust you know.
I trusted my own ears.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
So they were like almost like a package deal.
And they were admin deals andno one was doing admin deals at
the time.
If you didn't do co-publishingdeals, you weren't doing them.
But Louise insisted they doadmin deals.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Okay, and they were uh explain to people what an
admin deal is.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
An admin deal is you're not giving up control of
your publishing, you're keeping80, it's called an 80 20 deal,
where you're not giving upcontrol of your publishing,
you're keeping 80, it's calledan 80 20 deal, where you're
keeping 80% of your publishingand you're paying 20 minutes,
20% for administration.
Okay, so one, a chapel, wouldadminister their publishing
(39:02):
that's licensing and royaltiesand all that stuff for that fee.
So there was a way that theywould work.
Ed pearson was the head ofbusiness business affairs at the
time because there was only andI don't, I don't remember the
technicality, but there wassomething technical that had to
(39:24):
happen for them to be includedin the billboard awards and
stuff like that.
But they worked it out.
But people were just peopletalked about that for a while,
like that's just an admin deal.
It's just an admin deal.
It was like no, it's activity.
So right after I signed them,if your Girl Only came out, wow.
(39:50):
It was like it didn't stopafter that yeah, just yeah, one,
one one I had terry robinsontoo.
Terry robinson was huge wrote alot um and I signed terry as a
group with Monica.
That was actually my firstsigning.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
I signed Terry and Monica as soon as I got to Water
and Chapel and I expected thealbum to do well, because you
know I was going to sign GrooveTheory.
So I'm like, oh it's going todo.
And the album sounded good.
It wasn't like it was a badalbum, but it tanked.
So yeah, and that's the othergood thing about publishing, you
can sign something that tanksand nobody's looking at you
crazy, because there are otherways for people, right, there's
(40:34):
other ways for them to makemoney.
So Terry calls me one day andshe's like I'm writing with
heavy for these kids and I'mlike OK, whatever, like as long
as you're writing.
Yeah.
And the kids turn out to be sofor real and Candy Rain came out
.
That was my first top 10 pophit and I remember being in a
(40:57):
car service I was in Brooklynfor some reason and these kids
were walking down the street.
It was like 10 of them and theywere all singing Candy Rain.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
And then you knew you had a hit.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
So that was my first one and my boss doesn't even
realize it.
I had to call him and tell him.
I was like Terry Robinson has atop 10 pop hit and they were
like what?
And so she was like.
After that it was like can'tyou see the total?
She had a bunch of hits.
Terry's like one of the mostunsung songwriters to me because
(41:34):
she's done so much, but nobodyever mentions her name.
She's written a lot.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
Tell me the Busta story.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
Busta was managed by Chris and Mona, but I had an
advantage because he was signedto Electra and I was with Warner
chapel.
So I think he got this.
It was like I said, it's all somany years ago, but there was
an advantage to Warner artistsbeing signed to Warner chapel
(42:03):
and I forget what it was.
But they must an advantage toWarner artists being signed to
Warner Chapel and I forget whatit was but, they must must have
given them a better rate, orsomething like that.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
And it was Tim Mandelbaum, I think, who was the
attorney.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
But I went through.
You know the the normalnegotiating and but Buster was
always kind and nice andrespectful but it wasn't a
difficult signing.
I've had some you know dealswhere it's like going back and
(42:45):
forth.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
What was your most difficult signing?
Speaker 2 (42:53):
forth and and uh, what was your most difficult
signing?
Probably no one.
That was really worth all that.
I don't remember.
Um, I probably went back andforth with Mac 10 a lot.
Um, I don't know, stevie Jmight have given us a run.
I signed Stevie J as well.
(43:14):
We didn't have an issue withJunior Mafia.
Okay.
Because, again, they weresigned to Warner.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
Atlantic.
Speaker 2 (43:22):
They were signed to.
Atlantic.
Busta was signed to Elektra.
Odb was signed to Elektra.
Did ODB through Tim Mandelbaumas well.
It was really about therelationship with the attorneys.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
Tim Mandelbaum had a great relationship with Warner
Chapel.
I think that's why thathappened.
Like I said, it really made adifference that I was at that
kind of company.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
Yeah, you were there.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
I was at a high-profile company like that.
So in retrospect you know, asthings got tougher for me years
down the line, that was like theeasiest success I ever had.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
So tell me one without incriminating people.
Tell me one spicy.
I won't say crazy, I'll sayspicy Warner Chappell story.
Oh, and then one spicy storyfrom that era.
Spicy.
What do you mean?
You know, like yo, we was out atthis thing and this is
(44:28):
something got crazy, or blah,blah, blah.
You know, again, not without I,you know, ruin somebody's life.
I'm not saying gossip people,just kind of.
You know, it was so muchhappening during that era,
especially, like you said, we'regoing out so much and we're
seeing so many people and we'retraveling and so you kind of
just kind of see stuff, you knowum, I won't call this story
spicy, but it's funny becauseJohn Tito, my old boss, recently
(44:52):
passed away.
Okay.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
And he was the easiest boss to work for because
we were both late all the time.
I get it.
John Tito was later than me.
He was like a late guy.
We were both late people but westayed late and we did a lot of
(45:15):
deals together.
He was really good at his job,he was a charmer.
We used to have to go toBroadway events because, like I
said, julie Simon did the liveor he just passed away too.
I said Julie, julie Simon'seither alive or he just passed
away too.
But there were.
There was a Broadway, somethingin his honor that we had that
(45:39):
everybody from Warner Chapel hadto go to.
So we're there in the audienceand people are coming on the
stage, coming up on the stagethat are people going crazy for,
crazy for, and we don't knowwho they are.
Sorry, we're like who are thesepeople?
(45:59):
The only people we knew werewho was George Clooney's aunt.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
Rosemary Clooney.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
Rosemary Clooney.
I think Taylor Dane must havedone something on broadway back
then.
They were like two tony randallwas still alive.
He was there.
Everyone else that.
They were like doing standingovations for going crazy.
We were like, who are thesepeople?
So john whispers over to me, heleans over with me, he's.
(46:28):
This is what it feels like tobe on another planet.
I thought it was so funny atthe time.
You had to be there.
He was a great boss.
We were both Godfather fans.
Now they just had the 50thanniversary.
For the 25th anniversary theywere having a special showing at
(46:50):
the Ziegfeld Theater, which isnow Ballroom, but it was right
around the corner because wewere at 1290, so we took off for
lunch and went to go see theGodfather.
He was our kind of boss that'sdope I just have good memories,
nothing really scandalous,unfortunately.
I'm sure there were things thathappened, but nothing scandalous
(47:14):
.
I remember when we had acompany meeting in Boca and they
were talking about the internetthe internet like it really,
the internet wasn't the thingyet.
That's how long ago this was,and they would like trying to
kill the Napster guy, you know.
(47:34):
And I remember them saying likewe had to do something because
it's going to be like the wild,wild West.
And then a few years later, ina short period, it changed
everything.
Speaker 1 (47:47):
I always say that was one of the music businesses
Worst um errors is, insteadchange everything.
I always say that was one ofthe music business's worst
errors is, instead of trying tokill Nick said Napster, sean
Fanning and those guys, I thinkSean Parker too.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
It was Sean.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
They should have put him on the first thing, smoking
Yep and brought him to theoffice.
Like he's on to something.
What are y'all guys doing?
Speaker 2 (48:08):
Let's figure this out and incorporate.
Speaker 1 (48:09):
You Joined the first thing, smoking Yep, and walked
him to the office Like he's onto something.
Yeah, yeah, what are y'all guysdoing?
Let's, let's figure this outand, you know, incorporate you
into what we're doing.
But, like you said, the, themusic business has a tendency to
try to kill new things asprogressive as it's supposed to
(48:33):
be them, you know.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
Big time.
This is just a short few yearslater.
It blew up everything.
It disrupted the music business.
Yeah, I remember at the time Iguess it was like 99, 2000.
Before then record sales were80% of a publishing company's
(48:54):
revenue, like CD sales, andafter that no CD sale.
It was like it was a terribletime.
You remember it was everybody.
It's a bunch of layoffs and itreally disrupted the industry.
Speaker 1 (49:02):
Really did Like you said it was.
It was different because peoplewere buying hard products CDs
and vinyl sometimes and going tothe store and all the ancillary
businesses around it, like youknow, the truckers bringing the
stuff in and the manufacturersand the arts, art people and it
killed all that stuff, you know.
Speaker 2 (49:20):
All of it.
And what's so crazy is backthen you would buy a CD and you
owned it.
Now we don't own any music.
Speaker 1 (49:28):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (49:29):
You know you buy a DVD, you own that movie.
Now, we don't own any music.
You buy a DVD, you own thatmovie.
Now, we don't own anything.
You have more of it, but wedon't own anything.
Speaker 1 (49:37):
We don't have anything you can grab in your
hand and say this is mine.
What was your last stop?
Speaker 2 (49:46):
My last stop was EMI.
Then I tried management andmanaging producers and stuff.
I worked with Shea Taylor, mycousin, for a while, who later
worked with Beyonce, and I hatedthat too.
I didn't like being on theother side of the desk.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
Chasing people.
Speaker 2 (50:03):
Yeah, it was just like I didn't even know how to
do that.
Honestly, I got when it camedown to that.
I was like this I guess thisisn't for me anymore, because I
don't even know how to chasepeople down and to kiss ass and
all the stuff that managers haveto do.
Yeah, in the beginning, like ifyou have a huge artist, you're,
(50:24):
you're, you know people kissingyour ass, but if you have a an
artist that you're trying to getoff the ground or trying to,
it's a terrible position to bein.
Good luck you know yeah.
I didn't like not being like Iwas a check writer before.
Speaker 1 (50:41):
Yeah, not on the other side.
Speaker 2 (50:42):
People respected me in a different way because you
know, and then I hear, you know,I heard horror stories later
down the line of people who werenot in my position and had to
be on the other side.
And you know, you know peoplejust being disrespectful, yeah.
Speaker 1 (51:02):
People you thought you was cool with all of a
sudden they tripping you know.
Speaker 2 (51:05):
Yeah, so I didn't like, I didn't like it.
So if I don't like something, Idon't excel in it.
Some people they can reallyexcel in something just from
doing it.
I'm not one of those people.
I have to like it or love it,be passionate.
Yeah, I'm always blessed indoing things that I really love.
