Thank you for joining us. My name is Durasian and I'm the host of this thing tech show which is called finding our future and I'm here every other Wednesday at 1 p.m. interviewing someone I love and respect in the community just to get perspectives on issues sustainability and ways that we can have a more secure and just and sustainable future. So today we have Kanyela Ng. I think to me you're like semi-famous you're like well-known in our circles I think and Kanyela was a really progressive politician that inspired at least a lot of young people that I you know have worked with to get involved in politics and care more about progressive issues so you can introduce yourself that would be awesome. Thanks for having me first of all I'm excited to be here. Yeah so I'm Kanyela Ng and I think as you stated in the beginning I'm a recovering politician so you know I started really early I got in office at 23 years old before that I was working with Stanley Cheng in the City Council and OHA in DC then I saw someone in my home island who was elected as part of that Tea Party wave in 2010 and you know my father passed away when I was young so like my mom had four kids and she had to figure out how to make it and we relied on all these programs like social security pretty much everything you think of food stamps and this dude wanted to cut all those programs right like drastically that's what he said in one of his questionnaires I was like oh I don't know if he really represents my values one and he's like supported by all these developers that are just wiping out our coastlines and making it not for normal local people working people on my home island so I had to move home and take a shot and we weren't supposed to win because we were outraised and outspent 10 to 1 but knocked on every door and we ended up winning by quite a bit 26% since then we just kind of worked my way up the eight house you know passing a lot of cool stuff marriage equality we worked really hard on on the first 100% renewable energy goal in legalizing industrial hemp that's with like a lot of help from all of our colleagues of course but started to realize like there's only so much that can be done this like system that requires all this compromise but like meanwhile Wall Street doesn't really compromise nature doesn't compromise so if we're like doing these incremental half measures it's not really gonna solve our most pressing problem so I have a three-year-old kid now I have a six-month-old kid within their lifetime Waikiki could be underwater we can see a up to six and a half would sea level rise now is a new estimate right so a lot of my works now is around climate change or fighting the climate crisis or at least the most migrant effects of it and helping folks out with like indigenous movement what's going on in Mauna Kea and making sure that we stop criminalizing the protectors of our planet that's what I've been up to yeah long long version there's so much there when I get into a lot of that but since we're talking about Mauna Kea I remember I wanted to have someone on the show but I couldn't find someone who had like been there and you had that deep ties and roots so if you could just share like a brief reflection from your time being there with the protectors on the mountain I would love that. Sure so my role in the beginning was just to amplify so one of the people that volunteered on my campaign Mikey Inouye on Hawaiian Great Ally he filmed this super gripping video of the first arrest of the Kuna and we were able to take that video and get it way out there so our friends on the Sanders campaign the Warren campaign Alex Ocasio Cortez who was a justice Democrat with me when I ran for Congress we had them I had them retweeted and within like a few days it got over two million views and we raised $200,000 for the bail fund just off and we just like got on the board of this bail fund like two weeks before that so you know a good friend Kevin Landers got out he realized that like as a white man in Hawaii that's not from here that if he's starting this great initiative it might be appropriate to get like a bunch of Kanaka Molly on the board so it's like I'm the only guy it's like a bunch of really strong and really quickly we grew this out and we've bailed out about 150 folks so far this year a lot has to do with movement so that's been my role a lot of amplifying but also and then the bail fund so on the ground organizing and you know being up there it's just it's really humbling it's the first time I've seen this kind of focused energy and like a chance where a lot of these people that are going up to the Mono like native Hawaiians are like really downtown types like they never knew they had this like aloha in our environmentalist side until now and and you know I think this movement of like indigenous people and non-indigenous are native people and non-native environmental allies like that's how change has happened historically even like in Principal Heels time so it's kind of this cool repeat of history yeah but we got to figure out how to like keep it going as you know oh a lot of it everyone still dies out everyone's depressed again yeah yeah occupy same thing but then you just gotta wait for like the next moment but in the meantime you have like governors that are zeroing out DHHL and stuff like that so it's like how do you build this yeah how do you capture momentum into a structure so that's what I'm working on the pictures of the Mauna Kea folks that Kamiella was with on the screen and then yeah if you can share also like what like what do you envision for your for the future of this movement like how how would you like to see it move forward and like what would you like to see it so in like an hour when I have a meeting with a bunch of folks from different native Hawaiian organizations and environment organizations we're gonna focus this not I think there's like this this thing where it's like okay there's people on the streets now we got to get them to the polls and like we got to get them testifying in the legislature but like there's like 20 steps in between that that we cannot ignore right and like not everyone should be an advocate like we need activists and like the sunrise movement's a good example of that for climate justice like they're not trying to they're not building up a bunch of young active like lobbyists that's not their goal right their goal is you escalate it with like an action like when you bird dog Center Feinstein and let them yell at she's like yelling at this kid that video was viral then you figure out a way to capture all those new public supporters into your movement and they continue it and then train up those new people so they can do it again and the cycle repeats until you grow grow grow yeah now there's like hundreds of sunrise hubs across the US yeah because the target isn't necessarily the decision-makers all the time the target is the public and if you can change the public to have like actively support your cause then you win and that when the electoral wins come easy let's say the wins come easy without it like even if you get a legislative win it gets like reversed the next year or watered down because the public pressure isn't there so like when you look at the lunch counter sit-ins and like civil rights era they're not or Selma they're not targeting politicians or target the public and that's how like even the latest the LGBTQ movement kind of all that same thing we use legislation like marriage equality as a vehicle to organize around but it shifts the conversation so now climate change isn't just about us like driving less and not using bags it's also about transforming a system that incentivize yeah and it's all because of these like a few young kids yeah I think what you said reminded me of this I think in Linda's a civil beat investigative reporter and he's been around for a while but I saw him on a panel and he said like what if you know we reported on politics as like the same way we did with sports so we're like oh Councilmember Fukunaga killed the styrofoam bill and like just like characters and like enthusiasm and like play-by-plays and replays because if we did that and I think that's what social media is so good at like the Sunrise movement they have these like they like basically got these great videos like Joe Biden and Senator Diane Feinstein like embarrass them because they're just being themselves and they're not listening to young people and they're being disrespectful to the needs of the community and like these 10 15-second clips can go so viral on social media that they become this movement kind of like similar to how a sports creates conversation so I think that's like I don't know that's really fun for me to like see how social media I know it has its downsides but it's able to like move people to get energized about politics yeah it's interesting example because there's a lot of criticism about politics being a spectator sport right but like I guess rather than like just like blue team red team you know we're gonna win this maybe a more like fantasy sports like fantasy football like where people pick their players and their issues but they're actually invested in it personally yeah it's like that's the goal right it's not just like the news and like watching the highlights but like your skin in the game so that's what these movements are starting to do starting to be more about collective empowerment than just individual choices which you know both are important but like the fact is there are 10 corporations that like emit was it and there's a few corporations that are is responsible like 70% of the parking emissions and the US military is like bigger than most countries right so unless we're addressing these issues in like a holistic way like demilitarization is is climate action right so I think that's like what the young voices folks much even much younger than us are really pushing these days and I titled this show perspectives from a recovering politician because that's how you introduce yourself at the People's Congress this weekend and I wanted to ask you why you say that like what is it that you're recovering from and how does it how does your perspective now differ from the way you felt when you were 23 you said 23 and one and you're I'm guessing you're like one of the youngest ever so can you just share like Bernie that you had and where you are now yeah I mean I was like a lot of people from my court maybe you're a little bit younger me was more like the Bernie stuff but like an oh wait I was really engaged by the Obama campaign he was like the change candidate right like oh he captured everyone the left middle right whatever and I got in thinking that like change was possible in the paradigm that he presented and you know once he got in he was like I'm not letting any lobbyists in the White House three months later he did I'm not appointing any donors as ambassadors surely did well I mean he had like the big banks actually vet all the people that he pointed on into his like cabinet and it's for a drone strike was like three days out so I at the time wasn't like disillusioned because I was still like riding off of the high of like that campaign but like in