Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke. I'm your host, Coleen Witt, and today we have very very special guests, recording artists in naz x is in the building. Hey, hey, I am really excited to have you here.
I'm so excited to be here.
So you really look like you are really into cooking, right.
I'm so excited about this, Like literally it's dope because this idea that we went to is like, so like this just excited me up.
Yes, what are you gonna be having us eat today?
Okay, so today we're gonna be having.
Hummus samas, the organic original homemade Arab ways.
I love that. I love that because basically, what you're telling me is that instead of me buying hummus from the containers, that I can actually make it at home and it's budget.
Friendly, literally so much more budget friendly and just just better take.
Really, so we gonna find out today.
It's literally real, let's get it. I'm excited about it.
Yes, so tell us what it takes to make homemade hummus.
Okay, So we have the chickpeas.
And these are canned so people don't have to boil them in.
And we love Goya products always always, so yeah, the Goya product will work. But whatever product chickpeas boom. And then honestly, the lemon juice and the olive oil, I don't know. If we have our olive oil.
We can have someone run and get it.
Yeah, the olive oil, the lemon juice just crucial like anything. Middle Eastern they always put lemon juice and olive oil anyway, always.
Oh really, even in all the all the like cooking dishes.
Cooking always get olive oil.
Is like our especially Palestinians, like olive oil is the.
Thing because we like grow olives.
So it's like oh yeah, like my mom would tell me like oh yeah, we would grow olive trees. Like literally you might like to. I would drink the olive oil, organic real organic stuff. Drink yeah, like my grandpa would drink the olive oil. Is like so healthy. But it's like olive oils.
And everything sound healthy. Okay, have you ever drink.
Ours in America?
Because they put so much stuff on our stuff, So I don't know if we could do that, but you know, olive oil is there. We go in the extra virgin period, So I don't know about these brands, but you know, like it's so good, Like I honestly olive oil and everything for us Arabs?
Is it? Okay?
Oil and a lemon juice. You gotta put the lemon juice and everything.
Literally, Okay, what are the other ingredients?
And then just a bunch of seasonings. So some of the seasonings are like you know, some traditional and then some stuff. I'm going like a little out because I like to like season my stuff.
Okay, so season the taste.
And there's peppers, yes, so we have Do we have the peppers?
Yeah, in that little orange case? Oh my god, yes, but I don't know if those were the right ones.
Oh no, these aren't the right ones. But we're gonna just use this as an embellishment at the end. That's what was cute. It'll be cute chipotle peppers and a double sauce ooh a doubo Okay, cool.
Well, I don't know what roasted peppers in a can look like.
I don't know, Like literally, I think it was supposed to be the jar.
The jar. I tried, I tried. I didn't know what I was looking for.
No, I ain't a roast chef in here.
We just be doing it.
But we were doing it and we're doing it right, and you have garlic and onions teach us how to make it.
Okay, Okay, so literally, okay, the thing is is like the garlic and the onions, I would have liked to like roast it up and stuff to make it a little bit that, But since it's not that, we're not gonna put them in today.
We're just gonna have them as cute little decoration.
Cerations on the side.
Okay, But okay, so we're gonna start with the chickpeas.
Got it?
Now?
Do we get started?
Yes?
Get started? And do we have to I'm genuinely really invested in this. I'm hoping that I never buy how much again after this. But do we have to drain the liquid out of the key?
Yes, we do it.
You could use those blue keys.
Look, I'm asking all the right questions, really, okay, honestly, just like like, we do have to drain it out because this water that they have it's sitting in it's.
Just you know, it's like fermented or something.
Yeah, it's fermented, And it's not really like necessary because the thing is you're supposed to soak the chickpeas overnight if they're fresh fresh chicken, you know, but they're already soaking them, so it's like perfect because.
You have to Oh they're not soft in there.
Yeah, they're soft now because they soaked them.
So if I were to get a bag of chickpeas, the dry one.
You can just soak them overnight and then they come like this and they become fermented and stuff and then you just like drain it out.
You can use that too.
Oh I don't have to boil them.
Yeah, you don't have to boil them. So the thing is is if you do boil them, it's like the replacement. Either you soak them or you boil them.
Either.
Or we have this other dish called food and it's like garbonzo beans.
Is that what it is? Or these are the girls.
It's another bean. I only know in Arabic it's fooled, but like literally it's another bean. And with that one you cook and that you have to cook that one.
This one is optional.
You cook it.
You can soak it every night.
Okay, So for all y'all listeners, you can actually get the bag, soak it overnight and then wake up put it in a blunder.
Yeah, let's think, let's get it very excited.
We ain't never had this dish ever in the history. This is three seasons and we've never had anybody make homemade humus.
Oh my god, this is so exciting.
It's so crazy because I would wake up in the morning, like growing up, and then this would be like our breakfast, you know, like yeah, and I hated it growing up, right, I hated it, Like I was like I don't want that, Like I don't want it.
And then because you ate it so much.
Yeah, yeah, like you know, you were so used to it, you know, you get so used to it and stuff. And then I literally like then it became a viral sensation. And then I was like that everywhere as home as helmus hummus, and I'm like, as an Arabic girl, it's the most interesting thing ever to see, you know what I'm saying, Because you're like, I would have never thought that, like things like this would have been viral because I was a little girl.
You just grow up like it's a part of you know.
What I'm saying.
It's like a part of the culture. It's like if you're if you're a Jamaican and you eat like jerk chicken. All yeah, well I don't even use jerk chicken. Yeah something like who was it? Like Trevor Noah had a joke about his friend that was Indian and his friend like just hated eating different versions of curry every day, and Trevor was like so annoyed with eating I think just school lunch. So they would like trade or whatever, because that kid was just like, I can't even look
at the curry. Dang. Okay, we're just kidding, all right, were we only need one?
Need one anyway, We're gonna try it all out, okay, so boom, but we got this stuff in here, the chickpeas in here. We gotta throw in the olive oil, of course, because.
It's how you know you a real cook. Right here. She she didn't even pull out a measure and she never was there's not even a measuring anything on the table. She just took the olive oil and she just ran it through. Okay, got it. She was signed a generous for y'all listeners. She was generous the olive oil, okay.
And then when I was honestly, it would be cute if we had like whatever, but we're just gonna throw in these seasonings, like straight up this season. Okay, So I love me some garlic. We gotta put the garlic garlic powder. I would have loved to roast a garlic and put in the fresh garlic nothing like it. But since we don't have that, we're gonna just put in the garlic powder.
And when you say you roast, what does roasting look like?
When I just put it on the stove and then put it with some oil and.
Just like like almost like a saltee. Yeah, so it has that like little.
I start getting my terminology for my cooking up. Oh my goodness's yeah. I like, yeah, the onion garlic nothing like it. Always we saw ta onion and garlic in every dish too.
That's not always.
