Throwback Thursday to Nuestra Musica

being connected to this amazing podcast. And today I want to remind you as usual to subscribe, rate us and share this podcast with your friends, family, is, your girlfriend, your boyfriend, whoever, because you know that the show is late and I always talk about things that can connect with the people. Some connect more than others. But if you feel that this can relate to somebody that you know, please share it. Don't may send you with the podcast

and also leave comments. Leave comments on the Instagram page at exactly a Mata or also on the YouTube channel. You can go to the YouTube channel and on the search bar rate exactly Matter and under the video write your comments. I'm always there about and read other comments. So with that being said, I want to bring in today my guest, my producer, my friend me Van Ego me gone By. You already know Alex and I have officially named him well, actually know I found out that

he was already named that before. So Big Sexy is in the house. Thank you so much for joining. And I also have Arlene that I have named her today Mrs Juicy Juicy Juicy is also here with the t um and today actually today is like throwback Thursday. We're gonna change it up a little bit and we're gonna

talk about some throwbacks right now. We're gonna basically you as an artist, my friend, uh, you know, we want to know and if people want to know what influenced you write and by we're gonna bring calling it throwback Thursday because we want to know what did you listen to growing up? What did your mom listen to growing up that influenced to you? Boy? And I love growing up. I remember my mom um. I have some good memories of that. But my mom would have a lot of

young um you know, Fafita. She would have a lot of like Dominican and also Cuban music playing in the house, especially on Sundays that was the day that she used to clean the house by and and also she didn't

understand the language per same better. She would love to play in the house and maintain a turner when in Houston's on a summer's glory Gainer, those people, Musica, Yessica, all those things influenced me, I guess honestly, Um before we had those big as TVs that you have to like turn the own, like the buttons you want and yelling that you would see those shows and hear the music and and a little bit. I picked up a

little bit of everything. I picked up a little bit of everything, some of the English from the Spanish, but definitely she always played a lot of like strong women like Laupe sometimes even Juan or stuff like that. You know, Yeah, I listened to everything growing up, so Romantico and stuff, Yeah Jose with me yelling Timpo, you know, with Momento, a lot of some goes on and on of all the amazing roo La. Like, my mom was always very well rounded when it came to music, and she wanted

me to hear a little bit of everything. And I'm grateful that she exposed me to so much variations of what Latin music was at the time, because that's how I was able to be like, Okay, I want to pick up a little bit of this, a little bit of that, put it together and this is you know

whom is that's amazing. And you know, coming up in a Puerto Rican household, it was the same way that component component with all the freaking like you know, CD player, tape deck, you know, everything, and my mom would be playing everything LaSalle, smiting Bolero, but all that stuff, you know, everything just just oh my goodness. Now you're thinking about it, I'm like, don't you miss don't you miss those days? How things have changed so much. Obviously, we know we

gotta evolve, you know, we gotta go with times. But I think of those memories of how we grew up and and then sometimes I look at today's times and it's like it's not that it's not nice, but it's definitely not as innocent as family oriented as it was back then. You know, I agree, and things things have, you know, I just you know, and sometimes you think you want to keep that the same spirit that you had when when you were anger, and even now with your kids, you know, you think, do I wanna go

ahead and do the same thing? And you should? I think you should. I think that that's uh, that's a lost art, is having that family bonding time, you know, because everyone's on a damn screen now, see I I agree with the screen thing. Yeah, we definitely have to change for those that want to undo, right, but for those that want to keep. I think it's important for us to be the ones to take charge and be like, you know what, I'm gonna play you some music. This is what I grew up with. I want you to

listen to this. I want you to know where you come from, what we heard, some of the old school music. I think it's important, Um, we have to create that family oriented energy. Yes, times have changed these days, no way too much. Back then, we didn't know as much as they know now. And Lyrica lyrics has also changed.

You know, when were you going to hear back in the days, you know, a song talking about pop that pussy or you know jebber like is hot or like you know Mrs Juicy over here, you you were going to hear them lyrics? You know? Of the current music? Is there anything you would play to your daughter's any artists that you listen to now today? Are you only going to play what you're adele? You might not see like, you know, there's there's some nice songs that I feel

that my kids can listen to. For sure. But realistically, if you really sit down and go through the playlist of the modern songs you know up on charts right now, it's kind of limited, uh, the songs that you can play for them, that is, you know, okay for you know children right um, because everything somehow is either sublibinal or there's something freaky nasty you know in there that's made for adults, which is fine because I've heard that too.