Speaker 1 (51:26):
Yeah, tell me about your pivot.
Speaker 2 (51:29):
Yeah, tell me about your pivot.
Well, I don't even like to callit a pivot, because it took a
long time for me to get to thatpivot.
It's like it was like a longwindy road.
It was like it wasn't like apivot, like that it was you know
yeah.
But, you know, I kept, eventhough I didn't like the
(51:50):
business anymore.
It was all I knew my identitywas being, you know, angelique
Miles, music publisher, who hadall this pedigree from all the
successful signings I had.
So I still tried to do it andget a job in a building, but all
(52:11):
the doors were closed to me andI still couldn't understand it
because, like I said, because ofmy pedigree, all the people I
knew, I knew, you know, peoplewho were running shit at the
time, you know and stillcouldn't get in, couldn't get
back in, couldn't get back in.
So you know that's when thepredators come out to people
coming to you saying you knowyou're going to have this budget
(52:35):
soon.
We like to bring you in to this.
You know I had at least fivepeople come bullshit me with
false promises and wanting youto do some work without a budget
.
I'm like, how about you workout that budget part?
And then you know, so it was alot of that and a lot of
(52:55):
disappointments.
A lot of you know people youthink you know not taking your
calls anymore, people that youknow you've had, you know their
families and you spent time withthem.
But you know people that werefriends of the job.
Not really, that was a hardpill to swallow.
(53:16):
Like, these people aren't myfriends.
These people were friends ofthe job.
So there was a lot of that.
So you know, money was an issue,of course.
So I had to do other things.
I got my real estate license, Igot my insurance license, I
tried to get jobs in other areasof entertainment.
(53:40):
Nothing would pan out, forwhatever reason.
And I remember the last timesomeone, last time these guys
came to me and were like we havethis budget of this, we just
have to deal with this and wewant to bring you on.
It was like it was they sent mea contract and everything, but
of course it fell throughbecause they were full of shit.
(54:01):
So I was like that was the laststraw for me.
So I was like, okay, self, whatdo you want to wake up and do
every day?
Because I'm like I might aswell start at the bottom,
because whatever I do next, itmight as well be something I
love, because I'm starting atthe bottom, whatever I do next.
And I must say and go back andsay like during that time when I
(54:27):
wasn't working, I was gettingup every day and working out
Because it was the only thing Icould control.
I couldn't control when suchand such called me back.
I couldn't control anythingelse, but I could control my
body.
I could control what I waseating.
At the time I was, you know,maturing, my body was maturing.
(54:50):
I was like I'm not going outlike this.
I was like I'm already feelingdown and out.
I'm not going to look down andout.
If I look down and out, thatwould just take me down, it's
over.
It's over and I did have somedark thoughts back then.
It's a very isolating periodfor me.
Speaker 1 (55:10):
It is.
Speaker 2 (55:11):
Because you know everybody else is going on with
their lives, they're travelingand, you know, still doing the
things I used to do.
I couldn't do any of it.
I couldn't do any of it.
I couldn't.
I couldn't pay my bills.
You know, I couldn't do any ofthe things and it went on for a
much longer time than I thoughtit would of the things.
(55:32):
And it went on for a muchlonger time than I thought it
would, but in the midst of it Iwas still doing some things, I
was still being invited tocertain things, but I took odd
jobs just to be able to work out, like, okay, I'm going to go
work at a bar studio so I cantake free bar classes and still
be in the city and get someenergy.
(55:52):
So, anyway, I'm going throughthis and I finally, you know, I
caught on to.
Now what happened.
I started doing CrossFitbecause I'd gone to the doctor
and up until that point, I'donly weighed under 150 pounds.
At five, nine, I go to thedoctor and I was like 160 pounds
(56:17):
.
I was like what?
So I started doing CrossFit.
I was like I have to dosomething this.
So I started, um, posting myworkouts before Instagram.
It was like Twitter, facebook.
Speaker 1 (56:39):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 2 (56:40):
Oh, I was just like, and people, it started
resonating with people.
They were like you know whatCause?
We were on our forties at thetime and it was like I should
get up and work out too.
You motivated me to work outtoday.
People started approaching meon the street Like, oh, I follow
you.
I had like maybe 2,500followers at the time, I
remember.
(57:00):
And this young lady approachedme and she was like I follow you
and I love what you're doing.
I was like you know, maybe I'mon to something.
Instagram wasn't a thing yet,but when I got on Instagram, I,
you know, post my workouts.
All my friends were like whyare you posting the food?
Why do you keep taking selfies?
Speaker 1 (57:23):
Because nobody knew what you were doing Nobody
understood what I was doing.
Yeah, you were ahead of thecurve.
Speaker 2 (57:28):
Yeah, I was just like you know, whatever I'm doing, I
saw people were making money.
I didn't know how they weremaking money.
I was like I know there's a wayfor me to make money doing this
.
I don't know how yet, but Iguess I'll figure it out.
And before long, a brand cameto me and they sent me a
contract and they were like we'dlike you to post this for this
(57:50):
amount of money.
And I was like, oh, this is howpeople are making money on it.
So you know it's, it's onlytrickled in for a little while
and then, uh, right before thepandemic, it's just started
pouring in.
Speaker 1 (58:08):
Started to take off.
Speaker 2 (58:09):
All the brand partnerships started pouring in,
started to take off.
All the brand partnershipsstarted pouring in.
Speaker 1 (58:12):
So you were an early health influencer.
Speaker 2 (58:16):
Fitness.
Speaker 1 (58:17):
It started out as fitness.
Did you realize you were aninfluencer?
You were just kind of like, oh,I'm an influencer.
I didn't even realize what Iwas doing.
Speaker 2 (58:25):
It wasn't called influencing, then I don't know
what it was called.
What was it called?
I don't know if that was calledanything, but I was just like I
just want to be able to workout and look good and maybe
practice some other forms ofself-care and share it with
people.
At the time I thought I waslike I'm just going to take
classes all over the cityfitness classes and share with
(58:48):
my followers.
Maybe they want to take youknow, they want to do what I'm
doing.
But then it turned out to belike Dove and L'Oreal and all
kinds of people startedapproaching me about brand
partnerships.
Speaker 1 (59:04):
So it's expanded.
How are they approaching you?
Are they hitting you in the DMsLike L'Oreal will just pop up.
Like I said, dove will just popup in your DM and be like yo,
we want to.
Speaker 2 (59:12):
No, they email me.
I have my email address.
Speaker 1 (59:14):
Oh, email okay.
Speaker 2 (59:15):
And nowadays you can just press like everybody's
email, especially if you have aprofessional page.
There's an email tab in yourprofile that people hit.
So that's how they werereaching me.
That people hit, so that's howthey were reaching me.
Wow, reaching me directly.
And yeah, I just had so manyopportunities.
(59:38):
It was overwhelming that I hadto hire some, you know, hire
help yeah.
Yeah, so, and I was like to getpaid to be myself is the
ultimate question yeah, it's ablessing.
Like I just had a panel theother day and I'm like I don't
even have to prep for thisbecause I'm just talking about
me.
Yeah.
You're just talking aboutyourself.
(59:59):
You know, in retrospect I lookat things like I wasn't supposed
to be in the music industry orin entertainment anymore.
I'm supposed to be doing whatI'm doing now and something I
enjoy, something that's easy todo, because I really do get up
(01:00:21):
every day and work out, and Ilike beauty products, I like
skincare products, I like todress up, I like to dress up, I
like to go out All the thingsthat you know over 50, now it's
an over 50 thing that people areinterested in.
Speaker 1 (01:00:39):
Wow, that's amazing that you kind of fell into this,
you know, because he was in adark place, it turned out to be
the biggest blessing.
Not the darkness of it, butjust having to move on turned
out to be this big blessing.
Speaker 2 (01:00:58):
Yes, absolutely, I could do this until the wheels
fall off.
Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
You could be 80 years old still.
You should work out somewhat at80 years old.
If you're here, if you can,there's a woman.
Speaker 2 (01:01:12):
Her name is Train With Joan.
She's in her 70s.
She's amazing.
She has millions of followersbecause she changed her life
around through weight training.
I'm going to be doing thisuntil I can't do it anymore.
That's good.
The older I get, the more valueit has.
(01:01:35):
Yeah, yeah, if you look acertain way, you take care of
yourself a certain way, becauseI'm like coming up on 60 now,
next year, not this year, butyeah, it's like, yeah, I'm
looking right now at all these.
I have to sift through all thebeauty products and skin care
(01:01:58):
products people send me and postthem and I love it.
How is your skin like that?
Speaker 1 (01:02:05):
because I use amazing products top notch products
that I get for free.
You know what I'm saying.
You get paid to.
I use amazing products,top-notch products that I get
for free.
You know what I'm saying?
Well, not for free.
You get paid to use them, whichis even better.
Speaker 2 (01:02:17):
It's the stuff, like I said, I would have been doing,
no matter what my profession.
When I was in music and stuff,I was working out, I was doing
Lottie Burke method and I wasgoing to get facials at Mario
Badescu.
I was working out, I was doingLottie Burke method and I was
going to get facials at MarioBadescu.
You know I was trying differentdiets Ayurvedic diet, I was
doing vegan stuff.
Before it was a vegan thing.
(01:02:38):
I have an autoimmune conditioncalled psoriasis.
So I've always tried to healmyself and to try certain things
.
So it's always been a passionof mine heal myself and do try
certain things.
So it's always, always been apassion of mine.
And to get to, to have theopportunity to make a living
doing it is huge.
I'm very grateful.
Speaker 1 (01:02:58):
So do you, do you participate in like beauty con
and all that type of stuff?
Or or or no?
Speaker 2 (01:03:03):
I haven't done beauty con.
Okay, Um, if they invited me Iwould come, but uh, the beauty
stuff is just like.
I'm not a big makeup person.
Let me tell you, I'm justgetting into the makeup part of
it because I get sent so much.
I used to be that person who'slike I'm never wearing makeup to
the gym.
Now I wear a little bit ofmakeup to the gym because the
makeup is just sitting here I'mlike let me use this makeup.
(01:03:25):
Yeah, yeah, just taking a look,and plus I'm always filming my
workout, so it makes sense, yeahyeah, yeah it makes sense.
Um, but not not anything crazy,but um.
So I've really finally gotteninto learning how to do makeup,
and it's always a new thing ornew um way of doing things.
(01:03:47):
I'm always practicing.