Onion, garlic and lemon. Ye. And you're and your first generation, did you at all grow up in Palestine?
No?
Have you visited?
No?
Okay, so my whole life Palestine has been more unfortunately, you know, high family members go back there and you know, just come back different. So it always gave me a like damn, like I want to go back there so bad. But you know, it's like there's traumatizing, it's traumatizing.
Yeah, my mom had a very traumatizing experience.
So I think that for me it was always like I always have dreamed to go back, but I always like in the right time one day, you know what I mean, And that's like the dream and the goobo. Now for me, it's like I love like going back
to any of the parts of the Middle East. Like I stopped in Dubai and I was like, oh my god, you know what I'm saying, you just feel the vibe because I feel like being in the Western world, being in America, like it's so different when you go to that side of the world, and I really haven't experienced it as much as I need to, you know what
I'm saying, Like as much as I want to. And I mean, like there's so many places right now out there that are just so beautiful, soapopen and just so like it that I haven't seen yet that I'm just dying to see. But of course, like I want to go back so bad, but I've never spent as much like time there or anything. I went to Egypt when I'm like sixteen with the family, and that was like the closest thing I kind of got to it because Egypt is right across you know, the water. But yeah,
that's it. And I one day, one day, god willing, we'll be going back, you know what I mean? One day that's the goal, because honestly, I'm not gonna lie. It's such a we just want to, you know, you want to experience the motherland.
You know what.
Yeah, of course I think it's I think it's important. But I also understand as a Jamaican, I ain't been back, and all my Jamaican friends like talk crap because they're like, you've never been there and you're a Jamaican and dah dah da da. I'm like, man, you hear all these stories about stuff that may have happened in your family. You like, I don't know if I'm ready to do that. But now that I'm older, I'm like, yo, it's definitely
on my bucket list. But when I was younger, you couldn't pay me to go back there because that was scary.
It was scary. Yeah, you hear all these stories.
But then now you're like, oh.
My god, I really want to go.
Yeah I want to. I want to.
I want to roots.
Yeah, your roots exactly.
And that's what's so important, And honestly, a lot of Arabs will do that to me too. They'll be like, but you've never gone back or I speak Arabic, that's my first language technically, oh okay, yeah, but it's very like broken, like it's like we say Macusa, so it's like it's like broken, like you know what I mean, because it's americanized because I speak English so much.
Now do do the Palestine? Does the Arab culture judge if you're you're your is it Arabic?
Yeah?
Is it? If it's like not perfect? Because I know in the Spanish community they all judge. Yes, they discriminated.
The Arabs in the Latin community and the Arab basic so much alike, like my mom's that's friend growing up saying it's like Puerto Rican That's why I use like Adobo Goyle products, Like I just like, you know, my favorite food is Puerto Rican food technical because I'm just like so obsessed with the whole Spanish culture period. But I feel like it's the same way, like it's very judgmental if you're not if you don't speak clear like Spanish or clear Arabic, they're.
Like super judgments.
How you're saying no, No, they talk, you know, a lot of crap. Yeah, it's the same way. And it's the same way too, I know in the Latin community and the Arab community of like if you're Puerto Rican and Dominican and yeah, it's a little different.
Like you know, yeah, they'd be like, don't get it, don't get it messed up, got it messed up.
It's the same thing with the Arabs. But honestly, for me, like you know, now, for me, I love it all. Like people think I'm Latino all the time and I'm from New York, so I love it. I'm like, yeah, oh they are all like what, like, I'm very much so that, you know. So I feel like cause we're so we're so like entertime. So me, I'm just like if someone confused me for Latino, or someone confused me for another Arab thing, I love it.
People get really offended by that.
They're like, don't do that, don't do that, I'm not that or whatever, and I'm like whatever.
Like people will literally confuse me for Latino. They'll be like, yeah, Puerto Rican or they so I keep telling myself if I learned Spanish, I'm claiming.
Noah, if you walk up on me and you're like, oh, are you Puerto Rican.
If I know how to speak it, I'll be.
Like a Spanish country.
They they they start speaking to me in Spanish and then I get by, but then it starts getting.
Mad real like busted.
Okay, I really am not for real because my actient be on place and they'll be like, oh, you speak Spanish, just go in okay, But then I want to learn sometimes, so when I go, like, I'll go because Mexico's right there, So I'll go to Mexico, take a trip, and then it's literally like well, they'll start speaking to you, and then you're like, okay, teach me some Spanish. And then they want to speak English. It's like no, no, no,
Like my aunt can do that to me too. They'll speak to me in English and I'm speaking into them Arabic and I'm like, speak to me in Arabic so I can get my Arabic up, and then they start speaking to me English.
I'm like they like, we don't have time to do this, yes, like no, no.
No, don't play with us right now. Don't play with us.
I get that though, too, because whenever I'm around like my Spanish friends. You know what I do. I tell their kids. That's what I learned. If you go after the kids, yeah, they're more likely to help you out and be like, all right, could we could do this, We could talk to you in Spanish, but adults always alike, yeah, that's over.
It, like literally, and I'm like, well, I'm trying to get my stuff up. You know, I don't got nobody to practice with. You know what I'm saying. We out here in La you know what I'm saying. But I think even for my mom, I only speak to my mom in Ah, so it's weird because then when I speak to her in Arabic, I just feel so weird. But some people speak to their parents in Arabic and that's how they keep it up, you know what I mean.
Me, I've only spoken to my mom in English.
Like technically, we taught my mom English when she came all out here to New York from Palisade, and she just was just learning from like the like TV shows and stuff, and then we were speaking only English. She's working, and then that's how she learned English. So we, like her kids like kind of told her English.
And that's a lot of it.
And how good is her English anything? Really?
Yeah, she sounds like.
A New York like, you know, Middle Eastern woman, you know.
But you know from New York. I'm gonna be like hitting you up when I'm on that side, Like, well, I was saying, take me back to what was going on in the era of you eating hummus to not survive, but you know, in the times of just take me back to what was going on during the time of eating and making homemade hummus.
You know, I feel like, for me, it's really crazy because like you know, when you're a kid, you like just you just take so many things like for granted, you know what I'm saying, And I feel like even like things like this, it's like, you know, yeah, like I guess it's this is just such a cheap meal that you can make no matter what, no matter cause I grew up in Brooklyn, Like I was born in Brooklyn, New York. You know, Sunset Park, Brooklyn, New York, which
is a very Latin community. And when I was a teenager, my mom she started a business, and my mom my stepdad they started a business together. So it started kind of like we experienced being very broke, having no money, living in like a two bedroom apartment in Brooklyn. You know what I'm saying, having no money, like literally like small two bedroom apartment building.
And how many siblings do you have?
I have three, but at the time, it was just me and my older brother. Okay, so I have a little brother and little sister as well. They're my like babies. My siblings are my everything. But me and my older brother was just us at the time. And then my little brother was born and then we wounded up when I was around a teenage, like around there in New York. When you start when you're like like living in New York, you either are broke or you got money. Period, either broke.