We can't put the pressure on the artists there. Being an artist, you do what you do as a parent. You're the one that decides you can hear this, you can't hear that, or whatever, and they could hear the whole everything. How what are you gonna be changing stations

every time? I mean even in the you know, in the mid nineties, you know, as a teenager growing up, you know, there was a lot of songs on the radio that we're kind of that you saw the trend starting with hip hop and changing and then you know, hip hop merging with Latin music, a lot of things started changing. But you're right, You're right. I want to know from you now. You told us a little bit about growing up and what your mom played. When did you take it upon yourself to make the switch and

start incorporating English speaking music into into your playlists. And what were some of the records that you remember that you know play out in your head. Oh my god, Um, I think it was affected in my house. And that's how I plan on doing it with my with my girls as well. And in a way. Last, this is what I didn't even watch, but I last, I want you to, you know, smell the Sas song in the house. I wanted to be very Latino. This is what we are,

this is our culture. This is what we do. And you're gonna copy paste and do the same thing with your kids, because I don't want you to lose the essence of Latin because you're born in America. That's what we're not going to do. Right. But um, in school, I know that in school they pick up all the English stuff, the accent, the language, the slang, the blah blah blah. You pick all those things up so you can do that. But I remember that that, you know,

being in school listening to my friends and stuff. I was into like the Spice Girls. Okay, I was scary Spice and Sink, you know, Britney Spears Christina. You know, I felt like I was killing it. Janet Jackson. Also there was a lot of artists like even even It's funny because even when you look at the music videos back then, you thought they were so futuristic and it's like the technology look and this and that, and you

that they were killing it. They kind of were. Um, I remember the freakiest song that I like back then, well, there were two, I think it was, but the Milkshake came in earlier, I think, um, but then, oh my god, what's his name? Cisco song? I thought I was killing it. Everybody was like, this is so late, you know, when

the Thong song came out and stuff. You know, when you when you think about it, right, you start listening to songs that you listen to back then, you listen to it now and uh you know, for instance, uh end quote you have to lick it before you stick it. Yeah, Like wait a second, I was like rocking out to this in my room and just hanging out. You know, you're saying like when you discovered the lyrics, when when you did, you don't. You're not there for the lyrics

to be to make sense. You're there to sing, you know, I'm listening to jamming out to both um, you know, alternate music, Blink one eight two, you know hip hop, you know Woo Tang was crazy, you know, planning and you know, like all of that stuff. And I wasn't thinking back then. You know, now I look back at him, like, whoa, If my mom knew English the way we do, she would have whoke my behind. I think it's you too. A lot of times. I'm not saying that there wasn't.

There was songs that were you know, a little bit you know, freaky harsh or whatever. You just wanted to sing the song and dance and you knew that you liked and it was a vibe. You weren't really paying attention to the death of the lyrics of the songs. So I guess is that these days, I think we all know what the lyrics mean. The young ones, even the young ones, they know. They may not know exactly, but they know it is not you shouldn't be singing it,

but you still do. So I get it. The pressures, you know, when you first started to to get into the music industry, what were those pressures like for you initially? Like coming in, I'm sure there was people you were meeting with people that that were saying, you have to sound like so and so, I need you to sound like this. My mom was one of the first ones.

She was so annoying because my mom was like, since since that was very good at doing many things, it's like still now as an adult, you know, I'm an artist, even though that I haven't done music in like two years. I think since the pandemic, I put out one or two songs, But since the pandemic, I really haven't been doing music like that. I got kind of caught up

doing reality TV, doing movies, doing other things. I I somewhat maybe I feel I kind of got comfortable in that space and I haven't been back in the studio also because I'm still going through some legal situations with with those that have watched Love Love and Hip Hop Miami, you guys know what I've been going through. But that also that they say even though that I miss it.

