SYLK-E FYNE - Tuna Mac n Cheese

Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke. I'm your host, Coleen Witt, and today we have a West Coast legend in the building. Writer recording artists creator Silky Fine is in the building. Most of us know her from her single Romeo and Juliet. But you also did a track on Easy Eas record. It was called what was it called straight Straight off the Streets of Compton.

And the single was called old School Shit, Old School Shit.

So this is cool because it's very It's not very often we get a legend, but it's kind of cool. I'm from the East Coast, here from the West Coast to have a legend from the West Coast, and I'm sure we're gonna hear a lot of juicy stories involving hopefully pocking Easy E. But in the interim for right now, can you tell me what you ate while you were broke?

I'm gonna tell you right now. I was eating tuna.

Matt tuna mac.

It's funny because this is a dish that I actually make. But go ahead and tell us what the ingredients are.

Okay, So the ingredients is simple. It's simply a box of Kraft. It has to be Kraft. You can get it for about ninety nine cents on sale dollar twenty five Kraft macaroni and cheese. Your standard can of tunas. I like to use two cans of tuna. Drink very well so that you can get your protein, half a cup of milk butter, and then throw some has to be the real cheese, not the imitation cheese. But put a couple of sliced cheeses and you'll be set.

Yeah, this is a dish. I've done it before.

I've never was smart enough to add the Craft single cheeses in it, but now I'm going to add that. And then just for our listeners, this dish is literally a couple bucks. I'm pretty sure it feeds two people. Full right, I would say, you know, if you're a good heavy eater, this dish will make you. But definitely in today's market, this is like a three dollars dish.

So let's go ahead and have you cooked for me.

No problem, I'm honored to be here and wow broke. Yeah, so I'm gonna get started.

We did preheat the water, so you may have to bring it back up to a boil.

Yeah, so we're gonna cause I've been watching. I was like, how can you cook? Somebody go burn itself up such a mess. But anyway, we're gonna start with the craft macaroni and cheese, which your water has to boil. Do not over boil the noodles because you may as well make a pot of top raamen or something.

Yeah, I think you may have to bring it up a little bit. Is always I was boiling.

Okay, listen, guys, just so you know, I have a track record of destroying everyone's dish on the show. I can't help it. I'm like the passenger that's telling you how to drive. I need to stay alone.

I'm really a fan of eating while broke.

So I've watched some of the guests and I'm like, you never cooked the thing in your life?

You know who I think never cooked? Believe it or not. I think it's Mario.

Sorry Mario, right, even though he was the one that caught it was burning. But can you take me back to what was going on in the time of Tuna Mac.

Well, see, I came from a middle class family, so I really didn't experience broke until I became an adult and I wanted to chase my dream and I became an artist. So tuna mac for me really happened at about the age of nineteen twenty because my mom she would cook the real deal, homemade of tuna casseroles. She would make rich beans and rice and hotstails. And you know, no be a creole, but you know our family. It's

But when did you start falling in love with hip hop?

Well, growing up on the West Coast, you have choices, and in my teenage youthful years, it was like, either.

You gonna be a gang member?

Are you gonna be a entertainer, because I've always had the gift to freestyle.

That was my gift.

And then going back to elementary school, I was labeled gifted because I would write terrific poems and journalism.

I can read, and I would win spelling bees.

So Century Park Elementary shots out ice killed. We all went to elementary school together. So I was just like middle class raised on the West side of Los Angeles, and I didn't experience this until I thought I was grown on my own.

What did your parents do well?

My mom she was a nurse, which she remained the nurse at General Hospital for like until they really closed the building down. She was like a top nurse RIN. So she dealt with healthcare for since I was a little girl. She started out driving school buses and then she became an RIN.

So what about your father really.

Into the healthcare?

My dad, he was a pharmacist at General Hospital.

Well, so both parents are doing really good.

So my dad he retired from General Hospital, but unfortunately he passed away in two thousand. Oh my goodness, two thousand and twenty nineteen. So I lost my dad. But then my stepdad, which was my mom's husband because she had separated from my dad.

You know, oh okay, they weren't together business.

But then my stepdad stepped in and he's awesome. He is a he owns his own construction company. So his company is called Lakeview Enterprise black Old. He has been in the business for over fifty seven years.

He gets awards, he's top rating.

So we were like going on camping trips and fishing trips. Yeah, we had a boat parked in our yard and we had a Mercedes.

Some of my friends growing.

Up, was like, oh, they used to call me peaches before I had.

Gotten Now you started pursuing rap music before the age of nineteen or is nineteen and you said, okay, that's it.

No, actually I started at fourteen.

I went to Henry Clay Junior High School in Gardena, California. You gotta be careful with electric stoves because see, when I was broke, I had guess though and hope that I paid the gas bill, but you know it to'll.

Overcook your stuff.

So yeah, yeah, you have to be careful with the electric stalls. But I'm gonna give it about another two minutes. I'm like mush, So anyway, yeah, definitely. I went to Henry Clay Junior High School.

M yeah, a couple of women.

So I actually, you know in the yearbook they have a theme called best Dressed, Cutest Couple. Well, I was a creator since I was born, so I started the thing called the best Rapper.

Oh wow, and what year is this?

This was nineteen ninety seven.

Okay, my.

I'm sorry ninety seven? Are you serious? All? Yeah, nineteen eighty seven.

Yeah.

I was gonna say what year did hip hop's come out?

Because I know we're this when my record.

