B Scar TV Podcast
Hi-Quality conversations with your favorite creators, thought leaders, and cultural tastemakers - hosted by Brennan Scarlett.
B Scar TV Podcast
S3E7: Zyah Belle
Evolution takes many forms, and Zyah Belle embodies this truth through her musical journey across the West Coast. From humble beginnings in church choir to collaborations with legends like Snoop Dogg and Too Short, her path illustrates what happens when talent meets perseverance.
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Evolution comes in many forms. Sometimes it moves in a single lane, other times it spans across mediums. Zaya Bell looks at evolution as part of her artistry. Inspired not to be contained, evolution is simply a product of playing the game and always putting up shots. I hope you all enjoy this episode of Beast Guard TV with our very, very special guest, ziya Bell. Well, we just go ahead and roll right into this thing.
Speaker 2:Let's do it.
Speaker 1:Thank you for being here for an episode of b-star tv. This is exciting. Yeah, we're juiced up. We're fired up, uh, when we're thinking about, just like you know, think about guests and and who to bring on, it always goes through some filter of one, like you know, having a compelling story to um, oftentimes it lends itself to some type of creative endeavor, just given, I think, where we are in the city and in my own kind of personal passions and like conversations that I like to have, and then also like inspiring people to, whether it be their journey, whether it be how they express themselves, they connect with people and I think, like specific you, you check the box on all of those, but specifically on, like, the inspiration piece um, the way that your music, but also your journey, your content, and so the way that you express is very inspiring. So we're gonna get to all that. But our anchor question for every episode is what's been inspiring you?
Speaker 2:lately. What has been inspiring me lately? I feel like so much has, as of late, I will say. The sun, waking up to the sun, has been inspiring me lately, and I think anybody who lives in the Pacific Northwest will get inspired by that. But I think it's been inspiring me because I always wake up in a new energy whenever we're in these seasons where I'm like I'm getting into the mode of trying to match my body with the rhythm of nature of, like I'm I'm winding down as the sun is winding down, I'm I'm up when the sun is up, and that has really been inspiring me to like, take advantage of my days, take advantage of the time that I have, um, and move my body. That has really been inspiring me as well. Being able to release release not just through my creative works, but through the exertion of even some of my energy through, like, physical movement, which I'm sure you understand as an athlete, um, that has really been inspiring me too though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think the changing of the seasons you're right, here in the Pacific Northwest, in Portland, it hits different, uh, especially like the blooming of the flowers and the changing of the colors yes and it like you can't help but take a pause and just like damn, it's beautiful right in our neighborhood like what yeah just the beautiful lilies and like seeing all you know.
Speaker 2:I appreciated being from California. All the natural, just California, poppies growing everywhere and I'm just like I love it. I have countless photos of plants in my phone from my like morning walks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, are you a? Are you a yard work person?
Speaker 2:I'm not, but I would love to be. I don't have a yard. If I didn't live in a condo, I feel like that's something I would like, love to do, like to get into. I can see that in my future self, me being a yard work person.
Speaker 1:I've been geeking out. Yeah, oh, it's getting deep. You want to farm? Huh, oh, I want to farm.
Speaker 2:I can see it. I can see it. I could see the. I could see it Because I could just see it. I could see the overalls, I could see the what I could see it the boots, the boots, the hat On the tractor. I could see it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I love that.
Speaker 1:No, I think you know it's inspiring for me too, like you know, leaning into nature and having now having a yard. You know it's funny because, like when I was living in my parents house, my dad is really both my mom and dad. They're both very, uh conscious of how the yard like looks and spending time with the garden and making sure that the lawn is edged and making sure I'm out there mowing the lawn. And it's funny now to be a grown-up and like look at my yard with the same type of pride, or starting to have pride, like damn, I get my shit to look as good as my parents that's so cool, though I mean it's such a privilege and like an honor to be able to like grow into a space where you can really tend to what you have and what you've been blessed with.
Speaker 2:I think also like being able to tend to your garden says a lot about being able to kind of like slow down, have enough space in your life to slow down, because I think when you're working so much and your career is blooming and all these other places in your life are blooming, you don't really typically have the time and space to tend to your own literal garden you know. So that's such a dope space to be in, to be like. I can tend to that and let me actually edge that up. I love that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, what's interesting that I found is starting to like also kind of manage me emotionally a little bit, like I think some of that was like using my hands and like working on something and having like a physical project. I'm working on this little fountain right now and so I'm like then getting the bamboo and trying to figure out the mechanism moving the stones around. But I find it just I don't know, maybe it's the mix of that and like the sun and just everything.