retrospect it's like man is that really all necessary in order to create change like you had both chambers you had the Senate and the House and the White House supermajorities like we could have had Medicare for all we could have had meaningful climate action but because of the way the donor and everything was set up we didn't so when I like that's now that's my perspective now but when I came in I was still like believed in that like we can just all bring people together and kind of moderate our voices and win and yeah we passed some bills like we passed same-day voter registration which was meaningful like on Maui we use that to increase the turnout by 25% if the council like a lot of stuff we did was too incremental like oh we're gonna economic justice and like we're running embodied in her in our newsletters but it's a $25 food tax credit and like yeah that helps some people a little bit but like the rising cost doesn't even balance it off like yeah so it just a lot of it seemed really disingenuous and like the need to compromise was really just a need to appease your donors yeah so that's coming out like coming out of the legislature it's like I know like people are like look why don't we just elect more progressives or elect more Hawaiians the thing is like if you're not allowed to be Hawaiian or progressive in the legislature then what's the point like if you got to suspend that self or compromise a part of yourself we should really be focusing on creating an environment that welcomes those kinds of perspective so how do you I mean it sounds like there's a there's a deep brokenness about the system so I mean you've been in it for several years and now you're out so what is what do you feel is the healing that's needed like if these few things were fixed and healed well like then you would feel comfortable going back into that system to enact I mean I think we all have our roles and even like people within the system are like our allies and you know I'm not saying like it doesn't work it's just like you're gonna be like honey you got to be balanced the thing is yeah it's just so off-balance right now there's a Star Wars it'd be like full Empire like yeah I'm like the Jedi's were asleep for a long time because they felt like they weren't needed but like sometimes you need that like hardcore people that are gonna lay it out I keep hearing the Jedi analogy just to balance it out right it's not like the balance isn't there I can I'm not gonna name names but you can easily find like five people on this street or history or five to maybe 20 people that are also on every like nonprofit board that matters and are largest donors and it's like it doesn't have to be that way like the things that Bernie Sanders talks about how three men have more wealth than 50% of Americans it's not we're not immune to that here and especially when it comes to power and so I think you know we're looking at like elections or the best nature of let's actually look at real power in real terms like what this who's actually calling the shots right and so I mean literally sounds like some of that is like fixing how donations work I know there's a lot of regulations but it seems like there's potential there to reduce the amount that corporations can influence a politician yeah and those things matter like we had good bills like I ran as a public funding candidate I know there's there's you know we propose what Andrew Yang is proposing now those democracy dollars or vouchers yeah we propose that like five years ago publicly funded campaigns like full comprehensive public funding like those are good things but they don't have a public support they're not gonna move like it has to outweigh the donor influence and the same we're like you know people wanted rent control in our district or like some form of it like all California has I'm not like old-school rent control that life was housing stock but new kind and it was a bill and then it's just the realtor association which are a lot of good people I agree with them a lot of stuff but like there's no one on the other side representing renters yeah exactly and you do like a living wage bill and there's like cool like academic advocates like yeah let's go but there's no actually wage workers there and it's like so how do you organize that you know without like the unions right now they're busy just protecting what they have so like there's no worker center advocates so like a lot of these organizing on the ground is gonna be more important than these like posing incremental legislation yeah so yes there are fixes we can do within the system for like campaign finance and stuff but unless it's like a movement of people it it can only go so far okay well we're gonna take a quick break and then we'll come right back hello I'm Catherine nor and I'm the host of much more on medicine on think tech Hawaii we talk about medical issues and I interview guests regarding medical matters and I'm really excited about upcoming guests I hope you join us every other Wednesday at 3 p.m. Aloha and see you then Aloha I'm Jane Sawyer with the Small Business Administration and one of your hosts for Adventures in Small Business a partnership with think tech and with the Hawaii Small Business Development Center the Mink Center for Business and Leadership and the Veteran Business Outreach Center all serving small businesses in Hawaii and telling you the story about their strategies their ideas their drive and the way they help Hawaii succeed and be a bright light in small business you'll find it here every Thursday at think tech thanks for joining us and we hope to see you soon thanks for joining us my name is duration I'm the host of think tech Hawaii show finding our feature it's here every other Wednesday at one o'clock and today I'm here with Connie Ella Ing so we were talking about politics and change and the challenges and opportunities that exist within our existing framework and I would like to I guess I want your feedback because I'm interested in getting more progressive people into politics I think that that's kind of my lesson as a 27-year-old activist been doing activism for 12 years it just seems like we need better people in there to not have to convince like they're convinced so we know we have a vote instead of like you know it's seems like so inefficient to be like convincing conservative corporate bought-out people that like people matter and climate crisis is urgent for someone to care yeah so it seems like you're kind of like in you're kind of sharing multiple perspectives of like you know you can't do everything from inside but we do need more people in there so like what your thoughts are yeah I don't want to like I think when I say like focus on the public opinion yeah like that's really important but look what happened with like the Obama campaign or the Bernie campaign like Justice Democrat who like were monumental getting Alexandria Ocasio Cortez elected those are volunteers from the Bernie campaign like so was the sunrise movement and the Bernie campaign arguably came from the energy of the occupied movement right 99% his whole messaging so like it's all kind of connected the inside outside and they reinforce off each other and candidates are part of movements women's are part of the candidates energy and movements are within larger movements throughout history like we're all just kind of following our ancestors footsteps so yeah I think it's like all the above if you run a really we still live in a really individualistic society so like ironically these individual electoral campaigns around one person can create like this collective community like that's our campaign even though we lost we had like 400 people out on election day fine-waving and we're doing like over 1200 doors a day or it's the last few weeks unfortunately for us our momentum peaked when 75% of people already submitted their ballots because they're early voting but it shows that like and then a lot of those candidates are like trying to look into run for office now a lot of those volunteers or they're moving up in high-level activism so it's all connected I'm with you that like if we got people that like saw the world the same way as us it would be a lot easier but that can't it can't be all the eggs in the basket right because like just Democrats their goal was to fit 400 seats they got a few wins and just those wins already changed American politics so it helps to shoot big because if you think incrementally and the other side is like Koch brothers we're gonna you know sell out everyone and build a wall and it gets her bad and all that stuff we're gonna lose because the compromise is gonna be over here so you got to hold it down and I want to go back to what you had said before that you were saying how people inside the legislature were like oh you know you have to be balanced and you were like you know there's no balance right now and so what I took from that is that if you say balance in the way that powerful people wanted then you're basically maintaining a status quo that's not taking care of people on the planet and I really like that because AOC says something along the same lines is like everyone's like she's a radical leftist socialist and it's like she says like I'm not moving the party far left and moving the party back home because I think the Democratic Party and any movement that claims to be progressive isn't truly progressive if people are still suffering and not being taken care of and so I think that's really important is not to like claim this identity as like left or right but to stay like where are our values and are we still there and I think that's like really what we need to do in Hawaii as well. Yeah that was our message it was you know we're returning the party home or in our campaign we said coming back to our roots because like our Democratic Party for example comes from a really radical history of struggle like our you know people were shot and killed on a pebbin massacre like it was native Hawaiians that rose up Filipinos like we brought together they purposely separated us by race so we couldn't communicate with each other but it's like hey we're gonna create this like pigeon so we can like figure this out among workers and come together and it worked like we rose up and we took on the corporate establishment I want and we created this political party even and we did it before and we can do it again. Totally. What is your sense on engagement of young people slash new voters like do you feel like that's improving I know we have one of the lowest voter turnouts but like do you have the optimistic sense for all of that? Yeah the thing about turnout in Hawaii is it's strange because we say we have the lowest turnout but we don't I mean we do in a general election but like there's no action in general election if you look at the primary election we're actually one of the highest turnouts in the nation we're at like 25% 26% and primaries matter more in some ways. Right so you look at AOC's district which is also decided by a primary right it's Democrat plus 18 advantage her turnout was around 2% so when she says we're gonna flip the people who vote she only has to turn out 1% of the electoral and that's a 