Came home, and uh, we're coming up on the fifty year anniversary of hip hop, So do you refresh my memory on what year hip hop's started? One year? Was that nineteen eight? I want to say nineteen eighty nineteen eighty.

My age when I got familiar with hip hop, it was definitely nineteen eighty, yeah, but then it might even went back to seventy nine because it might have been in Africa, been Bottles and the people before Curtis Blow.

But I don't know.

It may be seventy five, because if you do the math, it's twenty twenty twenty three.

It would be fifty yeah, right, it would be in the seventies.

And then they did have Shirl with the Pearl ringding Dom ding Ding Dom. That might have been seventy seventy eight or seventy nine.

So you strike out on your own.

Your mom is she in support of this pursuance of music?

Not really? Not really?

So what was?

What was?

What did you originally want you to do?

She wanted me to be a lawyer, she wanted me to continue to be in school, but she also knows that my passion is writing. My passion is communicating. So then I always had a nick a knack for that. And like I said, ninth grade, boom, I won the best rapper of the year.

Can't go had on?

And what did she say about all this? Was she embracing in which she embraced.

It and she was a little shock because she didn't have that type of background.

Yeah, so never.

Did she even like get involved with music. She'd listened to it, but my mom wasn't really a fan of music. He's like a movie person, a lifetime based on the truth.

So you're going rogue? Is there? Is there? Do you have siblings?

Yes, I'm from my mom, I have one brother, a little brother, and a little sister. I'm thirteen years older than my little sister. And then I'm twenty one years older than my little brother because my mother couldn't stop nothing. But and then from my dad, I have a big sister. She's two years older than me. So I have one sister with the same dad, and then I have a brother and sister with the same mom.

Nice.

Now, so take me take me back to nineteen year old you. You're pursuing music. What's going on? You didn't you don't have a record deal.

Yet No, I don't have a record deal. So I got in the Best of the West Rap contest to Iced Tea was the judge.

Nineteen eighty five.

I was fresh in high school, so I was going out and getting in talent shows, and you know, I got with a small independent label that was called Neighborhood Records, and nothing ever happened. I did perform with C. C. Penn Easton when I was like eighteen years old at the Hollywood House of Blues, So I mean, you know, I was like striving to do this thing called rap.

That little label shouts out to Neighborhood Records. It really didn't well.

So what happened when you were on the record, Did you get to release an album or no.

I started with that little independent company they were trying. So then you know, I would get in the student with different producers, and I was working with this one producer. Shout out to my guy, the real Richie rich out here on the West Coast. So once you guys, drain your noodles. I'm gonna give you a little instruction. It's pretty simple poor man's meal, So you let your noodles drain.

So what do you mean you can't do anything?

You can't get me where I need to go.

Like we're just like in these beautiful studios, but you're not connected.

Okay, but you're talented, okay.

So he did know a couple of.

People, and he was in the good areas, but he just wasn't persistent. So one day we're at the studio. I'm the type that right on the spot, I laid my lyrics in one hour, we have a whole song, lives everything. So he's in there mixing and I'm like looking at his phone. For some reason, I grabbed his phone. So I'm like, huh, Easy Now, I always told my grandmother I'm gonna get with Ruthless Records. That's the label for me. Like I'm gonna get with them. And I'm like, Grandma, I promise you.

She lived closer to Compton and where you guys all the same age group.

No Easy was much older. But I mean everybody only thought he was like a teenager.

Yeah, he looked so young.

He looked so.

Young, but he was like, yeah, like they're probably sixty. He would have been sixty, so.

He would have been like thirty back then, right, Yeah, He's like yeah back then. He was like, yeah, so you see this number in his phone?

What do you do?

So instantly I see the phone number and I'm like, easy E. I'm like, I take the number down.

Awesome, I get home smart, I blow the number up.

It actually was his assistant shouts out to miss Sharlie Henry because she saved all all the messages, and I'm like, you know, I done left fifteen messages and I guess I'm whack because I never.

Heard from EASYE.

So come to find out it was his assistant, Sharie Henry's phone number, and she said she was like, oh god, this girl's so dope.

She's dope.

But she saved the voicemails. And then there was one message the day that we buried my grandmother because I'm like, I always told my grandma was gonna make it, and oh my god, and I just really want to make it for grandma because she lived on one hundred and twenty ath in Sam Pedro that was the closest to Compton that if the family lived too so.

As to say, don't worry Grandma, I'm a meat.

Easy So anyway, I left several messages so I wake up for my grandmother funeral. I got that number before I left. Instead of me doing the lyrical miracle trying to show my skills, I went off, fuck you nigga, you ain't shit. I'm a gangst the bitch and you the type of nigga I ain't fucking with. We were our I just don't. That was the message that got me a record deal with Easy E. So Charlie was like, y'all you gotta hear this. Yeah, she's dope.

So you you you did a disrap on his voicemail and that's what caught his attention.

Shout out to you.

Because I was trying to do all this miracle work.

You were trying to be nice and you were like, we gonna really go.

To that beautiful service for my grandmother. I get home from the funeral, I checked my voicemails. I'll never forget yo. This is Eric. Yeah you know Rhythm D. I'm a said rhythm to come get you text Rhythm D.

Your address, and I'm.

Like, oh, grandma, I know you went to heaven. I said, thank you Guardian and your grandma. I'm gonna make it and we're still gonna live right here.

How old are you at this time?

At this time, I was seventeen, you were only seventeen. I was seventeen.