Speaker 1:but when you said you know the sun is inspiring you, I think everything else that comes with it is, uh, so true yes um, I want to talk about your musical journey okay you, uh, started in the bay, yep, valeo, down to la yep up here in portland. Yep, you've been all up and down the west coast. I mean, you just got to get to seattle and then vancouver, and then you'll have her every spot I ain't gonna move to either one of those places but I will visit.
Speaker 2:I will visit. I think portland's the last stop. But yeah, I have definitely been up and down the west coast and was born in in vallejo and my mom moved us us to Sacramento around 10 years old and so I was a lot of my like musical start actually was there outside of like the church choir, but like my, I would say, exploring my artistry and my career started there, um, before going to Los Angeles and then now here being in Portland, which I Portland was the first time I moved to a place, not necessarily for my music, but it has impacted my artistry.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah, and through those different spots I mean you've worked with like huge names, right Like I read some stuff about your collaboration with Snoop Dogg already you know there's the music that you did with Terrace Martin, with Too Short, with Kanye West. Can you take us through some of that journey and what that's been like?
Speaker 2:Yeah, when I decided to make the move to Los Angeles, I knew that I wanted to come into that city doing more than just like trying to pursue my artistry.
Speaker 2:I started to get into songwriting more than anything, like let me try to sharpen my skills on being able to write for other artists outside of myself.
Speaker 2:And I actually started working with Mr Fab from Oakland, who is definitely well-known in the city not just for his music work but also his community work as well, and he kind of took me under his wing and was like all right, you want to write Because he's another person that I saw that would be writing with other artists. Right, other person that I saw that would be writing with other artists. And he took me to Los Angeles to write, introduced me to Too Short and I started recording music. He ended up sending some of the music that I did to Snoop and I started writing with him and writing for his daughter at that time and then ended up getting like my first major placement for a movie, an animated film that Snoop was doing and honestly being able to connect with like the OGs, like they just were kind of like hey, I have a studio, if you want to use it. Come here and use it whenever you want.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Whatever, and that was really cool because it definitely allowed me, when I moved to Los Angeles, to feel like I had just a little bit of a foundation to an extent, like I had somewhere to go. I didn't have to necessarily be like what studio should I record at, because I knew I could just pull up to shorts, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:And any time he works with me he's like you know, I got a compilation. You recorded a demo in here last month. I really liked it. I'm like, ok, I want to put it out here. I'm going to slide you something. I'm like, ok, you know. So it was really dope Shout out to Mr Fab, because he definitely did give me a lot of encouragement and showed me that there were other pathways for my artistry to just be able to like, work and create without maybe necessarily my brand being in mind, and and just explore. And that definitely put me in different rooms to be able to work with different folks, and a lot of what I've been able to accomplish in this industry has has been by way of a lot of the beautiful relationships that I've been able to make and people seeing a space for me and opportunity and being like I feel like you're the fit for this. So, yeah, that's how I've been able to work with folks like him and be in Sunday service and things like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so with the relationship with Mr Fab and then Snoop and Too Short, like legends in the music game, what did you learn from them and what did you take away on how you kind of approach or your perspective on the music game, how did it shift?
Speaker 2:I will say from short, I learned to treat this like a career, like treat this with just as much discipline and care as you would. A nine to five. It's very easy for people to be disciplined within their nine to fives because they have to work within the constructs of that nine to five or they'll be fired. But when people have to go after their passions, a lot of times they're not applying that same pressure or discipline because it's up to you. Who won't fire you for your own stuff. But I would literally see Short like clock in, like he literally. He'll say it himself he doesn't like working late. He's not one of those rappers that you see with all these rappers in the studio and work until one, two in the morning. He comes in like a job. He comes in eight, 9am, leaves the studio at six o'clock. He's done, I'm done. What do I got to do today? Load it up. Shout out to Zach, my homie Zach, that still pretty much engineers all my music, that's shorts engineer. And he'll tell Zach load it up, we doing this, this and this today, and he will just get it done. All right, I'm done for today. All right, I'm out.