But my mom was one of those that it was like, when you're very talented at doing many things, like I could host, I can do radio, I can do this, I can do that. DA she felt musically like I want you to I want and I'm like, but how am I supposed to find my identity musically? Which happens to a lot of artists. You get caught up doing so many different genres. Then now your audience doesn't even know, like you know what you are, who you are, like

what is your target? Because one day you're singing pop, next thing you're now you're singing rock, and then after that, now you just did a hip hop song. And as an artist, you should be able to be creative and try and experiment with all those different sounds. Nothing should stop you, but you still do have to have a

lane of sound. So yes, I did feel the pressure of having to, Like all they would do this, Oh my god, you should be the next Sea Cruiz sing Salta, And it was like, that's cool, That's an honor most definitely. But just because I'm black and I have an Afro and I'm Latina, it doesn't mean that automatically I should sing Salza because I remind you of Salia Cruise. You know, I'm still from this error, from this generation, and I like, I like to do a lot of fusion. I mix

up a lot of sounds. I'll mix up some Afro b with some Brazilian funk. I'll make something bold with some like That's what I think that it's fun about doing music, being able to create. Yeah, I like that, and you gotta find your own voice. It's always great to pay homage to the to the past and to who we listen to. But at the same time, you know, you kind of gotta like move on with what you're doing.

And I think that's what a lot of artists struggle with nowaday and you know, it's it's I'm pretty sure back then everyone's struggle because somebody, you know, I wanted to be the next Frank Snatro. You know, for you, what do you attribute your success too in music? Like do you think about it as your maybe your mom? Do you do you give all the props to your mom? Is there a special person, a special mentor that helped you get to the level of success that you've been

been at. I know it sounds so corny, but I definitely always have to give credit to my mom. I have to give credit to my mom because my mom has been my number one supporter, my number one cheerleader, my number one you know, critic, my everything, And I think it's because she sees what I'm capable of more more than I can sometimes, and I think that parents have don't. It's like a gift like once your kid

is born. I don't know how they do that, but they can say no, Dad or mom, I can't do it, and you know what they're capable of them doing even though they don't see it, but you can see past it, like I know all you can do it, and you also know when your kid don't got it. You also know like, no, this is not this is not your department. And I know you like it, but this is not for you, but you also know. So I feel like my mom always was able to see beyond what I could,

and she always pushed me. And I'm grateful that she pushed me because if it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have known what I am actually capable of. And I still don't think that I have forced myself or pushing myself to see my full potential. I kind of sometimes half fast it a little bit, so I would say that it is that if it wasn't because of her, said Vialo, you know, like it happens, and I would have been coming, you know, just like walking around the

world trying to figure it out. I was gonna say, I'm out of the music industry is changing so much, and I feel like women, female artists are are really taking the lead. I would say, especially in you know, when it comes to our community, where do you think that you fall and how do you see yourself? Like what kind of music in the future are you hoping to create? The thing is, I'm a very a bubbly, happy, upbeat person. So whatever I do, I want to know

that my music brings happiness and it brings joy. I like music that that um can change your whole vibe, Like I'm stressed out, let me put this music on. It's just gonna get my my momentum, you know, going.

But then I also love songs where like I did my song Insecure, which is one of my favorite songs, that I also was able to connect with women, you know, and and connect in a more vulnerable aspect because I'm not always happy, like like you know what I'm saying, the battery is got to turn off at some point.

And I also go through rhoto cultures of emotions like I really feel right now if I were to go into a studio, which would be so great, and I would really sit down and do like a whole album of what my life has been like in the past two years and not just two years two years now moving forward, I think I would come up with an amazing album where I am honest about my feelings like I am now, and I know that a lot of

people will be able to connect with me. So I love doing happy music, but I think that being able to do music that just connects with the audience really it's something that I visualize for the future for me. That's amazing. That's like, that's a really good way of looking at it. Because you gotta know what you want to do and who you wanna where do you want

to make music for? And you have two kids, now, do you feel like perhaps they'll inspire you in such a way where you'll create I think you have the soul in you and the heart to really put something beautiful together. So do you feel like maybe you'll inspire yourself a little bit more to create something for them, maybe you know, to inspire them as well. I think

that I will. But I also think that in my case, I I can relate to a certain extent to things that Cardi B has said about her music that she still does freaky you know, adult fun music, and she doesn't let her children listen to it. So I wouldn't want to like stop myself from doing what makes me feel good or what I know that my audience expects of me because of the canal. I'm a mother, No,