There is no real class and if you're able to live in New York City, you're either broke you got money.
So we were just broke.
So when my mom started her business when I was a teenager, because she was my mom was really a self made woman.
Like she sounds like she came by herself.
She came by herself with my father oka and yeah, like it didn't unfortunately work out with my father, so then you know, like her she met my stepfather and it was kind of like my mom was Christian.
My father and my stepfather were both Muslim Arab men.
So I mean my mom being a coming to America and having to work and figure it out and having both parents having to you know, it's hard, you know, and it kind of I saw my mom really like for her kids go so hard and figure it out. Like she was working at supermarkets in Brooklyn, like working at you know, like arrest someone else's restaurant, working on wherever she could work to figure it out and make
the money for her kids. And you know, then she started, her and my steps id were working for this person that was in this business, and they figured out the business. And then my mom was like, I could do this. So then she was like I could do this on my own. I'm gonna do it, you know what I'm saying. And then you know, I'm a kid, so I don't know what's going on, and she just like and she was basically by herself in America. Her family was like in Palasine or around the world, you know, like and
her my mom being Christian, my father being Muslim. Marrying each other was a very Romeo Juliette story, like it was like forbidden, you know, so like they fell in love. But of course moving to America and Brooklyn, New York, you know a lot, it was a different thing. Yeah, it was different era, Like it was hard, it was too hard. So but my mom had that really like she's like the ultimate. She's like my biggest inspiration. She's such a self made iconic woman to me because I
saw her really figure it out. You know, we were like so broke living in Brooklyn. I was always a broke friend, you know what I mean. I was always like, had no money, no nothing, like you know, I remember going to like the grocery store, going anywhere and being so jealous or being so jealous of my rich friends.
Like god, I wish I was whatever I had.
More, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, And then when my mom started her business when I was a teenager, like it didn't really start doing well, and then it started doing well. Out of nowhere, we moved to Connecticut.
So in New York, you know, most people.
Either moved to Connecticut, or they moved to Jersey, or they moved to Long Island, or they moved out of New York unless you got money, like ye to afford New York. And if you want to afford New York. But so we moved to Connecticut, and as a teenager, my whole world changed. Like it was like what the heck is going on? You know what I mean?
And at the time I was like so not with it.
But then when after it happened, it was like I don't know everything kind of like, yeah, everything started changing and I experienced a different life in Connecticut, Like I was now the friend that had more money.
You know, and and more space, right, did get stuff?
Yes?
And when yeah, Like it was kind of like a thing where it was like you experience how people like change with you, how people like when I didn't have money, they treat you away, and then when you start having some like some like people start, it's like different. But it's like it was always like I was always like as a kid, I was like I wanted people to like me so hard and so bad. So when I didn't have the money, you know, I was always like, oh,
I want more, I want more, I want more. And then when I had more, you start realizing that people might not always want to know you or to be friends with you for you. They might just be doing that for what you have. Yea you know, so it was weird, but I experienced both, and I am so thankful now as an adult that I get to experience both. And then as an adult, I experienced both having no you know what I'm saying and.
Having you know what I mean.
So it's like good to experience both so you really realize things of you know what I mean.
People like Dinnell did that also, Like was there difficult like friendship dynamics with that change.
Yeah, the friendship dynamics were always really challenging for me because like it was like I always had a lot of friends, I was always really popular, I was always really pop, and I was always that. But it was really hard for me to like I had like a like you know, like you know, having immigrant parents and this that they were figuring it out. It was a hard family life. So I always went out and seek
that validation from my friends and seek that validation. And I feel like movie to Kataga was the hardest thing ever because I was the only Arabic girl.
Next question, and then there was a period. We all know this period.
You feel me, Okay, we got I don't.
Even I don't know how to safely say this in the right words. But there was a period where America was I would say discriminatory towards Arabs of You know after around nine to eleven. You're from New York where you and you were during that did you have to like come face to face with any of that even though you don't don't fully look have the look or did you have the look or what was that experience?
Like you know what, I'm not gonna lie, like being in Brooklyn, New York is such a melting pot and it's the most magical place in the world to me, Like I've been so many places in the world, there's nothing like New York. I love it more than like anything, you know, there's nothing like it because it's like it's
such a melting pot. I never felt like I was different, even when you know, of course being the money thing makes you feel different in New York, you know, having money, not having money, and that experience is what makes it different. But the color of your skin, your religion, anything, it doesn't matter. Like my mom's best friend was Puerto Rican,
her other best friend was Jewish. My mom's Palestinian, Like it was never a thing, you know, but then and you know, her Jewish friend was married to a Dominican guy.
Like you know what I'm saying, Like it was real New York, New York stuff, you know what I'm saying.
So it's just it's really like that.
So of course when you when I moved to Connecticut is when I really started experiencing real discrimination, real because.
Isn't Connecticut is I would say, it's more white?
Was this absolutely, so I would experience real discrimination amongst black white community, which in America is a real thing, you know.
And I would really.
Experience it in places like Connecticut, like you really smaller towns is where you really start seeing like, oh there's still racism, Like it's still a real thing. It's still white privileges still, you know. And I got to experience that. And then also me being like the only Arab thing to hit the you know, at the time, to hit
the town. It was intense, Like I feel it before, it was around that time, and it was like it was really hard because I feel like for me not being not looking like that, it was like not wearing the full scarf, but I would like family members that would wear the scarf and stuff like I would experience and see what they would go through and it would really bother me, you know, like they would get real hate for wearing the scarf, like real hate, real discriminate, real,
real hate speech and all that, and I would be like yo, and I would get mad, like yeah, I'm still a New York girl.
So I would be like, yeah, what's up?
You know what I mean?
Yeah?
Yeah about the way I got to, like for real, like go go go. Then you holding me back because you know what I mean, Like you.
Know you got you ready, I feel your whole energy.
But like when it comes to people I love, like I'm like I'm gonna step you know what I'm saying, Like it's like like you're about to you know what I mean, Like none of that. I don't like any discrimination or any racism around me, you know what I mean, because it's just like I have, like coming being a New York girl. I remember growing up, my best friend group was literally every single race, you know, black, White, Chinese, Asian, Africa, everything.
So it's like that's all I ever knew. So when I started experiencing discrimination, it was like such a foreign.
Thing to me.
But at the same time, you know, it's like it was never a thing that I could accept a like or anything. And even now it's like never, I just don't stand for any of that. So and I think that that's that's that's really been a part of why I'm and I just love culture so much that the like, even though I'm a hundredsent Palinian, I'm such a blend of cultures. And I think that that's in New York
and me, and that's what I'm so proud of. The Connecticut to me was like, yeah, it's good to experience small town things that I can relate to literally anyone, which is an amazing thing. Like, yes, small town mentality, small town people, I can relate to, big city people I can relate to you know what I mean, Like I can relate to anything because of that, you know. But yeah, that that is definitely a real thing. Especially in America. Small towns are definitely experiencing a lot of racism.