Wow, okay, I'm forty eight now, okay, okay, so you are seventeen.

Easy returns your car. You're in nice.

I finished.

It was like summer, I'm going to junior college.

Now you tell your mama, she says, she like child like.

Girl who is easy, because you know we were West l A.

You better not be going to competent.

I'm like, mama, he live in Norwalk. They're about to come get me. So I was at home. We lived off one hundred and tenth in Western So I was at home and I was so excited. So once you drain your noodles, guys, you're gonna put them back cause you know craft you don't need to rinse them. You're gonna rinse off some flavor. So you put your noodles right back in there. Guys, you add your butter, your milk before you do the tune okay.

So after easy E picks you up or he sends for the rhymese and what's the first interaction with easy what's that?

Like?

Oh my goodness. So I walked in and I'm nervous. But then I've never been the shy type. So he's sitting there and I'm just like, oh my god, it's really easy E. And then what I like, okay? So then boom when I see him, I'm just like he like, yeah, what's up. I'm like shit, He said, yeah, you want to be with Ruthless? I said hell yeah. I said yo, yeah, why do you think I've been? I said, you're calling me back? He was like, yeah, so you you kicking that gangster ship? I said I sure am. So he

Did he say anything? Did he talk smack about your disc tand no?

He said he liked it. He was like, that took some guts, that took balls. So I didn't know that he was forming.

A four girl group.

Okay, had your buddy, let it MIXU.

By the way, I put the right amount of butter, so you can use all that.

Butter if you. I'm a butter person, me too, I can girl.

And then when I was poor off using more.

Yeah.

I actually didn't know the difference between butter and fake butter until Eating Wall broke. I think now Evans on the show was the one that taught.

Me it.

Is nothing like the butter.

So you add your butter and your your little bit of milk, you know what I mean. You add that all in there, and of course you put that sliced cheese.

Do I give it t you right now?

Okay, you add the sliced cheese while your noodles are hot.

Okay. So I was just related again.

So he tells you, okay, you're gonna sign. What happens next?

So then he explained to me that he was hand picking a four girl female group. He wanted us to be like the female in Wa. So I went out. I auditioned. He said, hey, you got the part. He had another female shots out to t Ski. She ended up moving up to Atlanta. So t Ski was an original member, which she knew him before, and then another Homegirl. We were all like raised in La, so we kind of knew each other. Big Chan, which later went on to be in the Doggies Angels, she was in our group.

Now are you guys, you guys start the recording process. What's your pockets looking like during this journey?

Oh, it's looking great, like everyone is like easy. The moment he signed us, he broke bread.

How much bread did he break?

You?

Like?

Then?

What was that nineteen ninety three, cause it took a little, you know, year two the Marinate. I want to say, right before like ninety four we signed, but before we signed, we would get per dims, so like we would get one hundred dollars a day just to go record the album, and then we'd get our eating expenses. And then when we signed, I want to say each Okay, it was four girls in the group you talking about. By now I'm nineteen twenty years old.

So each girl got thousand dollars.

And back then that was a lot of money.

Right because it was four of us, So I.

Think each twenty k each.

But that's still back then, that's a lot of money. I mean, especially to a nineteen year old. So but now if we bring you back to this, this you said at nineteen, this is when you were cooking it. So tell me what's going on. How did you end up on Tuna Mac?

I ended up on Tuna Mac because I mean the music game is good. But so basically, maybe I was twenty one when I made the tuna mac, okay, because I mean I had a good teenage year. I didn't start eating tuna mac. I had to be about twenty one because Easy was.

Dead, Okay.

I started going a little bit. Thought I was grown.

I didn't want to go back home like my mom, like I told you that, yeah, yusic stuff. So I was really being on my own. And what happened is like we had a great deal, Easy E. We were traveling, we recorded with Bone Thugs in.

Harmony, and you're not living with your mom at this point. Where are you living? Are you on your Yeah? Are you roommating with the four girls.

No, we were I had my own little single, okay, you know.

I lived in a little single in Hollywood.

And oh you didn't end up staying in Compton, No.

Because my grandma passed away.

I never lived in Compton in my life, and she lived actually in South Central, but it was the closest place to Compton that I can know.

But you said you moved to Hollywood.

Yeah, I moved to Hobhood. I was raised on the west side of Alwall.

Did you choose Hollywood because you were blowing up and you wanted to feel Hollywood?

Because, like I said, it was a choice be a gang banger or be an entertainer, So most people lived near Hollywood. I lived in a rinky denk roach infested single apartment, okay, you know.

And this was like.

At the age of nineteen and so then when I met Eaze, I still lived in my rinky deank apartment.

You know.

So by the time this I met him in nineteen ninety two, that was like a transition to him no longer being with Nwa, which was a very trying time for Eric. It was easy, was like really, but did you know it was a lot of emotional things back then, so being that we were just producing this album and he appeared on a lot of our records and everything. However, the album never came out because he passed away.

So what did they end up doing with the record? They just ended up holding a hostage.

Yeah, it was a big story behind Ruthless Records. That's why the success of such a hard work company.

You like it.

You don't even hear about Ruthless Records. Yeah, I feel like fifty of years of hip hop? Where's easy East Star? Where's his tribute?

Yeah?

Put the West Coast on the map. Not only did he just put Compton on the map, but here's our dish whila.