I'm a mother. You listen to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star over there and I'm over here, you know what I'm saying, dropping it like it's hot. So you know, I want I want to be able to create that balance. I think that creating that balance is important. But I definitely would love to do music and and do music videos. Get um empower them as well, you know, as a strong woman, like your mom's a strong woman. You know

she did that last Avid wincing. You know that eventually they're like, oh my god, that's my mom over there, Like no, you know, I get it. But but at the same time, I guess, mama gotta pay these bills, so you better. You know what I'm saying, cover your ass, cover your ears, and let me do what I asked to do. Beyonce, I did that too. I mean I feel like she did that. She's helping women say, listen I'm a mom, but I also want to be sexy and get it on with my partner and I wanted to. Yeah,

so I'm excited does it? She does it very tastefully that I'm being like, it's it's it's sexy, but I don't find it personally like raunchy. I find it like tasteful. I've seen other artists. We're not gonna mention any names that. I'm like, dude, you're basically just doing porno right now, Like that's a lot. You could have still done the same thing and got in the same reaction without having to like do it like that battle to each his own.

Everybody expresses their art form in different ways. When I think about like musical influences, what are you, what are your thoughts on people like Mary J. Blage like the hip hop era and are you ever gonna dive into that genre? The thing about it is that funny enough, even though I'm on love and hip hop and all thesely the things I grew up in Miami. In Miami is um Miami is very hip hop influence, I must you know, for the African American community, there's a lot

of that. Obviously, the original hip hop like we have. We have some of them on the show. You know, we have Trina. We got tricked Daddy, like we got some of the original essence of hip hop as well. But I did grow up very cha cha. I did grow up more Latina than anything, so I didn't have that original experience of what hip hop was back then. I heard about it later on in life, but especially

here in Miami that is also very Latino based. My mom always had me more in Hi Ali or whatever the Latinos were at, so I didn't get to enjoy, uh, the real essence of Mary J. Bloss and stuff like when she first came in. I heard it later on in life battle I would I don't know. I don't like to put any limits to myself, Like I can't say I'm not I'm very open minded because what about c C And then said what do guy like? Why not? So I think that in left you should experiment and

try everything as much as you can. You never know where you're you know what I'm saying, where your target is? Yeah? I agree? Are you thinking of perhaps letting your your I know you've spoken about, you know, having a casting agent for your daughter's already, But what what are you your thoughts on perhaps letting the girls into the music industry, into the music business, Are you gonna shelter them from

this lifestyle, this you know, hustle. I would love to be that support system for my children whatever it is they decide that they want to be. And if I see that they're talented, I don't want to be the one to be like Buena. And I'm like, no, you're gonna be no, no, no, no no. If I see that you're good at something and you have potential, whether I want it for you or not, if it is your blessing, your route, now I'm going to push you to the end of you. You're gonna hate me. I'm

gonna do you like well Mommy did to me. But that's the only way for you to get out their best potential. And like I always say, I always think it's important not just musically, uh, I think it's important to expose them to as many things as possible. If you like music, fine, I'm gonna expose you to piano, to violin, to many of the things percussion, look and see what really uh you know catches your eye and and support them for sure. Um, but I do want

to protect them from the animals. Okay, the animals, the beast, the monsters that this entertainment industry has that you know, will use somebody's ambitions of being successful for their own benefit. And like I said, I've gone through many things in this industry, Like I've personally gone through a lot of stuff, because there's a lot of wolves, you know, pretending to

be sheep's out here. And I want you to elaborate a little bit more about what it was like for your mom when she was first trying to get you into the business. I I'm really curious about that. Well, how about this. I was born in and I already had my first trophy in ninety one. So my mom had me like in beauty pageants, baby beauty pageants, like with the big dresses and like hay and like the big bowls, like one of those baby dolls. Okay, So

that was my mom with me. Then she started me off doing beauty pageants, one of those psychotic beauty pageant moms. Like I had a face full of makeup, you know, I had a little dance routines and bathing suits and one of those, and she would make me do the same damn routines in the house a thousand times. She would put all my little teddy bears in the couch and then she would be like that, like can send them kisses? Move her hand dad, Like she like lived

her frustration as an artist through me. So sometimes I was just tired or I didn't want to were like Mom, I don't care for this crap right now, and she would really get upset, like she would put so much effort in time, and these outfits were very expensive, like like five six daughters on a little baby outfit, you know, embordered with stones and all this stuff, and it was a whole sacrifice for her. So that's how she started me.

