Christina Millian

Speaks to the planet.

I go by the name of Charlamagne of God and guess what, I can't wait to see y'all at the third annual Black Effect Podcast Festival. That's right, We're coming back to Atlanta, Georgia, Saturday, April twenty six at Poeman Yards and it's hosted by none other than Decisions Decisions, Mandy B and Weezy. Okay, we got the R and B Money podcast. We're taking Jay Valentine. We got the Woman of All podcasts with Sarah Jake Roberts. We got

R and B Money, we second take valleib We are the authority R and B Ladies and gentlemen. My name is Tank Valentine and this is the R and B Money Podcast. The authority on all things are n B. Yeah, you know, hit records, hit movies, dessert.

You can't spell that.

It's written right here on my phone class beauty and Talent.

Oh my gosh.

It's all package and a really cool paggage and it has a really really awesome being to define it. I would enjoy saying this name, announcing this.

Person to be family, excuse my friends, but is oh yeah, yeah, yeah, Christine, I didn't know you.

Were sta Okay, okay. It was a great intro.

That was exciting, That was exciting, and I wish, you know what, we have it on tape if I ever go out and perform ever again, I'm gonna play that right at the beginning.

You know, you have you the intro, that's my intro. Hi, what's the guys gonna be?

Y'all give me million? Where's Lilyan?

From my mom?

So Carmen Million is my mom and my dog.

And I'm Cuban, So I come from Cuban descent.

But Cuba is like a melting pot, just several just different different cultures, different places and faces, and so from what I'm told, I mean, we have just a long lineage back.

But it's Spaniard.

It also feels very Italian if you have veryal But I don't know, I honestly, really I need to do one of those like twenty three and and just kind of go back, I know, because.

Then you find out you're connected to a whole bunch of presents you don't want to be in contact even just that.

Then they start, you know, they probably will be looking for people that they got certain that's true.

What you're in the system. They might they might build a robot off of me. I found a little bit of inkling. What is the ear wax or what is it the nose?

I didn't do it yet, No, sure yet. I'm just interested, you know what I'm saying. Because every time, every every time I'm around me him there, they say, start talking through me, you know. So I'm like, I must be I must be part of the community, you know. They told to me, and they see me, they say, hey, your name is Derail. That's my mama fault. But my middle name is out.

With the role just artists.

Artists, Okay, you know what it has? I like, like over over my e there's the thing. It's only found in the in the Spanish, right over top of.

Okay, it count you even.

Know what I'm talking about. It's US scree today.

You're Spanish.

I was taught Spanish. Is my first language? Really? Yeah?

Wait so in school or you mean in general? That was your first first language.

My grandmother believed that that Spanish was going to be the first language of the US. One day, Wow, my grandmother in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, said, I'm going to put you in a Spanish immersion school kindergarten through fifth grade. I only learned Spanish, really, and you would lose recess if you talk English write the word Spanish too.

Did you teach nobody? You're coming from me like, oh, your grandma me.

I thought I was slick. I'd be like, she's like, where's your homework. I was like, it's right here, and she'd like this, So what all you got to do? I said, well, this says right here, no necessity, and then and then this part says I saw them, and then I'm done. And she said, okay, you can talk that Spanish stuff if you want to. I'm gonna see when the report car come out. And my dumb self like this, whatever, you know what I'm saying, And that report card came out English.

Yes, maybe you got beep.

Dang man.

She lied to me. She told me, I was good, it's Spanish.

You thought you had a secret language and everything thought I had a secret leg.

Kids always think that they're smarter than the adults.

I don't know why they do. My daughter, I had to talk with her this morning talking about stuff that wasn't turned in and how she found out three other people had turned it in and she had turned it into and the teacher wrote to me that they hadn't gotten it, but they sent the same message to everybody else and blah blah blah blah blah. And I'm like, everybody, this is the same story all the time. I never I don't think I tried to pull this stuff on my parents, but they were too smart.

Dad was super smart. He was really strict to me. No, no, no, no no.

I remember the day I had a C on my pre report you know, like the middle of the semester report card. I was an AB student and so I had a C.

Do you know.

I was crying on my walk home, like, oh my gosh, my dad, my parents are going to kill me. I got a C on my on my report card on the progress report. Oh my god, I was so scared about what would happen when I got home because it just meant that I wasn't doing my homework. It was meant I wasn't, you know, focus, et cetera, et cetera. My dad was big on like focusing and about you know, being great.

And so when I had a.

See, Oh my gosh, but you know what he was surprisingly, they were cool. I didn't get my my butt whipped. I gots yeah.

Went out. We're talking about c's here.

That mean that was average.

First of all, when I got a SEE, was going to basket Rappers.

Yes, you got the pizza.

They knew you were going to master the middle seat.

L Look what happens when you stay here with.

Graduate. He didn't even need to school. He didn't even need to school. She said. I was getting a and BS and scene. No, it tormented me.

It was terrible. I thought death was It was upon me.

Christina. When was the identifying moment that you have a gift or something different to offer outside of your intellectual and scholasticabilities.

Wow, okay, well outside of being extremely.

You know, I knew early on.

My mom says she saw it early of course a parent, they recognized things, and now as a parent, I recognize things in my.

Children, so I get in.

But she I was always singing, and I still to this day. There's not a moment in my day even if I'm having an argument or having a conversation, I don't even notice I'm humming or I'm singing. So I'm always like musically, it's always going through my head.

I could be having me my mom would be screaming at me and she's like, stop, stop doing that, and I'm like, I'm not doing it, and then she started talking again.

I'm like, like, I don't know, it's it's something neurological, it's something, but I think it's a great thing. I say that musical people or people that sing like that. I'm like, you don't see like an unhappy person. I think that's just what keeps me in my little happy bubbles.

Music. So it was really it was.

It was the Greats that I was watching as I grew up. It was Michael Jackson, I was listening to Diana Ross. I was listening to a lot of oldies, a lot of motown. My parents only had AM radio in their car for some reason. It was like broken so Am Radio. I was just listening to old school stuff and I also just listened to everything all genres.

So I was looking at the people and they.

Like, I mean, especially Michael Jackson, like I can get chill still thinking about him to this day and seeing him being on stage and people passing out and screaming and sweating and just the energy. And I had dreams about it. So I would dream about like performing, and

Get away from the they're screaming up. I got screamed at a lot for.

You know, people telling me sing for everybody, for the family. So I'd always have to sing some Italian aria, some opera thing or whatever. But it started really early, and I started like auditioning and stuff when I was a kid, mostly for acting because we didn't really know how to get in the music industry.

I was living in Maryland because my dad was in the military.

Yeah. Yeah, and my parents they were my dad and my mom. They started young, like they had me at seventeen and eighteen years old, and so these are like two Cuban refugees, you know, they'd come from Cuba five with their family, big family, and they met eventually in high school, fell in love. Well, I guess they fell in love. They had me, so they had to follow in love.

Back then.

They were like, y'all gotta get married, y'all gotta do this, and they got their lives together. And so my dad was in the military and that's what took us to Maryland. And in Maryland it was just you know, there's not much out there. At that time, but I grew up in the age of MTV. That was also the Information is the year MTV was really born, so it was just so exciting. So I just wanted to embody all

And then from there was just like.

A little short small like baby steps and musical theater kind of was my first foray into music and acting. And I started out in DC at the Fords Theater doing a play and I was an understudy. So I was an understudy, so I had to learn everybody's lines. Everything not always nice to the understudy. So I learned that as a kid that you know to be patient. My time would come. But I watched people every night, had the whole thing memorized from top to bottom, everybody's lines,

Just kidding, not saying that you not saying that you took your chicken pox.

I must have gone back a little too early.

I can give you a hood.

No, that's like our ongoing joke. But I guess technically it was. Maybe it might have been back to a little too soon. And so I got my opportunity to perform. And I just felt the energy of being on that stage performing for a crowd, the voice that you have to belt out, it was invigorating.

I actually swore for my life like.

The most of the beginnings of my career was musical theater, and I thought, that's all I want to do. My musical theater is my life because it was just such a good feeling to be live.

So you weren't even thinking about making records or anything like that.

No, I mean it was a dream, but I just we were like, maybe one day I'll get discovered. We'll be walking in them all and somebody discovered, or maybe I'll go on what was the one not start start star search, you know what I mean. But never bothered to like seek those things. It was just like, maybe we'll get discovered and tell me this.