50% skew of who actually vote so that's a good strategy for us when you're talking about 25% of people and it's a lot harder to like get new voters out it makes sense to target people who vote regularly and they happen to be richer they happen to be from like affluent areas and a lot older so that's where like a lot of the campaigns it's like a reinforcing it's a system that reinforces itself right because if we only target willing age of people the same people over and over yeah it is a strange myth like my race we needed 50,000 people to win if it was one-on-one we'll cost you only to 10,000 there are city council races that are like much bigger that's like the state Senate Julia Salazar from her same district in Bronx needed more votes to win in this congressional so it's it's a I think people gotta look at the numbers a little bit more I think it's like understanding that primaries matter more in Hawaii because basically everyone's a Democrat and so the primaries where you get the winner right it's almost like the general it's just like an obligatory pretend thing for a lot of races right but when you a lot of focus is like oh we were like not turning out and like we're scolding young people like if you only came out and it's like first of all you're not gonna shame anyone at the voting so you gotta meet them where they are and and like rock the vote that kind of stuff doesn't really work because like if you're talking about voting the only people are gonna pay attention or like people who care about voting you gotta talk about something else like the whole brand should be different right and if you talk to a lot of people our age like you probably have friends who aren't like super political I know I do yeah and like they don't really know what a primary election no they don't understand what it is yeah they kind of know election day but like you talk about a primary like wait what I gotta vote twice the same year but yeah it's confusing it's a lot of like vocab and I've talked about people that went through law school and stuff even them they're like so I think it's more about that like just getting people to understand where like the power really lies right so where do you want to focus your energy I mean what I guess where are you focusing your energy now and now that you're not a politician like where do you see yourself best being of best value to our community yeah so right now I have two kids I have a six-month-old and a three-year-old so you know my partner works full-time so I stay home and I do contracts where I can helping progressive causes the border this bail fine and that's that's where I want to be I want to spend time with a baby it's a lot of fun but on the line I think when you're in office and you're like speaking against certain powerful institutions in Hawaii you become a target in a very real way and what I want to help focus on right now is creating a movement that's not leaderless but leaderful so that there's only target people to take down the whole thing right so even a lot of trainings organizers across the state because especially with monarchy happening like this so this picture right now is that's the bail fund that's a bunch of the reason why they're all young men is because they separated the folks of different genders into different police stations and I happen to meet them at Pearl City and bail them out a lot of these people are like willing to do more than just come out to a march but they're not necessarily like gonna be giving testimony at a hearing that's not really where they see their role is so like how do you train them up to be new leaders let's kind of be my role that's interesting yeah I'd love to see where that goes and do you have anything that you want to feel or know like what would be like a message that you put on a billboard or something that you would like want to share one message with everyone I just want to focus on climate change a little more in Hawaii I mean everyone likes to talk about it like you know it's greenwash propaganda like HECO to say to white but these are really folks that have been purposely slowing things down I feel and at this point if I know there's there's not one way to tackle this problem I'm not gonna say like we have like the best solutions but if you think that we have 25 years to act and you're saying 100% by 2045 and that's inconsistent with science like that's climate denial right if you're saying that we can fix this with cap and trade or like a nominal carbon tax that's inconsistent with economics that's also climate denial you can't just like you need of a measure that's actually gonna rise the scale of the problem because nature doesn't compromise so I just hope folks understand that message like how high the stakes are and even in terms of real dollars like really paying billions and billions in the future and like the red climate refugees that would be coming here it can't be overstated really the risk is too high to not act right away in a meaningful way that's a message to like you know Senator Shotzi's been an environmental champion for a long time but I'd love to see him like rise to the occasion and really champion like a green new deal style that's yeah I totally get urgent rapid change man you know what waiting to see that I think there's a growing movement so thank you so much for being here with me it was awesome just to interview and hear all your thoughts oh likewise yeah thanks for having me


Patriot Prime Reviews is a channel for adult collectors and may not be suitable for children under 13 years of age. Viewer discretion is advised. Now, onto the decals. And the set we're looking at in this video is for Transformers War for Cybertron Kingdom Warpath. And this decal set includes two decal sheets, one on foil backing and one on clear. So now, without further ado, let's take a look at Warpath both before and after Toyhack's decals. And welcome to Patriot Prime Reviews. In robot mode, straight out of the packaging, Warpath looks great and very faithful to the original Generation 1 toy. He is covered in tons of great sculpted detailing that really looks great on this figure. Now, he is lacking for paint applications. He really doesn't have any whatsoever except right up here on the face.  I mean, he looks awesome, but really lacks some details. So there you go, guys. One final look at Warpath in robot mode before and after. Warpath gets quite a few new decals to help enhance his robot mode. The first ones I'm going to show off are the new blue decals that cover up his black, soulless eyes. I really like how that looks, especially against the white face. Got decals here on the side of the chest, number 87 for the year he came out. A new Autobot decal right there on the stomach. New yellow decals right there on the waist. Blue decals here on the thighs. Decals here along the side of the feet that you'll see more of in tank mode. And he's got decals here on top of the shoulders. So not a lot of decals for Warpath's robot mode, but it really works. So there you go, guys. Warpath in robot mode after. In vehicle mode, straight out of the packaging, Warpath once again looks great. Very faithful to the Generation 1 toy, but once again, no paint applications. Loads of great sculpted details, but the only real paint application he has in tank mode is the Autobot logo right there dead center. But other than that, a fantastic looking tank just definitely needs some more pow. So there you go, guys. One final look at Warpath in tank mode before and after. In tank mode is where this toy hex set really shines. And you can see Warpath looks a lot different now. He's got new panels right here along the side. This one with a star, three lines here and one there with an Autobot logo. Now there is the option where the last one you can just have plain gray, but I went with the logo like I always do. He also has new decals up here on the turret. Right there is some Decepticon logos showing how many Decepticons he's killed. 87 right there for the year he came out. And on the barrel you get some options for some graffiti style decaling. You've got pal and on this side I have kaboom. Now there are options there as well. Bang, blam and kadoom. Also on this side there's more graffiti style artwork showing Warpath taking out Trypticon. More panels here on the side. On top of the tank there is a blue decal right there on the hatch. More gray decals right there to break up all the red. On the front of the tank is gray decals there. And the rear he has taillight. So I really like how Warpath looks now. He is ready to definitely take on the Decepticons. So there you go guys. Warpath in tank mode after. The Toyhacks decal set for War for Cybertron Kingdom Warpath is a simple decal set that adds lots of personality to this already very personable character. I really like the decals in robot mode that help break up all that maroon and the blue eyes are just awesome. I love those so much more than the plain black eyes that he came with. Tank mode is fantastic. Tank mode really pops so kudos to Toyhacks. They knocked this one out of the park. Now guys if you enjoyed the video don't forget to like, don't forget to subscribe and don't forget to click that bell icon to get notified when I upload new reviews. Once again this is Patriot Prime, signing out. Hoorah!


Good evening. It is a profound privilege and with great pride that I welcome President Zelensky to the capital of the United States. Here we are today to welcome the brave, courageous President Zelensky in order to praise not only him but the courageous, unified people of Ukraine for what they are doing to protect democracy. Over the last 10 months since the invasion, you, Mr. President, and the Ukrainian people have met Putin's brutality with a strong will. Your visit comes as the Congress prepares to again pass another consequential round of security, economic, and humanitarian assistance within the next 48 hours. Hopefully this will be done. And I want to applaud President Biden's plans to deliver a patriot air defense system, additional Heimars, and other vital military equipment. So much great privilege. And really I prepare speech to Congress, but I think speech to Americans. That is great honor for me, and I want to give all the messages that I prepared in your language with all respect to your country for that support that you done for Ukraine. In our battle, really battle for our freedom, democracy, Speaker Pelosi said, but for our houses, families, for our great children, the same great as you have, of course. And for me, again, honest that I'm here and the second time here, but the first time was before the war, before full-scale admission by Russians. And, you know, what can I say? Different, different feeling, like different history, like different life. But anyway, in this life is very important. Congress of the United States is a big friend of Ukraine, Ukrainian people. Really, of freedom, freedom of Ukrainians. And thank you so much that you supported us in financial support and with really the things that ammunition which will help on battlefield. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Great honor. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Bye-bye.