Speaker 2:And I learned like how much you get done with having that same type of discipline. Treat your career just as seriously as you would treat that nine to five that you're clocking into. Like don't lose that structure. Um, and with Snoop, I definitely learned to explore your creative. I definitely learned the same with Ye of like, explore your creative. Don't. Don't pigeonhole yourself into one thing. Like do that, do that thing, which I never do. I never pigeonhole myself into anything. I do what I want to do creatively and I try things out and it's it's blessed me to be able to explore different avenues of creative outside of just my personal artistry.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I think Snoop both Kanye and Snoop, but Snoop in particular. The amount of different projects that he's taken on man that like outside of music, like the amount of times that you just see Snoop on some random commercial acting or some product that has his name on it. He like it's like what, bro, you're into it? Is this a wine? Like what? Is this what?
Speaker 2:is. It's so dope, because I feel like it also encouraged me to be my authentic self in the sense of like how I show up, because you know his personality and what he portrays himself to be is Snoop, that's Unk, like. That's who he is. He's never had to like water down or become something else outside of who he is. People want him on their thing and that was really cool to see because it definitely encouraged me to be like you know, step into your own authenticity and whatever it is that you do yeah, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1:And also like what I've learned from him is like you gotta be you can't be afraid to fail yeah you have to be willing to try shit yeah because I mean there's a lot of snoop's projects that you know aren't that he started, that aren't still going today you know, and and and even to, to see the amount of music that he's still making.
Speaker 1:Like I had one night that I was just randomly like I wonder what Snoop's been up to and was going through his discography and the amount of albums that he's dropped over the last five years that, like, I ain't heard about. But he's still creating, he's still expressing.
Speaker 2:And it's like damn, like it's inspiring?
Speaker 1:yeah, because it's that with everything else too yeah, definitely inspiring it.
Speaker 2:It for sure makes you think like, okay, for one I don't know if I'll have that same output, but I do see that, like you have the capability to touch so many things, it that is what you want to do. You can be that consistent. So him and you know short's definitely one of those people too. 40 40 is for sure one of those folks too that they release a project at at least almost every year. They released a, an album or some sort of compilation at least every year.
Speaker 1:Every other year I wonder what their like fan base looks like now too. Like I gotta, I got to imagine those are the loyal Snoop fans who are tapped in on every album.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Loyal E-40 fans yeah.
Speaker 2:And then you have the people that, of course, are like, oh, these are legends, so we maybe consume what feels nostalgic to us.
Speaker 1:Right right.
Speaker 2:But we still hey, we respect, we love what you do, type of thing too.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And then I'm sure I wonder like is Snoop torn Right now?
Speaker 2:he's not, but he's releasing music Like he just released a project like a month or two ago. Damn yeah.
Speaker 1:That's fire. Yeah, yeah, I think, um, I mean, create just the creative journey in it in itself is just so, so unique, and I think that's like the. The hardest part is to continue to, like put shots up, you know, put shots on goal, because with that, like you know, you're not going to make every shot right. You're not. And and creatively, like the, the ones that you make also are like the. The feedback loop of the made shots are so long that, like you might know, not know if that project will be a make for another year or two yeah you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:It's not. It's not like ball, where you just shoot this out like oh yeah, now to hit that yeah it's like, okay, I'm recording this, okay, now I'm rolling it out, and then you know, from like inception to completion.
Speaker 2:It could be a year, it could be two, it could be three, like who knows it'll be even longer, as we see with tiktok and the virality of like old school songs coming back around and things like that.
Speaker 1:You just, you never know you really have to have faith in like I heard. Uh, I have a saying I think that motion leads to more motion, and saying yes to certain projects and like just trying shit yeah is uh is really important, because then that will be the stepping stone to that thing that you didn't even know you wanted to do. Absolutely it's perfect for you, but just continuing to stir motion in the face of the adversity, that is like not everything's gonna be a make yeah and be failures yeah you might not know.
Speaker 1:If you know, this is a success for another few years um still gotta put it up though and you look at these legends who have like been doing it for a long time, things, uh, it's powerful, yeah, for you, uh, and your own like personal evolution of as a as an artist, I've been seeing, uh, you were on on the radar, you were on phone booth, which I wasn't familiar with Phone Booth until I was doing my research. You visited Spotify, apple Music, like shit is popping right now. Can you talk us through where you're at personally in your musical journey?