Speaker 1 (01:03:52):
It's so interesting how, with social media, I don't
know fairly recently, I don'tknow how many years how beauty
and fashion and styling and allthat have just become massive.
I think, as of now, culminatingwith the last Met Gala, yeah,
like that, which is, you know,the biggest met gala um media
(01:04:17):
wise, and they've this that thelast, the met gala two days ago,
raised the most money they'veever raised yeah, which is crazy
.
So it's like the culmination of, uh, years ago, these um be a
bunch of kids, if you want, on aSaturday afternoon, there would
be a bunch of kids on what'scalled Lower Broadway, which is
like Broadway, right belowHouston.
(01:04:39):
It was like all these kids justout there Every Saturday
afternoon.
Obviously it wasn't raining orsomething.
It was a ton of kids wearingthis clothes and wearing this
and that they would just be outthere taking pictures of each
other.
Those kids all, like you know,wearing you know this clothes
and wearing this and that, andthey would just be out there
taking pictures of each other.
And those kids are like thekids now, like that was A$AP
Rocky and that was Virgil andthat was Luca, the kid that was
(01:05:00):
in Grown-ish Luca I forget hislast name now.
But all these kids now, they'renow like at the peak of it.
All those kids, those peoplebecame tastemakers back then.
They were called tastemakers.
And they took it and ran withit and to the point where you
know, tiana Taylor, all thosekids was out there.
If you had somebody had a video, you'd see all those kids
(01:05:22):
they're like you know, back thenwere young and now look at them
.
They're at at the Met Galaraising the most money ever.
Speaker 2 (01:05:27):
Yes, it's beautiful.
It's a beautiful sight to see,and the fact that you can you
know, because at the time Istarted getting into it, I was
probably one of the few peoplemy age doing it.
And now there's so many womenover 50 that are not playing out
here.
They are doing a damn thing.
So actually it's changed alittle bit for me because I
(01:05:49):
didn't get into the reels thingas quickly, because I was used
to taking a couple pictures,writing a caption.
Now it's all about this wholeproduction.
It's always evolving, so you'vegot to stay with the when do
you see it going next?
Yeah, it's hard to see, becausewhat works for one person may
(01:06:15):
not work for someone else.
Speaker 1 (01:06:17):
True.
Speaker 2 (01:06:17):
You know I've seen people grow on TikTok and
Instagram in a year more thanI've grown in five, but that
what they do wouldn't work,necessarily work for me.
Speaker 1 (01:06:31):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:06:32):
So I like you know, to stay at the pace I'm at and
I'm able to I was just talkingabout this on the panel I have
like one hundred twenty fivethousand followers on Instagram,
which is not a big huge number.
Which is not a big huge number.
I'm slow to TikTok.
(01:06:52):
I'm growing there but I know Ihave to do better across
different platforms.
But it's a lot of work I'm like, but I'm able to interact with
my followers.
Like I answer every DM, Ianswer every comment my
followers.
Like I answer every DM, Ianswer every comment questions.
(01:07:14):
I try to answer everything inthat.
So I like kind of like thenumber I'm at, so I'm able to do
that still and stay authentic.
Speaker 1 (01:07:21):
See, I think, I think again I'm.
I'm talking shit, cause I'm nosocial media expert, but I think
somebody like you, somebodymight have a million followers,
but if you look at the analyticsand all that stuff, you
probably have much betterengagement.
Speaker 2 (01:07:35):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (01:07:36):
Somebody might have two million followers, but not
really.
When they post something, theyonly get like a few hits,
whereas when you post something,you get more hits because you
engage with your people and theyknow like oh, and you answer
the DMs, which makes them keepcoming back.
Speaker 2 (01:07:51):
Yes, and there's value in that.
Speaker 1 (01:07:52):
There's much.
Yeah, because you can you.
I'd rather somebody likeyourself.
I'd rather somebody likeyourself try to sell my product
than somebody who has 2 millionfollowers but doesn't really
talk to the people.
Speaker 2 (01:08:06):
Yeah, I think when you get to those numbers, it's
good for brand awareness, butfor actual usage of the product,
people like macro and microinfluences with similar numbers
(01:08:27):
to mine, I think, do better.
There are people who have lessfollowers than I do probably
work more than I do.
It's it's.
It's all on who the brandthinks.
You know, it's all on brandconnection, who they want.
Speaker 1 (01:08:41):
So what's next for you?
Speaker 2 (01:08:43):
I'm doing more things outside of social media.
Speaker 1 (01:08:46):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:08:49):
I'm doing a retreat next year, okay, uh, in Thailand
.
Oh, okay, it's a.
It's a biohacking longevity,but also restoration.
Okay, she, for women over 50.
Okay, things are different forus.
You know, as much as I'd liketo include, um, my younger
(01:09:09):
sisters, it's just reallydifferent for us.
As much as I'd like to includemy younger sisters, it's just
really different for women over50.
We're dealing with differentthings going on in our bodies,
in our lives.
We're dealing with elderlyparents and kids.
Speaker 1 (01:09:24):
It's just different at this age, yeah, different
from a 25-year-old girl that'sout here popping.
You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 2 (01:09:32):
Yeah, it's not that we want to go to probably be in
bed by nine.
Speaker 1 (01:09:36):
Yeah, I'm tired.
Speaker 2 (01:09:39):
Just after laying out in the sun all day.
Yeah, I'm tired.
Speaker 1 (01:09:43):
I'm going to bed, I'm going to watch.
Speaker 2 (01:09:44):
Netflix Exactly, and the phone is so close to the net
Exactly and the following is aquestion.
Speaker 1 (01:09:48):
That Exactly you know .
Thank you, Angelique.
Speaker 2 (01:09:50):
Thank you.
This is great.
You know, I love you Jeff.
Speaker 1 (01:09:52):
I love you too.
You can catch Mixed andMastered on Apple Podcasts,
spotify, iheart or wherever.
On this week's Mixed and Mastered, we're joined by
Angelique Miles.
Angelique has published some ofthe biggest names in music,
including Missy Elliott,timberland, busta Rhymes and Old
Dirty Bastard.
Since then, angelique hasreinvented herself as a leading
beauty and wellness influencer.
Angelique tells us her journeyof resilience and reinvention.
(00:22):
It's never too late to rewriteyour story.
This is Mixed and Mastered withAngelique Miles.
Welcome to Mixed and Mastered,the podcast where the stories of
the music industry come to life.
I'm Jeffrey Sledge, bringingyou real conversations with the
people who have shaped the soundof music.
(00:43):
We're pulling back the curtainon what it takes to make it in
the music business.
These are the stories you won'thear anywhere else, told by the
people who live them.
This is Mixed and Mastered.
Mixed and Mastered withAngelique Miles.
(01:06):
The infamous Angelique Miles.
How are you, angelique?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I'm great.
How are you Good?
You're looking good.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Thank you, you smell good.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I do.
I always smell good, Even ifI'm going to the gym.
I spritz on something clean.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
People fucking in the gym is nasty.
Yeah, fucking people in the gymis nasty.
Well, you people in the gym isnasty.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
It's like Well, you know I go to like this private
studio, so that doesn't happentoo often, but there are some
stinky people in the other gym Igo to.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
We're going to get to that.
We're going to get to that.
We're going to start from thebeginning.
So, born and raised in Queens,new York, that's right Southside
, to be exact, south South sideto be exact, south side.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
No, no, no, no.
Oh, you're not.
I'm from Charleston, I'm notfrom the South Side.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Okay, excuse me, my fault, my fault.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
I'm from a nice community, not that the South
Side isn't, but I live closer tothe borderline.
I grew up closer to theborderline of Nassau County.
Okay, so tell me about that.
Tell me about growing up inQueens.
Growing up in Queens, I had agreat experience growing up in
Queens.
It was, you know, I grew up inthe seventies.
(02:12):
There was very that not justLaurelton but Jamaica Queens in
general was very Afro, you know,like it was very Black power
time going on.
So my friends my best friend'sbig sister had us doing plays
for block parties, like recitingpoetry and wearing African garb
(02:37):
and learning Swahili.
We even had like a LaureltonResearchers Club where we
researched the history of wherewe lived.
My friend's older sister didthat for us.
It was like a group called theLaurelton Researchers Club.
So we found out that Laureltonwas named for the Laurel Bush
and at that time there werestill some Jewish people living
(03:00):
in the neighborhood.
So we interviewed them and theywould tell us, like Merrick
used to be a stream.
And so, yeah, I had a greatchildhood, I went to Catholic
school so.
I didn't really get to meet alot of people in the
neighborhood because I went toCatholic school.
I didn't go to the schoolaround the corner, but my mother
(03:22):
was a teacher at August MartinHigh School.
A lot of people knew her but no, I had a great childhood.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
So tell me about your kind of first clicks, that you
were a music lover.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
I became a music lover because my uncles both of
them had huge record collections.
So my uncle Bernard came tolive with us Well, my father's
from DC, so I traveled to DC alot.
My uncle there had a hugerecord collection.
And then one of my uncles, myfather's other brother, came to
(03:59):
live with us for a while and hebrought his record collection
with him.
So I would sit in the livingroom you know that's where the
record player was and listen tomusic with him and he was a big
earth, wind and fire fan andmaze and parliament like before
it was parliament funkadelic, um.
And I used to read the linernotes.
(04:21):
And it was so funny because Ijust saw a social media post
yesterday that was talking aboutSkip Scarborough and that
specifically Skip Scarborough'sname always stuck out to me as a
kid because I guess because ofSkip Wind, fire fan.
And I remember particularly thisone time.
I loved Heat Wave's BoogieNights.
(04:51):
So I would listen to the radioall day, waiting for Boogie
Nights to come on, and my mothergot sick of it so she finally
bought me the album.
Either she bought me the albumor one of my brothers did.
Somebody bought me the albumand my uncle worked nights.
So I went to school.
I came home and he was likealways and forever is the cut.
(05:12):
I was like, okay, but you know,to this day I'm like wow, he
knew.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
He knew.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Always.
Forever was the cut.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
It still is.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
It still is the cut.
But uh, then my other uncle indc, he had a different kind of
collection so I used to listento whenever we visited my
grandparents he lived with mygrandparents I would just lock
myself in his room he was neverhome and just um listen to his
music.
And I got got into PattiLaBelle Okay, singers like that
(05:48):
Through my other uncle's recordcollection.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Okay, so I know that you're also a big club music fan
and was on the club scene.