Like Check it. Check it. Check it. It's a unique house. It's your boy E ceo and I'm here with the lovely official miss Jamaica What's going on, baby? Man check it man. Hey, man, we got a we got a nice We got a nice looking guest in here today. She looks good man. You know I'm saying we got we got it going on today I feel it real good man. I feel like a king sitting over in this chair today, man Check it man. Jones Monroe is in the house. What's up, baby? Hello? How are you? Hey, man? So king So you got it, right? You got it, right? You got it, right? You know I'm saying that long as you get it, right, right? So uh, john Monroe, man, you know when I started researching you I was looking for information I kept and and they wouldn't give me nothing else I got the black song, but let's let's get into it. I like to go back and uh try to figure out like who is johnsman row johnsman row is A soulful down south southern girl who You know is a black gangsta maryland Monroe at the end of the day like that's that's the best way Everybody describes me when they hear my music when they meet me and they they hear my message But let's talk about johnsman row before she was johnsman row Back in the day back in the day. So my name is christina. Okay. Check it man. You know So, um, my name is christina pogh and I am from east texas and how was it like growing up in tarot texas? Let's stop right there. That's not east texas. People call tarot texas east texas. Don't play don't play about that You know, I don't play about that. I know but that's just that's just not east texas, but it's not east texas, baby You live a little bit. You you're in the uh outskirts of dallas. You are you're basically uh in the rural area You know, you're not in east texas. I'm from east texas. You was so caught up in trying to I am from the cattle lake I am straight from right out of Six miles before you get to the horse the horse. No, no, no, no, it was wild hogs Did you handpick the quail?  You know what I'm saying? So all I'm all I'm saying is you're from you're from A rural area outside of dallas. Um, you and jamie fox.  I You know, I know where you're from, you know But uh, don't don't do that because we work too hard to uh get our names established down in east texas I mean we we we fish too much To play around with the country we we hunted we we we killed too many chickens You know what I'm saying? The one thing we're not going to do is set a print act like y'all in the country when y'all in the city We can't get k104 97 9 the beat. We can't even get any phone our phone services out Everything you don't sit here and try to play me into well, I'm gonna get off my soapbox No, I definitely I definitely know that it is uh, it's a I love torel When I first came I met my wife in torel Oh, let me tell you something. That's how the store ended up there for 10 years I put that store down there because I met my wife down there And I was in that area working because I'm I work for I'm an engineer for a communications company And I met my wife down there and I felt like this is a good place And I often go down there and she don't know it, but I go look at where I met her at a lot of times Yeah, yeah Well, I mean just it's just something that that you do Not to say it ain't been no ups and downs. It's been almost 20 years, but the good days are with the bad days You know what I mean? So that's that's the whole game and I got my children to check it man Shout out to chibori malachi. What's up with it? But um, so let's get back to you. Jones Starting out, you know Being young being from torel What gave you the inspiration to feel like you couldn't make it out of torel?  There you go. There you go. I like it. Oh, yeah, I need to hear you see Okay, now. Oh, yeah, man. Can we hear that? Oh, we can hear you sound good Yeah, I see because when the podcast go we we and I love to explain this part No one's gonna see your face All they're gonna do is hear your voice and I wanted to sound good to our When you're riding in the car and you hear man, John Monroe is in this Come on, man. Yeah. Yeah, you sound so good. There you go. Got it. Got it. I got it. All right. It sounds dope Man, you should get you should be on radio says, right? She got that romantic You need to do the late night, you know the late night part You know like like Rudy v used to do the late night, you don't know that yellow Oh So just just John Monroe just tell us a little bit about coming from Turrell What enthralled you? How did you how did you figure out figure it out? How did you know that because I'm looking at looking at your Researching you and looking at your bio you we find out you went to school in a song opera, right? You know that that's dope. But what what gave you that inspiration say grandma? Let's talk about for sure So my grandmother raised me.  Yeah, I just told you that We started for sure. I get that every time someone talks to me, but it really is true um, and Basically just that process of growing up in east, Texas and being able to to really travel the world and um Build, you know things that I have built. You know, I am the ceo of a successful artist development company Wait, that's dope. You know based here in dallas, texas. Wow So you're seeing a lot of the talent that comes through dallas for sure and and and they're basically and and god Is he prospering you over there?  I'm queen Well, you know at the end of the day the word of god says that beloved I wish above all things that I mean prospering being good health even if I was so prosper So, you know, that's a beautiful thing when you say I have this successful business That's saying god prospers me for sure and that's dope Yeah My grandma and my mom they always told me, you know, I stuck with it proverbs 1816 Your gifts will make room for you. Yes. Yeah, I appreciate that man But growing up in terrell, I know that your mom your grandmother instilled all of these things in you But how difficult was it growing up in terrell? And trying to learn these traits because although she's teaching you these things It wasn't just she just teaching you to get it like that. It's over time before it, you know, you actually got it So what was what was the difficulties growing up there compared to, you know, other places? First off, I was a stubborn little girl.  It's So like I always, you know, um, I'm very very strong willed and so Just the challenge of that but my my grandma's strength I think like rose up every single time that I wanted to, you know Do my own thing and I felt her presence and she would tell me stories. Wow Beautiful and so the stories I felt like really really stuck with me and that helped me like overcome Like the situations and different things like that because Give me an example of a story. Yeah. So like a big thing that like I felt like I struggled with growing up in Terrell was still racism.  People don't know that and even You know, it's deep. It's been years now that I um when I had moved to Terrell and I found all of that out But you would think that that was luckily you ended up on the south side And it also is lucky, you know, if you went down a little further and turned on rows of belts you'd have married a pastor Yeah, because that's what they all stay at. You know what I'm saying They down there at that end row where you turn and they always lined up when I used to be down there I said boy, this the street right here where a lot of tithing going on But yeah, I knew that it was a lot of revan daniel used to have a place right in front of uh Say, is he still alive? I don't know revan daniel. Yeah Well, yeah, me and him would have a lot of conversations about god when he was around You know, you know how I am and uh, I would tell him different things and we would have different You know, I love the I mean we debated a little about different things that I felt, you know We we needed to talk about when I would see him, you know And it was just a delight to be able to talk with him and spend time with him And not only him the one that live I could I know where all them live Because god gave me a gift to deal with the leadership People you got to understand he tells you who to deal with and talk to most of the time They come right here and sit there. We have sunday Little segments with pastures all the time because I'm a I'm a different type of dude, man You know, I feel like you can worship god where you stand So it brings a lot of different Obstacles to people who say they go to church when I feel like you are the church I feel like you should be dealing with god at all time because life is too short and Death and all that it's unexpected and so we need to be dealing with that all the time And so it's not a thing to where it's a traditional thing. It's a spiritual thing I don't know why I took y'all there.  How did your grandmother? What was the story she told you to overcome this exactly? She always told me that When all spells look beautiful, but not just on the outside on the inside too And so no matter what situation that I that I've dealt with whether it was something direct like being called the n word Or if it was You know not being able to hang out with with certain people anymore because You know their parents didn't really approve of all of that or I felt uncomfortable over there She was like, you know what you are worth it. You are valuable.  Do you realize? My mom always says we come from good stock. Yeah, I'm like Me we come from good stock and so like she really always just encouraged the confidence in me She encouraged Education she encouraged things that would give me the foundation of being Confident without breaking my will, you know and letting me be artsy and letting me explore The arts and the creative side of things and she just really encouraged my dreams and and everything else and because of that like Every single time I had to deal with a situation like that I would Know my self-worth. So I would kind of let it roll off, right? And when I was younger it that didn't happen all the time, right? But now it would be a fight, right? But it's a it's a process. It is a process evolution is real and the crazy thing about racism people don't understand These are some people who are who are like this to you were kids growing up with you and they didn't portray that because kids don't see no color They're like, oh, we're just friends But as you get older and certain things get instilled in them then all of a sudden that start to change You can't hang with this person anymore and much less date that person. It's a problem. Yeah, you know Well, I mean, you know, when you really look at What's going on in those inner cities, you know, I can remember when Jamie Foxx came home one time and he was like You know, he felt disrespected because when he was coming to town They had put a small picture of him on on the newspaper And he put a big picture of a tractor and a white guy sitting on it And after that after he made a statement or two The next time he came they put billboards out by the highways and everything else to try to make up for it So we know that these issues are there These issues are still there to this day These issues are things that we face in America and in other countries as we well know because people who have stepped up And said things about it. So I understand where you come from when you say that you face challenges of racism because I'm from a smaller even smaller town And yeah, it was even it was there. It was livid. I mean and the older you go back the more aggressive it becomes Now they hide a little better nowadays, but at the end of the day We've seen what happened with George Floyd We've seen what happened with Sandra Bland and all the things that we see that caused us to have these different Trayvon Mortons and all the different things that we've seen happen We know that these things are happening and they're live and we We're in fear of our children a lot of times when they go out and they drive and And my son called me one night and his car quit when he was in canton And I told him what are you doing out there and three three in the morning And you you got a flat tire and and immediately I jumped up out of the bed and Start trying to get that way because I have a fear in my heart that if somebody see him Out there at that time of night in that area as a black man by himself That's something bad could happen And so this is the stuff that we live with that others can't even identify with So It's it's different. It puts us in a in a in a bubble You see what I'm saying? So I get it. I get where you're coming from when you say what you say and how you deliver the message for sure Definitely love the way that uh I listen to your song.  