Speaker 2:I'm in a very interesting space in my musical journey because artistry is one of those things that, like I think right now, because virality feels so accessible that people think that the the time that it takes to get to certain spaces and to get in certain rooms can be so super quick. Yeah, um, but it does take a good amount of time and years to really get to the, the partner visits, and get to these platforms. And, you know, I think about artists like Victoria Monet, who have been in the industry for, you know, 10 plus years and it's truly just now really getting the, the recognition that that she deserves, that it feels interesting to be in this space. Because in my mind I'm like, well, I've been doing this for a very long time and you kind of get to a point where I'm at where it's. It's literally that corny photo that you see of the guy chiseling away and he's getting tired and it's right there.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And these are the moments for me where I'm actually sometimes the most emotionally exhausted and feeling like, oh my God, I've been doing this for so long, but then so much is happening and in a natural progression, that I'm also very grateful for it. So it's like you end up getting that second wind. I'm kind of in that space of like, in that second wind of confidence and perseverance and consistency, because I'm like no, like I can feel that I'm close. I'm closer than I've ever been in what it is that I'm trying to accomplish. So it's been beautiful. It's been a hell of a journey. It's been annoying and ugly and disappointing, but also it's like there's really nothing else that I want to do more.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it doesn't make sense for me to do anything Like. I couldn't imagine myself being like I quit. I couldn't imagine quitting right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like that. I like that metaphor of a second wind. Yeah, because I feel like that's so real. Where do you, how do you get that second wind? Have you felt like, is it seasonal, like you know? Is it like a certain time of the year when the sun comes out?
Speaker 2:okay, you know, I think it's a combination of things. I think it's perseverance. It's also my community. My community has seen me go through so much within my artistry, within my personal life. It's my team, like my friendship team, my community team and even now, even having, like label, support and having a team of folks who truly believe in you and who are trying to match your work ethic, because I'm a firm believer that as an artist, as a creative, you should be outworking everybody on your team at every point in time. There's no reason why your label should be working harder than you, why your manager should be working harder than you, but you should be working so hard that they're convicted to match your energy, and I think it's been.
Speaker 2:Now I'm in a season where things are aligning, in that I've experienced seasons where I'm out working and people ain't really trying to, and it's just been me and my community. We getting it out the mud you feel me, my friends, is shooting stuff for me for free or at a crazy discount and we just we getting it how we live. Who did this rollout Us Ain't no marketing team, ain't no, it's a marketing team of us, you know, and I think it's just like a constant chisel in a way, even when you don't got it. I feel like that's when I try to be like what would Beyonce do? You feel me, because I don't always got it, it's not going to always feel good and affirming.
Speaker 2:I recently went through that experience of like I shot all of these visuals for an EP that's getting ready to come out this year. I shot these visuals almost two years ago. When I shot these visuals, I was not in the headspace to even want to be on camera, didn't even care to be on camera, but that's what we got to do. Today we're shooting. Today we're getting this creative out, so show up. These are the times in your career where, like, you don't feel like showing up, but you said this is what you wanted to do. So clock in, I think, is clocking in day in and day out and eventually it aligns. It sometimes doesn't even make sense. What I'm doing, like I'll be like. What am I doing? Like, why am I still doing this? Like I'll be like. What am I doing? Like, why am I still doing this? You know, like damn, but I think it's just.
Speaker 1:It's a, it's a combination of of that consistency, the perseverance, being blessed enough to have a team where all of us kind of work together for for this thing, um to be able to flourish, and where it's at now, yeah, so for so, for these, uh, these moments that have happened in I don't want to call it like mainstream media, like the appearances at radar, phone booth and stuff, like in the context of your, your team and you like, how do you make those things happen like it, that seems like it could be a grind in itself. So I'd make sure you're making the contacts and like being able to like be in that space. How does that work with your, with you and your team?
Speaker 2:it's? It's a very multi-faceted thing because the thing about the music industry it is partly business in the sense that you know, maybe if you have PR, you have label support. It is the business aspect of that team reaching out on your behalf and saying, hey, we have this artist, we think she would be great for your platform, we would love to have her in that space, whatever. But then it's also a combination of even the work that I've put in prior to the team of people seeing my journey and a lot of times, people reaching out to me where I've been asked for years like do you have PR? Do you have an agent? How are you getting these shows? How are you getting these tours? My most recent tour that I went on was the first time I was ever pitched for a tour. My first two tours were people who knew me and enjoyed my artistry and said we want to have you, and so it's like it's the social part of the industry that meets the business part of the industry.