Did this happen before you wentaway to school or after you
came back, or was it like during?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Well, I like companies, but also I'll take it
back.
I love Go-Go because I was inDC a lot traveling to see my
grandparents and my god sisterwould have me with her at Howard
Theater, the Panorama Room.
And I loved Go-Go.
During my high school years Ihad the Red Essence records.
(06:27):
I brought all that stuff in DCand brought it back home.
I love, love, love Go-Go.
I think I got into club musicin college because that's when I
started going to the ParadiseGarage.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Like 1985.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
I was a to the Paradise Garage Okay, like 1985.
And I was a freshman at Hampton, so that got me into clubbing,
just being in that environment,and I think the radio must have
been playing some of it.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Yeah, new York radio playing a lot of it, yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Friday and Saturday nights was Mr Magic and Red
Alert of course, but then therewas some kind of time that club
music came on too like.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Timmy.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Wedgesford.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Especially on BLS.
Yeah, yeah, they did a lot.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
And at the youngest 15, I went to clubs.
Like back then you could sneakinto a club with fake ID.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Yeah, plus you're kind of tall, so you know.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Yeah, so like my older brother's girlfriend would
sneak me in with her toJustine's and stuff like that.
So I got into club music thatway, but mainly going to the
Paradise Garage.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Yeah, so wait, before we get deep into that, tell me
about your experience at HamptonUniversity.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Hampton was like a kind of a culture shock for me
because I went to an all-girl,predominantly white Catholic
high school I never went to.
I didn't go to high school withboys, so when I got to Hampton,
crazy Black college boys.
But you know, to their credit,hampton had us for the first six
(08:10):
weeks freshman, first six weeks, you on a curfew.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Really.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
You couldn't just be out in the street.
So yeah, we had a I think itwas 12 o'clock curfew.
But we had a curfew.
You had to be in a room by acertain time.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Wow, and if you wanted to go away for the
weekend or go, you know you hadto sign out, so I used to sign
out you had to be outside.
I would go stay with, like myolder friends in their dorm,
yeah, you know.
But Hampton was great because Igot to connect with I don't
know.
Growing up in Queens you justsee one kind of person.
(08:46):
You know what I mean.
And at Hampton I saw all kindsof Black people.
You know, affluent Black people, people who got there the same
way I did, people who got thereother ways, just people from all
walks of life but all differentand I'm very grateful that I
was able to experience that,very grateful that I was able to
(09:08):
experience it.
Hbcu, like Hampton, was a greatexperience.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I always tell people that, because I went to Morgan,
another black college, and Ialways tell people it's the kind
of thing with you Like when Iwent to Morgan I was like, oh,
we're all black, but we ain'tall the same, Right.
No, we all black, but we ain'tall the same, right, you know,
because people from Philly areway different than the people
from Chicago, and the peoplefrom DC are way different than
the people from New York, and soon and so on.
(09:34):
It was a culture shock kind ofthing, and some people have had
mad money, some people werereally struggling, some people
were like middle class, you know, kind of just making a way, and
it was just this melting pot ofblackness, you know, and I
loved that.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
And yeah, it was so, because we used to go to
people's houses on the weekends,like it would just be like, oh
yeah, a group of us would go andstay at you know, my friend
Ernest, we used to go to hishouse all the time he was from
Mitchellville, Maryland.
That's the first time I everheard of Mitchellville, but we
(10:11):
used to just go to his house forthe weekend.
His mom would cook breakfastfor us, we would go party, we
would just, you know, and theylived.
You know his family was verysuccessful.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yeah, mitchellville's nice.
That's where the company's fromMitchellville yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Yeah, and you know, we're friends to this day and
his younger sister and I arefriends.
The whole family went toHampton basically and but yeah,
things like that, and peoplewould come to my house for the
weekend too.
My mother would wake up andthere'd be like seven of us on
the floor.
Yeah, there'd be like seven ofus on the floor, yeah, in the
(10:48):
living room you kind of laid out.
But I remember just going topeople's houses and like wow,
people live like this.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
This is wild black people like living like really
well, you know, um so.
So when did you feel realizethat?
When did you want to make musica career and when did you
realize that was possible?
How did you realize that?
When did you want to make musica career and when did you
realize that was possible?
How did you realize that waspossible?
Speaker 2 (11:08):
okay, this is a funny story because my friend, terry
haskins, who also went tohampton she was friends at the
time and still friend but uh, Iwas working at sherson lehman
hutton on the 102nd floor ofWorld Trade Center, really, and
I was like this cannot be life.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
It was too cold, too boring.
What?
Speaker 2 (11:32):
It took an hour and a half to get to Wall Street from
Queens and I had to be at workat 830 in the morning.
This is the late 80s and theboss the head of mutual funds at
the time did not want womenwearing pants to work.
That's how crazy it was.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
I forget his name.
Remember that movie was out.
What was the movie?
Wall?
Street.
What's the one with the women?
Oh fuck, Working Girl.
Exactly that was like real lifeyou know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
I was wearing my sneakers to work with the skirts
and all that.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Nine to Five is the movie I was talking about, but
same kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Working Girl is the same thing with Melanie Griffin
and I was just like this can'tbe life, this is not how I want
to live my life.
So I just quit one day, really.
And my mother was just like howare you just going to quit your
job?
I was like I'll temp.
How are you going to quit thatgood job?
Right, you're not gonna justlay up here and not work.
(12:31):
I was like the fact that sheeven thought I would do that was
crazy to me, because I was likeI like money, I like hanging
out like there's no way I'm notworking yeah so, um, but I was
like I'm gonna take a week or soand then I'm to start going out
to these temp agencies.
And that's what I did.
I went to because I typedreally fast, like my mother made
me learn how to type, and Itook typing in high school like
(12:55):
all-girl Catholic high schoolsthey taught you to type.
So I would just go around thetemp agencies.
I'd type like 80 words perminute.
I'd get hired for receptionjobs or secretary jobs, just to
you know.
And it was actually.
It was a great experiencebecause I got to work all over
(13:16):
the city, meet all kinds ofpeople and one day they sent me
to Capitol Records in ourdepartment.
That's how it is.
But it was a mission.
I manifested it because after Italked to Terry, okay, when I
was working at Shearson LehmanHutton, you know you have a
regular job.
They you get off.
(13:37):
Christmas day, but then you gotto go to work the next day.
So I was talking to Terry onChristmas day and I was like
hell yeah, so we got to go towork tomorrow.
She was like, oh no, she workedat RCA and I forget who she
worked with.
She was assisting someone.
And she said, oh no, the wholeindustry has off for the week,
like we have off from Christmasto.
(13:59):
I was like I need to be in that.
I was like I really need to bein that industry.
I was like I really need to bein that business.
I was like that's great, Idon't have to work, you don't
have to go work.
So I was like I should be inthe music industry.
I love music.
I don't know what I want to doin the music industry, but I
know I want to be in it.
And I remember interviewingwith Laverne Perry.
(14:22):
I thought maybe I should be apublicist.
If she had hired me, I wouldhave become a publicist.
But because I went to CapitolRecords A&R and I worked with
Josh Deutsch for a couple ofdays, people were calling full
force, like Bo Legalu andFreddie Jackson, those were the
(14:43):
big people at Capital at thetime.
And Suzanne Baptiste was workingwith Kenny Ortiz right across
from me, and I was like well, Ireally want to work in the
industry.
Do you know of any availablepositions?
She was like well, doreenAlexander, upstairs at EMI, is
looking for an assistant.
Give me your resume and I'llgive it to him.
(15:03):
And I did and I got the job.
That's how I got.
So I worked for an A&R person.
That's why I became an A&Rperson, I think.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Who was some of the first acts you worked with?
Hmm, who was some of the firstacts you worked with?
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Who did Dwayne have?
It was a group he told the UBCor something like that.
They weren't successful okay hehad taken over Scott Folk's
position, but we had Jazz.
That's who he had Jazz.
That's how I met Jay-Z back inthe day, because he used to come
(15:42):
up with Jazz, so I guess thatwas the most successful.
But at EMI that's how I metJay-Z back in the day, because
he used to come up with jazz,they had a lot of jazz, so I
guess that was the mostsuccessful.
But at EMI there was, like RedHot Chili Peppers, emf,
unbelievable Jerry.
What was Jerry's last name wasthe head of A&R Black Eye, and
that's when Barnell Johnson wasthere too.
(16:04):
Gwynese Coleman people like that, and that was a great
experience too.
My first experience was Iworked for good people.
Dwayne Alexander was very goodto me and he had a special thing
.
He was like these are thepublishing divas.
So if Rochelle feels JodiGerson or Brenda Andrews calls,
get me on the phone.
You know, just find me.
I was like publishing divas.
So if Rochelle Fields JodiGerson or Brenda Andrews calls,
(16:25):
get me on the phone.
You know, like, just find me.
I was like publishing divas.
Who are these people?
So yeah, that was my first jobin the business And-.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
How long were you there?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
I think about a year or so.
I think they let Dwayne gobecause that's how you know
there was a new regime.
They let go the head of A&R, soeverybody had to go.
Then I worked for KimberlyThornton at Busted Records,
(17:01):
which was Hammer's label, and Iwas pregnant at that time.
So throughout my pregnancy Iworked Hammer's label and I was
pregnant at that time.
So throughout my pregnancy Iworked for Busted.
Then, after I had my son, pariswas over at Epic.
So I went to Epic and workedfor Paris Davis, who signed
Groove Theory, and Terry andMonica, which is a whole other
story, but his main signing wasGroove Theory.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
So wait before we go.
How was it working withHammond's people?
Was Hammond, he was Can't Touchthis, and All that was out at
the time.
What's?
Speaker 2 (17:33):
that.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Can't Touch this and All that was out at the time.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Yeah, no, he was huge he was selling 10 million
records a pop.
Wow, he was huge, huge, huge.
Him and Garth Brooks would bevying for the number one album
in the country at the time andeverybody, they were both
selling like tens of millions.
It was crazy numbers back thenand it wasn't.
(18:01):
It was very much a satelliteoffice experience.
We worked in the Capitoloffices, so it's almost still
like I worked at Capitol, causeit was like specifically the
blue note offices and BruceLundvall was still there.
Some of the old school guys wasstill there and um yeah, so that
(18:21):
after I had my son, a fewmonths later, I worked at Epic.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
And how was that?