I got a question. So, um, How over you when you started singing when you were in tarot because you said you came to tarot So I know that you weren't born in tarot. No, I was born in dallas And then you went out there to live with her. Yeah, okay. So why did you move from Dallas and how over you? I was I think four when I went to those That's dope. That's dope. You from and you went straight on the tarot I wouldn't and why did you have to go out there and not stay in dallas? No, I wanted to um, my mom is was modeling at the time. Oh, yeah, mama getting it in Pre instagram model. She was straight up.  Yeah, she don't But she but at the end of the day she was modeling and trying to take care of business as her career and traveling and and doing all of that and My grandmother at the time it was like, I love her and they all you know Shout out to my brothers, but you know, I felt like I was the favorite the favorite grandchild. I was like that too.  I guess that's the reason why That's the reason why so when you going out there. Okay, so you were four When did you discover your love for singing? Around like six so nope. Yeah, so it was really my grandmother put me in she always had this quote I get my left arm if I could play the piano So she She put me on piano and I started learning that but I realized I really liked to sing because music was always an escape Yeah, you know, I got to be who I was and really you know, because my grandmother was real structured and so I got to party That's live So and that's one sport if you call it a sport. That's one sport. You don't have to pay with anybody else You can do it by yourself for sure easy So do you um like like when you when you got older I'm gonna fast forward a little bit. I want to go to that part where Okay, it's time for john john's one row to go. No, I have one question in between that you do. Yes So you started singing at age of six, but I know you didn't start singing opera right away. No, I didn't So what age did you figure out? Well my my vocal Can go to that stage because to sing opera you have to get up there. Yes for sure So around you figure that out 12 I started training. That's dope. Good question. So why opera rather than regular R&B Right. I love I love love. I'm obsessed with culture Yeah, and when my grandmother always, you know Encourage me like to explore the world and like really just be the independent, you know, can I cuss on here? Yeah Okay, that's don't go too long. You know what I'm saying don't look good Don't become you because you're beautiful and at the end of the day if that what it takes to get your point across You do what you do, but at the end of the day, it's on you. So I was going to say that that Go ahead. It was just it was just the s word Oh, yeah, yeah, it's just a boy. I'm telling you that I'm knowing the hero in the face. It was just the s word Okay, you want to say shit, right? Okay, we're gonna fast forward Go ahead tell us what's going on Sorry guys, all right, so um fast and fast and fast and forward around 12 I started singing opera and Exploring culture exploring the world. I love languages. I still study languages And so I got to do that in in the songs and you know, I I'd always have loved all types of music Yeah, just country music rap music opera Yeah, and you know because of that and they realized that I love music like that They um they put me in opera and had me try some sessions out and I loved all my instructors throughout the years and so I think from uh 12 13 and up until like Like 19 20 I sing opera. See I had a friend who I'm back home in Jamaica She sang opera and I didn't realize that when you sang opera You have to know all these different languages because she when she sang She sang in all these different languages and I'm like, okay. I don't know what you're saying But you sound so good and her voice Was so strong and she was at a time when I first heard her she was probably about 10 But she could be in this room and make the wall shake That's how strong her voice was and I'm looking at this little girl. She's short I'm looking at her like where did that voice come from? Nobody else in her family has that voice like that boy. She had no and well She doesn't sing anymore because her parent because she was living in New York and that's where she would have gotten the most exposure But um, New York is not always great to raise kids, you know, depends on the type of area and and stuff like that So they had moved back to Jamaica And so, you know where the career was concerned. I don't think that just went out the window But um her voice. Oh my god. And then she knew languages at 10. That's dope. And that just Amazed me. Yeah. Well, I think Hey, man, you know, like she said you give her make room for you You know and and the part that kind of confuses me is that talent not Taking her all the way if she was who well, you know what I love about today's society I mean the social media platforms are so in your face. They tell you if you're good enough a lot of times The social media back then wasn't a thing. How long how far are we talking? Okay? She was 10. I was probably about 17 so that was some so now She's probably in her 30s right now. Yeah. Yeah. What's her name? Ramona shout out to Ramona. Yeah, she be getting it in. Yeah, I let your boy see unique hustle Let's go Okay, so what I want to do is Give us um, give us a little bit of opera. I want to hear All right, let me see. Yeah All right, you know what I like I like that I never heard nothing like that in this place. I don't know microphone Okay, we'll do that one more time. I want to know what that was and let me hear it. Come on. Did you hear it? Shamar, you need to hear this. This is something new girl. Go ahead.  Just a little bit. Is all opera in different languages is not any in english Oh, you have like latin areas. Um, there's some I sing some classical pieces like, um, I sing I used to sing this song Center, please don't let this harvest pass. Let me hear what you got there. Let me see if I can remember that one Listen, I think the center may let the harvest pass long selling on Oh center, please Don't let this harvest pass Center, please Don't let this harvest pass That's good. That's good. I don't know. I don't know. That don't because You're so used to hearing all that. That doesn't sound like an opera. It's a Negro spirit. Oh, so classified. Yeah, but they let it, they let it pass. Yeah, that's more like yeah Dang, so you just running around here black singing opera. I'm singing a couple of y'all Um It ain't many is there a lot of blacks that sing african-american? It's not many But that's dope. Wow, for sure. Because you step you step on a different stage Because you so you traveled everywhere to sing opera. Yeah, it's classical music opera. So when I started Sorry, no when you went all these different places and you didn't see many people who look like you um Did tarot come back to the back of your mind in those situations? Definitely all the time All the time and really up until this past year with the like I feel like the george floyd movement Did something different to every black person. Yeah, I read I read that I don't know. I don't know if it did something different to every I I think it it's something that it's just like anything else Some people took it different ways. They had to sit down and look at it because of kovat And so they were stuck in the house and it was forced to look at this and they didn't have That you know, people wasn't having a lot of room for tolerance at this time, but The way it was done was so outlandish the way he just just put it right in our face. This is what this is what I represent And and it it woke a lot of people up walk a lot of countries up but Some people were just doing it for the for the hype too Everybody wasn't just doing it from a sincere place bandwagonist I say that because I don't own jobs in different places. You've seen them start to You know, oh we care and all that but you know People can say a lot of things Jesus says these people honor me with they lives and speak of me like with them I put their heart as far from me and I'm paraphrasing but at the end of the day I've never seen the change In the structure of our Look at look at look at when you look at different ways that people are structured in the corporate american world Where has that changed if everybody's standing up for like that? You see what I'm saying it when it comes to the money. I think a lot of time the change stops Yeah, for sure our people are suffering And without people suffering like they are in certain situations and and not only that being manipulated and There's the job placement is not it hadn't changed So I think and I don't blame it on every other race. It's up to us to pull ourselves up as well um We we have a lot of people a lot of a lot of when it comes to rap music Entrepreneurs when it comes down to producing whatever music we're talented people But we need to step up and and do us right when it comes down I don't apply people in these big higher up positions because a lot of unity need to be pulled together on On their level, but a lot of times they're so caught up with their monetarily gain that they excite their own people So I just I don't I don't play with it. I I see it and it's it's very distasteful to me For sure for sure. You see what I'm saying. We got to do more the unifies of people Yeah, I feel like and that's why I wrote my record because I feel like We have overcome The fact that we're not slaves anymore, obviously I feel like we've overcome the fact that we're not slaves anymore and I feel like we have Overcome like, you know being second-class too But we haven't overcome realizing that we're amazing that we are kings and queens That we can do anything And because of that confidence within ourselves, it can finish breaking the Jim Crow And that they actually divide in the actual layers that they gave us And so once once we get over that home Yeah And once we have some more music to inspire that because the music inspires culture Yeah, all right in fashion video and we were slowly doing it Matter of fact, I'll my favorite thing that happened lately and I felt it yesterday and I said, mommy, you feel that she said Yeah, that was weird. I said, yeah, and we're like that was good. We're like, yeah, that was weird We're at a restaurant. I won't say wherever we're at a restaurant. Um, it was like a market Okay, and we're the only black people there. Okay, as you I do that a lot Well, and and um, we were about to get some food and we're waiting patiently in line And then there were some people that weren't black right behind us and um And um, they they were over talking us to the person checking us out And they were like ignoring the fact that we were in line and not giving it and just really privileged and entitled Yeah But I don't I don't know if they actually realized they were doing that Yeah, because the the beauty of the whole situation was amazing because of the awareness that's being brought So for me the george floyd movement, that's what it brought was awareness and it awoke me as as jones munroe And so with with the the people checking us out. Normally they would have catered to them They would have like but that didn't happen. They stopped they say You guys need to get in line exactly and they got in line And I think they realized at that point that they were out of line. Yeah, no no pun intended But then we we go up to the line and then they take it one step further. They said ma'am Ma'am. Sorry. Yeah. Is there anything else we can get you? And I said No, thank you. Yeah. Yeah, and it was the first time I've in my life. I've ever experienced that Wow, you know, there are certain things that we you know I get it because I know that that it happens to us a lot But it's also things that you remember we was in california and that brother pulled us out of line And he said hey, I want y'all to come up here and he was pulling everybody but some of the but mostly people that look like us And uh, he said brother, we're not going to let y'all stand in line. I'm not playing this guy told me this He'll he'll brother in california if we was at uh, uh, who's that hurts? And he said the line was from here out out the door.  