You two can speak to this as child stars and performers. I was terrified as a kid to get in front of that church and sing a solo, like.

Terrified, But do you find it's maybe because you knew the people.

I think if I.

Sing in front of my family, I was like I don't want to sing in front of my family, But in front of strangers, I was about it.

I was like, this is great, I know.

I mean I would sneak and do it, like I would sneak and play my grandmother's piano when nobody was looking, sneak and play my cousin finals's drums when he wasn't looking. But I wasn't like I wasn't ready to get in front of five hundred one thousand people and that it wasn't emmy. Do you feel like that was something because with you having with you having pops and you having your parents that they kind of they kind of read in you in terms of getting you ready for that

I was.

I was just like I told you, I was such an extrovert because I was just I was born ready for the world because I knew, like with the idea that I could get discovered, because you'd hear these stories. No matter who it was that asked me to sing, I would just start singing anywhere. I'm like in the mall, blah blah blah, this place, that place. I would just start singing because I was like, this might be my

Yeah, I feel like I was raised like yours being born.

I think I was raised and early on, I think for me it was where's the money. My niggas got a couple of dollars on y'all this is what because I mean because early on too, like we were street performers. Yeah, like my family street performers, me and my brothers. So you know that how that goes. That's you know, the crowd gets around and they see these little kids and they throwing money. So I'm like, oh, this is cool. So if you didn't have no money, I wasn't doing

Managed to do some executive ship, but I.

Was right, and I'm not about to just be out here sinking for free. So I think for me, I was I was more so raised into it and brought into it in that sense more so than like one day I was just oh I'm a singer now.

Yeah.

I wasn't that me personally.

I was just I wanted to.

I was. I felt like I was destined for success and something. And my dad was like, you don't have to wait for any man to do it for you. You have to do this, do that. It's all in you.

So I was just like, Okay, that's.

Amazing, that's o Ye. When is discovery? When is like the real? Like I'm not going to say National Geographic when real because that's a gig. I know you got some money for that put in the account. Yeah. When do you feel like that that defining moment where it's like, oh shit, they all of these things that.

I connecting.

Manifest Yeah, I've been knowing I'm gonna do this. Now we're here looking at yah eye.

Okay.

So when I was thirteen, we moved to Los Angeles because I did a play at the Pantags Theater Pantage, Yeah, and all these agents started calling and asking me to stay. They said they had seen the show and they were like, she should stay in Los Angeles.

We were still living in Maryland.

My mom was on the road with me, and so we're like, wow, Hollywood agents are asked for me to stay and they want me to come home and do this. So we considered it, but we went back home because my mom's my grandma was sick. So we went to go take care of her for like a good year year or two, and eventually cancer took over and she passed away. And by that time it was like, Okay, now it's time to take a chance and go We're going to do this.

And I was ready.

I was so ready to get out of Maryland. I was like, he's y'all, I'll see you later. I'm going to Hollywood in Maryland. West Lake High School, you know, Weslake. West Lake High School is in Waldorff, Charles County.

That's where I grew up.

Okay, so I'm in PG County.

I forgot.

We were both from We've been had that show one time in DC a long time ago. It was like a college and so yeah, PG County. I grew up over there. I grew up in Maryland, like right in the.

Room of it and where you would go to go to up against the.

It off with the you know, but the children's places, and then you grow up and you go up.

Yeah.

Yeah, so yes, it was cool, but I was ready to be out. So we just tried it out l a for a second. We said, okay, six months and see what happens. Nothing happened. Six months later, my sisters and we were supposed to come back, and my sisters and I booked all these commercials, and so the commercials is what kept us out here. So we stayed and eventually, like I started to get discovered. So I stayed at the Oca departments.

We know the we started a lot of a lot of people's you know, their their journey and you had like people like Tupac and O dB, all these people there.

I was always always around and I would be selling cookies with my sisters.

They were in the girls Scouts and stuff you need.

People got a lot of money d by and it's when I met Ronnie Jerkins. Yes, so right before Rodney Jerkins, I met another guy that was the in my building. They were called Spanky and Charles. And Spanky and Charles were the first people that they had like a little studio in their apartment and they were like, you do you sing? I was like, yes, I do, and they were like sing for us. So I sang, but all I sang back then was like classical arias and Broadway songs.

So I'm like.

To play life and real musical, like real musical theater. And so they brought me into the studio first. It's before I met Rodney. And this is all at the oak Woods also, and that's where I learned to like my first time behind a microphone and hearing my voice and on a song it was I was hooked.

I was hooked, Like.

How are you?

At this point, I was just thirteen.

I was thirteen, and so we made like two songs were followed spanking and charles around. They were in like a band with like I don't remember. It wasn't earth Win the Fire, but it was somebody the Temptations or something I remember, but they were older gentlemen.

And I was making like some R and.

B, like you know records, but of that style of the night and of the nineties, but it was it was the nineties, yeah, And so I made a couple of demos and then eventually I just started meeting people. It was like a trickle effect. Just started meeting people, and Rodney Jerkins came around. And I met Rodney when I was about fourteen or fifteen fifteen, maybe fifteen forty to fifteen, and he.

Was in his early stage. She was only like eighteen.

He's like eighteen years old, and he invited us to the studio and I remember seeing these massive speakers. I've never seen such huge speakers in my life. And we played the music, your ear drums.

Full out drink yeah, that's what he did.

Yes, that was the first time I experienced music that way. I mean I used to play it up loud in our little tourists you know, our four tours that Yeah, we had the four tourist station wagon. I was the DJ in the car. But when we got to that studio and I heard that music and heard him play and watched him play, and he connected with me and my mom. So my mom is my right had died like this, I said, Carmen is my mom. She's my manager and for years, like she's just everywhere I went.

And we're meeting people constantly.

We're meeting people through Rodney, I'm meeting people at different avenues, just walking walking the street.

Again, like I met a lot.

Of different people, like you know, people from Babyfaces Camp. You know, people would just they were trying to find girls like to sing or to be in girl groups. And so I didn't know these people, but eventually, like you know, they were all legit and they're still here to this day.

You know a lot of these producers A.

And RS and stuff, but Rodney. I made some great people through Rodney and Rodney. Originally he asked me to make some demos. He was like, you want to make some demos, you could practice there and he wanted to sign me. So I was making demos for him and I got him. I got to watch him make the Boys Mine. I got to watch him make all that Brandy album that was a really good album, amazing. I got to see him work with Whitney Houston and he

Run? Can you do this? And I'm like, and Sean, you know everybody, they're making fun of me and stuff.

But I was learning and trying and you know, trying to do runs. I just didn't do that. You know, when you do musical theater. It was just so like plugging, you know, learn and you stick to that. So I learned to find myself by myself emotionally. I wasn't writing back then, but I was singing other people's demos. But it was there that I learned that I wanted to write because it was the really like I just sometimes

That happened later on.

But yeah, Brodney, I didn't end up signing with him, and I don't even think we got to the paper, but I started to the papers part of it. But I started to meet other people, and I think, like at sixteen, I took a music as a business class at Valley College over here, and I met a gentleman who worked with David Foster, and they also ended up wanting to offer me a deal.

I got a little deal.

The deal was offer was like twenty five thousand dollars, but it was David Foster, and I learned about the music business and I got an attorney, and then the attorney was like, you should probably meet some other people before you sign this deal. So we're like okay, and so they set up some meetings and I ended up going to New York and meeting with Island f Jam. I met with Sony, I met Tommy Mottola, I met Leo Cohen, and I just sang for them. I made a demo. I ended up writing a song for myself.

In the house of my sisters. I used to make Yeah, they had to sing yeah to act out what I did. Pup show.

I'm the director, you said, the puppet rail station, the record and play and record on the little play.

Yeah, that was me say this. They are the puppet by the way too.

So you all these means you do the you do the whole thing. Yeah, where you go sit practically you you're naming all the labels at this time.

Yeah everybody.

Yeah, that was that was crazy to me because like I finally had a little CD collection. Oh no, no, it might have been cassette. I wasn't on CDs yet. I was like, I'm not CD. But when I finally did get into CDs, I was sixteen seventeen years old and I had like my little record book, my little CD book, and I had most of the artists in there were rappers. I love the jay z Jall Rule, all these people. Most of them were artists. So in my head, I was like, you got either bad Boy.