Okay, guys, we are back okay. And I can't even tell you how excited I am to be with you. I think the more you tell your story, I'm more hypes. But you did service up this tuna, Mac And I've had this before, but I've never had it done like this, And you are inspiring me just based on looks and smell right that this is the correct way.

I think it's the single cheese that make it more cheese. But let's try it for our listening again. And you had it salt and pepper too, right.

Yeah, just a little bit. I'm gonna start eating this.

Ag ain't gonnat this.

There, it's awesome. I can't. I can't just toot my own horn. Trying to figure out if.

Or the Cheddar slices that are bringing out the flavors so well.

I'm thinking it's the slices because I put I'm not a salty person because it'll ruin a meal.

But yo, this is the only way to eat Raft mac and cheese for the rest of your life, y'all.

I'm telling you.

And the secret ingredient for this dish is definitely the Craft cheese and that's nothing, but.

Yeah, it adds valume because you get your pack of cheese on sale and it goes a long way when you were single living in a single.

And people have used Belvida cheese on the show, and I just have to say, Belvita cheese has so much salt in it. If you're not used to eating bad quality food, switch to Kraft Mac slices.

Yeah that was brilliant.

Okay, now back to the story. Okay, now we know we and always say this on the show. The broker the dish, the better, the story. This has proven my theory again. So we're now that we you know, you've been signed, walk us closer to easy eas passing what's going on during that time?

Okay, so life instantly changed once we received that money. I took that twenty thousand our went and bought me a new Ford Festiva, no card, no paid my rent up for a year. We're matt, we're jamming, we're recording Bone Thugs and Harmony come out here. So females, we were a little caddy. We would argue we couldn't get along and just the girl thing. So Bone Thug came. They were starving. They was from Cleveland, so they were ready.

And at the time, girl rappers, you know, it had to been still kind of new so versus like male rappers were I'm assuming we're more acceptable.

Yeah, and like we were literally like a first four girl group.

And you guys were doing gangster rappers.

Yeah, because we did have Salt and Pepper Spinderella. You know, we admired quein Latifa live.

But you guys are doing gangster You're doing a little different we.

Were doing straight hardcore, like we had a song called coming Out the Woodworks and like we had shoot them on a Sunday, like we had at like faul Deep.

Is there a way to look up this record?

Yes, they're on YouTube.

They're on YouTube, and can people download it on like Spotify.

Or any day.

We really didn't do a release because it was so old when we received it. It was like on Ada's and Big real tracks. H oh goodness. It was yeah back in the early nineties.

So where are you at when you get the call about Easy?

Who where was I at when Easy?

Or when you found what was going on when you found out?

Like did you hear rumors first or did you hear directly from Okay?

So the thing is boom? So we're we're working on our album Bones is out here. We were doing records with Bone Thugs. We're opening up Easy got us in Oakland. We're doing all the San Francisco, Oakland, all these West Coast shows. But we're traveling, so Easy went to New York. I was the only group member that ended up pregnant with my only child. I have one son, twenty nine years old. How old were you I was twenty two when I got pregnant.

Oh wow, oh wow, So were you scared to tell him?

And actually he's my son's godfather and he was really supportive because he had a gang of kids. But my group members, on the other hand, they were like, you're gonna mess up our career. Why are you doing this? You're pregnant, and I'm like, me and my baby daddy. We rolled like Bonnie and Clyde, and I'm keeping my baby like the first and only time that I got pregnant. So I'm very glad that I kept my child. Yeah, so easy embraced it. I got so many great memories.

It was a big old deal.

The girls wasn't talking to me, and he was still alive. Yeah, he was still alive.

Oh.

I got so many great moments of how he just embraced me and my child had my baby daddy that I didn't end up staying with. But so Eric was in New York and we were like, you know, he'd answer every call.

We always talked to he. He loved our group.

Our group was his female in wa so there was no question or doubt that we weren't on He's in New York. When we spoke to Eric, he was real excited, like he ran into Cube.

So we were in hopes that like, oh, my god, Ren.

Is still here, yell us here. If he gets with Cube, you know, Drake gonna come back.

And Cube was a beast back then. So we're like, so was really popping at that time?

Yeah, cause Cube had already dropped his up.

Yeah, you know, so we're talking ninety four now, maybe it was ninety five because my son was already born, so right, yeah, it was after the birth of my son. My son was born in November, so I was basically pregnant like the whole nine months when Bone Thugs came. I wasn't one of the group members that was with Bone Thugs and Harvey. I was very pregnant with my baby father. That had nothing to do with the industry. He was not an industry cat. So we get the call,

Oh, but at the time he said he had a cold. Yeah, so it's something he started to realize something.

He's always had bronchias, Like we would go to Jerry's Deli. Eric Easye would never eat dairy foods. He would never do milkshakes. He would never So we always knew, but it wasn't to where.

But he was like, oh.

Within the second day of him being in New York, he like, oh, it's the weather change, cause you know.

I just wore my car, but it's snowing.

And so we were thinking, like, Okay, he just caught a cold because of the change of weather. So then when he get back home and I'm like, what was I doing? And I was probably because I moved out once I had my son, I had my money, I was with Ruthless. Back then, the city of Rialto was really nice. It wasn't a lot of people. So I moved out to Rialto and I remember I'm with my son and I'm like, I'm about to cook dinner. And one of the girls in the group was like, easy

Easy?

But he under a alias, So we found out. We started calling Big Ron, all the security, the Samoe and Twins. We're calling these guys, like, what's up, what's up with there? They like, Oh, he'll be okay, he'll be okay. We rushed to the hospital because then the new start announcing, like we rushed up to the hospital.