He followed me on instagram still and I'm telling you man. I just I Never had that happen before. I just thought about that when you were saying what you were saying That's dope like the whole line it was alone and I'm telling you there's a lot of people But he made sure to acknowledge his people And you know how many times does this happen on the other side? We know it happens But for us to feel like I want to help my people that that was dope That was literally the dopest moment On that vacation. I don't know what the hell we was doing But but that was dope So I mean but that's one thing but let's let me take it a little further Our people need counseling too We need it starts in the home with the family is having these discussions openly Telling our children our children children's children what happened and understanding what it caused In our and our people because there's a lot of stuff that we have to we have to acknowledge Yeah, we did pass slavery But there are some things that are underlining where our families have been split that it trickles down We we give up easy. We we think it's okay not to be together when you have children We feel like it's okay to Just pretty much uh go our separate ways and it's not We got to start formulating our families back together and trying to figure out ways to Educate our families to where you know, hey, it's okay to be together and fight for what you what you believe in You know what I mean and finish what you saw it Quit quit stopping. You know what I mean what you it's easy to quit That's the easiest thing. I'm telling you but it's hard as hell to keep working at something I promise you and not only that just to know like what you're saying to know that you're worth more Because you have a lot of people out there who will say i'm a king or i'm a queen I'm worth something but really deep down inside.   So you got to know that how to tap into that if you believe that because I'm a christian So I believe that if any man being christ he's a new creature Old things are passed away. Behold all things become new So when things become new now I can be this person that God says I am instead of who people made me out to be my entire life So I get to start over again Isn't that beautiful But everything starts in the mind.  Hmm. Am I right?  Can I get amen? Hey Hey, you know, I this this is a christian station But really I just like acknowledging who we are and pretty much telling the truth about What it says we are most people don't know that they set up and they always wrote by the white man and all that But they never even read it They don't even know it never even said nothing about a white man either This is I mean people have put these things in there. You talk about different languages The language changing has happened from way back You know the greecians pushed greek at a time period on everybody to where they would Forced that language after they was coming out of hebrew You know what i'm saying certain languages pretty much were pushed on people and they were made to speak these languages culturalist So, you know, we know that so at the end of the day That's a good thing You know that we know our history and then we go back and find out the conosity of the scriptures How did the scrolls come to be and then not only that if you want to check other things like egyptian literature All they do that too I found it when you start doing stuff like that you end up coming right on the god Because you start finding out the truth You see what i'm saying so you got to know your history But you get but most people most african-americans were raised in church um But when you go to church as a child you go there and go to sleep I'm not lying a lot of us did fall asleep to go to sleep You fell asleep because it was boring to you. You didn't understand certain things. Did you fall asleep? I remember snoring But what i'm saying is that you do this because you were forced to your parents So this is it became such a tradition that this is what you did So some people even as you leave your parents house you you continued in this tradition And you go and listen to this man Say what he has to say You hear it for that moment. You felt good But when you left the next day they ask you what he preached most people don't remember it You didn't implement it in your life because you did not go research it for yourself You did not make it your own just muscle memory exactly so As you get older and you go through trials and tribulations that's the reason why god put us through trials and tribulations for us to search for him and I have been that person in the past where You know you read the bible and you get certain parts, but a lot of times you're like I don't get that part. I don't understand So a lot of people tend to get discouraged and put it down because I don't understand what it's saying You know what I mean? So that's why they always go and look for somebody else to tell them but As I got older and as we study I realized that The reason why you don't understand because you have too much clutter in your mind and in your heart you're not letting go of fleshly stuff To be able to store spiritual For sure for sure But nobody don't really tell you that and break it down to you. That's why I meditate That's so Meditation is real I have to meditate I meditate every day and then I try to meditate all day You know live in that space, but yeah It helps it helps because it helps we we live in such a fast-paced generation You know and you know, it's how do we get to the next how do we get to the next instead of focusing On ourselves that when we meditate we can clear out that clutter you're talking about right exactly That's that's lit So with your new album with your um with black are we going to start seeing a lot more like that? For sure. Um, I have Two more records that are like that. Well, all my music is you know Southern inspired and has that basis, but I have I have the love records I have my perception of love. I have um, I have the soul records of of Inspiration of like where you know the thought-provoking conscious records of like where I come from that just make you feel good Um, I have the pretty records, you know, I have the the forget-you records will say that, you know No, you you want to say something else? But you know The absolute thing you have to have to have to realize man is that It's It's something that Okay, I put it like something inspired you who who any any artists that's known that any inspire you Oh, for sure. For sure. Who was your who was your biggest inspiration when it comes down to people who? Who who who we hear on the radio who we see on the tv or who we see on youtube? It may not even be somebody see I'm asking I'm trying to get there. Yeah, so, uh, Aretha Franklin, a huge inspiration for me Okay, just how so basically anybody you can feel that I feel like taps into that meditation meditation space When they're singing like aretha, you know, you can tell that her voice is her voice, but it's not her voice Like it's coming through her.  Oh, okay.  There's nothing like it like nothing.  Um, you know who I like. I love her voice. Um Tony Braxton, I like Tony Braxton. I love how low she sits, you know, she says she says her voice is that very different Very different Tony Braxton. I love Jacob Banks. I love Jacob Banks. Okay. I love Jacob Banks Give me some r&b I mean, I want to hear some r&b the the song that you picked when you say I'm saying I love the way that's That's more like my style. Uh for r&b records. I love, um The the sexy records. Let me hear it. You want to hear it? You want to hear my record? Yeah, I want to hear what you oh, this is your record. Oh, you want to hear my record? No, if that's what you want to do, but I want to hear something from with an r&b field Uh, you want me to sing it right now? Yes. Oh, okay. Let me say Which song Is it something that I'm gonna know? It's not something you're gonna know. It's a sneak preview. Okay. Let's go. Let's go I'll take this from this from this from now. Do you need us to find a beat? Oh Let's go. She got her own beat going All right, so this song is called two by four.  I'm here to say every word. I'm hanging on every word. I'm like, please don't stop Say man, that's it right there, man. I felt it. You know what I'm saying? I felt it in here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah She was going to I even look at her to be honest I didn't look at her. You know what I'm saying? She's a cute girl. I want to own the way in front of music I don't try to do that. Yeah. Yeah. It's like the radio to me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah No, but it was I loved it. I loved it. I'm like, okay, definitely gotta get that song Downloaded whenever so I can use it on certain times. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.  Uh, three artists of all times Top best top three artists of all time. You heard it. No, what is your top three artists of all time? Any genre where you you've kind of expressed it, but still let's let's go. That might not be her top three What she said before did our lives any jungle too far? Okay. Okay Outcast okay I love okay. Who is your favorite person? Andre 3000. It's Andre. Of course. He's like I could have told you that The eclecticness of mine is big boy. It could have been him. I'm gonna throw up with mine It's a written rock. I'm rocking. Okay.  Let me tell you what I'm gonna do Yeah, that's Jones Monroe niggas you niggas are messed up right here in the building Yeah, man. Yeah, I feel real good about it. That's the one that would hit me right there Yeah, that's what I'm gonna walk up now. Yes, sir. Oh, man We got this is it a star is born.  I need to ask mama to sing for you They ain't doing right you know I'm here You gotta manage it. You gotta manage it or not I'm serious now. Yeah, sir. Okay. Let him let him don't act right. You got my number. Yes, sir Yeah, I put your little car package together too Yeah, he think about act right out here now. I mean I got a microphone these niggas is in trouble Yeah, I got a microphone now. You have a voice. Yeah, I got a microphone and you got a voice I Switch from Opera to this why don't you hold on I'm just asking why didn't you go back to singing opera? Because I know I read When you stopped opera it you came to take care of your grandma because she was you know her health was the finishing So but after that, why didn't you go back into the opera? I started teaching voice. Yeah And she opened her school. Oh vulnerable And I really I I believe so much that music is connected To the universe it is Like and there's no separation to it and I didn't feel like I had a message to give out And so right now That that I was real passionate about and strong about to where it would pull me away to put 100% into it You know and and give everything the amount of care because I've always done music You know, that's what I do, right, right, but the biggest thing that that caught me one day I was sitting there and all these songs literally I wrote and about 15 minutes they I literally just wrote them straight. So Yeah, that's the biggest thing that that you know, like That came You know, no, but it says because okay, we've never I always wanted to go to an opera to to watch I don't know about that. I'm nervous about that. I know he's probably never I want to go to where you were singing while ago I know there, you know, but but the white part of her So a granddaddy Because the thing is that I'm gonna be in the back east popcorn Okay, you know how you you watch movies. No, that's where we see it on right you watch the movies And you see it and you see when some people are watching it. Everybody gets so emotional. Some people fall out crying just watching Opera and I'll be watching It's so beautiful. I know there's a lot of emotion From the toes right as much as I don't understand one word they're saying But you can feel everything within, you know, just the power in their voices So it's like I would love to go and just experience that I just never mentioned it to him because I know he would never want to go with you But I'm not gonna be just like up in Vegas. Let me tell you something I'll go to sleep. I don't he will go and he'd be like No, this this would be him This is what you take me here for Yeah, yeah, if it ain't right, he would I gotta feel it. He would metal and but I gotta feel it. He might end up crying though.  