So those were like two big record laklans.

Like what I had plans. I had dreams. It was really like dreams, but.

You were very concerned. It's almost like you were studying, like this is gonna this is where, this is where it's gonna work best for me.

I was like, there's no other person that competes. They would appreciate me this. I would be the girl of the team, you know what I mean. I would be that person. But at the same time, I was like, I want to be an urban pop artist, Like I'm not just R and B, but I'm urban pop. I want to go really mainstream, And back then they only had like, you're only listening to pop radio hip hop radio.

Remember it was also, I'm so separated.

If you wanted to be if you made a pop song, you want to be on R and B radio or hip hop radio, you had to get a feature from hip hop artists.

Now it's all.

So I had to find this like happy middle. But I just knew that I was both, you know, it was all of it. I was like, I'm not going to be just you know, one tone. And I was like, I want to dance, but I didn't know how to dance. By the way, I didn't I didn't take dance lessons.

Or I wanted to dance.

But yeah, I was like, I want to be Michael Jackson.

I want to be Jenna Jackson, but I don't take dance classes because we can't afford it. But I'm going to do it the musical theater. I faked it the whole way too. I said I was the tap dancer. I said I could ride horses. I can skateboard. Yeah, I've seen kills, you know, ride never.

Have a horse.

I was like, I want to learn it.

Pop in to the meeting. You pop it to the meeting and they say so you ride horses first.

My skills were deep, but you have no idea that's how That's what my list was. So I was like, whatever the case is, I'm going to learn it, you know. And so yeah, I met Tommy Wutola, I went to them, I came back again, did a whole meeting. I met Jeff Finster at Island def Jam and he was the first. He was the one that discovered and signed Backsheet Boys. He was the A and R for Britney Spears and Sink and so they brought him over to Island f JAM.

I was like, what a perfect union for what I want.

You are doing so much.

It was a great, amazing.

Calculating and processing at an early age.

Like I had a lot of information.

None of that is like, give me a d I was like, I didn't even know that was like you're still talking about sixteen seventeen eighteen. I'm still at church, not even considering R and B. But I mean we had a deal with Verity Records doing gospel and stuff like that. But I didn't even know what that meant, you know what I mean. I just wanted to get on my two keyboards and sing my songs. And write my songs. I didn't know there was life after that, that there was a whole thing happening that I was

I'm like, cool, cool, and put the music out.

Oh we lost that deal. We don't get a deal because we got another one coming there. We'll get deal with such.

A Ya that happened. Yeah, people work didn't go through that.

Barry Higginson says he would blackground records now is it cool?

I'll I'll tak it whatever.

But you're like doing so was that a result of, of course, not just you understanding or wanting to understand the terrain, but also having your mom involved to have that back and forth and have those those Yeah, my mom.

I mean she, like I said, we were really close. We still we're very close. And like because she was a young mom. We were talking about her being in her thirties and I'm like, you know, early thirties. And it was when my parents, like I don't know where

But it really, like all of a sudden, our life.

Kind of changed, like like a from zero to one hundred real fast. We went from living this like it was a more middle class family life and really surviving off of what we you know, my money, our family money. It's nothing like my dad working his butt off. My mom had to quit her job help with all this stuff, and next thing you know, we were on our feet on our own, like my dad.

It kind of shifted.

It was a shift, and we've come to terms with the reasons why and everything, and you know what was happening in our life. But all of a sudden, it was my mom and I having to raise my two sisters and we decided to stay here in California instead of going back to Maryland. And so because we made that choice my dad, it was like a separation of everything from financ shoal to everything. So we were surviving on our own. So in that time, it was a rough,

To do it.

And I had to get her back on her feet and say, Mom, like we're here, We're still living life. And she had to get her life together again because she was just so distraught over it. And I remember we went to the grocery store and we went to go buy groceries and we found out like the credit cards everything was cut off, so we're gonna have to survive.

So she started taking temp.

Jobs, I started babysitting, hosting at restaurants, We started cleaning houses together, and we really went through this survival mode of like work, work, work, but we were just working to survive. But also life was actually kind of great at that time when you're at your life hardest time and you really have faith, but you're in a situation where it's like we had no furniture. We just moved through the whole apartment thinking like life was gonna be fine.

You really appreciate with that nothing that.

Says you appreciate, like having toilet paper from the dollar store instead of getting it from you know, McDonald's up the street and getting ketchup or whatever. You liked the can of beats that's the only food that you have in the house, and you mix it up with some olive oil and so, oh my gosh, it tastes like a damn stk rob and noodles taste like a steak and lobster. You're like, I don't know what these rich people are talking about, but I could live like this.

This apartment is fine. We do. We as a family were such a union.

And our friends were so dope. We had so many friends from all of rich my friends. I had a lot of kind of like young black, wealthy friends, and they used.

To love to come to my house and like thug it out with us.

It was like everybody's sitting on the floor watching TV and my Mom's just like the cheapest thing to make

This music part.

You really want to do this, then let's focus is when my mom and I went to a we went to a food line in North Hollywood.

There's a church.

I know you've probably seen it all the time. It's on like Moore Park and like Colfax, and they still do this. They give away food to those that need it. And we went there because we had no food. And by the way, blessings would happen sporadically out of nowhere all the time, so that's like we find like one hundred dollars on the floor or something. Just random things would happen so that we really were surviving off of that.

She started reading books.

She had just started reading books about music as a business, and this is what made me go to school for music as a business. She read about just contracts and focusing on that because we seemed so close to everything, but it just never got there. We were like, there's something there, and I really wanted it. And so we made this promise to each other that I would always take care of her. To promise that to my mom to this day, I said, I just need you to

Doing at the time, but they's just.

Say she had to use her voice, yes, And let me tell you the next day.

Her voice was gone. She needed her voice for this job.

And just like our neighbors knocked on the door said hey, we're moving out. Do you want the milk? Do you want the stuff in our cabinet? And like we just appreciated all the little things, the little answers were coming to us. I would find like ten cents under the couch so I can get a little gas, just so I can go to the Valley College and get my anda take these lessons. And that's where I met the gentleman from David. So it was like we're just getting

Just Censer came to me again, offered the deal.

I went in sing acapella, got my deal singing acapella and what You're gonna do about a demo?

And the day I finally signed my deal. We literally drove our little tour station wagon to the attorney's office and that.

Thing it was broken down. We were laughing, my mom and I because there was smoke coming out the car. We had to push our car there. We had to push our car there. We finally made it there. It was right off of like Highland and Hollywood Boulevard. Signed my deal and on the way home we got it to start again, and then it stopped like right on the hill, like you know when you're like the Hollywood Bowl, and.

Stopped right there.

We were there and my mom and I are laughing and crying, laughing like we just signed a deal for.

One hundred and twenty five thousand dollars.

I didn't think I'd ever seen money like that, and we went from zero I had actually been. We were getting evicted and my attorney had to forward us money in the meantime because I wasn't going to be able to pay it. And so we're laughing and crying and like, look at us, look at what's happening right now. It was so humble. It's so humble, our humble beginnings, Like stick with me. That's probably why I'm very frugal and all this other stuff because I'm like always like you know,

That's it.

That's incredible.

That's an incredible story. And it just shows you got to stick to what you really want. Yeah you know what I mean, because so many people you just never know how close you are, yes, right, And for you and your mom to have that moment together to say, listen, all right, no more this, no more that, no more this, because we're focused on getting you to a certain place and actually getting there.

Yeah, that moment.

Of relief and that like you said your car had broken down, but you broke down with a with one hundred and twenty five.

You got five if you just picked me up.

Somebody pushed us.

They pushed ark and said there was somebody saw us and they pushed our car from their car and they pushed us up the hill. But yeah, it's crazy that walk that I had with my mom was like an it was an eye because the option was stay and dug it out and let's make this happen, or go back to Maryland. And I was like, I just don't see it. I don't see me going back to Maryland. All my friends that I had from back in Maryland at that time, they started, you know, doing drugs out

I wasn't going back to There.

Was no giving up. I was like, I'm not giving up.

And that Maryland was a bad place, not at all.

It just felt like the opportunity.

I'm in Hollywood, the land of opportunity. If I go home, if I just pack it up and go home, I've given up.

Yes, that's exactly, And I was not. I was not giving up.