They were already saying like, he has full blown.

AIDS and I'm like, never heard of it, never heard of it, don't know what that is.

So oh at the time, nobody really knew what it was.

Nobody knew what it was because we didn't know it was AIDS when we got there. It was pneumonia okay, you know, so it ended up being full blown AIDS.

That we were like, how did that happen?

Yeah, Like we never saw anybody deteriorate. So all the artists was there, menaja twy it was one eighty seven.

Above the law. It was bone.

Thug gbm hwa. I mean, like all the artists, so We're at the hospital. They're letting, like, group by group go in and we walk in the room.

And I'm like, oh, I don't even want to I.

Walked out because Eric was as black as this. Wow, he was so dark and it looked like he was like how you just be dead for three days?

But he was in a komba. He was just out of it.

And I'm like, wow, slimmer or did he look from the exterior outside of his skin color he.

Didn't look then, or he looked blacker than he's like, he was not that color.

He looked terrible.

But they said for sure he had full blown as well.

They were like, yeah, it was pneumonia, Da da da da. The first day it wasn't. Then I think, okay, So we visited him and I'm like.

Why is he so dark? Why is he in a coma?

Like isn't this a transsexually transmitted disease?

Like what's going on?

So I'm like, okay, this is not pneumonia. Like I have a cousin living with HIV and he was. He was detected as having HIV at nineteen and he's like fifty three.

Okay, Magic Johnson.

I mean, there's so many references before blown, so instantly it was like we went to visit Eric. He didn't look good and we never saw him again.

But now, somewhere along this story and correct me if I'm wrong. Before Easy's passing, do you end up working with Tupac?

Can you? Can you talk about that?

Yeah, well what happened.

I met Tupac way before I even had a record deal with Easy, because, like I said, rap was my passion and I knew that I could freestyle, and it was like, I gotta, I gotta do this. But it was funny because when I met Pac, he didn't know that I knew.

How to rap.

Tell me about that encounter.

We went to a club downtown used to be oh Ship, the Jamaican Club. They called it the Jamaican Club, so it would it would crack downtown. So I never really liked the rappers or I never had a bewild.

But I never was like that.

I was like, you know, I really wasn't into like I won't be a man that rapped because I rapped.

So I'm like, but you said that like you you had, maybe.

We could touch it a basis because I'm really really honest with this, So I meet Tupac and his boy Mouseman. So I met him at the club and everything, and you know, we was just partying in the club and vibing and just dancing, smoking weed. So Mouseman and his brother mokaream. They used to call them Mouseman and the Wicked, but it was Mopream And this was before like, was it Brenda's Got a Baby?

Yeah, it was during that time.

It was during before he shot the video for Brenda's Got a Baby. So I ended up like a Mouseman. His name is Dana and.

He I think his name was Dana.

Yeah, Dana, but we called a Mouseman. Really talented, and so he knew I rapped, but I was always like, I don't want pop to know because I was like, I gotta get a little tighter.

I gotta okay, okay.

So I can't respect that because you didn't want him.

To Yeah, yeah, because I was like, I gotta get tighter. So we kept that under the radar. But I had a crush on Mouseman, and I'm like, yeah, you like Tupac hyke dude, so I'll like you. I'm not trying to get with Pac. I want to work with Pac, like with Eazye I was pregnant. He was really like I say, Eric is my god brother because I met him through God the day I buried my grandmother. It was just all just real, real, spiritual for me. So I met Mouseman, and me and mouse Man would talk

I was focused on.

Being an artist with a record deal. But when I met Mouseman, and I'm like, I remember he wrote me my first little rap that I ever let any guy write, because I wasn't. But I'm like, man, I know I'm gonna get next to Tupac. What is y'all style? Because he was from Philly, I believe, But he was from the East.

Coast, Oh, I thought, for I thought Tupac was from No Mouse Mousemaid.

He was from the East Coast, no doubt. And that's where he met I believe, Baltimore.

But did you end up working with Tupac later on down the line?

So I met him then he never really knew I rapped. I would take them weed because I lived in La So I was just like the homegirl girl and me and Diamond would go and I would cook at home and just bring them enchiladas in tuna castle ROAs the right way and you know.

So you would just like to cook.

Yeah, So then speed me up to where you guys actually end up getting to work together.

Well, first of all, Eric really wanted to sign Tupac too. He was like, I'm gonna get Poc. But then Pac went to death Row. So I wouldn't say that it was beef, but I mean we was with Ruthless Records. Even though I knew snoop and corrupting everybody. I wasn't gonna hang with death Row because I'm.

With Ruthless course, so it was just.

Like okay, so he never you know, made that connection with POC. So then after Pop died, after Easy died, another good our good friend Shari. She's like a mentor, Shari Henry, which worked with Pac a lot, and Pac knew about us, he knew about GBM, everybody knew about Gangst the Bitch mentality first Girl Gangst the group on the West Coast. So Shari was also like a manager, and you know, she worked with a lot of different artists, so she's like yo. You know, Pak was asking like

No, No, I'm be like, look get up baby, but like yeah, it's like I have so many emotional moments with this industry because I went through eating and then I'm broke. I'm gonna bring this closer to you, and then I'm eating and then I'm hungry again.

That's what I'm Then I was eating.