It's it's it's not gonna come out like you think I mean because you don't don't get it twisted But the the songs that hit me was what you did there at the end.  I told you that already. I can't lie on what I hear and what I feel I don't do that I gotta be real else. I'm not in life. It's too short. I don't want to go out here trying to figure it out with you When I'm girl ain't gonna tell my age But I ain't got time to be playing with right now I can't be playing with time see time is something you don't play with right now Now if you want to go to opera, we'll go over. We're not gonna stay all night But but y'all cuz they were going alone, don't they? I went to one recently during cover. How long does it last? It was only about an hour and a half I can do that. I can do that. Do they have to have it here now? It's right? Yes at the wind spear opera house Okay, well, you mean they go down there. Y'all should go. It would be a beautiful night, you know Get dressed up.   Don't even take you don't take me down. They kicked me out of church when I was about four That's why I didn't really get I didn't really get that.  Yes. No I'll go but I'm gonna sit in the back We can sit in the front.  You know, I never did I never went to one I never went to one. So we'll go. I want you to text me when the next one. Okay For sure the next good one. Okay. It's on the Saturday. Yes, sir. This is like what time? What time did you go to the last one? I went to it was at 7 p.m. You can't be late. That's cool because it starts right right on time and then you you want to You don't want to get caught like making noise because you can hear pin drops So if you walking in you can hear the heels So it is exactly I'm I haven't heard the phone but I hear the It is exactly what I see on tv then because that's exactly what it is like everybody have to be totally silent Yeah, well, let's get back to the black Hey And even we trying to get this lady man bc shout out to bc man Shout out to bc. Let's go black. What's what so what's your relationship with your bc? bc is amazing. He's managing me right now. Okay. Okay. Shout out to bc. Stay on it boy. I'm coming through He's a great mentor to Okay, so how long has he been managing you? Oh not long. I met him actually Through another client because I work and represent a lot of different clients. So I actually took him a rap artist And it was funny. He goes. Do you do music and at the time? I think I still wasn't even doing music. I was like And I was like I just work with music I work with talent, you know, I go like I do things I go to the grammy's like we work with artists So he heard your voice at that time when he asked you that question No, and this is how I knew it was brewing inside of me after you just kept asking me I I sent him a picture of me that doesn't really look like me But it's me and sent him like this record that I did and I sent it over and I really was trying to play That's not the picture it's a black and white picture Explain this picture My favorite line from my last record is um We came from king I came from kings rose up from queens been through so much talk You know, I came from eve so like The apple is just a signature of the woman and how strong we are and in my arms up in there, obviously But it's all of the photos all the arts very symbolic for the projects In all the songs. So you do A strong face. Yeah, like, yeah, I'm a queen. Yeah Her expressions.  I mean everything So you said you had a rap artist that you introduced to him so that you You also got to vex vex vex vx vex is dope. He was on All platforms I've been working on since he was I don't know about four years really though. I like it. I'm gonna look him up side the vex man We're gonna be looking at so you develop um rappers too. I develop all genres. I work with Screamo to pots r&b to rap soul. I have a team of uh Industry creatives that we work with and we do how long you've been in business doing this. I've been doing this for 12 years. I've had my my personal business for five.  Um, I don't know. I've done things from like aca pop with the penitonics, which is like pretty cool. Um like from from like From start to finish I mean, I have artists that have signed. I'm trying to think of of my favorites are popping in my head from country artists I work with a guy named shane stevens in country. I love the interview here. Where is he at? That's who I work country artists. We haven't had a country You know, I have sang almost all drama shout out to kirsta kirsta rodin. She's one of my um black country artists And she's really making some waves and country music right now Yeah, she uh just got back from nashville. So I'll tell her to shout out to you The closest thing to a country artist that we've ever had on t-dash t-dash song country over here No, she's real country. She's not no no no no t-dash.  Oh, okay. I got country, you know, I like that man, you know You know what? Territory can learn from this woman I'm gonna have to show it to you I like I like that That's dope, man I love I love the way that she comes across because it makes you and it gives you a I'm pretty sure it gives them More confidence when they say they learned from you You see what I'm saying it has to like when you go you go like Yeah, I know how to do things but if I get approved from somebody who's been doing it long and they show me things that Makes me feel like I'm doing better and I sound better.  Yeah, it's a lot of stuff to go with a lot of things I'm not fat and I cook for you. Yeah, you're like aux tails That's my wife. She's from Jamaica. That's his favorite. Okay. I've been I can't I've been eating aux tails for like three weeks I don't know why but I can't stop. I haven't been on aux tails Okay, but have you gotten american aux tails or jamaica? I cook them. She cook. Okay. How do you cook it?  That that that is country but not as country as us. We are we only have terrell big now Yeah, we only had one store growing up and one post office. I'm a country boy When was the last time you've been down there? I just went down there. We had like a few weeks ago. I was down there yesterday It's like I beat you too. And I was down there the day too. Oh, okay. I frequent Terrell Yeah So what's up with you and jamey fox man? It's checking man jamey fox. I'm tapping in with you because man We got looking man. Let me finish my little tapping.   Yeah, shout out boss talk. I changed my mind Now like I like you're not gonna do my jamie. No, she love jamie. I love jamie man Like like I love terrell texas stop playing man jamie Man, come on man. That's the only thing I talk about like when I'm going out of town I'll be like, yeah, I got a store in terrell where jamie fox from People people only if you say oh terrell texas, they don't know it but you say oh where jamie fox is from. Oh Yeah, he the man But then he didn't even dallas if you say jamie fox Yeah, and people like where dallas he he he he gonna he can always see terrell, but people I mean he didn't recognize for dallas as well. He's just that big like Have you ever met him? I have met him briefly when he came down. I was there that day He didn't even get to talk to you and listen man. They named the street after him. That's when you're talking about So my my aunt uh, my great aunt was the mayor of terrell Oh So you gotta you got exclusive. Yeah, so, you know, did you get to talk to him? Just briefly What did you say to him? Hi You got on the stage and you fly You know, that's what I call it like Like even when we met steed madden, uh, whoever we meet It's like I get on the stage It's like I got to be prepared because you never know what's gonna happen And I want to make sure I captivate in this moment. Yeah, just like performing. Yeah So that's where I look at it. So if I meet somebody it's already prepared and mean like I'm ready I'm ready. Like this is like this is the moment. I've been waiting for You know That's all right. Like that's different That's what's up. Yeah I wouldn't just say hi I might have said hi and went into my opera. I don't know If I'm you, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, I'm gonna go into my opera like That was a very busy day though. That was an extra But wasn't that day? Yes. That was the same. We was down in that day And my brother sat out to my brother because my brother He picked up on something, you know, we had guys that was we've been going down there You know, Steve's come a lot and it was certain people like man, I don't like Jamie Foxx Jamie Foxx, man, I used to shoot. I used to play ball with him. I used to play the drone We don't like that. Nick. He don't even come home. He don't do nothing and this is just hood talk, right? But then when Jamie Foxx came Hey, Jamie! That's Jamie right there.  Perform at the theater.  He was gonna escalate, right? He'd come out to sunroof them niggas went crazy Crazy, I said wow, I loved it man. So you was there that day. How old was you? You was young Yeah, she was How long ago was that? They named Bradshaw, which that was the name of the street to Jamie Foxx And then they start fixing on the house. I hadn't been by there in a while.  I see somebody go in there like The windows are always like like clear. Okay, like last time I drove through I was just like, wow, that's a clean window Jamie is dope though. I love the way that he took his family up there. He pulled his family He I think he lost his sister here recently Um, you know, but Jamie is is is who we are He's our people for sure and he and he is from turtle and he keeps it real I got a and his kids are real and he's doing well with his children. I love the relationship that we can see In what he does. I really do and and a lot of fathers can learn from that But I never be one. I've been wondering where the hell the momma's at I never see the mothers. I'd be like it's because they're not in the line I'm like they probably don't want to be seen don't want to be seen, you know what I mean So Because some people don't want to be in the limelight like that But then there's people like me. What's up? Yeah, come see me But okay, but my question about the jamie fox way because when you go down there, I know they gave that street his name Yeah, they did But doesn't it still have Bradshaw street on there as well too? It's like it's red That's what I'm like black people because they gave y'all a street Okay, but but if they gave you a street Why do you have two names on right? Why don't you take that name off and put it on because your mama was the mayor ask her So let's compare I need to do my research because I'm going to search other places in Dallas. You can start with the George Bush turnpike No, no that a name changed. I want to see did they actually turn the old one off and put a new one on That's true. Or is it only taro that did that? Well, I'm not going to read too far in it.  