So let me just move out to Rancho Cuckamonga, you know, just a little ways away, okay, where I can afford it, you know, where they can't really see me doing bad or Corona. Yeah, you know what I mean, until I'm still here. I still I still can drive my stick shift Ford Escort.

So you had a Ford that Scort, she had a four tours.

Yeah, we're in the family. Thank you for you know what I'm saying, the very wheel spell off.

So now you got your deal.

Yeah.

People don't realize now it's a whole nother process.

Yeah.

Yeah, because now you gotta find songs.

Now you got to people, you might get shelved.

How long does it take you to get to the record with you and ji U? Between me and you?

Okay, I think it took I signed my deal September. I think by the next summer that that song came out. So I signed my deal. I was making music.

Are you still acting? In between two?

Though I was at the I was I had gotten to the job on Disney Channel, so I was like Tina from the movie Surfers.

So that was actually that was one of those.

Checks that would come I would get sporadically, that was like one of the things that helped us. So I too, and I was getting a name for being Tina from the movie Surfers. And also this probably helped me move my deal. Because Disney kids were popping and popping through they were trying to find Disney kids. So that probably really helped because when I look at it, I'm like, I don't sing that great, and I wasn't dancing.

Oh, you know what I mean.

But I had enough of a chance and a globe that walked in and they were like they saw it, and so yeah, I had squit this Disney because by then I was like seventeen, eighteen eighteen, and I was like, I can't do this high pitch voice anymore.

And I was just in the studio and surviving off this money. So I was doing fun.

I didn't have to do the acting at the moment, and I was tired of doing like girl number four, number three, you know what I mean.

I wasn't getting my main roles.

So I was making music and unfortunately, for a period of time, there was I did it something that could have helped me back. I ended up in an abusive relationship for a little while, but my def gen people really like stuck with me, and my mom was on me, and I stuck it out and I eventually got out of that and I made this trip my A and R. Jeff said come to New York and start working on music here. So I went to New York and in that trip, I was able to break off of that relationship.

I can't let this stop me.

And so I went to New York and I started working on music there and I met my Her name is Shanita Floyd.

She was like my creative director, I guess, she would say.

And she got a call from IRV Gotti and IRV was looking for somebody to sing between me and you, and he wanted somebody that kind of sing.

Like Mariah Vibe. He wanted, like I forgot the song.

There was a song that Mariah did maybe with buster rhymes or something like that, and he wanted that kind of sweet spot voice. And they or the song was written and she's like, go to the studio and I was like, they're like, would you want to do this?

I was like yeah. I was like, I'll go to the studio and hear the song.

So I went and I met IRV and I had Irven his God bless him, and May he rest in peace. He had this loud New York energy and everything with bananas and it was electric.

Banana.

That was the first time I was in the studio, so like there was a gun on the table. I was like, oh my here, you know, the guys had to protect themselves. But Job Rule was one of my first you know, theft jam albums CDs that I bought, so I was a band of Ja Rule, like, oh yeah, I want to work with them, And so he played me to the song and the song was dope.

It was there.

So I went in the booth, sang it, didn't know anything of it, left, the left my mom and I left, and within a month we're shooting a music video David Myers up in like Porter Ranch, Chatsworth and this giant house and I'm shooting a video and it was like overnight. It was those chances that I would take of sacrificing, Like even when you're in an abusive relationship, it is a sacrifice to leave something because you're scared and you're

It was crazy.

I was like, yeah, like at Ralph's on Venture Boulevard one day, all of a sudden, I'm power one of six, I'm hearing the song and I'm sitting in the in the parking lot with my mom, and I'm like, I just thought, I'm calling people.

I'm hearing myself on the radio like like it was.

It was that's when you you cry and you're counting your blessing. You're connecting back to the moment of walking and you know, you know, the whole I've lived. I still live in the area where all of this stuff happens, you know, So I passed by these places and remind myself of this stuff all the time.

So yeah, the job Rol.

Song came out, Give You that's when the label was like, okay, studio, I go to Sweden. Oh yeah, like yeah, I go to Sweden. It had been took like four months. It was like maybe maybe two maybe two and a half months. I made an album.

And you said to Sweden to make it.

I went to Sweden. I went to Norway. That was my first time at the country. I still have these videos. Was watching the other day and I was such a novice, like like, wow, look there's a burger king.

Wow, this is that?

And and yeah, I went and worked with a couple couple people stricken to Rogers.

These guys name bloodshin Avunt, even what's his name?

My mama, Mama Mark Mark when we made all the Brittey Spears records, I should.

Know this, Yeah, Max Martin.

Historic. So these are people.

Well I'm like watching, you know, and I'm in the studio making records. And I started writing.

I really started the I started.

Yeah, it was with Bloodshed. I started writing.

And because people were giving me songs at eighteen talking about there were either two overly sexualized or always like I've got pictures of him on my wall.

I look at him.

It's always admiration and like over the top of guys, and I'm like, well, what about my real experiences, Like I didn't fit in in school, girls didn't like me, you know the you know the records about.

Just like real high school stuff.

And so I started writing those songs with really great melodies and pop sounds. And when I was working with him, I ended up writing a song called play also, and that was supposed to be like I wrote that right before song. The next day, I wrote a song called AM to PM. So play was something I did in like twenty minutes. I didn't think anything of it.

I was like, Oh, it's cool, Bampa, doctor Seuss. I was like, is this too simple? My Mom's like it's great, you know simple, It's good.

And by the way, I studied to write because I didn't think I could write, So my mom told me, if you could read, you could write. So I did study a lot of the greats to learn how to write songs in the formats, all that stuff that was happening also in those really broke times.

So that's what we do.

We go to Second Spin on Ventura and we would listen to music for free, because you get the CDs, you listen to music and so anyways, so that's how I learned how to write, learn how to format.

I wrote a first song, my first song called you Make Me Laugh.

Anyways, So play happens and I was like, oh, it's a good song write am TOPM.

I'm like, that's a great song. This is me.

And then like a week later, Tommy Watola comes to Sweden to come get some songs for j LO and he hears the song play and he's and he fell in love with it, and he's like, we need this song for Jenny Lopez. And they were like do you are you? Do you? Are you cool to give it away?

I was like, oh yeah, yes, please, yes, I don't like the song like that. I was like, am TOPM.

Was my party song. I was like, there's no way they're going to put two party songs on this album. I'm going to keep AM to PM. Yes, yes to j LO. And so yeah, I'm like I got a song on j LO by accident.

It was so cool.

I went to New York she recorded the song like it blew my mind. And then I started writing for other people too, and it's just it was crazy and yeah.

Eventually AM to PM came out of course.

Unfortunately it came out around the nine to eleven era, so a lot of that changed, a lot of the trajectory of music. I ended up getting Johnny Right as a manager, so he started co managing with my mom and Johnny Wright.

Was handling Britney Spears and Sync.

When I tour within Sync, which was cool and opening for them, Yes, I opened for.

Them and the week my album was it was crazy. Yeah.

I met my idol. The day I went to MTV, I met Jenny Jackson.

The one day you go up there having a meeting.

Jenny Jackson was going to surprise PRL and come out and they decided they said.

You want to meet her?

Yes, absolutely, They.

Brought me down to her. I walked in that room. Guys, I couldn't get a word out of my mouth. I was like, like, I said, Hi, I was like so timid.

I had my mom with me. All I said was nice to meet you. She was glowing. That's the thing. I walked in there. She was glowing. She had an art she was glowing, and she.

Was petite, and she was telling me that she saw my music video and she was telling me, my mind, did.

You never know who's watching no, you never know who's watching.

It blew my mind and I was on MTV. I'm like, this is my dreams that come in true. Like she left the room or I left the room, I can't even remember. And I was I cried for two hours and laughter in tears and crying good.

Like I was crazy, but I was crying.

I was so happy, like everything just unfolded so beautifully and so it was so cool and it was such a time. This is why people don't like. People ask me about doing music now and I just don't know.

It's cool. It's cool, is it? I have to ask you.

My husband does it, but he does it in France, I think on a really international level. And I had MTV and I had the nineties, nineties, two thousands.

Early two thousands, man please, there was like, yeah, there was so music mediums, like especially visually you know what I mean with that MTV and those like music videos, worry things.

You spent your money on that being man what And people watched it. People came home after kids came home after school.

It was a tradition.

I think they made it more normal.

Now music feels too in my opinion, it feels too normal.