And then I was hungry again. So my story is more like up down, weighing, you know, learning my spirituality, knowing that I am a woman of God. And I did intimidate a lot of people. Because when you're out to rip somebody off or you're out to use somebody, you know, God fearing people are gonna stand the storm. We are gonna survive. So I think we're so motivating and inspirational For me today at forty eight years old,

So I heard you.

I don't know if you saw me.

But first of all, there's a huge jay Z painting in my lobby.

Yeah, I don't know. I brag about it all the time. I'm trying to speak jay Z into existence.

Right, come on to the show, Jay.

But when you wrapped I lit up like a little kid on Christmas. I was like, oh snap, so and I was like three lines yeah.

So then went up.

We did still you know, still Breathing, which is called Last Motherfucker's Breathing season. The season and the means be my reason I be the last Motherfucker's breathing. So the session went like this.

We walked in.

He was like, get on the mic. Whoever ain't got their part, We're going like this. That's one thing I learned from POC. Be persistent, do not overstudy, overthink your lyrics, or.

You won't be on this record.

It was like, so it was Kadafi, it was all of the Outlaws and my four girls, So you put nine rappers on the record with Tupac. It was like, so soon as he did his part, I ran in there, I ran to the mic. My group members were still writing. They came at the end of the song. They started bumping some people off. And then when the final initial record came out, like half the Outlaws and half of well,

Did you end up staying on the.

Newe None of the GBM members were on that, but we have the original, yes, well, which means so much more to me.

Yeah.

So then boom we lose eze Bam. I'm like, I don't want to rap no more. I'm like, uh so then Tupac he used to he was like silk you dope.

He worked with Storm and he worked with me.

So after Eazy E died or deal folded, Ruthless Records didn't do right by Eric at all. I don't know what happened to Ruthless Records, but it shouldn't have folded. You had the first girl gangster group coming out, which we were known. One of the members shout out to Ice Girl, Diamond Diamond. Ice Girl used to go with Tretch like. We used to really hang out and we were.

Did you see the NWA movie?

Yes? I did I movie. Yes.

Do you think that when you watch that movie you get a little backstorand why Ruthless crumbles?

No, I don't get anything out of why Ruthless crumbled because Ruthless was booming. See I was with Ruthless Records, and I can recall when Eric and Jerry Heller didn't see either eye. Eric would not come to the office. If Jerry Heller was in the office, we would meet him at Jerry's Delhi. We would meet him at the galleria, the mall right there, like he would not come in the office, So I can recall that being weird. It

That was my label mate.

Wow.

We had great. We had a roster that was just untouchable.

So now I'm just for time. I'm gonna skip you up to twoenty and twenty three. Yeah, we're in the arena of We got the Nicki Minajas, we have the Cardi B's, yeah, obviously before them, the Little Kid Brown, all these guys.

What's your opinion on today's rap music with the women?

I love like today?

When I watched Lola Brooks new little video Gotta Get You Home, she remade the Foxy Brown and I was looking at her like, this is what I brought on my solo project when I did my solo stuff, because I'm on the host of records. Like, but I think, like the females are winning. I love them. I love Nikki, I love Cardi, I love Lola Brooks, I love Megan A. Stallion, I love Doja cat Like.

I'm to be honest.

The only person I'm not really feeling it, and it could be just because I haven't given her a time of day is Sexy Red.

I'm not feeling that message.

I'm not feeling that raunchiness something because like when we were going to be a gangster girl group, it was clearly early nineties, it was in It was really creative at that time. But to me, there's too much promoting these little girls to be strippers when they grow up. You know, our music had substance, our music had a message.

Yeah, yeah, I agree.

I think Nicki and Cardi I give them a past because a lot of their actual albums are really good and inspiring and they both fall.

I don't put Cardy or Nikki in that category because they were always class. They were like a branch off of Little Kim, Foxy Bro. You know, it was always class.

But I do wish that the women rappers would move away from selling sex because I feel like now we as women, we're almost we're now it's becoming. It's sad to say, but men are now the prize and women because we keep degrading ourselves to just sex, now we are no longer the prize.

No more so. It's so risky.

That's why a lot of time I just say, I can't speak on the world, but on the West Coast, it's so hard for people to push women out here unless you're from somewhere else and you just moved and came to California.

I don't know if it's an.

Ego thing, what's going on with these men, because we been our own Oprah Winfrey's, we been the sloop dogs, we've been the you know, so many talented things, and it's like they just don't want to give you that extra push. And it can be happening in a lot of different states as well, because when you get into the egos of a man, and then like, I don't

I'm not.

I'm not knocking the strippers.

But when I see someone like and I really hate to use her as an example, but I'm going to based on very little that I know about her. So

And then that's what it is. It's like, don't sell your soul, Like, don't let a label say here go uh, here go half a meal and we're gonna do this this, And you talk about all that because everybody is a role model, whether you're in the hood, being at the bus stop, going to work every day, Like we all are role models to some children out there, and we're losing it. And then, especially because I live here in Los Angeles, it's like I don't watch the news anymore.

Yeah. I think one of the things you touched on was like selling your soul.

I feel like almost all the interviews that I've done with recording artists their first album specific really kind.

Of was like, Yo, that isn't me.

I remember Neil telling me that's not me my first record, I gotta walk and Neil Neil had the courage to just be like I ain't doing it and riskying blackballed for a couple of years, I was, but God, but God, you know, had his back because he still came out shining.

But that was a risk, risky move on him.

But when you see some of these new rappers, I'm like, Okay, this label just put this out. This label's packaging this girl like this and it.