Speaker 2 (18:27):
That was great.
That's where you know I met themajority of connections that I
that I would use throughout mypublishing career, because
Vivian worked there.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Vivian was on the show.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
I love Vivian and I'll tell you why.
Vivian Polly.
Anthony Hank Caldwell was there.
It was still running BlackBlack.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Music Division.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Hank Caldwell.
That's where I met Gwen.
Niles and I Both went toHampton at different times, but
I met Gwen when she was workingwith Vivian there and, um, just,
you know handful of good peopleand that's back then.
You recall they?
(19:19):
They had parties at the openingof an envelope, like it didn't
matter what was happening, whoyou were.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
And a big, big party at the opening of an envelope.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
It didn't matter what was happening, who, you were
New artists and big parties, biglavish parties, Big lavish
album release parties with openbars and food.
So as an assistant I would goto all the parties All the Like.
Every album release party I wasgoing to, you got to meet the
other assistants and otherexecutives.
I went to everything.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
What artists did you work with at Epic when you were
there?
Speaker 2 (19:52):
At Epic Groove Theory .
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Okay, you have any stories?
Speaker 2 (19:59):
about that, terry and Monica.
That album didn't do well butGroove Theory was huge.
It took a while to get that.
Album didn't do well, butGroove Theory was huge, so it
took a while to get that albumdone.
But through him, through Paris,I met Hiram Hicks, I met
Cassandra Mills.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
I met so many people working with Paris so do you
have any crazy, crazy air quotes?
Groove Story, groove Theorystories that you wanted that you
were willing to be talkingabout.
Nothing crazy, nothing crazy.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Okay, nothing crazy.
Bryce and I were from the sameneighborhood and Amel was.
She was very sweet breath offresh air, pretty, um, not that
I recall nothing crazy.
But paris, paris was very um,you know, perfectionist about
(20:52):
certain.
I remember being in the studioand he's like there's just
something that's not right.
That's a room for that.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Um, but nothing crazy okay, so after epic, what?
What happened next?
Would you go, you go next.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Well, at Epic.
That's when I'd had my son bythis time and I was having
issues with my son's father.
It was about money.
So I think I was at my deskcrying and Vivian walks by and
she was like why are you crying,Are you okay?
I was like I told her what washappening.
She was like you know what?
You need your own job so youdon't have to worry about
(21:28):
whether your son's father givesthe money on time or whatever.
So she's like give me yourresume and I'll give it to
Rochelle Fields.
Jocelyn Cooper is leavingWarner Chapel and opening her
own company, midnight Music.
So give me your resume and I'llgive it to Rochelle.
And that's the history.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
So that's when you turned from A&R into publishing.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Yes, I had no idea what publishing was like that,
except for what I heard fromDwayne.
So I think I'd met Rochelleback then or Brenda Andrews back
then, but he was like thepublic.
Actually, I'd interviewed foranother job.
I'd interviewed for the MCAmusic publishing job Cause Tita
(22:17):
gray, I think, was leaving.
Did she work at MCA music?
I had a Carol where Leon, wherehis wife, used to head the
publishing at mca music and Iinterviewed with her and she
didn't think I was ready.
But a year later I got to.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
you know it was between me and francesca sparrow
really yeah that's, that's yourfrances Sparrow so how did you
get your crash crash course inpublishing?
Because publishing and A&Rpublishing and the music side in
general are just so differentthe Donald Passman book oh so
(22:58):
you read the book, I read theDonald Passman book and just on
the job, training.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
But I feel like I was blessed and had good luck
because they gave me sammykhan's old office.
You know sammy khan.
Sammy khan is a writer who wrotestandards like let me see,
because I always forget not takeme out to the ball game, but
songs like that so he was like abro, a bro building kind of guy
he was a bro building kind ofguy but wrote some and they had
(23:28):
a big um Broadway catalog and soJulie Stein, this guy, julie
Stein, was still there and Ionly learned about these people
um working there because Ididn't know.
But let me see.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
And the way you look at it for the people who are
listening.
The Brill Building was thisbuilding in the Times Square
area.
I can't remember it was in the40s and they had all these like
little offices with like pianosin them and they had all these
writers that they would hire andcome and all day day people
(24:06):
would write songs, write songs,write songs, write songs.
And a lot of these songs becamestandards and classic, like
George Gershwin type records andCarole King, and these people
would just pump out.
That was their job to pump outsongs and stuff for TV shows,
for movies, obviously forrecords.
If you look on a lot of thoseold records in the 50s and 60s,
(24:28):
those are all real buildingrecords.
It became this massivepublishing warehouse basically.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
I'm looking it up.
And he and Julie Stein wroteLet it Snow, let it Snow, let it
Snow Damn.
He wrote songs like that theygo well.
He discussed me that January1993.
I started that January, aprilof 1993, and they gave me his
office, wow, wow.
I think that's part of thereason why I had just a great
(25:01):
career, a great tenure.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
You had good mojo coming out of that office.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Yeah, and back then they gave you a great tenure.
You had good mojo coming out ofthat office.
Back then they gave you afurniture budget like go buy
your own furniture for youroffice.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Yeah, that's over with.
That's over with.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Furniture budget, parking budget and the contract.
Actually, did I have a contractyet?
Speaker 1 (25:24):
No, but I still drove into work every day so who are
some of the people you startedworking with when you did
publishing?
Speaker 2 (25:33):
when I got there, before I signed anything, I
worked with Barry Eastman whodid all the Freddie Jackson
stuff.
Eddie F and UntouchablesJocelyn signed them, and also
Bernard Bell who wrote all thatstuff with Teddy Riley, skeph,
(25:55):
anselm.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Eric Stadler.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
Eric Stadler from Bomb Squad Yep, um, and then
Bomb Squad Yep, and then that'sall I remember.
I'm sure there were more.
There was also a woman whoworked there for a little while
named Kat Jackson.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
I remember Kat.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Jackson, you remember Kat Jackson?
Yeah.
She worked for Prince's.
Because Prince was published byWarner Chappell, so was Michael
Jackson.
At was published by WarnerChappell, so was Michael Jackson
.
At the time Warner Chappell hadthe happy birthday song before
it went back into public domain.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
It was crazy.
James Brown was there.
In fact, I have a picture withJames Brown Kiss me on the cheek
, because he used to come up tothe office.
These people would come up tothe office.
The James Brown catalog wasthere, dr Dre was there, so it
was an easy sell to be atWaterchapel Music.
(26:58):
It was like one of the RollsRoyces of the music publishing
business, so people were morecalling you than you were
calling them.
Yeah, it was a very high profileposition.
So that's how I got to know theattorneys, because they were
calling me the attorneys andmanagers.
They called Warner Chapel.
Wow, At the time there weren'tso many publishing companies as
(27:22):
there are now.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
There was some big independents, but not like so
did you ever get to meet Michaelor Prince?
Speaker 2 (27:31):
I did meet Michael later.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
I met.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Michael, me and Big John met Michael because Rodney
was in the studio with him, eventhough Rodney had signed to EMI
.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Rodney Jerkins.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yes, Rodney Jerkins I was with.
We were at a Jay-Z video shoot.
Okay, I think Rodney calledJohn and they were like come to
the studio now.
I was like, yeah, it was crazy.
So we went to Sony Studios.
(28:03):
He was there.
He had a bang on his nose.
Speaker 4 (28:08):
He had all these like Disney.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
I guess he'd gone to the Disney store so he had and
his kids were young so he hadall these stuffed animals
hanging from the ceiling andlike popcorn machine and he had
like the whole.
You remember they had that hugeallowed at Sony Studios but it
was like he had like the whole.
You remember they had that hugeallowed at sony studios but it
was like he had like I thinkthey were separated into
different rooms he had the wholething, wow.
(28:34):
And he had to sit down.
Well, I don't heal that night.
So he looked at me and johnjonathan platt, who's the ceo of
sony.
He's a coach, you know um it.
Wow, you guys are tall.
John is 6'6" I was probably 6'1in these heels.
We sat down with him and hewatched a Frasier Ali fight.
(29:00):
He was a big Ali fan.
He's going to sing Ali's, he'sa dancer, or something like that
.
He kept so he's going to singAli's, he's a dancer, or
something like that.
He kept saying he just keptpraising Ali.
So I'm just sitting there, meand John just sitting there,
like this is Michael Jackson.
Yeah, you're Michael Jackson,because of all the people that I
(29:22):
met at the time in the industry, because you meet a little bit
of everybody especially.
One thing I can say aboutWarner Chapel.
I was in so many rooms morerooms than I ever would have
been in working in records.
They had me at the Rock andRoll Hall of Fame dinners when
they were really small.
It would be in a ballroom.
(29:44):
You could just walk up to people.
I remember walking up to DianeCarroll and introducing myself.
Like you would just go up topeople and introduce yourself.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
I remember those small, small um rock and roll
hall of fame.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Yeah, it was a small thing, it wasn't a you know the.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Hilton hotel or something.
Yeah, it was at the Hiltonhotel.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
That and and, like the other galas, where they were
much smaller then than they arenow.
So you really got to meetpeople and Water Chapel would
have me in those rooms.
So I've met a lot of people.
Tony Bennett used to come up tothe office.
I've met a lot of people, butMichael Jackson is the only one
(30:21):
I was starstruck by because Iloved him since I was six.
You know what I mean so.
I remember calling my parentslike Mom, dad.
I just met Michael Jackson,like he was the only person I've
ever felt like.
I'm meeting.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
And we'll be right back, Ready to launch your
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And now back to our show Now.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
how long did you work at Warner Chapel?
Speaker 2 (31:16):
About.
I worked there from 1993 to2000.
I don't know, it felt like 10years.
Okay, it felt like 10 years, itwas only six years from 1993
that I left.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
And where did you go after that?
Speaker 2 (31:32):
I went to Universal.
Jocelyn Cooper hired me atUniversal to do A&R and it was a
culture shock.
I left for the money.
In retrospect I shouldn't have.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Tell me why.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Because records is a hectic job and you have like a
weekly, like a weekly reportcard.
It was just so much morepressure than publishing was.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
And I was working at Warner Chapel spoiled me, and I
was working at Warner Chapelspoiled me, and so they used to
kind of they gave, they gave meautonomy at Warner Chapel Like I
would go to LA and it mightsound vapid but I was able to
stay at like the peninsula everytime Nice hotels and stuff,
(32:23):
yeah.