Highway 34. That's you now. We are we're I go out there and put the sign up. Yeah. Yeah Yeah, jaymond fox man But so you being from taro and you made it out to me you made it out because a lot of people never do what you've done You know, it's so great and your voice is spectacular, right? Appreciate that. Love it, man So how get when is the album dropping when we can get more than just black? I am dropping Please tell us I am dropping anticipation Of next fall the entire album, but I'm going to be releasing singles like every two That's really what you have to do. So when is the next single coming out? It is coming out in two months But it's a surprise on the date because just like I dropped black on juneteenth Like everything has like a special date time to it So how has june how has black been going since you released it in juneteenth the coolest thing It's been received so well Like I um my mom had a she had a joke. She she said if it can pass the hood it can pass anywhere I said, what? And she goes we're going to the hood and I said, what are we going and we literally we rolled up Shout out with all my brothers. We rolled up To keystone poke Shout out to connection they feel over the cat here. So I'm gonna get a boys shout out, you know You know, oh, yeah, and all the DJs show me love all of the all of my, you know My my my friends show me love everybody received the record real well Everybody's been receiving it. Well, it's been trending real nicely. You know all the platforms on spotify apple music Let's go. Uh, we dropped the the music video in a few weeks, which is so Who shot it? Yeah, who shot the music video? Uh, Ralph No, no Ralph can no never heard that name before He is an amazing videographer I can imagine how unique your video will be. Well, we don't know yet. See don't do that. No. Yeah, I feel like that would be a See The person that I'm learning about right now. I'm gonna be checking it out. You seem like that type that we'll just go I love quintin tarantino. I love just like film directors. I love like artistic things So as much as times I spent putting the record I do spend um putting into the visuals How long did it take you to do this video from Sorry to finish idea To production like two weeks. That's it two weeks for my idea Because I I meditate on everything and then like I because I feel like everything really for everything is built out already I can just be honest, which I will be checking it out. Come on. Check it out Yeah, I ain't gonna sit here and exactly what you thought about it being do you think you nailed it I feel like I had me showing on here and it was a different type song But it was by leaving a man and I say hell I believe you because her visuals. You see what I'm saying Yeah, yeah, she left the house with a bag and she was fighting to get out. Yeah I believe everything he told her to Yeah, she had on the pink outfit dragging the suitcase stuffing it in the car leaving that cat. Yeah, don't hit me Yeah, yeah, yeah, it got to be real like it gotta be you gotta put it all Leave it all on the stage Right. Yes. Yes. I can't wait to see it. We drop it in a few weeks What day? Let me see. I'm gonna have to get back with you guys. Yeah, but you know what go to my social media. You can find it Yeah, yeah, well tell us how we can find you on your social media since you said that for sure You can check me out online on any platform at love Jones Monroe, that's sound good At I am not you don't have a man. I do not have a second man. She needs a man You know I'm saying y'all intimidated. I heard about you intimidated niggas.  You know, I've had that before. Yeah. Yeah, where are you? People tell me sometimes that I've seen you look unapproachable, but I'm just no these niggas are scared Oh, this is the first time ever. I'm gonna bring this up. Okay. Oh, this is the first time ever And this is the only part of what he says that I do agree with I don't agree with anything else. He says, okay You don't No, because kevin samuels will say a lot of African-american women do not smile enough And that is usually what makes them seem unapproachable because even like I remember in the past I could be walking somewhere and a guy walked past me and said you can smile or smile And sometimes I do smile, but some people will turn around and curse that guy out or you know, whatever but Smile more that will also help to be you know, free to be more approachable if you want to be approached Well, you know you can smile, but if you if if they scared they just scared you could smile all day long Look, you smiling now, but they ain't gonna walk up. He he got to get it together. Do you got a job? Are you a high value man? You know What is it to you? Have you ever heard of him kevin samuels? I haven't but I'm gonna go check him out. Don't go. Don't go I'm over there. We don't do it. He watches him and I watch a lot of people now Don't just say it like him. It's a lot of people I watch on the internet There's a lot of controversy about him He had a lot of females calling them mainly females who calling to talk to him to prove him wrong about women Yeah, it's one of those And they educated to and they have value they think This thing is are you a high value woman? Are you a high value man? A lot of not have a kind of low value. Oh, wow Yeah, it's a lot of low value women out there. It's what he's saying. Wow, but we just got to work on it Come on kings and queens That's just a Opinion man, like most of the time people are so sensitive these these days to what's happening with our social media waves We've always had opinions now. You can just see them a lot more than what you used to do You know, but I really think and as I was saying earlier Your progress report On instagram youtube and all that it's real I'm being real like people tell you basically you're good or you're not good enough From that perspective and it's their opinion. It's their opinion. But actually, uh, those opinions are quite the dollars It didn't used to but it does now that's where you you can do your whole concert is right there in the midst of everybody at all time so Whether it be tiktok whether it be facebook whether be instagram wherever it is you should be performing It should be something you should be talking to the people that you're connecting with I think that's great when you connect with your people your supporters And basically as you do that you will grow your brand and also when you perform That's another whole section of your brand. So you got to do everything now but the thing about society now is Good opinions are good Comments and bad ones still equate to dollars because the more They go at it is the more views and the more, you know, that's right. You're more interaction interaction Have you ever heard this stuff or you we just tripping over here? No, no, no for sure This is what part of my company specializes in there you go. Yeah, we specialize in brand development social media Exactly creative Like all of the pr Yeah, so so you you've been these bids you've been these meetings. I'm in every single meeting Yeah, yeah, yeah mastermind. I literally just came over here from a meeting russian from That's it. That's it. I've been in sessions this morning since eight or nine this morning How much sleep do you get a day? A few hours. That's not an exaggeration Yeah, a few hours to at least six, you know on a good night six to seven. I do all nighters too.  I call it hustle. It's the same thing You know, like you're just trying to get to it, you know, I mean and and nothing wrong with it You know what I mean?  I do not have any kids No, I've been I have been married to my career for a while. Yeah, high value. Do you want? I do want some candy. Yeah.  Like, come on now. No, it will see a baby. Oh, she'd be like, isn't she cute?  You know, shout outs all my kings and queens So, um, if you could talk to the the the young I have to say that the younger you If you could talk to that younger you say that the the 14-15 No, when she just started an opera I don't want to start that one just started 14 or 15. What would mean to me 13? Okay, 13 What would you say to the 13 year old you and in order to help them strive to our perfection? I would uh, re-encourage her that she was beautiful. Okay, that she is a queen That and explain the queeness though and that she can do anything Wow, great. Um, uh, that's that's it right there. Um, I read something. I want to go into something I read something to say that you went through depression at one time How did you um overcome it overcome it and How long were you in depression for in that pressure? Yeah, um for at least like I feel like I was really struggling for like two years. What caused it? I um, it went through like a hard situation Career-wise and then it was at the same time of my grandmother passing It was just everything at once just like life just like smacked me in the face and um, I just wanted really struggling through that time like and just some other personal matters like one day I am going to write a book about it. Why not? I mean you should As you should yeah, it's some it's some really like I don't even want to go there all the way mentally right now Because I think I'll even cry so maybe a little bit. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah, we've had But you know, so like um, I went through that and the biggest thing that like helped me through it was music Now I know a lot of people say that but it really Was something to hold on to like every significant moment in my life. There's a song married to it And like anytime that I needed to feel comforted or peace. I would just listen to the song And so when it came time to like go go when I went through it and started doing music Then I wound up realizing that life was connected to songs And then that's when I feel like all my music and my records really are impacting people like The song that you really like I played while I was in the hood and to look around and I'll tell you Like it was the strongest toughest men. They started crying. Well, you notice I didn't cry That's gonna be one of my goals But you know how some people always um when you're going through depressive states or going through trouble Whether they go start smoking weed or drinking or whatever But at the end of the day when you sober up the problems are still there So even with your music you say you go listen to this you feel a little bit better, but then You move on from that you stop listening to it that it comes back You know the meditation then was the the last key of centering myself and Regrounding who I was and realizing that those moments didn't define me That that happened to me and then I my my change in perspective on all the moments they it changed because I started realizing that The beauty in that moment there was so the dichotomy of life, right? And then I was like wow, I wouldn't be this strong at all without this and I wouldn't Be this courageous and be able to stand up in this meeting and represent this artist and deal with these people And go through this situation if I had not gone through that situation exactly That I totally believe that a hundred percent. I always say As long as he's known it everything happens for a reason So when we go through trials and tribulations You don't always know that it's preparing you for something down in the future because you can't see that till later on on the line We've laughed at it and be like oh, that's why we went through xyz because that helps us prepare for what we're going through right now You know what I mean? So everything in our life that we go through is connected.    Yeah, but that's that's why I got kicked out of the church. That's why Yeah, that's that's why, you know, because I go hard like to reach it. He was his competition up in that thing Thank you so much for coming on the show gentlemen. Well, thank you guys I was gonna say, you know, when you do come out with the next song Um Bring come in here. I'm gonna show you something we go. Yeah, we can we can celebrate the movement We gotta you know, because singles I like what you're doing because it's not you you bring out different portions of the the album and and it's not done in a way to where people got anticipated is what she's doing So what better way to display it than to come on boss talk 101 And and yeah, we might even have some models to stand up behind you with a t-shirt on You know I'm talking about and they just stand there Proud, you know what I'm talking about Yeah, yeah, that's black. We should have had him in here today. He's slipping hard, but we hear hey man Thank you for coming on the show. We love you. We wish you much success and I promise you Um, yeah, I'm gonna be calling I'm gonna get your number and I'm gonna be worried when you're trying to figure out What's up? What can we do to help the brand? What what do you need from us? That's how we do it That's why God keep on blessing us and we appreciate you. We love you We expect to see you go all the way to the top, baby Jamie fox. Look out. She's gonna be standing next door to you. I'll let your boy. See you nick hustle