Because back then, doing a video right was special because you have to actually have an't you called just content. You have to have a You couldn't use this to shoot a video.

I mean the first time a director said that to me, he was like, you know, I shot it on my iPhone.

I said, oh, we're fucked. Dang, I said, we're fuck.

No, in my head, I was like when someone said that, I was like, damn.

If I would have had that, then do you know how many songs I wanted to put out or how many videos I wanted to do? People telling me no because you technically did what the label told you in a way or what they were down for what they would commit to. But like I have video ideas. I wanted to shoot so many things, and eventually people did.

Do that, and I was like, damn, I should have done that.

Well, it just wasn't economical back No, it wasn't. Yeah that and that's you know that, that's where videos also made star videos may start.

They made stars.

These pieces of content don't really make our stars.

Like they introduced you to artists.

They engagement, and it's engagement, but maybe not even I won't say they don't make superstars they don't make superstars.

All the superstars have videos with labels and still.

Still don't you got videos? Still it says they got video Chris Brown got videos, Beyones got videos, drakevideos, can videos.

Name some new people who got videos.

They don't got videos.

Those your cat got videos. Those you can't got videos.

But those are super That's what I'm saying.

Those are Those are the superstars now though, and they still have that. The rest of the artists don't have that. Let me shoot this in my hood real quick.

Yeah, you're gonna.

Get a buzz off of it, and that's cool.

It's not gonna make it to me because it's just something about the screen, something about that screen, right, It's just like being.

In the movie There was Now I don't even get to watch music videos.

Did I make music videos?

Man?

You know, I'm surprised.

Sometimes there are videos, but we just don't get to seek them all the way. Like I'll find out when I go on the treadmill and I'm like, Okay, I just want to see listen to music, So I'll go on put a playlist on, and I'm like, oh.

They made a video for that. Like, but you're right.

Still, some people are just making like lyric videos and stuff because it's like why spend the money. But it was just a different time. We had the platforms. Is when we had we had MTV overseas, we had all these different networks of shows that you will perform on PEPSI smash this, that, blah blah blah, and it was just so exciting. And I just don't like if it doesn't give me that vibe, and I got a hustle and that probably not make any money, not that much money,

You know, now it's just touring and maybe merchant stuff. But figure out the numbers how you do that character show?

You know what I mean.

I mean, that's that's a big tricky That's the only real thing. Those the numbers that they've created. Now as far as like the streaming, it's all bullshit. Yeah, I'll say it clearly, it's all bullshit, you know what I mean? Somebody telling you that you gotta stream fifteen hundred times for it to be considered one download?

Like who made that dumb ass shit up?

Are you?

Yeah?

Crook?

That's crazy?

Crook made that up?

Right?

Because and then it's like, okay, are the numbers even real? Because you can trick the algorithm. Somebody may have phones just running over unning about that, you know what I mean.

So it's a lot of things.

The only thing that's that's in my opinion, that's really tangible is going out there and performing for your for your audience and for your fans.

When you show up to that room five hundred or one thousand or fifteen hundred, that's gonna tell strong what the truth is outside. All that makes the stream and YouTube and all I get it? What do the people say, though, Yes, that's how you define it. Yeah, I'm gonna jump around a little bit because my stories no no, no, no, no, I'm learning, like, like I've learned so much about you that it's really really.

Cool that I had no idea good, Like.

Really your journey is really really awesome, let's go here because because this is I want to go and sequence your order. Love don't cost the thing? Oh two thousand.

And three, right, great movie?

Yep, how'd you land that? Just me me quick.

I was surprised. I was going away with that one.

My first album came out only overseas because, like I said, nine to eleven kind of change the trajectory of that. But I had a name that was out there. Am TOPM did come out between me and you came out. But I got a call from Troy Bayer. That's she's an actress who was also a director.

She's great.

She ended up writing the script to have a general meeting, and that was one of my first general meetings that I had. It was like an in between album thing. I was coming back to you know, LA, because I

Script or anything.

They had introduced me, given me a script, and they were just talking to me, and I'm like, okay, cool, We're here having this meeting in Santa Monica talking and it was like the producers and stuff didn't really know anything of what was happening. But she was just smiling. She was just so happy to see me. It's just something to director Troy, and she kind of looked like she could be like my big sister. So I think

The whole and I always felt like he was nerdy.

He was young, Yeah, we were both young, but I always felt like he was a little bit nerd.

He just wasn't my type, you know. So I was like, how perfect fit. He's popular in Nickelodeon.

It's this and he's actually a really nice guy and so when he came in and we all had this meeting, they were like they still were on the fence. They were thought maybe jee Jackson, and I was like, no, it's Nick. I think it's Nick. And so they went off of my off of my.

Say and said we'll do Nick.

And so Nick ended up being Alvin and within what didn't take much like I don't even know how they green lit it and it happened so fast, but whatever period of time it was, the production.

Company was ready.

We shot the movie, and I mean it was the best experience ever. I just I was nervous because I finally had a lead role, so it was gonna fall on me and I was gonna had to actually memorize all these lines and everything. But it was easy. It was so easy. Troy was an amazing director. She was great, such a great guide. My connection with Nick I was we had great chemistry and it grew over time in

Mean, Sometimes I was like nobody's my friend here.

And Nick and I connected and had this chemistry on screen and of course in person.

That happened eventually.

Where you got to see that and now you know, after that role, I immediately got another role.

What happened because because you're having a time right now, like you're starting like.

Two thousand and three, two thousand and three, you.

Start having a time, then you drop it's about time and hit that hot one hundred with dip it low. Yes, yeah, yeah, you're cooking right now.

Yes. So I'm back in the studio, back in the studio.

So Love don't cost a thing. The record company said, yeah, we got some money.

You want album going, keep going, Come on, I'm in the studio. I'm trying to find a hit. By the way, I'm making songs. I consistently was in the studio, by the way, all this time, because music was still like. I was like, there's no reason I can't do both. So I'm still in the studio doing and filming Love don't cost the thing, but I'm making songs movies over I'm still continuing to make songs. But I still didn't have that hit. I didn't have that home, so I

Billy Billy's in the building. Big Billy like he was at Deaf Jam.

I made best friends with him and Billy is he is one of the A and R's here on the West Coast and he's just one of my best friends who just believed in me. And he's another lover of like the Jacksons, Michael Janet and he just gets it too.

And Billy, Billy knew some producers.

I called him one day, I said, Billy, I said, I want to meet as many producers as possible. I need to find a hit. And so just put me like every hour I want to go to a studio, meet somebody listening to some music. Tell him I want to come in, and you know, because not every hour is like maybe you have two hours because you got traffic in La So I had one meeting and then he told me about this guy named Polly Paul and

And TJ.

Moses is the one that wrote it. She's singing the song, and my mom and I.

Have chills thinking about this. We looked at each other and we were like, that's it. You know, you don't say that. I loved And they started playing game. They started over play Oh, so and So wants it? So I got a lot of that.

You find a song like oh but so and So wants oh but it. Songs that never even came out to this day. So I heard, We heard that song, and we just knew it was immediate.

It was immediate.

We didn't say it in front of him, but we knew. Then he played some other songs. We're like, yeah, those are good. That's a good great We were like that Diplot song, that would be a good one.

That would be a good one. That's great.

Yeah, I should explore it.

Let me tell you.

We got in the car my mom and I called Billy like Billy sorry, that was prob. We got it. We got it. We got it. Called the label do this do that? We got to set this up. We got to record this song. That's the one. It's the one. I'm telling you, it's the one. Billy was so excited, you know, because it's like as a friend and as an an r and you know that your friend is happy, and those meetings were set upright.

And everything was was good. Everybody was good.

But that song we knew we had the single single is everything. First single, that's first single, and now we know it's dip it low like diplo. Is my biggest song today. So I went in and Uh Schaeffer, which is Neo. He was my vocal producer, and I sang that song. And thank you teacher Moses, Moses for writing it also being a great demo guide because most of what I did on top of what I did on my own.

Was her flair, you know what I mean.

She was a great inspiration for that and I found my I felt sexy already in that time.

I was twenty one, twenty twenty one. There was a big change. Also, you had like.

All the maxims and all this other stuff. So it was it's like I feel this, I am this, I'm ready to make this leap into my womanhood.

Yeah, she just jumped over King magazine. You went right to Maximum.

King was the Queen of King most magazines ever sold.

It was the time.

Platinum, the time.