And I remember the first time Iwent to la.
I'm only 26 years old and Iwent to.
I think it was like soul trainawards or something.
And um, I went to the office onsanta monica and she was like,
my boss was like where are youstaying?
I was like I'm staying at thehotel n I was so excited to stay
(32:44):
at the Nico Nico used to be hot.
She was like what, why didn'tyou stay at the Four Seasons of
the Peninsula?
I'd never stayed at the Nicoagain.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Wow, why are you not staying at the Superfly shit?
What are you doing?
Speaker 2 (32:58):
I was like why are you staying there?
Why didn't you stay at the FourSeasons of?
I was like enough said.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Exactly, oh, really, okay, I think I was like that.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
So when I went to Universal they hired me as a VP.
I thought I was just going togo to Peninsula.
They were like you can't stayat the Peninsula.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
And I was like what they were.
Like you can stay at the FourSeasons, Okay.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
I'll slum it.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
They were like cause Monty and Doug stayed there, so
I couldn't stay there, you knowwith the president and stuff.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
But I must say you know, before I got to university
I was also married to a man inthe business.
So you know I say that it's alittle on my own and with him
and business.
So you know I stayed at PencilLow on my own and with him and
it was a, you know, rudeawakening to not be able to just
roll like I wanted to roll.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
So you didn't like the record side too much.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
I hated it.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Really, who'd you work with while you were there?
What?
Speaker 2 (34:03):
artists DJ Rogers, that's all I can't remember.
I'm sure I worked with otherpeople, but I I like blacked out
that.
I'm like let me forget aboutthat.
It was.
I had so much going on in mylife in general when I was in
universal, but I met some greatpeople.
Um, gene Riggins was runningBlack Music at the time.
(34:27):
Dino DeValle, who signed CashMoney, was next door to me.
Kevin.
What was Kevin's last name?
Kevin Hershey, kevin.
He signed Nelly.
So Nelly was there at the timeand Lou Tucker was there at the
time.
That's why I met WardellWardell Malloy, who's at BMI now
, and Lou Tucker was there atthe time.
(34:48):
Like we had you know universal.
That's why I met Wardell WardellMalloy, who's at EMI now.
Wardell was my assistant and um, wow, yeah, that's some great.
Wendy Washington was there atthe time, jackie Reinhart, um.
So I met some good people, butI didn't like working for
records, working at all.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
So what happened after that?
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Um, I got let go from that and uh, then I went to EMI
like a year later.
I didn't like EMI.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Okay, so tell me about your EMI experience.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Um, it was the New York office.
So it's like I worked with EvanLamberg and it was just a
different.
Like I said, warner Chapelreally spoiled me, like I was
the person in the New Yorkoffice and I kind of built the
(35:44):
R&B stuff there from you know,while with Denise Weathersby in
LA, I kind of built that, like Igot in there and I signed Tim
and Misty and Junior Mafia andBusta Rhymes and ODB, like as
far as 90 signings.
I really built that when I gotto EMI.
(36:08):
It's already built, there'salready a system.
It was Big John and Tubby.
They already had their ownestablished way of working.
I don't think there was reallyroom for me there.
I got you.
Room for someone to kind ofneutralize me.
(36:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Yeah, so wait.
So let's go back a little bit,because I didn't ask you this.
So tell me about when yousigned Missy, tell me the story
of that, and tell me the storyof when you signed Busta.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Tim and Missy.
You know, louise West is mygirl and Louise brought me other
things too, but Tim and Missyare the most notable.
I also signed Anthony Hamilton.
Anthony Hamilton.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
Through Louise.
She'd been telling me about Timfor a while because they were
up in Rochester working withDevante and Missy kind of
started making a name forherself because she'd written
for 702.
And you know she did a thingwith Gina Thompson, so she was
(37:18):
already making a name forherself.
But she finally brought Tim tome.
It must have been 96.
Darryl Williams was in myoffice at the time.
I tease him about this to thisday because Darryl Williams was
an A&R guy who was huge at thetime because he signed Brandy
and he signed DJ.
So he was in my office and shebrings Tim.
(37:41):
He was very shy at the time andshe's like well, they worked,
they did most of the Aaliyahalbum, but Barry won't give us,
barry Hankerson won't give usthe songs to play you sound like
Barry.
Right, but he was able to playPony.
For me, that's the only thinghe played and I was like I'm
(38:03):
signing him right now and Iasked Darryl.
I was like I'm signing himright now and I asked Darrell.
I was like Darrell, what do youthink?
He was like, it's just allright.
I was like you know what?
Thank God, I trusted my ownears.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
You know and didn't trust you know.
I trusted my own ears.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
So they were like almost like a package deal.
And they were admin deals andno one was doing admin deals at
the time.
If you didn't do co-publishingdeals, you weren't doing them.
But Louise insisted they doadmin deals.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Okay, and they were uh explain to people what an
admin deal is.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
An admin deal is you're not giving up control of
your publishing, you're keeping80, it's called an 80 20 deal,
where you're not giving upcontrol of your publishing,
you're keeping 80, it's calledan 80 20 deal, where you're
keeping 80% of your publishingand you're paying 20 minutes,
20% for administration.
Okay, so one, a chapel, wouldadminister their publishing
(39:02):
that's licensing and royaltiesand all that stuff for that fee.
So there was a way that theywould work.
Ed pearson was the head ofbusiness business affairs at the
time because there was only andI don't, I don't remember the
technicality, but there wassomething technical that had to
(39:24):
happen for them to be includedin the billboard awards and
stuff like that.
But they worked it out.
But people were just peopletalked about that for a while,
like that's just an admin deal.
It's just an admin deal.
It was like no, it's activity.
So right after I signed them,if your Girl Only came out, wow.
(39:50):
It was like it didn't stopafter that yeah, just yeah, one,
one one I had terry robinsontoo.
Terry robinson was huge wrote alot um and I signed terry as a
group with Monica.
That was actually my firstsigning.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
I signed Terry and Monica as soon as I got to Water
and Chapel and I expected thealbum to do well, because you
know I was going to sign GrooveTheory.
So I'm like, oh it's going todo.
And the album sounded good.
It wasn't like it was a badalbum, but it tanked.
So yeah, and that's the othergood thing about publishing, you
can sign something that tanksand nobody's looking at you
crazy, because there are otherways for people, right, there's
(40:34):
other ways for them to makemoney.
So Terry calls me one day andshe's like I'm writing with
heavy for these kids and I'mlike OK, whatever, like as long
as you're writing.
Yeah.
And the kids turn out to be sofor real and Candy Rain came out
.
That was my first top 10 pophit and I remember being in a
(40:57):
car service I was in Brooklynfor some reason and these kids
were walking down the street.
It was like 10 of them and theywere all singing Candy Rain.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
And then you knew you had a hit.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
So that was my first one and my boss doesn't even
realize it.
I had to call him and tell him.
I was like Terry Robinson has atop 10 pop hit and they were
like what?
And so she was like.
After that it was like can'tyou see the total?
She had a bunch of hits.
Terry's like one of the mostunsung songwriters to me because
(41:34):
she's done so much, but nobodyever mentions her name.
She's written a lot.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
Tell me the Busta story.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
Busta was managed by Chris and Mona, but I had an
advantage because he was signedto Electra and I was with Warner
chapel.
So I think he got this.
It was like I said, it's all somany years ago, but there was
an advantage to Warner artistsbeing signed to Warner chapel
(42:03):
and I forget what it was.
But they must an advantage toWarner artists being signed to
Warner Chapel and I forget whatit was but, they must must have
given them a better rate, orsomething like that.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
And it was Tim Mandelbaum, I think, who was the
attorney.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
But I went through.
You know the the normalnegotiating and but Buster was
always kind and nice andrespectful but it wasn't a
difficult signing.
I've had some you know dealswhere it's like going back and
(42:45):
forth.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
What was your most difficult signing?
Speaker 2 (42:53):
forth and and uh, what was your most difficult
signing?
Probably no one.
That was really worth all that.
I don't remember.
Um, I probably went back andforth with Mac 10 a lot.
Um, I don't know, stevie Jmight have given us a run.
I signed Stevie J as well.
(43:14):
We didn't have an issue withJunior Mafia.
Okay.
Because, again, they weresigned to Warner.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
Atlantic.
Speaker 2 (43:22):
They were signed to.
Atlantic.
Busta was signed to Elektra.
Odb was signed to Elektra.
Did ODB through Tim Mandelbaumas well.
It was really about therelationship with the attorneys.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
Tim Mandelbaum had a great relationship with Warner
Chapel.
I think that's why thathappened.
Like I said, it really made adifference that I was at that
kind of company.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
Yeah, you were there.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
I was at a high-profile company like that.
So in retrospect you know, asthings got tougher for me years
down the line, that was like theeasiest success I ever had.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
So tell me one without incriminating people.
Tell me one spicy.
I won't say crazy, I'll sayspicy Warner Chappell story.
Oh, and then one spicy storyfrom that era.
Spicy.
What do you mean?
You know, like yo, we was out atthis thing and this is
(44:28):
something got crazy, or blah,blah, blah.
You know, again, not without I,you know, ruin somebody's life.
I'm not saying gossip people,just kind of.
You know, it was so muchhappening during that era,
especially, like you said, we'regoing out so much and we're
seeing so many people and we'retraveling and so you kind of
just kind of see stuff, you knowum, I won't call this story
spicy, but it's funny becauseJohn Tito, my old boss, recently
(44:52):
passed away.
Okay.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
And he was the easiest boss to work for because
we were both late all the time.
I get it.
John Tito was later than me.
He was like a late guy.
We were both late people but westayed late and we did a lot of
(45:15):
deals together.
He was really good at his job,he was a charmer.
We used to have to go toBroadway events because, like I
said, julie Simon did the liveor he just passed away too.
I said Julie, julie Simon'seither alive or he just passed
away too.
But there were.
There was a Broadway, somethingin his honor that we had that
(45:39):
everybody from Warner Chapel hadto go to.
So we're there in the audienceand people are coming on the
stage, coming up on the stagethat are people going crazy for,
crazy for, and we don't knowwho they are.
Sorry, we're like who are thesepeople?
(45:59):
The only people we knew werewho was George Clooney's aunt.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
Rosemary Clooney.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
Rosemary Clooney.
I think Taylor Dane must havedone something on broadway back
then.