It's so what happened with me after Easy I was eating he died? I was hungry, broke again being Tupac. So I connected Tupac and Busy Bone because Easy E had died. So I get in touch with pop again and I'm like, yo, because you gotta do a song with Busy Bone. He's like, oh yeah, that's the thug niggas. We was gonna hook up and do that, but you gotta be on the record. So I'm like, okay, you hear that. I said, Bee, Tupac gonna come. He gotta go do a Vasia She runway model show. He's flying out.

So he came in. He laid his part.

I'll probably be punished for whoor living blind to the fact that Thugs is convicts in God's prison and am strip praying so Foca please forgive me. So I was on the original Thug Love, which that one was released and it's out on all the platforms.

Now, is there something that most people don't know about? Like, is there a fun fact that I can I can get from this?

Yeah, two fun facts for the new generation and for those that don't go to Google and look up wikipedias and stuff. A lot of people don't know my name is Lamar, Like I've never met a lady named Lamar, So I think that's kind of unique. And then a lot of people because I don't just say hey, I'm Lamar, but I get those writer credits and I'm like, yes, I miss Lamar. But a lot of people don't know that Omari, Well, his name is Omari, but you guys call him omar on Like a lot of people don't

Have you ever has omarion and you ever talked about collaborating?

We were like this close to collaborating. I want to say about five years ago, because you know I made it before my nephew.

Yeah, of course.

And I remember, you know, my sister I was iront at thirteen. She had him when she was fifteen. So like when I made it, I could recall I have some touch and stuff too, because when I made it, I could recall getting my sister on payroll because she was doing the hairstyling.

She was working the video straps. She can do braids.

My sister was a bad She did my little hair pieces like she can weave, she can braid. So you know me, I'm little sis. My sister has four kids.

Da da da da da.

I'm like, yo, I'm gonna get you on payroll.

You need to be a stylust. So I did that for my sister.

And then this was with my first solo record deal where I wrote the hit record Romeo and Juliet. So it was my first album under RCA Records, which was entitled Raw Silk. And then the funny thing about this album is that I never signed a contract.

So what does that mean.

I never signed a contract all of it.

So what happened is I got with Michael CONCEPTIONI on, Hey Mike, so, yeah, you know, I'm young. I didn't want to rap anymore. I'm like, fuck that Easy is dead. Tupac is dead. They believed in me. They didn't try to sexual harass me. It was like my brother said, by God. So I was really discouraged. So I went in as a writer for this Grand Jury Entertainment, which was a well known man in a wheelchair, Michael conception On. So I'm like, I don't want to be an artist,

So they end up releasing it under your Man. But how what did the money look like after that?

Okay, so boom they I just wanted to be a writer. Yeah, they sent the girl in the studio to do it. She couldn't match.

She couldn't do it, so they.

Used my dummy vocals and they sent it to RCA. RCA's like, oh my god, her voice is so authentic. We want to meet her. They flew me to New York. I went in the RCA office New York. They were like, yeah, we can see it now. We want to do your silky fine album, and you know, blah blah this and that.

So I'm kind of excited and I'm like okay.

So we get back to Cali. Mind you, I never get a contract. Why because the production company signed a deal with RCA. Okay, so me as an artist, I never signed any contract. However, the you know, they do the meeting with RCA, we come back to California. They give me a check for one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Nineteen ninety seven.

And you didn't ask any questions.

No.

I was like, they was like, this is your you know, bonus money. This is what we give you up front. Da da da da da, And I'm still questioning it, like you know, I never signed any paperwork, So okay, cool a day. So I did this album Ross Silk, Romeo and Juliet turned out to be a number one record. I was working with mattland Smith, which I worked with her from She was a publisher administrator. So I was working with Mattlinz Smith, which was the wife of Donovan Smith,

But when I get over here with.

Grand Jury, mister conception ends up working with Madeline and then I don't get no fucking publishing.

So you didn't get publishing on that.

I didn't get on the hit record publishing.

I don't know eye contact an entertainment attorney.

I didn't get no fucking pusish.

And this is how craft Tuna, mac and Cheese it comes about.

Yo.

We're gonna have to know a finished episode, man, so.

So real quick.

So I got that one hundred and fifty thousand up front. Yeah, I went and bought me at Mercedes. I paid my rent up for a year. I'm like, this is the beginning. I'm Stanley asking about the paperwork, like, how does it go. Oh, we're going to get the contract to you. Well, six months go by, no contract, My record hits number six.

And the people that you're talking to white. I'm just curious.

Michael can is supposed to be one of the guys who was the founder of the Crips along with Tookie Williams. He did We're All in the Same Gang, which was a nonprofit album, a compilation where none of the artists got paid, you know, so that sort of thing. So I clearly wanted to get paid for being a writer. Yeah, and get all my publishing. So then nineteen ninety nine, nineteen ninety nine, after the record sales and it's number one,

No publishing.

Is there the end of the story where you can get the publishing.

So then so then like we're dealing with nineteen ninety ninety eight. So I'm like, okay, my record, I went to New York because I got the Writer of the Year award. So now we're in nineteen ninety nine year and I got the writer It's hanging up in my room till this day, my easy e plaques all my work. So I get the Writer of the Year award to Lamar Sukie Fine Johnson. So I'm like, all of a sudden, that guy had got another artist named Lamar, which was a boy. So I'm like, okay, did he like give

Him, so he said he was a founder of the crips. Yeah, people are afraid of him too.