We did a couple of those, by the way.

So yeah, I fell into my woman Hud. I felt confident this was me, and it felt like even though I didn't write it, and it was rare that I would find songs that didn't write that I connected with. So this one, I just felt it and it was right, and so I recorded it. The label was super happy

Then I started getting movies. I got be Cool.

That's ship. I don't do no no this nigga loves be Cool.

Well, the video for Dipple Little helped me also, like I showed them after I got me cool.

But keep going. Let's let's back it up, going, go ahead, tank.

Go ahead, Well, now Diplo in my pocket.

Now we're two thousand and five. We be cool? Yes, I don't even think you understand how many times me and Zina have watched this funny movie. It comes on today, I stopped and watch It's just one of my movies. I love that movie. Like in this period in time, like this, this, this, this is I just want to I just want you to speak to this is life.

That means, what's happening.

But we're still like it's crazy because we're still living like this, like a really cool regular life because we're still saving.

I'm sure you don't have to get My little.

Sisters are going to school in North Hollywood High School. I'm showing up at the little you know, the little you know prom thing, being the ambassador little things, showing up for my sisters because they also had to sacrifice a lot too from like me being away. I felt like I was like their parents too, So yes, all this stuff, I was like, I'm doing it for me, for my family or my sisters. There were my daughters, you know, and uh yeah, it was the time. I'm

Yeah, yeah, are you kidding me?

Yeah?

Tell me about it. I was blown away that I got it.

Did you have to audition?

I auditioned four times, and that time I was exhausted. I was shooting the movie Man of the House Tommy Lee Jones in Texas. Love Don't Cost a Thing came out that same month, and I came back to do these auditions for f Gary Gray and I sang, well should I feel this good?

I sing?

I can't sing right now, but I was singing it, singing and that was the song I was using to sing it. And I did my audition and they loved it, and there were a couple of really really great contenders I was up against. It was like a handful of women that were up for this role. So I was really surprised actually that I got it because they're real the sangers, and they're really popular. And when it came down to my last audition, I was exhausted. I was

You have to negotiate for the it's.

Kind of like it's kind of like a screen test, so you kind of have to negotiate if you if they're going to agree to what's happening. If not, you don't do the audition, you do not even doing the movie. So this last screen test, my attorney was was like for an hour and a half. I was sitting inside the driveway and I had practic singing so much that my voice was actually kind of tired, so I was like,

This is the last one.

And I went in there and I sang and I did crack a little because I was tired. It was like, how my voices right now is got scratchy. But it was just a small crack. But I had enough parisma, I guess, and enough of the auditions enough that Efgary Gray saw something and the innocence I think still in

It's just a man, Yeah, maybe you'll feel me. I don't have to say words.

And then I was on the set with these people and I'm like, what am I doing here?

I had it was pinched me.

It was pinched me all the whole time, just like and you're shocked that I'm working with these legends, these amazing of a plus actors and I couldn't believe I was there with them and I was singing, and I'm the focused.

My character is the focus of this movie, Linda Moon, Linda Moon. John Travolta's my manager.

These people are fighting over me in this movie. Alicia Keys wrote one of the songs. Bergie and wrote one of the songs. And will I am Vince Vaughn. Like the scene actually with me and Vince Vaughan in the beginning where he's like, Linda, get over here, blah blah blah, and by the arm like I really fel grabbed me and I slipped in my little wedges and I love that they kept that stuff in there. But he stays in character, by the way, even when he's not feeling

What's your favorite? You have a favorite between being an artist or being an actress?

Not at all?

Are you just like I'm doing everything?

You're doing everything. I loved doing everything.

People try to break me away from doing one or the other, like the label would be like she has to do acting. They didn't really tell me I had to do that, but they kind of were like she has to a little bit. There was a there was a like she's gonna get more movies she focuses on. And I was like, no, I can do it all. And even at the label, they were fighting over me. I went, if you look at my albums, I was

I just kept doing it.

Sometimes I had to make these adjustments and do things their way, especially music label wise, and then would prove itself like if it didn't work, it just didn't fit. But yeah, it was a it was a beautiful time. I ended up going on tour after that with Usher and Kanye West.

Your tour lineup is pretty crazy and it's pretty cool.

Confessions Tour at that that was Kanye West the Graduation like College drop Out that say, it was college the College Dropout album and we have.

Never people. He's honest.

Time he was cooking. I don't I don't want to. I don't want to gloss over bring it on.

Oh that was yeah, that's still girls to because it bring it on is a thing. It is a thing that they came to me, Universal came to me. That was a straight up offer. I no longer had a record deal. I had gotten dropped from ild Def Jam after my third album. It was a crazy like drop, but it happened, and I was in this lull and I still wanted to do music, and uh.

But I didn't know you know, the labels.

You know how labels it could be like people don't want you to be somewhere else, so they'll talk about you, and you know, so I was like in this crazy place and next thing I know, I got a call out of nowhere to bring it on and it was great money, great franchise.

I needed them. I did.

When I say money is because again you go through dips as an entertainer. Everything is not certain. People have to understand like it might be famous, but it's nothing is certain. You have to be you have to let your pride go to the side sometimes, but this is not a pride thing. I was a fan of to bring it on, you know, franchise, and they brought me a really great deal and I was like, yeah, I love the script and I did it. And now to this day, I have little girls and their mama coming

Okay, Yeah. And I had so much fun doing it. It was great. It was an awesome opportunity.

One thing that's awesome about what you were able to do with your career is you were able to really establish an overseas presence, yes, which which which pays dividends as you as you moved in through move through those highs and lows, because something about overseas, Yeah, they just they stick, which yeah they rocking.

Which they still then they still rock with me whether I'm doing music or not. When you see those numbers on those Netflix films and when you see numbers on you know, especially movie these they do numbers these days. A lot of things data driven. That's what streams are for, for data. And and when you see that, you're like a movie you do is number one in over seventy five countries.

Speak because of that relationship I've carried with them.

You know that.

You know my sister did that movie with you?

Which one?

Meet me at Christmas?

Which one?

Oh my gosh, yes, yes, yes, yes, let's tell you you know ser tomorrow.

That's my girl.

There's most people.

Most people don't. Most people don't put two and two together.

Because our last name is new but my middle name is Valentine, So.

Most people don't put it together. We don't always say it. You know what I'm saying, Like, you know, she has her career.

She surprised me when she talks about it. I forgot. I didn't put it. I did didn't even put the two together.

I love her, She loves you.

She did a fantastic you.

Guys did an amazing movie and we watched it over Christmas. Loved it the whole family.

She's like, and make sure what was the extra one?

It's like excellent movie makes all y'all got got you?

Oh man, Yes, that's amazing.

She's great. She's an awesome producer.

Now I've gotten just step into the producer lane, you know, which is cool on producing movies now.

And so that was one of.

My first I produced an independent before that, and then I just was an executive producer with Netflix after I've done two very successful movies with them. They trusted and trusted in me and my gut feeling about how to do this. And I'm pretty good at rom coms, you know, Love Don't Cost a Thing, and and Latania and I and also Christina Rogers she introduced me Militania. She entrusted in the both of us to really help put this project together in a way that would make it work

She stay with us the whole way. She could have left.

She still like that. You still like that for sure?

You're sending me leon. We got TV film, we got records producers. Now we got my nickname is snacks. Now we got these motherfucking Ben.

And said my daughter two days ago. Listen, she loves it.

No disrespect to anybody, am I beignets anywhere? You got my favorite beignets. No, no disrespect to anyone, to the originators of the idea, just.

God, and say what you gotta say, disrespect.

Your beignets are my favorite. Thank you light extra powders sugar for me late almost died. It was so much powdered sugar. And I breathed in hell, Never in hell, yesterday powdered sugar for the love of God.

Gosh, no the first bite, never in hell, because the powdered sugar is just gonna go straight.

What really quickly? What made you say I'm going to start? Ben? Yeo okay, Ben.

Yeah okay.

So in the between, after all the music has happened, and after being bring it on, I started living real life after I had a divorce, so my daughter Violet came along, I met dream, got married, had a crazy world when life of one year and a half and then I had to figure out my life after that, I'm getting a divorced, got a divorce, the whole deal, and I'm like, what am I gonna do. I'm figuring out my career, start getting a little rolls here and there.

So I started to go.

Out and I had a friend named Liz that I met. We know, she's not my Venia box partner, but Liz was in the scene.