And then once she started seeing that I actually was good at it, and I kept winning competitions and then I want to miss for the miss for handy guy, and then this and and you know, and then it became this industry also for mom's like the baby ones. And so I'm being it's very moms are very competitive. It's not even about the kids anymore. It's like the moms are fighting with each other. So long story short, that's how she started me, and my big break was

in and don't Francisco. They did Miss Chikka, which was a segment that they had I actually won, and after I won, don't Francisco was like, you know, and we seembody out, you know, we love her personality. We would love to have her officially here and in Glann Infantil, which was a segment that they had with the children's had opinions and things like that. I was there for

six years every Saturday. Um then it became a background dancer for Univision and then from there, you know, Disney commercials. Is that like, you know, a lot of things started to open up indoors. But and my mom was really the one who was like, thank you Mom. Basically, she's the one that even though even though she pushed you, it got you somewhere. And and by the way, guys, if you want to listen to that episode, it is in the archives, so make sure you check that out.

Her time with Savant and her come up there. It was very interesting because I watched the show growing up, which means I watched you when you were a kid growing up. Because I'm not that much older than you.

I'm what you said you were born in uh so I'm only a couple of years older than you, but I do remember watching uh E. Really, I feel like every Latino you know, either your mother or grandmother or somebody you saw it at some point because it was such an important part of our culture, sitting down on Saturdays to watch four hours of Don't Francisco and the check At and all the other things that they had. So yeah, it was an incredible time to be alive,

and it's something that's missed today. You know. I want to close this off with uh with you giving our our younger audience perhaps or anyone out there or a mother that might be thinking of putting their kids through, you know, the entertainment business, or they have goals as as your mom did for you. What would be some of the encouraging some encouraging words that you would want

to give anyone listening right now. Yeah, for sure, if you see that your kid is talented, support them, you know, stop picking, stop deciding what you want your kids to be, and support what God meant for them to be. If you see that they're talented and whatever it is, whether it's sports, whether they're good at math, whether they're good at science, whether what they want to do, hair it

doesn't math or support them. You never know if they are going to be amazing later on in life with what they do, and if later on they decided to do something else, support them with that too, because they do also have the rights to change their mind. They do also have the rights to explore and experiment with different things, So just be open minded to that. Also expose them. I always talk about exposure. I think exposing your kids two different things is very important in order

for them to know what they're good at. You know, if you only show them one to three things, that's the only option that they have. But if you show them about you know, space, and then you show them about the sea, and then you show them about different things, you give them an opportunity for the mind to to

you know, open up. Um. If you have to sacrifice a little bit, you know, as a parent, I think that you automatically sacrifice, but if you have to sacrifice a little bit of your time, your energy to take them to a class, whether it's football, class, dance class, ballet, ballet, or whatever it is, do it for your kids because come therego You never know, and just be supported of Stop telling your kids what you want them to be. It's not about you. You have your life to decide

what you want to be. Stop telling them what they have to be. Support whatever it is that you see that they're gifted at, you know, and obviously guide them, guide them, you know, motivate them. Be their number one cheerleader because you'll never forget even if you think that they're young, they'll never forget that time that you supported them, that you were their cheerleader, that you were that you

stood by them, that you didn't let them fall. So just be that support system and also use social media to also find the best talent agency, to find the best dance school, to find the best whatever coach that you can find. You have the internet. Unlike our parents back in the days, it didn't have too many options and things like that. Yeah yellow pages, but um, you

know you have options these days. So so just support your babies, you know, support your kids, be the best parent you can be and let them live their lives. Just be there to guide them rather better and protect them. Once again as usual, Alex Big Sexy, thank you so

much for coming in today. Arlene Mrs Juicy, thank you so much for always supporting me on the show and and I always love being able to connect with you guys, especially now that I've given you guys an opportunity to get to know a Mada even a little bit more with the throwback Thursday. And then, like I said before, there's anything that you want to know, anything that you want to hear, feel free to leave any comments. We're always there to read the comments and hit you guys

back up. Thank you once again for joining Exactly a Mata today like you do every Thursday, and remember to follow Exactly a Mada on Instagram and on Twitter, and also Michael ta Podcast on Instagram so you can check out all the other podcasts that Michael Duda has. You also can watch us on YouTube. Just go to the search bar and write exactly a Mata to check out behind the scenes or Mara. And remember that this has been a production of My Hearts Michael Tuda podcast Network.

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