But he was in a wheelchair. So I'm like, I'm not afraid of him. But he had connections.

Yeah, I get what you say.

So boom.

So I'm like, all of a sudden, the production company folds. We don't even there's no more Grand Jury Entertainment. He goes to mi Con Music, he switches the company name. I'm going off on ass cap like, I've been a writer with you guys for so many years. How do I have an asscap Writer of the Year. I'm registered Lorraine Lyrics under publishing. I'm telling you this is my voice. This is written by Lamar Johnson. Oh well, yeah, they never gave me a penny.

So for all y'all entertainment attorneys reach out, there's gotta be.

A Well that's why I say, you women don't know what it is to be up and down and hungry and broke and eating and broke and eating and broke and eating. So my worth I am a millionaire. Just to let you know my net worth. You know, they keep up with my network. So twenty years go by, I'm begging. They're lucky that I didn't become a drug addict. They're lucky that I didn't go crazy like the humiliation,

Oh and that's twenty years later.

Twenty years later. I mean, yeah, thank goodness. I always went to school, so I do. I didn't go far, but I was almost to my bachelor's but I learned that when you study they start doing things online. You could just research get your own information. So I did receive my AA and journalism, and if I go take a couple of courses, I'll have my BA and broadcast.

I never got the money, but.

I didn't so I didn't get the physical money. So after twenty years, I'm like, now somebody gonna do something. So I wrote ASCAP a letter. I said, you know what an email I'm about to sue you guys. I've been a member of you guys. I have approved writer of the Year. You gave us man my credit because he claimed it ASCAP Publishing under Mike's rap, and then he went to BMI and claimed MI con music.

So what did ascaps say to your email?

So they got in touch with that company. They said, okay, we need a con track. Where's her signature?

After twenty fucking years and the record then sold.

All of this is really good h and they didn't have a contract, so.

They were like, oh, it's in storage, we're gonna you know, like it was so far back. You never transferred your data.

To files like so then what happened?

So they never presented. They said, you have ninety days.

If you do not come up with Lamar Johnson's signature, then we're gonna put everything back to her.

Oh everything, Cause I was gonna say if it was me, I started drafting up my own fake contract two.

Thousand and No, they couldn't prove any signature.

I'm just saying I would have tried.

You tell me.

About heartbreak twenty years. I had to go back to work.

So did they so, but they said it will go go to you if they can't find approved.

Finally, in two thoy nineteen, they gave me back all my publishing.

So I mean I could pull it up on my phone with me.

Now, that is the best story I've ever heard.

I wanted to fight. I wanted to go to his door five and just I wanted to.

Blow his head off.

Did you end up getting it in?

Well, I'm still dealing with Sony Music because some type of way they had licenseeing and I didn't get paid out of that. So Sony Music, yeah, they know who I am. But how do you how do you like?

Yeah?

So have you considered just and this is my last question because we're over on time.

I got a lot to say, but my MACARONI.

Yo, I finished that whole magazine.

It's good.

It's soda, ain't good. My last question is ghostwriting.

Are you have you considered ghost writing for some of the greats, the ghosts, because I mean you're very talented, or have you ghosts written?

I used to write for Easy on his last album. I wrote a couple of songs on that album, so I would love I try to get the girls younger than me, Like if you use my flavor, you blow up. So then, like I don't know, I start saying there's no age limit, there's no time limit on greatness. So if Aretha Franklin want to come out after fifty years and do her a new song, she's gonna do it. If Patti LaBelle, she's gonna do it. So I'm like the Aretha Franklin a rap. So what I did was

So I'm getting down to that.

But like I said, I have a rich spirit, so money could never make or break me because I am what I said, a creator. So it's like my spirit is so rich it always guided me to those physicians. And so I re released Romeo and Juliet. I'm at what five hundred eighty six thousand streams in eight months with no promotion independent, I get about nine hundred a month every month from Apple Spotify, you know, just extra income, which is more money than I ever made off of

He just dropped a new record.

So I'm listening to lot to hearing where you're going next for all y'all listeners. Soakie, can you tell all our listeners how to keep up with you, how to follow you and support you. It's so to say it today, it's so easy.

You guys, just stay tuned to what's real, what's popping, and what's rare.

You can really google.

Me f y k E, f y he and E. Don't spell it with an eye. They do it on purpose. It just irks me. Silk E fine, not the conceded.

And what's what's your Instagram tag?

Silk E fine? It's only one way to spell it. I'm on Instagram, I'm on Facebook, I'm on.

Twitter, and that's whis no eyes.

That's wise no eyes because I am not conceved.

And then can you just for the fun of it, I mean, I have to try this just because I love hip hop?

Right?

Can you close out.

With like a twenty second okay, because rap close out a twenty second rap for eating whalle broke in this whole situation.

Hey, hey, hey, live with my girl Coleen, and I was eating while broke. Don't trip West Coast. Don't break your throat. I gotta hit him with a high note. Yeah, because you know it's murdered. They roh huh. I'm trying to figure out what happened to my boys. Poking easy. You know I'm still making noise. I don't care what they say, I am creativity. I'm'a do it born and raised in LA and i'm'a keep eating. And I might stay bro but my spirit is rich.

Baby.

I'm the utmost, but I'm really rich and I'm not materialistic. I kick it with Tuna Mac. Get it a.

Peace out, y'all. Thanks for listening. Tuning in for more Eating while Broke from iHeartRadio and The Black Effect, Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.