She knew people.

And I met Liz through an organization, like we were going to work on an organization mentoring kids and that were in a Plowster care system.

And through our.

Connection there on one side, we're like doing all the you know, foundation hands on work, and we're also girls going out clubs and partying and stuff like that, and we just grew this bond. We grew this tight, tight friendship. And through that type friendship, we meet lots of girls, girls become our friends.

Girls in the bathroom, girls this you.

Know what I mean, you're going out, And we just grew this clique of girls that just was growing, you know. And so after my divorce, I started to go back out again. It was that revenge body, revenge life. I got to get my life together, but I know that also being on the scene helps me get my roles, helps me do this da da And we eventually decide let's get a place together.

She had this place called the Sugar Shock.

So the Sugar Shock is where all the girls got together hung out sugar Shack, and we're there and everybody's doing their business, doing their life. And I started to become an entrepreneur. I had this thing called Platinum Hookah that I started at the time and it was getting popping by the way. By the way, that would have been a big business. It was these little, little known nicotine hookah sticks, which is really popular, and I was killing it. Let me tell you, I was killing it.

So we always used to say. So we ended up moving in.

I moved in with her because I'm single, I'm with the girls all the time. I needed to get out of my mom's house because that's where I was after my divorce, and I was like, I can't keep doing this.

I had Violet, so.

I was like, my girls, I'm with them all the time. We're raising Violet together. We're a village. Plus to have my sisters and my mom. But we said to each other, Liz and I were like, we just saw what we had on our hustle, and we were like, someday we need to do a business together. We need to figure it out. We need to do something local in Studio City.

And lord, let me tell you, we.

Were like ben like we're girls, you know, drinking wine and having bagnets, like you know, we're bringing it back. But it just wasn't the same when we would bringing back like there it was great. We'd bring them back to the house and it was like kind of like doe and cold and it was just not the same thing.

But the sugar, the sugar was doing a thing.

So we're like, before we go back to La, we need to get some Beagnets again. We have to do it again. We're like, Liz, you have to bring us back. And it was there that we were like, there's no Begnets in La.

Why not Beignet's in La. And this was like.

We were like all of us are, Yeah, we should d D D And Liz started to do the numbers and see what the business of it would be and it just made sense and so yeah, like it sounded like it just made sense.

We loved it. We knew there was nothing like it.

There was a food culture in La and just the world that food is everything, and we decided that was gonna be the Begnet.

So it took us some time.

She started working on We really first started working on the look of the branding.

That's what Liz does.

And through that time we started to figure out what's the Begnet, what's gonna be the best tasting, most flavorful. What's going to make sense in La? Why did we choose La?

Our friends were there.

It was gonna be the community, the people, and but you know La, we're also like health conscious, were also like fit.

It's conscious.

We're like, we got to do something a little bit light, but give them the same flare.

Unless we got and we figured out the.

Run off the turkey, then we don't care about none of that.

It's okay, just go a light.

Bo I say it's a diet because they're super light. They're very fluffy, the layered, and that's why we thought it would be the perfect benyet.

The mini Ben. Ye.

Yeah, you guys were one of our first customers too. We started with the truck. That's holy.

That's how I found out about it. Yeah, coming to the house, I see the truck.

Yeah, and out of nowhere, I see Christie in the window.

I'm like serving people cooking.

It's taking sure, everyone's getting it.

Okay, you got to search now, fine, give me give me two boxes.

Really awesome.

Yeah, it's cool. It's a crazy start.

We were like, we do a shop and then we couldn't figure out the shops. Too many permits and too much stuff. And then Liz, Liz is the go get her. That's the one thing like, that's the partner I chose was right for me, and she chose I was right for her because we're connect we're connectors, we're one with

I don't want to have to do all the work.

That she is really what she's really good at. She doesn't want to have to do it all the time. And I have been there when I can, especially in the beginnings. But she's one of those people. She's a boss, and she learns things and she grows things, and she's not afraid to get her hands, you know, in the dirt and learned some lessons and to get us where we are even in the hardest times, because you know, we've gone through pandemic, we've gone through actors strike, we've

How many restaurants do you guys have now?

Right now, we have two trucks and we have one location, okay, And the reason we did that just wanted to focus on we want a franchise, and so our biggest thing was learning the different ways this company could work. So we've had a brick and mortar. We've had a really big brick and mortar. The location was quite large, the rent was high, you have.

To employ more people.

Yeah, so you have to employ more people, the rent is high, the insurance, everything is much higher. In those situations, it looks great, but you know, the the you know, there's a lot of setbacks in that in that way, but we've learned, like kiosks work, you know, really well

Since you're here now, can you tell the people where the trucks are located or around the way or even.

Yeah, well you can find us at Bennet Box, our online on social media just at Bennet Box. And then we're we're up updating our website right now. Right now, we're so focused on marketing and on making every short making sure all the things that we have. We've never done email marketing, we've never done any of that stuff. Really we've been like just so small business, grassroots friends, family. Then now we're like, okay, time take those next steps because we really are a small.

Team running it. We're just us women.

We've had people come in and out that just didn't work out, but we've got to figure it out. And so yeah, you can find us right now at the Topanga Mall at the Westfield to Panga Pega Social Yes, which is great, brings lots of people over there. And then the truck is usually in and around all around town, Studio City, Calabasas, Santa Clarida, Long Beach. If you just check out the page, you know, it'll show where it's at. And eventually right now we're figuring out the email marketing.

I mean, I'm gonna get I'm gonna get some uh a discount.

Then put you on the loyalty reward, you get a a we got some good deal.

Congratulate relations.

Just watching how you pivoted in your career has been really cool, you know what I mean, Like, no, absolutely right, because we never know, nobody ever know.

People.

We meet each other young age, we're all kids, and then some of us become what we become. Some of us go into other spaces. But the main thing that I've seen just off of the survivors in this thing is like literally surviving in music and having a real career.

Because you got to be able to pivot. You have to.

You know, we talk about that all the time. You can't shop that same demo, yeah, you know what I mean in any term, You know what I mean. You just can't continue to shop that same thing. It's like, Okay, well what else can I do in these spaces because all of this is in your wheelhouse though, everything that you just said all connected, It all connected, and it's really cool to see. And just like I said, congratulations you graduation. I've known you a really long time.

I know we have each other for a long time, all of us here. We're not gonna talk about age. That's all I got to say.

You know that beauty.

Forever though.

While he was sixty three, is he about to be sixty four? I said, yeah, I'm allowed to be sixty five.

Oh my birthday, right time. It was the right time. A good time.

We need a couple of things from you before you go. Yes, we need your top Oh lord, oh lord, five oh.

R and B artists Brandy.

Oh okay, let's go all right, married j oh yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah.

Oh gosh, I mean Beyonce, she's she's a little everything.

She's I can consider her. She's and my last one. Dang, I gotta go back though. I want to go. Oh, Aretha Franklin. No no no no no no no no no no no, I said the wrong name. It starts with the A. No no no, no know me. I need a baker.

What a voice? Guy in there? Right?

I mean I can keep going no, no, no, no no. But I like my females and I relate very much to them.

And uh, but there are a lot of ARM and B males. I mean, especially groups. I love groups, my gosh, true hell, Joe's all the groups.

I mean, everybody.

You make great albums, like I can keep going.

Five, it'll be in the top fifteen. I know you. I know you're gonna do top five Army songs.

Oh nah, he would go, I gotta do this R and B.

Gosh, can we just go through all the Confessions album.

That's a great album.

Incredible.

Gosh, guys, you really do this.

You should have told me in bed.

This is the thing we told Billy.

Yeah, he didn't tell me. Can I'm gonna go through my phone.

I'm gonna tell you what I have that you did not, guy, did not say this.

Hold on, we go to R and B and we're gonna make this.

Okay, okay, I mean to B B. I get so weak.

Yeah yeah, Mary j.

Blige, Wait wait, but there's a specific song because that was my jam.

That was like, Mary, Oh my gosh, y'all killing me.

I love that you have the pink phone with the heart hanging now if it's very I love, don't cost the thing.

I haven't out of it.

Not.

Well, that's a great song too. Oh yeah, I love real love. She's got so.

Many songs, but there's just one.

But let's let's get it. Cronk. I'm sorry. It's an army songs was my jam.

So we're gonna put that read about heartbreak Hotel. That's another one.