They were like two tony randallwas still alive.
He was there.
Everyone else that.
They were like doing standingovations for going crazy.
We were like, who are thesepeople?
So john whispers over to me, heleans over with me, he's.
(46:28):
This is what it feels like tobe on another planet.
I thought it was so funny atthe time.
You had to be there.
He was a great boss.
We were both Godfather fans.
Now they just had the 50thanniversary.
For the 25th anniversary theywere having a special showing at
(46:50):
the Ziegfeld Theater, which isnow Ballroom, but it was right
around the corner because wewere at 1290, so we took off for
lunch and went to go see theGodfather.
He was our kind of boss that'sdope I just have good memories,
nothing really scandalous,unfortunately.
I'm sure there were things thathappened, but nothing scandalous
(47:14):
.
I remember when we had acompany meeting in Boca and they
were talking about the internetthe internet like it really,
the internet wasn't the thingyet.
That's how long ago this was,and they would like trying to
kill the Napster guy, you know.
(47:34):
And I remember them saying likewe had to do something because
it's going to be like the wild,wild West.
And then a few years later, ina short period, it changed
everything.
Speaker 1 (47:47):
I always say that was one of the music businesses
Worst um errors is, insteadchange everything.
I always say that was one ofthe music business's worst
errors is, instead of trying tokill Nick said Napster, sean
Fanning and those guys, I thinkSean Parker too.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
It was Sean.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
They should have put him on the first thing, smoking
Yep and brought him to theoffice.
Like he's on to something.
What are y'all guys doing?
Speaker 2 (48:08):
Let's figure this out and incorporate.
Speaker 1 (48:09):
You Joined the first thing, smoking Yep, and walked
him to the office Like he's onto something.
Yeah, yeah, what are y'all guysdoing?
Let's, let's figure this outand, you know, incorporate you
into what we're doing.
But, like you said, the, themusic business has a tendency to
try to kill new things asprogressive as it's supposed to
(48:33):
be them, you know.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
Big time.
This is just a short few yearslater.
It blew up everything.
It disrupted the music business.
Yeah, I remember at the time Iguess it was like 99, 2000.
Before then record sales were80% of a publishing company's
(48:54):
revenue, like CD sales, andafter that no CD sale.
It was like it was a terribletime.
You remember it was everybody.
It's a bunch of layoffs and itreally disrupted the industry.
Speaker 1 (49:02):
Really did Like you said it was.
It was different because peoplewere buying hard products CDs
and vinyl sometimes and going tothe store and all the ancillary
businesses around it, like youknow, the truckers bringing the
stuff in and the manufacturersand the arts, art people and it
killed all that stuff, you know.
Speaker 2 (49:20):
All of it.
And what's so crazy is backthen you would buy a CD and you
owned it.
Now we don't own any music.
Speaker 1 (49:28):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (49:29):
You know you buy a DVD, you own that movie.
Now, we don't own any music.
You buy a DVD, you own thatmovie.
Now, we don't own anything.
You have more of it, but wedon't own anything.
Speaker 1 (49:37):
We don't have anything you can grab in your
hand and say this is mine.
What was your last stop?
Speaker 2 (49:46):
My last stop was EMI.
Then I tried management andmanaging producers and stuff.
I worked with Shea Taylor, mycousin, for a while, who later
worked with Beyonce, and I hatedthat too.
I didn't like being on theother side of the desk.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
Chasing people.
Speaker 2 (50:03):
Yeah, it was just like I didn't even know how to
do that.
Honestly, I got when it camedown to that.
I was like this I guess thisisn't for me anymore, because I
don't even know how to chasepeople down and to kiss ass and
all the stuff that managers haveto do.
Yeah, in the beginning, like ifyou have a huge artist, you're,
(50:24):
you're, you know people kissingyour ass, but if you have a an
artist that you're trying to getoff the ground or trying to,
it's a terrible position to bein.
Good luck you know yeah.
I didn't like not being like Iwas a check writer before.
Speaker 1 (50:41):
Yeah, not on the other side.
Speaker 2 (50:42):
People respected me in a different way because you
know, and then I hear, you know,I heard horror stories later
down the line of people who werenot in my position and had to
be on the other side.
And you know, you know peoplejust being disrespectful, yeah.
Speaker 1 (51:02):
People you thought you was cool with all of a
sudden they tripping you know.
Speaker 2 (51:05):
Yeah, so I didn't like, I didn't like it.
So if I don't like something, Idon't excel in it.
Some people they can reallyexcel in something just from
doing it.
I'm not one of those people.
I have to like it or love it,be passionate.
Yeah, I'm always blessed indoing things that I really love.
Speaker 1 (51:26):
Yeah, tell me about your pivot.
Speaker 2 (51:29):
Yeah, tell me about your pivot.
Well, I don't even like to callit a pivot, because it took a
long time for me to get to thatpivot.
It's like it was like a longwindy road.
It was like it wasn't like apivot, like that it was you know
yeah.
But, you know, I kept, eventhough I didn't like the
(51:50):
business anymore.
It was all I knew my identitywas being, you know, angelique
Miles, music publisher, who hadall this pedigree from all the
successful signings I had.
So I still tried to do it andget a job in a building, but all
(52:11):
the doors were closed to me andI still couldn't understand it
because, like I said, because ofmy pedigree, all the people I
knew, I knew, you know, peoplewho were running shit at the
time, you know and stillcouldn't get in, couldn't get
back in, couldn't get back in.
So you know that's when thepredators come out to people
coming to you saying you knowyou're going to have this budget
(52:35):
soon.
We like to bring you in to this.
You know I had at least fivepeople come bullshit me with
false promises and wanting youto do some work without a budget
.
I'm like, how about you workout that budget part?
And then you know, so it was alot of that and a lot of
(52:55):
disappointments.
A lot of you know people youthink you know not taking your
calls anymore, people that youknow you've had, you know their
families and you spent time withthem.
But you know people that werefriends of the job.
Not really, that was a hardpill to swallow.
(53:16):
Like, these people aren't myfriends.
These people were friends ofthe job.
So there was a lot of that.
So you know, money was an issue,of course.
So I had to do other things.
I got my real estate license, Igot my insurance license, I
tried to get jobs in other areasof entertainment.
(53:40):
Nothing would pan out, forwhatever reason.
And I remember the last timesomeone, last time these guys
came to me and were like we havethis budget of this, we just
have to deal with this and wewant to bring you on.
It was like it was they sent mea contract and everything, but
of course it fell throughbecause they were full of shit.
(54:01):
So I was like that was the laststraw for me.
So I was like, okay, self, whatdo you want to wake up and do
every day?
Because I'm like I might aswell start at the bottom,
because whatever I do next, itmight as well be something I
love, because I'm starting atthe bottom, whatever I do next.
And I must say and go back andsay like during that time when I
(54:27):
wasn't working, I was gettingup every day and working out
Because it was the only thing Icould control.
I couldn't control when suchand such called me back.
I couldn't control anythingelse, but I could control my
body.
I could control what I waseating.
At the time I was, you know,maturing, my body was maturing.
(54:50):
I was like I'm not going outlike this.
I was like I'm already feelingdown and out.
I'm not going to look down andout.
If I look down and out, thatwould just take me down, it's
over.
It's over and I did have somedark thoughts back then.
It's a very isolating periodfor me.
Speaker 1 (55:10):
It is.
Speaker 2 (55:11):
Because you know everybody else is going on with
their lives, they're travelingand, you know, still doing the
things I used to do.
I couldn't do any of it.
I couldn't do any of it.
I couldn't.
I couldn't pay my bills.
You know, I couldn't do any ofthe things and it went on for a
much longer time than I thoughtit would of the things.
(55:32):
And it went on for a muchlonger time than I thought it
would, but in the midst of it Iwas still doing some things, I
was still being invited tocertain things, but I took odd
jobs just to be able to work out, like, okay, I'm going to go
work at a bar studio so I cantake free bar classes and still
be in the city and get someenergy.
(55:52):
So, anyway, I'm going throughthis and I finally, you know, I
caught on to.
Now what happened.
I started doing CrossFitbecause I'd gone to the doctor
and up until that point, I'donly weighed under 150 pounds.
At five, nine, I go to thedoctor and I was like 160 pounds
(56:17):
.
I was like what?
So I started doing CrossFit.
I was like I have to dosomething this.
So I started, um, posting myworkouts before Instagram.
It was like Twitter, facebook.
Speaker 1 (56:39):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 2 (56:40):
Oh, I was just like, and people, it started
resonating with people.
They were like you know whatCause?
We were on our forties at thetime and it was like I should
get up and work out too.
You motivated me to work outtoday.
People started approaching meon the street Like, oh, I follow
you.
I had like maybe 2,500followers at the time, I
remember.
(57:00):
And this young lady approachedme and she was like I follow you
and I love what you're doing.
I was like you know, maybe I'mon to something.
Instagram wasn't a thing yet,but when I got on Instagram, I,
you know, post my workouts.
All my friends were like whyare you posting the food?
Why do you keep taking selfies?
Speaker 1 (57:23):
Because nobody knew what you were doing Nobody
understood what I was doing.
Yeah, you were ahead of thecurve.
Speaker 2 (57:28):
Yeah, I was just like you know, whatever I'm doing, I
saw people were making money.
I didn't know how they weremaking money.
I was like I know there's a wayfor me to make money doing this
.
I don't know how yet, but Iguess I'll figure it out.
And before long, a brand cameto me and they sent me a
contract and they were like we'dlike you to post this for this
(57:50):
amount of money.
And I was like, oh, this is howpeople are making money on it.
So you know it's, it's onlytrickled in for a little while
and then, uh, right before thepandemic, it's just started
pouring in.
Speaker 1 (58:08):
Started to take off.
Speaker 2 (58:09):
All the brand partnerships started pouring in,
started to take off.
All the brand partnershipsstarted pouring in.
Speaker 1 (58:12):
So you were an early health influencer.
Speaker 2 (58:16):
Fitness.
Speaker 1 (58:17):
It started out as fitness.
Did you realize you were aninfluencer?
You were just kind of like, oh,I'm an influencer.
I didn't even realize what Iwas doing.
Speaker 2 (58:25):
It wasn't called influencing, then I don't know
what it was called.
What was it called?
I don't know if that was calledanything, but I was just like I
just want to be able to workout and look good and maybe
practice some other forms ofself-care and share it with
people.