So yeah, they are, I one hundred percent agree in small towns especially I hate, I hate to say this, especially with small white towns. Yeah, Like I don't know how it is, like because some of the interviews, when we interview some of the guys from the South or Atlanta, you know, they definitely paint a picture, but I would
imagine that environment's majority black with sprinkles of white. But but I definitely I went to Upstate New York when our family couldn't afford the city life, and yeah, it was like, uh, it was like it wasn't fun, it was. It was actually that I think the first time I ever heard the N word. Yeah, that was the first time I see my mom get called innward and I
was like, what is that? I was really young, like y so means her And that was when my parents was like, you know, this is what racism is, and you gotta go almost above and beyond to like break that stereotype, to retrain what has been taught. But now you grow up in this household, you're eating the hummus, which I'm guessing all the stuff is in there, so all it has to be blended.
Okay, ready to be blended and see what's up?
So where on this journey does music enter the scene?
Ooh, I love that question.
Okay, So music was always a heavy part of my life, Like I in the first grade living in Brooklyn because Brooklyn, New York is the creative capital to me, like it's like creativity galore. You know. So I was in band and chorus, like in the first grade, I played cheer like that was my first thing.
Like I was okay, like literally, I've just seen Share by the Way Life performance and it was.
Iconic, like she's, yeah, the goddess and she's just like everything.
But I didn't know that as a little girl.
They just had me saying I got you, babe with and my my partner Newton at the time, he was sunny and he was he was a black boy, but you know, it's yeah, but whatever. It was like we did it and it was so it was like I just remember that being my first performance and the thrill that that gave me. And I was in the first grade and like growing up Arab Also, my mom was Christian convert and my so I was raised mostly Muslim, so and I identified with both, like got both religions.
I'm all, I love God period, but because I love Jesus, I went to church. I went to Catholic school, but I love the Islam religion so much, so I say prayers and both. I could pray both. I love both all the things. But for me, it was kind of like very very forbidden to do anything like that music creative, Oh is forbidden. You can't be half naked, you can't be on the stage, you can't be there's.
Music is hot has well? Looking at your stuff? Now, I'm guessing everything has evolved drastically things just.
Like I have. I was a rebel, but now I'm a rebel with purpose, you know.
Okay? Oh I like that? Okay, there did you just come up with?
There?
You've been saying that, but like I think I just said it that. I want to see that from that one. Okay, I got it. Rebel with purpose like it's real life.
It really is. It really is, but like honestly, because the rebel with purpose is a real thing because I was a very rebellious child. Like I was very like went against the grain. Wasn't allowed to drink and smoking and strain and smoking. It wasn't allowed to dress the herd stress how I wanted.
You were your mom's worst night my.
Mom's worst nightmare, my mom's worst nightmare. And I love my mom so much. I love my mom.
She saw this, she would be sitting here like she knows, she knows it.
She's am I staying again sometimes but whatever, she loves me. But you know, it's like whatever, like if at the time, it took a long time to get my mom support on the music thing. That took a long time because when I first started deciding to do music, I remember it was always something I've jumped of doing. But when I decided to do it, everybody hated. Everybody was against it.
And how old were you at that time?
I decided I was going to do music at like seventeen, Like I'm.
Oh, yeah, they are scared to death. They like, wait, no college?
Yeah music?
Yeah, oh my god, you were killing people. It's one thing when you say it at twelve, it's another thing. House.
Yeah, literally, I said it at seventeen, and I went for it. I went, I decided. I went for it, Like it was so fast. I decided and I went for it so quickly.
What did going for it look like?
Like? I just like I remember with it. By the time I was eighteen, I tried out for X Factor. I got a vocal coach. I wounded up moving back to New York. I got an internship wait where were you?
Oh? From Kinetics six to New York.
Go back to New York. I got an internship with Death Trip You weren't playing. I was not playing around when I decided music was what I was going to do. And because I always I wanted to figure out what I was gonna do with the rest of my life, I was like having to go to school, go to college. And then my little sister, you know, she's like my baby, and she was born and she changed my life.
She gave me like reason, like it was like this little girl hilarious. Yeah, nobody ever says that about the little sister. Yeah, nobody said. I love my little brother and I look up to him now even though he's like thirty, but I had never looked at him and said, you give me purpose.
No, she gave me purpose.
She gave me life. She really did. She really did. Like and then we named her like Jenna.
We look at you, how old were you when she was born. I was like around at sixteen seventeen, Like, oh you were around that was around that age?
Okay, she really So.
You gots a weigh in on the naming and everything.
Naming and I had a saying it because Jenna and Arabic Jennah means heaven, so Jennah. So that's why I was like, Okay, that's her name, because she's my heaven. And like literally she.
Were you and were you? You were the youngest before her.
I have a little brother too, so he was born like right before he moved to Connecticut.
No, but I'm saying it was you and your older brother. Yeah he was older. Yeah, so technically she broke the spell of you being the youngest.
No, it was older brother, me, little brother her.
Okay, So it was like two said, wow, what makes her so special?
She's just like I always wanted the sister. And then it took a long time, but then when I got it, and then she looked exactly like me, and it was like, literally, this is like my inner child in real life.
You know what I mean.
So you know when you're like, I'm healing my inner child in real life, Like I see her and she looks exactly like me. Like even now, like she looks a little different, but she looks exactly. She looks like she could be my kid. Everyone always thought she was my kid. I would walk around and she was my kid. You know, it's like a whole thing. Yeah, it was so dope like she and she was you know, it
was kind of like being an Arabic American woman. I went through so much as a woman, and I feel like I just didn't want her to go through so many things that I went through, and I feel like like inside outside anything, I just so my purpose was like I have to protect her and I want to make I want to change.
What are some all the things that you had to go through? If it's okay for you to say and comfortable say as a woman that you would go as far as to say, I don't want her to experiences like, what were those experiences?
I think an immense amount of abuse and suppression and just things that I think every woman goes through, no matter who you are or what race you are. But I think that being raised the way that I was raised and being in like I think the amount of pressure that I had on me to be a certain way, not being that way, the amount of names I would called, the amount of abuse physical abuse. I went through a
lot of like I went through sexual abuse. I went through so much abuse and allowing things that like as a kid or as a young adult, or things that I just shouldn't have ever allowed or wouldn't her are allowed as an adult now, wish that didn't have happened to me or wish that I had more protection, you know. So it became a thing for me to want to protect her and protect younger girls period, like if I can be a stronger person and a stronger voice so that they don't be cause for me, it was a
lot of especially as a child. I was a pretty young girl, so I had to I got a lot of things and didn't have the right amount of protection that I feel like I wish that I had, you know. And it was kind of like an unfortunate thing that just you know, for me, Like I've had so much healing from you know, and I think one day I'll be able to fully open up and talk about it.