It's a Mary js Los song.

I have to say because it's necessary my life. Mary Jane, Oh, I'm gonna you know, I'm gonna give Maya Maya. Maya's gosh Case of the X. Case of the X was popped though, but her first song too, and it's uh damn, what was Maya? I love Maya Rocked the Boat, Aliyah Rock the Boat, great song, amazing and we got one more?

Is that? What it is? Brandy? Brandy Brandy.

Because it's gonna be hard to pick this one, but that I'm gonna go with this.

Album, Never Say Never. That was my jam.

And it's gonna be hard to pick this one because Never Say Never was my album. Me and my girlfriend would be in the car crying over our little boyfriends, singing the songs, Oh my gosh, Oh Angel in disguise.

Angel, Yes, and I got the Roddy Jerkins what he did in music, super bad by super Bad.

He was a super producer, He is a super is Yes, he is super bag.

So I'd say that whole album, actually, but we'll go with Angel. Honestly, it's every song you got a top that Okay.

It's your world, it's your work. Let's make a Vultron. You're a super R and B artist, right. If you're making an artist, you're making a superhero R and B artist, and you want to get the vocals from somewhere or mid style from somebody, the styling of the artists, the heart of the artist. And since you're a songwriter who's gonna write for this artist, you need one vocal to make your super R and B artist.

What is that going to be?

Well, I just love Brandy's voice, So I'm gonna put Brandy's voice on it, saying easy walk Brandy's boys performance style.

We're making a super.

R and B with the R and B performance style of you know what, I love Maya.

We're gonna put she she has.

We're talking about her staff.

I love a girl that can own it and who's She's kind of timid, she's not like like an hour person that's like, but her music is like she's I like her, Yes, Maryland, you know my love is like Whoa? Here was another one that's another person I should be. But I'm gonna go with Maya because Maya I love. I think I love that. I love what comes out of her. You know what I mean as an artist, a performance and stuff like that. With clothing wise, oh gosh,

Wise, you gotta read.

You got the oh Rihanna, Yeah, Rihanna and the style too, please.

Rihanna got easy easy.

Love that love that she she put that ship on. Yeah, the passion of the artist, the heart.

Of the arts coming from the heart.

I'm gonna give it to Beyonce because that girl's got a heart of the heart of a lion.

She just doesn't give up.

She's just she's that what would Beyonce do? Like, she's that voice in your head when you're feeling lazy that day and you're like, oh my gosh, I'm overwhelmed, and you're like.

Whoa that woman?

Beyonce would get to work. She would get to work, heels on the track, get to work.

On treadmill and singing and singing. Yeah, caring a baby.

I'm sorry, who's writing for this artist?

Oh? Dang, okay? The dream yeah? Yeah. Tricky Steward.

Yeah, I'm not mad, not biased at all, No, not for any particular reason, but I have witnessed the man's talent in his very.

Respect respect what's going on because We got one more segment, and we have to give a disclaimer.

My brother's doing eight shows a week now. He's doing eight shows a week on John Browdway, right, he's a thespid.

Can we talk about the title? Give me the title. We need to name anybody who doesn't know what show he's doing? What's the show?

I am doing Hell's Kitchen and asking Alicia Keys Broadway Musical and I play her father Davis. And it's real. It's real, it's real. You got it.

When you go back to New York, you gotta go check it out.

I will like it's like, you know, it's Tony Award winners and nominees all over that.

I was ready to throw tomatoes at him. He did his thing, no starting, I mean I had to tell I had to celebrate it.

You couldn't help it.

You killers on stage.

Yeah, especially, and by the way, Broadway is killing you right now. You're amongst all these eight plus everything everywhere.

Danzel's feet away, Denzel's right there. They cool and all that. But we talked.

About this week talking about we're.

Talking about dol Doorrail junior juniors. We'll be talking about senior. I get it. You want to see the new Denzel get to work. I'm on forty four. Oh, hello, my, I'm on forty four. Stand.

We had a very important segment of the show. What we close out is called I Ain't saying on names? Will you give us a story? Funny or fucked up? Are funny and fucked up? The only route to the game is you can't say no names.

Funny orked up?

Both are both.

It could be Billy, You'm alright and die. You gotta tell me because I know we got stories and I'm yeah, Las Vegas.

I like that New Years.

Hotel opening New Year's not okay, I can't sit then because I just love won't. But you might know the name just based off of my own interpretations of the situation, because this is an it's one of those nights.

Actually you don't say the name. That's how good.

This is beautiful, because this is almost a couple. This is twenty years later or no, ten years later. Okay, So we go night, Oh my gosh, we're having so much fun. Me and my friends, me and my sister and my sisters. Billy's there we go, New Year's Night, We see the fireworks, Crazy night, Billy, let's let's help me this with this story, because how do we end up there? Somehow we end up going with a very popular ARM and B pop star to a strip club.

Is that where we started? How we end up there?

Go say it, just say the beginning of it.

Jay Z and Coldplay were playing.

They are not in the part of the story, but they were there at the Yeah, so we see this all this everybody everybody like, all the hottest stars are at this big cosmopolitan, you know, New Year's night thing, and somehow we end up around this other star. She's a female's pretty dope, and we all decide somehow we're all going to the strip club.

And she's like, come on, let's go. So she's got you know.

The biggest you know, the big suv trucks.

We all clamoring.

We're stuffed in there like sausages, and she's like, she's a boss, by the way, and she gets.

Us all inside of the car.

We get to the strip club. We're at the strip club having a really good time. By then, we've had multiple shots, you know, there's people smoking, a little everything. She decides she's done with the strip club. We're gonna bring the strip club back.

To her hotel room.

So everybody gets back in the car. She's really cool, by the way, and we get in the car. We go to her penthouse suite that she has at the hotel, and we're just in awe of all.

We're watching it, and she's such a boss.

She's walking around the room, she's got stacks of singles in her pocket, and she's the but she doesn't really hasn't shared it. And she brought the strippers back. So these female strippers come back, you know, and so they're shaking their butt everywhere and everything shaking ass and they're naked, but nobody's paying attention to them.

They're just like music playing out loud. People are smoking a.

Little weed, you know what I mean, and we're all talking just you know, having a good time. But the strippers are doing stuff, but they're not getting paid anything. She has the money, but she hasn't you know, it's in the cut.

So eventually the strippers.

Are like, you know, oh my god, they're starting to get bored because no one's paying attention to them. So they go up to this girl and they're like, so and so we're gonna lead because you know, everybody's you know, everybody, Billy have to tell it, Come on, say it, you have to say what she says, Okay, you're gonna say it.

So we're gonna leave because nobody's paying attention to us, and.

They're holding their clothes in their hand, and she says.

They weren't back.

On the floor got to dancing, and then she said, just threw her she just threw the sacks.

Of cash at them.

And the night continued on and we were just in all of this woman because she's just for so cool and she's and I think, you know, I think that told the story. So that's night we still talk about to this tonight. We still talk about to this day, just kind of like watching this this strong ass female that's just so cool, be as dope as you imagine that she is.

Yeah, I love it.

Shut and there.

I don't want to hear it.

That's all she had to say.

That was it. Yeah, I don't want to hear nothing else.

Yeah, that's great. That's a really good story.

That's christ So that's a funny story.

Yeah, yeah, you have you have navigated this thing in such a way.

Yeah, that was amazing. Was that two hours?

It's close. We were trying to you. But you've navigated this thing with with with so much grace and so much class. And to see you now, to see you still evolving, to see you still growing, still surprising us and showing us new things, it's just like, really dough, you know what I mean. We we we didn't get to tap too heavy into the the you know, the wife and the children in this aspect of But that's

I got some work to do. It's not easy, no.

Space, but we get to you know, we get to see you show up. You get to pull up on us and and it all looks good on you.

Oh thank you.

I'm just trying to stay young, drink a lot of water, hopefully, stay in shape, trying to do what these kids need in their life. It starts show for whoever needs me to show up for. You know, that's important. But no matter what, God has just guided me. I always turned to gout and that's what keeps me and all of those things going. And I'm just thankful for my longevity and to meet good people and through my lifetime and be good to people and people be good back and

Look at us, look at.

Us, look good at look at you.

And this is the Army Money Podcast, the authority on all things are and be a Superwoman. Family Are outro.

Thank you has been been great. Thank you died that

Yah