At the time I thought I waslike I'm just going to take
classes all over the cityfitness classes and share with
(58:48):
my followers.
Maybe they want to take youknow, they want to do what I'm
doing.
But then it turned out to belike Dove and L'Oreal and all
kinds of people startedapproaching me about brand
partnerships.
Speaker 1 (59:04):
So it's expanded.
How are they approaching you?
Are they hitting you in the DMsLike L'Oreal will just pop up.
Like I said, dove will just popup in your DM and be like yo,
we want to.
Speaker 2 (59:12):
No, they email me.
I have my email address.
Speaker 1 (59:14):
Oh, email okay.
Speaker 2 (59:15):
And nowadays you can just press like everybody's
email, especially if you have aprofessional page.
There's an email tab in yourprofile that people hit.
So that's how they werereaching me.
That people hit, so that's howthey were reaching me.
Wow, reaching me directly.
And yeah, I just had so manyopportunities.
(59:38):
It was overwhelming that I hadto hire some, you know, hire
help yeah.
Yeah, so, and I was like to getpaid to be myself is the
ultimate question yeah, it's ablessing.
Like I just had a panel theother day and I'm like I don't
even have to prep for thisbecause I'm just talking about
me.
Yeah.
You're just talking aboutyourself.
(59:59):
You know, in retrospect I lookat things like I wasn't supposed
to be in the music industry orin entertainment anymore.
I'm supposed to be doing whatI'm doing now and something I
enjoy, something that's easy todo, because I really do get up
(01:00:21):
every day and work out, and Ilike beauty products, I like
skincare products, I like todress up, I like to dress up, I
like to go out All the thingsthat you know over 50, now it's
an over 50 thing that people areinterested in.
Speaker 1 (01:00:39):
Wow, that's amazing that you kind of fell into this,
you know, because he was in adark place, it turned out to be
the biggest blessing.
Not the darkness of it, butjust having to move on turned
out to be this big blessing.
Speaker 2 (01:00:58):
Yes, absolutely, I could do this until the wheels
fall off.
Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
You could be 80 years old still.
You should work out somewhat at80 years old.
If you're here, if you can,there's a woman.
Speaker 2 (01:01:12):
Her name is Train With Joan.
She's in her 70s.
She's amazing.
She has millions of followersbecause she changed her life
around through weight training.
I'm going to be doing thisuntil I can't do it anymore.
That's good.
The older I get, the more valueit has.
(01:01:35):
Yeah, yeah, if you look acertain way, you take care of
yourself a certain way, becauseI'm like coming up on 60 now,
next year, not this year, butyeah, it's like, yeah, I'm
looking right now at all these.
I have to sift through all thebeauty products and skin care
(01:01:58):
products people send me and postthem and I love it.
How is your skin like that?
Speaker 1 (01:02:05):
because I use amazing products top notch products
that I get for free.
You know what I'm saying.
You get paid to.
I use amazing products,top-notch products that I get
for free.
You know what I'm saying?
Well, not for free.
You get paid to use them, whichis even better.
Speaker 2 (01:02:17):
It's the stuff, like I said, I would have been doing,
no matter what my profession.
When I was in music and stuff,I was working out, I was doing
Lottie Burke method and I wasgoing to get facials at Mario
Badescu.
I was working out, I was doingLottie Burke method and I was
going to get facials at MarioBadescu.
You know I was trying differentdiets Ayurvedic diet, I was
doing vegan stuff.
Before it was a vegan thing.
(01:02:38):
I have an autoimmune conditioncalled psoriasis.
So I've always tried to healmyself and to try certain things
.
So it's always been a passionof mine heal myself and do try
certain things.
So it's always, always been apassion of mine.
And to get to, to have theopportunity to make a living
doing it is huge.
I'm very grateful.
Speaker 1 (01:02:58):
So do you, do you participate in like beauty con
and all that type of stuff?
Or or or no?
Speaker 2 (01:03:03):
I haven't done beauty con.
Okay, Um, if they invited me Iwould come, but uh, the beauty
stuff is just like.
I'm not a big makeup person.
Let me tell you, I'm justgetting into the makeup part of
it because I get sent so much.
I used to be that person who'slike I'm never wearing makeup to
the gym.
Now I wear a little bit ofmakeup to the gym because the
makeup is just sitting here I'mlike let me use this makeup.
(01:03:25):
Yeah, yeah, just taking a look,and plus I'm always filming my
workout, so it makes sense, yeahyeah, yeah it makes sense.
Um, but not not anything crazy,but um.
So I've really finally gotteninto learning how to do makeup,
and it's always a new thing ornew um way of doing things.
(01:03:47):
I'm always practicing.
Speaker 1 (01:03:52):
It's so interesting how, with social media, I don't
know fairly recently, I don'tknow how many years how beauty
and fashion and styling and allthat have just become massive.
I think, as of now, culminatingwith the last Met Gala, yeah,
like that, which is, you know,the biggest met gala um media
(01:04:17):
wise, and they've this that thelast, the met gala two days ago,
raised the most money they'veever raised yeah, which is crazy
.
So it's like the culmination of, uh, years ago, these um be a
bunch of kids, if you want, on aSaturday afternoon, there would
be a bunch of kids on what'scalled Lower Broadway, which is
like Broadway, right belowHouston.
(01:04:39):
It was like all these kids justout there Every Saturday
afternoon.
Obviously it wasn't raining orsomething.
It was a ton of kids wearingthis clothes and wearing this
and that they would just be outthere taking pictures of each
other.
Those kids all, like you know,wearing you know this clothes
and wearing this and that, andthey would just be out there
taking pictures of each other.
And those kids are like thekids now, like that was A$AP
Rocky and that was Virgil andthat was Luca, the kid that was
(01:05:00):
in Grown-ish Luca I forget hislast name now.
But all these kids now, they'renow like at the peak of it.
All those kids, those peoplebecame tastemakers back then.
They were called tastemakers.
And they took it and ran withit and to the point where you
know, tiana Taylor, all thosekids was out there.
If you had somebody had a video, you'd see all those kids
(01:05:22):
they're like you know, back thenwere young and now look at them
.
They're at at the Met Galaraising the most money ever.
Speaker 2 (01:05:27):
Yes, it's beautiful.
It's a beautiful sight to see,and the fact that you can you
know, because at the time Istarted getting into it, I was
probably one of the few peoplemy age doing it.
And now there's so many womenover 50 that are not playing out
here.
They are doing a damn thing.
So actually it's changed alittle bit for me because I
(01:05:49):
didn't get into the reels thingas quickly, because I was used
to taking a couple pictures,writing a caption.
Now it's all about this wholeproduction.
It's always evolving, so you'vegot to stay with the when do
you see it going next?
Yeah, it's hard to see, becausewhat works for one person may
(01:06:15):
not work for someone else.
Speaker 1 (01:06:17):
True.
Speaker 2 (01:06:17):
You know I've seen people grow on TikTok and
Instagram in a year more thanI've grown in five, but that
what they do wouldn't work,necessarily work for me.
Speaker 1 (01:06:31):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:06:32):
So I like you know, to stay at the pace I'm at and
I'm able to I was just talkingabout this on the panel I have
like one hundred twenty fivethousand followers on Instagram,
which is not a big huge number.
Which is not a big huge number.
I'm slow to TikTok.
(01:06:52):
I'm growing there but I know Ihave to do better across
different platforms.
But it's a lot of work I'm like, but I'm able to interact with
my followers.
Like I answer every DM, Ianswer every comment my
followers.
Like I answer every DM, Ianswer every comment questions.
(01:07:14):
I try to answer everything inthat.
So I like kind of like thenumber I'm at, so I'm able to do
that still and stay authentic.
Speaker 1 (01:07:21):
See, I think, I think again I'm.
I'm talking shit, cause I'm nosocial media expert, but I think
somebody like you, somebodymight have a million followers,
but if you look at the analyticsand all that stuff, you
probably have much betterengagement.
Speaker 2 (01:07:35):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (01:07:36):
Somebody might have two million followers, but not
really.
When they post something, theyonly get like a few hits,
whereas when you post something,you get more hits because you
engage with your people and theyknow like oh, and you answer
the DMs, which makes them keepcoming back.
Speaker 2 (01:07:51):
Yes, and there's value in that.
Speaker 1 (01:07:52):
There's much.
Yeah, because you can you.
I'd rather somebody likeyourself.
I'd rather somebody likeyourself try to sell my product
than somebody who has 2 millionfollowers but doesn't really
talk to the people.
Speaker 2 (01:08:06):
Yeah, I think when you get to those numbers, it's
good for brand awareness, butfor actual usage of the product,
people like macro and microinfluences with similar numbers
(01:08:27):
to mine, I think, do better.
There are people who have lessfollowers than I do probably
work more than I do.
It's it's.
It's all on who the brandthinks.
You know, it's all on brandconnection, who they want.
Speaker 1 (01:08:41):
So what's next for you?
Speaker 2 (01:08:43):
I'm doing more things outside of social media.
Speaker 1 (01:08:46):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:08:49):
I'm doing a retreat next year, okay, uh, in Thailand
.
Oh, okay, it's a.
It's a biohacking longevity,but also restoration.
Okay, she, for women over 50.
Okay, things are different forus.
You know, as much as I'd liketo include, um, my younger
(01:09:09):
sisters, it's just reallydifferent for us.
As much as I'd like to includemy younger sisters, it's just
really different for women over50.
We're dealing with differentthings going on in our bodies,
in our lives.
We're dealing with elderlyparents and kids.
Speaker 1 (01:09:24):
It's just different at this age, yeah, different
from a 25-year-old girl that'sout here popping.
You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 2 (01:09:32):
Yeah, it's not that we want to go to probably be in
bed by nine.
Speaker 1 (01:09:36):
Yeah, I'm tired.
Speaker 2 (01:09:39):
Just after laying out in the sun all day.
Yeah, I'm tired.
Speaker 1 (01:09:43):
I'm going to bed, I'm going to watch.
Speaker 2 (01:09:44):
Netflix Exactly, and the phone is so close to the net
Exactly and the following is aquestion.
Speaker 1 (01:09:48):
That Exactly you know .
Thank you, Angelique.
Speaker 2 (01:09:50):
Thank you.
This is great.
You know, I love you Jeff.
Speaker 1 (01:09:52):
I love you too.
You can catch Mixed andMastered on Apple Podcasts,
spotify, iheart or wherever.
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