But I think as a woman, especially with any form of sexual abuse, especially as a child, I think it affects you for the rest of your life.
Yeah, I think it's in my personal opinion, it is the worst form of abuse. The second would probably be mental and third would be physical. Old the irony isn't that weird, And I think it's just because to unpack that wound, it's not like a bruise that you kind of like work through and it goes away like that wound is just time and a lot of digging if you even want to dig, if you want. Your body usually will protect itself, especially when you're young. It like hides it or blocks it.
Right.
But it's interesting to say that because one of the questions I wanted to like kind of touch on is if your mom was working as much as you say she was, Like who was actually taking care of you and your brother?
I mean, she was the luckily thing about the business that she started when she was able to be present, and she her side of the business was homeworking, so she worked out of the house, so she was able to be very present.
So that was great, But before that she probably wasn't right when she was grinding like that. Yeah, because I was like, hm, when when she first came here, it sounded like it was a lot of pressure. Yeah, but it's cool that she saw an opportunity where she could do both if you think about it like that, Like she was like, I could raise my kids and bust my and make this money. And she chose that route the second she could, which kudos to her.
Yeah, and my mom has tried likes as you know, being I feel like being a mother in America, raising kids right now and for the last twenty thirty forty years is so hard, Like you know, it's so hard whether you're single or in a relationship or married or whatever, like and being a father as well is really hard.
But mothers, I feel like, take on like ten times, like we have this whole, Like my mom took on ten times the stress and probably you know what I mean, that pressure, and ten times that that want to like I just want to do good for.
My kids exactly like that driving.
That driving factor, you know what I mean. And I feel like I have only understood that from my the love that I have for my sister because I don't have kids yet, and for the love that I for my family. But that intense love, that intense like yeah, my mother has. Yeah, she always was that and I'm so blessed to have that. And she tried her best and no matter what I feel.
Like you even would have reveled with purpose, she tried her best.
No, I love you, I want, but like I you know, I think that there was a lot that you know, when you're a rebel and you're dealing with all these things and you're dealing with the abuse, you do it.
And then that's probably where the rebels.
Yeah, of course, because I just didn't feel like, you know, you're running away. I was running away from my traumas. I didn't want to deal with it. And then as an adult, you just have to. It just hits you face on. You just start experiencing your trauma and other people you just start projecting your traumas or whatever, and
it's not a thing. So I think for me, like healing became like the essential thing because I feel like with all of those with all of that trauma, I feel like, you know, you never really understand like why until you become an adult and then you talk to other people who go through it or you're like, damn, okay,
this is why. Like we all go through the same things. Yeah, it's crazy, like we really do well and we all get out of it the same way, and we're all kind of the same and that's what makes us so connected, you know what I'm saying.
So I love listening to people's stories. I don't know why, but I love like all the hoarding and addiction shows because you just never you know. I think also like growing up in New York, you see, like my parents the way they got us. Somehow they successfully got four kids to not do drugs really, and it was just like going around New York and be like, you know that heroin Addicts was a doctor. At some point they just smoked a cigarette and just ended up a heroin.
But after watching these shows, you realize, you know, the overall theme in a lot of the shows was like mishandled trauma. You'd have a kid that was like a varsity student or was doing well, and it was like a mishandled trauma. Maybe the mom didn't believe the abuse happened, or you know, they kind of brushed it off, or they said, hey, if you didn't sneak out at night, maybe this didn't happen. It was always like just one mishandled like trauma and that spiraled into like a pivot
or whatever. And and obviously I love people's stories, so I not I think about it makes sense that I'm obsessed with these shows. But but yeah, it's always a mishandled trauma that kind of lead you in the wrong lead you yeah, kind of go, this person was going straight and then it was a mishandled trauma.
That's so crazy that you shay that too. Because I was just watching this Simon Bios doc.
I want to see it so bad.
Oh, it's so good.
I won her on the show by the way.
Oh it was so good. God Willing. You know, it's kind of happened everything, but it's really good. But it was so good. It's so good. I mean, there's still more episodes of Think coming, but she it is that and it's like trauma catches up to you and then it's like this whole thing that you're the mental health thing is like a very real thing, and like it's you know, the deterioration of it from the trauma and
the abuse is a very real thing, you know. And I feel like for me, I also got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
I definitely wanted to touch on that. Yeah, yeah, look like because I hear the term.
Alt oh man what oh shoot, Well, yeah, here's the thing. I make it look very good. But it fucking sucks. Sorry, I'm sorry. I'm not supposed to be cursing.
It sucks. It really does. I'm not gonna lie.
Like I in the beginning was like really like positive and happy and it's a blessing. Another thing that I feel like all these things Finally I've realized, like, you have to talk about it, you have to use it because everyone is going through something. Everyone is going through something or their family member or something, so it's so important. But the reality of it is is, yeah, having a Yeah, a disease, no matter what kind.
It sucks, and it's multiples.
It's an autoimmune, it's a it's autoimmune. It's a sister. It's basically a sister disease kind of to lupus. So, and it's kind of likeli or something. People think about that a lot. No, it's okay, but it's kind of the same thing in a similar name, but different. So it's it's it's more of an internal thing. It's your immune system. Uh, it's compromised. Immune system is attacking nervous system.
Lupus is immune system is attacking joints and organs. MS system is attacking nervous system, So nervous system is compromised as well. So I mean, it's just like your spy and your brain. And you know, you can live with the disease forever as long as it's regulated and as long as you never get attacks. So when I got diagnosed, I had an optic nerve attack, I started losing my vision in my left eye. Yeah, scary. It was the scariest thing in my life. And then I was on
stereod treatment. I got cured one hundred percent, thank god. And then now I'm on a treat and a great treatment that has kept me one hundred percent regulated where I don't get any attacks, where I'm very healthy. I'm very great.
But you have beautiful, stunning eyes, like you have really great eyes.
No, it was the worst thing of my life. Like I was like what And it was like you almost felt I almost felt like like that beauty thing it was gone because I feel like I was like cross eyed and I was like, oh my god, I'm not beautiful anymore. And it changes your values because you're like with or without you know, the internal beauty that stuff, so like you got to be internally beautiful, so you know, But I feel like for me, it was it was it was a crazy experience. I wasn't able to talk
about it for a long time. And now I've been dealing it with it for so long and it doesn't get easier. You just kind of get better at it, you know, yea, And it is a very much so like I deal with.
A lot of anxiety and depression.
I've dealt with a lot of anxiety and depression, and that's been my That's that we all do. Everyone who has that deals with it, and that's like the good. Like if you have anxiety with it, it comes with it. And then if you have anxiety and depression, that's good. That's good as long as you don't end up in a wheelchair, you know what I mean, because there are people who literally in a wheelchair. Unfortunately, this disease immobilizes
you completely, or it can. But now with the advanced technology, it can it can.
Oh there's a chance that it won't.
Yes, no, there's now with advanced technology. It like it's very very very rare because the technology is to advance my doctors, you know, I've been going to cedars us see like these great places. I went to Yale, Harvard, like, I went to like the best doctors, so these doc because I've been super interested in not only like you know, and finding a cure for it, because there is there
is a cure for everything. And I feel like for me, it's been like you know, learning, I've been getting more involved with the MS society and going to more events and getting more involved the fundraising events, and we're like, they're raising so much more money for research and for all the things, and it's so advanced with all the technology, with all the research that it's so regulated. Like I am doing amazing, Like I am doing better and thank god, Like I.
Worked so hard for you when you were diagnosed.
I was like twenty one. Wow, it was like really like I went on my first national tours when everything happened for me so fast. Yeah, it was crazy. I started doing music, I got internship, then I started, I went on then Boom. Then I went on my first national tour.
How soon after you started the internship and for two years?
Two years so my first national tour and.
You moved Who did you move to New York with?
By myself and my best friend.
Oh he was oh he was giving your mom straight heart.
Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah, Souker took her good until the tour started and stuff. And then I was on tour and doing a national tour. Postone this she was like, oh, yeah, okay, now you do something.
And did you have a deal when you got the tour?
Yeah, I was in I was in a I was in a deal, but it wasn't the best of deals.
Of course, the first deals are never the best. Worst in the when you're young. Oh yeah, I don't think I've ever made.
They got me, they had me. Yeah, they had me, they had me. But you know, I'm free, honey. So but like I'm not gonna lie, you know. And I've signed deal since and it's been great. But like, honestly, yeah, as a new artist, you don't know nothing anything. I knew nothing, and I didn't have anybody in the industry like parents or anything, so I really didn't know.
I had to like really like build like did you have to deal with like the when I'm say, the toxic masculinity?
Come on, let's talk about it.
I love these conversations.
I've been in the industry and this is why.
Yeah, come on, like this is Yeah, we have to talk about it more because I feel like it is like it's it's a disease in and of itself, Like.
You know what I mean, you have to be like it. There's no rule book that comes with this game, right, No, there's a beautiful, attractive girl that has her eye on the prize and.
Then you have to navigate through a masculine yary sharkwaters.
You're in shark shark, and you got to convince the sharks that you're not, because I don't even notice even with this show, they'll be like, what's the numbers? Looking like, Yeah, it don't matter. If you have a million good things, they still that's to them. Is the verification or is it more important because you can touch base with your fans? Which one is do you think is more important as an artist?
I think it's like a little bit of both, But I think that touching the fans is the most important thing.
Honestly.
I think like with appeasing like these those kinds of people, they're only appeased when you're like really moving an audience anyway, you know, So you got to move the audience. They're never a piece. It's never enough, like a million, a million villowers, Well, why don't you have ten million? This person has fifty million.
You're well over three, so you're good, you know what I mean? It would be crazy that if people are still coming to you're like, well, where where's that five?
No, it is that or it's like literally or nowadays it's like you got to have those kinds of numbers across the whole board, you know what I.
Mean, like like on every plate, on every.
Platform, and it's like, okay, like be realistic, you know what I mean.
Also, I think Country Wayne had said it best, like, you know, I think there was a period where he had Facebook following but not the other followings. But Facebook following was that older demo that actually spent money, right and like you know, really pulled.
And then all of a sudden, like Facebook started monetizing and faces started you make money on Facebook. Now you can make money through Facebook and Instagram. So then it's like all these platforms change and it's just like it's so interesting and it's like okay, so I feel like that's what's It's like this weird thing that you kind of always have to keep balancing out. It's like, okay,
I gotta focus on this posting. For me, I'm always trying to find that balance because it's always like, you know, when I started building the social media I started becoming the social media influencer. But it's like I was doing music and on tour Billboard first, I just started have to start doing this because it was like you have to do this as the part of the whole thing. You know, you have to post and this and that, and people got to know what you're doing. People want
to know everything about you nowadays. And it's not that you don't want people to know everything about you. It's just that when you're doing music and you're doing something like you want people to focus on that.
Yeah, And the music is your body of work, and it's the closest it's actually your vulnerability right there.
Right.
Social media is a different visual more self short term visual form. It's got to be. They're really two different worlds. But I'm glad to hear that you were able to like conquer that second one. That second one is a beast.
I'm not gonna lie. It was like definitely like it's still constantly like figuring it out. Oh you know what I mean, because once you build, like you constantly figure out algorithms, the way the platform is set up, what they're doing with the platform on their end, you know, because you build this following and then it's like you build it and then you kind of god got to keep going and you know, revamping it and things. So
I think it's a learning process. But I've been I've been on some lately like like, you know, be patient with your process because yeah, you know what I mean, because like like at some points it is a lot of pressure and you kind of become like like, oh, like I'm trying to get to this next milestone this list. But then it's just like just be patient with that
because you will get there and it will happen. But just at least I've been trying to at least enjoy the process, because you know, in this industry it's hard, like everybody's there's always something more you have to do.
There's another metric and another another.
Goal posted on the metric, and then you never really get to enjoy the moment and what's going on in the moment. And I think sometimes it's like that's what I've been trying to do because I've learned and I realized like, oh, I'm trying to get to this level, but then this person is trying to get to my level, and you not even enjoying this. Sohole.
You know, My dad had pointed that out when I was younger. I had a company it was like magazine for ten years, and I would cry him if I got a parking ticket. I'd be like, Dad, I'm ready jump off a bridge. I got a twenty dollars parking ticket.
I can't do it.
That's real, And my dad would be like I think it was my dad and my business partner at the time who was like, m you need to start taking five minutes, even if we're at a major show that you produce. Take five minutes. Take it all in. Don't even work, don't even say nothing. To take it all in. But my dad came up with this idea where and I still have it in my house. If you go in my house, I don't do it all over my walls.
I call it the Wall of Fame, which is like just it's a hallway because I have a lot of stairs and I just put really hard accomplishments on there. It's literally ill. It's random posters or whatever, and it's just the wall of fame. And it's not like in your face, like, hey, this is who I am. But if you were to walk the stairs in my house, there is literally like the wall of fame minutes the most random, hardest shit that I ever set my mind on.
And I actually pulled it off, you know. I put it up there and I don't really look at it, but I know it's there. And my dad was like, you're getting to the point where the goalpost moves so much and you're hitting these goals, but you're not even realizing you're not even taking it. You don't even take one second to take it in. So that's when a twenty dollars or one rejection or one cancelation, you're ready to quit because you forgot this wall of fame of accomplishment.
That's so true too, because I feel like I'm not gonna lie like like you have to kind of like
sometimes when I have those moments, I try to. I've been trying to talk to the right people too, because you know, when you're in that moment, you can talk to the right person who can like literally give you that affirmation and give you that reminder like that, like remember what you accomplished, remember how much, Remember how far you've come, Remember when you started, like those little reminders, or you could talk to someone else who will make
you feel like more shit, like oh you know, yeah, maybe you should give a maybe it's not working out, you know what I mean. And I literally had that.
Moment recently where someone did that, yeah, like.
With someone really close to me, and it's like, well, yeah, maybe you should, maybe you should give up. I don't know, Like it's like, what if I'm having this moment, that's a last thing I want to hear. You're terrible, like literally never come to you advice again.
Well, yeah you gotta. Also, I think I learned I would say a couple of years ago, is that the real friends your real day once And this is how I judge friendship across the board. You want a friend that is happy when you're up, like and also down when you're down. Man, there's too many relationships we have nowadays where you got the friends that are happy when you're up, but they're not down when you're down. And now then you have the friends that are down for you,
will kill for you, but they're not happy when you up. Yeah, the real friendship, and I think Oprah recently said on the clip, is the one that has no jealousy, because the one that has no jealousy can actually value when you're up and be like, hell yeah, motherfucker. We all like, my girl got pregnant the other day. We all celebrated, like you got a Yeah, what is it? What is it? They find out what is it? You know, we're just happy for that went genuinely down to the toes, like happy happy, like.
You swear, you know, real too, like.
Really because we knew that's what that person wanted, so we feel it. Even when they're down, you're showing up.
And it's weird for me too, it's weird.
I had this moment, another moment, a lot of moments, but I had another moment recently where I sometimes, you know, as a artist, you get close to people that you shouldn't like. Sometimes you're glad people, you know. Some people get close to the glad people. Some my gam people have been my best friends and are still mad tight. Sometimes you get close to certain gland people and it's like not the smartest of the thing. As the artist, you're the boss and you're also the like, these are
your employees, but they become your friends. But it's hard because it's like, that's hard when you're like your employees your friends because at the same time there has again, there has to be a level of respect. So once that there's a boundary that gets crossed, so you become too personal, the respect is gone, and as the artist, people don't realize that we really are the last ones to eat.
Like people don't realize that.
People don't really dropping gems that really show my honest opinion, really show you did the work. But yes, you are right. Repeat that again, the last one to eat.
We really are the last one to eat.
I was just watching this clip from this songwriter that I know that he's a great songwriter and everything, but it's like he was saying, oh, like the songwriter is the last one to eat. No, the artist is the last one to eat. The songwriter eats before even us. Everybody eats before us. Everybody eats before us. And whether you're signed independent, the money gotta come out of somewhere, yeah, somebody's pocket, ye, And it gotta come back to somebody's pocket.
And if it don't come back, even though you could pay you could have a budget five dollars, fifty thousand dollars, five hundred thousand dollars, five million dollars, doesn't matter if that once that money goes back, you gotta get it return.
It has to be.
It gotta be recouped, you know what I'm saying. And then people don't realize that, you know, as the artist, Yeah, like the money is coming out and it's coming out of your pocket. And that's why it's like people even think like, yeah, like I was watching a documentary recently with Michael Jackson's bodyguards or something. It was like a new one, newer one, and it was like Michael didn't have money at the end of his career. Michael, Michael,
do you know what I mean? Michael? You know, he wasn't able to pay so he can't pay his employees.
Employees' is like, and he needs his bodyguards.
He can't even pay his bodyguards, and he needs a protection, can't even pay his bodyguards or whatever it is. You need this and you need that, you can't even pay for that. So you try to build relationships and build friendships, and then it starts crossing lines or whatever. Even if you're paying them, you still around them all the time. You want to be friends with them.
It's so hard, especially if you're starting out and you do like we're working with a budget. So say you and I are working together and you can't pay me as much right right, and you say it, I'm like, Okay, I believe in you too. That's where the lines do get blurred because there now it's like both people crossing that little.
Thing that yeah, yeah, that awkward little boundary thing that you're like, oh, it's a trust thing that has to happen, or you don't know if you could trust the person. You don't know if the person is like but I think it's like what you said, it's an exchange. It's it's a common, fair exchange that has to happen.
And I think that people when you're the boss, it really that kind of fucks you over the moment because it's never it's never a fair exchange, but one person is technically holding the burden. So yes, you're right, and you with a dagger because you're like, fuck, I should have never crossed that line, you.
Feel me, because it's like, there's never going to be a fair exchange because you're when you're the boss, you're already in a higher level and no matter what how much they get.
And they're coming in it from a whether it's an act of service, they're they're coming to gain. So it's it's not a in a weird sort of sense, it's I'm coming to get this.
As much as I can. Yeah, right, you know, and it's and then you wind up feeling like, yeah, like it's a it's an unfair exchange. So I think for me lately, it's definitely been that. It's definitely been like truly truthfully, like like it's all a part of the process. But then you have to you realize that and you're like, well, if all of this is a case, then there's a reason why you start realizing that people are the way
they are. Or even if you're like, oh, they call you this and they call you that, whatever, they don't know how much it took. They call you a bit really because they don't know how well that day, Well how why was I a bitch that day? Like how much I gotta deal with on a daily basis, Like you know what I'm saying. So I feel like even when I used to hear like Jlo used to be called that, and I'm like, Jaalo.
Was a boss goat, the goat working her as working.
Her ass off, like if she like and I think that, you know, it started becoming like a thing that people just use it to like, Oh, I don't like Jlo because she's mean, and you don't know if Jaylo's meaning. I never met her, you meet her, she's mad nice. People say the same thing about Nicki and nice. I met Nikki. She was so nice to me, So I don't know what y'all talking about, Like you know what I'm saying crazy, So I don't know, like she was
nice to me. So everyone has their own experiences. But I think it's crazy when like the general public judges and artists like that when an artist gives nothing, we give nothing but love. And you know what I'm saying to the world, like, no matter what artist has on their personal life going on, it's different to the world. We're giving art. We're using our traumas and using it to give art to the world. And we live in America where it's like all they do and all we
do is try to tear our artists down. But I think like something has to give where we have to understand that, like every artist is a human and even if they're like they always are trying to like demonize the artists, like oh, I've been seeing that about a lot about j Lo, and I'm like, I love j Lo, Like.
Oh my god, I love her. I think the best thing to do is like.
The greater you are, the more haters you have, and that's how you know you're doing.
Something right exactly.
That's the tea.
That's the tea.
That's the tea.
And I think at some point we all got to realize there's nobody, nobody on the planet, not the richest man, not the brokest man, not the one with the most baby daddies, the one no kids, whatever. Every person has to come face to face with problem. There is no problem. There is no person and living on Earth right now that doesn't have problems. That's the part of being human. And I think if we all walked around with a shirt and said hey, I got problems and everybody just
walked around, they'd be like, well, ship, you know. And I was sad about the human races, like, well, I got problem. What's your problem?
With?
My problems worse than your problem.
It's like, yo's got a problem for real though that's a fact, that.
Is a yo. We should literally print shirts. But I guarantee if you put the whole world and I got prom shirts, I got problem, people will just literally compare.
Problems hard though that person's.
Crying because they didn't have a McDonald's burger, get them, they start hating.
It stops. Oh yeah, she went through this, he went this, Well, I went through this and that's what I there is that thing and it's constant, like that separation. We all have, like ego, but you gotta realize, like you know what I mean, even when you said, well you walk in.
That's you're the baddest in the room.
That's your ego. But then you immediately like, well, oh should I just had a bad day and I just to talk to someone like that's the real you, you know what I'm saying. And then it's like you have to I've been trying to find that balance. And I call her like because my so yeah with lover girl, lover girls like me, I'm a lover girl, that's me. I'm a love girl. But my alter ego is a
trat Princess Jasmine. So like literally it's like yeah, like literally, so I kind of like have to separate the two because I do have my super loving me, you know, but then I do have my dragon side, my you know, my New York girl don't play with me side. So I feel like that is a real and I call it a trat Princess Jasmine because Princess Jasmine is the only Middle Eastern pop culture girl we got. But you know, I love Fun.
Yeah, I love it. I love it. So how would you describe this latest AP and all of that.
Yes, yes, So I mean it's an exciting time because I feel like now I haven't dropped the project yet, I've just been dropping like singles, and I feel like with lover Girl, it's been like I like my first project, I was like, what is the the name gonna be? Like, you know, lover Girl came to me one morning I woke up and then like, I was like, I want to name it something with love. I was thinking about that,
and then I just thought about lover girl. And obviously Drake did Certified lover Boy and stuff, and people call themselves lover boy. And then nobody did love a Girl, so I looked it up and then the only person who did it was Tina Marie. And and like when I first started singing and doing open mics in New York, people used to compare me to Tina Marie. These pig your voice, you sound like her, so like I was like wow, and then I never really like I would
do my research on Teena Marie. She was one of the artists I studied, of course, but then it was like I never really heard her name too much. So then when I looked up lover Girl, I saw Tina Marie the only person who had a song it was lover Girl years ago. I was like, all right, I gotta do pay homage and she spelled it two separate, so I was like, okay, I'm gonna do lover Girl.
It's official and named the project lover Girl, and then I just like I was like realizing, like damn, but I got this whole other side to be my trap Princess Jazz in sidey.
I love that name, by the way, you know what I'm saying.
So yeah, it's kind of gonna be like an A B side a lot of girls coming out into September, and then by January, my birthday, I'm gonna be dropping the B side Chrap Prins Jasmine. So it's like yeah, like and it's like super fun because it's like lover Girl is like totally this side, you know, sweet side Girl, sweet Love Girls side, soft Girl, Chatterers, Jasmine is on my you know, I'm on my BS. No that I like it. I like that.
So it's like but overall, it seems like it's an empowerment album.
Absolutely, Like I feel like Love a Girl, I made when I was like more so like in love, and it was, you know, all the music was very much so like I was in a relationship. I was in love and then you know, now I'm like, you know, not in the relationship anymore.
And then Princess Jasmine came out and said, Periodey, I'm looking forward to seeing what Trap Prinscetas Jasmine is saying on this album because I ain't in a relationship right now, so I need to listen to Trap Princess.
Yeah, yeah, exactly, That's what I've been on because like Love a Girl, I'm not gonna lie like I even
for me. I love my lover Girl's side. I love my that, but the Trappers is Jazzmine and the records that that and that energy is definitely what I'm on right now, and I feel like it's it's very empowering because it's like, you know, there are certain things that I feel like I'm rapping more on it, you know, and there's some yeah, like literally so it's like there's some things that I can't always say singing, and when I want to say when I'm on my BS, I want to say some things my bs is my bush,
not my bull, my boss.
You feel me like you feel me.
So it's like kind of like I want to say things that I just say when I'm be rapping, and it's just crazy because I feel like there's no a rap girl rapping and singing right now, Like it's a whole other thing.
So it's like I love that you're proud of it too.
Yeah, yeah, Like I'm so I'm so excited about this era because I'm like, even especially with the trappers to jazz, there's a lot of Now obviously there weren't a lot of Middle Eastern girls doing it, but now there are. There's so many more, and I love it. But I feel like for me, it's always about being a chillblazer. It's always about like setting the tone. It's always about taking it to the next level, takes to the next place.
And I feel like like being that you know, that person that takes it there, Like I want to take it there, you know what I'm saying. So I feel like in American culture, most of the stuff that we listened to is like I grew up in this urban rap music.
J G is my fair rapper.
I saw did you see my jay Z painting. O.
Yes, I did, okay, And I was like, okay, And they didn't.
Know it's jay Z because I didn't know it's New York and he doesn't really look like jay Z that much.
His face, he's a little I gave.
My mom this. My mom drew the picture. Oh your mom mission, my mom.
I'm sorry, my mom, love you, Mama.
I take that back. Then I was like, jay Z, so I feel bad.
The picture she had to work with was so and so I said, I was like, I want the biggest picture of the.
Demeanor and everything. I knew it was him, and then I knew it was his the MARSI part, you know what I'm saying.
So I was just like, okay, yeah, Brooklyn jay Z And.
They're like, is that j Zz?
Mainly like the little water coolers on the side.
I just always said that I've always wanted to be like a female jay Z.
When I broke like, that's me.
That was me right, like right, because he's just like the blueprint to it all, like you know, just and you said the blueprints literally of course fun intended. You know, it's like the blueprint to it all, and you know it's crazy because it's like, you know, being nowadays, being able to be an artist or being able to be doing something and then being a boss is just so important nowadays to have that element because it creates that longevity. Like you said, also, I think it's also that having
that business element. A lot of artists that I see that they do last they had the business element to them as well, because if you just like allow other you can't. This is a business. This is your craft, This is your business, is your stuff, and you know you have to have it like it's the most successful artists take that very seriously. Yeah, you know, so I
feel like I take that very seriously. And I feel like I see other artists who are just like yeah, just who are like they don't know about anything going on, and I'm like, uh, not me, you know everything going on. But at the same time, you know, it's like, as an artist, you just want to be creative, So.
You got to balance both. Tell everybody how they can keep up with you, even though I'm pretty sure I ain't know how, but go ahead, sure, Instagram handles.
Yes, follow me on all the things, all the things I net x, I n A S dash x or is this just I N A s X.
Yeah, got it all right. Thanks for feeding us some great, amazing, homemade hummus. Peace out, y'all. Yay for more eating while broke from iHeartRadio and The Black Effect, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.