Speaker 2:You have to honestly wear multiple hats. Everybody got to be doing their thing, from your label to your manager to you, making sure that you did nurture said relationships or, you know, maybe you did, and you didn't know that it would form into an opportunity later, but it does. You know, it's been such a divine thing to experience that some of these these things that people see me doing publicly have come by way of relationships, people who have known me for years, or or, yeah, I do have now label support and PR where, hey, my PR reached out and say, hey, we think she should be on the red carpet at the Billboard Women in Music, can we get her there to those things you know. So it's. I've been blessed by a multitude of things where you just kind of got to, you got to set your markers on on multiple things you can't just invest in in one side of this industry.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's real. Yeah, and and um. Investing of your time, the way that it compounds, yeah, throughout your life, is just an interesting way because nobody truly tells you like exactly how much time you put in and what the like output of that, what the return on that time put in will be and when it will come, you know. But it's like especially now, as we're, you know, kind of coming into our own from a professional standpoint. It's just from an amount of time that, like our peers have now been in their career. It's like not quite when, I think, when people would give you the advice like build relationships. So I think that like, ok, I got to find this executive who's at the top of the hierarchy and make nurture this relationship. But it's like now we're getting at a point where it's the relationship that we have had and have built with our peers.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Because they are. We're all kind of stepping up into our own and do you have that relationship that you made from a show when that person was maybe just a PA on set? Yeah, and you know, you like chopped it up, dapped it up, followed each other on IG and now that's a relationship and now, boom, they run studio Ziya.
Speaker 2:What's up? It really has been that. It's been such a beautiful progression. I think that's that's like what Issa Ray was talking about in an interview where she said you have to network across. Like don't worry so much about networking up, you have to network across. Like people will see certain opportunity and think like, oh my God, you must have talked to this person. And it's like actually, no, I have met the homegirl at this show that I had went to back in Hollywood and she ended up auditioning for this thing and she felt like I would be good for it too. So she gave me the recommendation. I showed up, and it was for Kanye. Felt like I would be good for it too, so she gave me the recommendation, I showed up, and it was for Kanye. That is literally like that.
Speaker 2:Or I was at an audition for Kalela and I'm just in the waiting room and I meet a girl and we vibe. I'm like yo, I love your energy, you're so dope. We connect, end up reconnecting because she's the roommate of a producer I started working with and then me and her have been friends ever since and she's touring with Sir and we both sang in Sunday service together. Like you, just kind of, it really does pay to be a kind person.
Speaker 2:I think, when people talk about relationships, I love the the idea of it, but then I'm also like don't invest so much in relationships from a place of like what can you do for me, what can I do from you? From just a transactional space. Like, just be a kind person and people remember that kindness and that's what will hold you from meeting them in 2017 and then in 2023, you get blessed with something because they like oh yeah, I met them a while ago and I do. Yeah, they do do that. Let me hit them up, because I'm going to more than likely, hit up my homie that I mess with, even if they're not as qualified as homeboy. I'm going to hit up my homie because that's just also how we're in that space with our peers of like we want to put each other on.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's been a lot of power in being able to invest in the spaces that bring you true community and fill your heart in those moments. Not necessarily that might fill your pockets in that moment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, god, I just feel like. I feel like that whole build relationships thing has been just totally misrepresented, at least to me, Like as far as like what that means and like how not how to do it, you know, I mean it's like, yeah, a person and be accessible and follow up and these things, but I don't know. I'm just like I'm in in a place where what they used to tell us in the league is like, whatever city you play in, whatever industry you might be interested in, make sure you go and meet the top level executives at all those different places, because you can get your foot in that door and like have those conversations. And I think that was like important. That's an important message for us. But I think what even maybe is just as important, if not more important, is like with those industries, like meet your peers who are in those spaces, spaces who are like building a profession in those spaces yes they don't necessarily have to be the top of the food chain.
Speaker 1:No, that's okay, you know I mean yeah, but it's just, it was uh. Yeah, it's just it's. It's interesting because in in the career of a professional athlete, when you are at that point, you are at the top of your food chain right and so it's like networking across is actually like going to a top level executive, maybe you know.
Speaker 1:I mean just like from a career standpoint yeah but then when we're done playing you now at starting out like not at the bottom, but it's just, it's an interesting, just way, at least that it's been uh presented to me uh, yeah, I always find, though, what.
Speaker 2:What people forget is like networking with that executive. That executive is meeting so many people constantly. Executives are meeting people constantly. They're meeting important people all the time, but, like that showrunner, that PA, that assistant, if they are passionate about you, they will talk that executives or that directors ear off about you, because they also now have something to prove too. Like they're going to apply more pressure than the executive who just met somebody else, probably five minutes before you or after you. I think about those relationships a lot of times are more powerful because you experience people who are a little bit still more passionate and in touch with humanity Not to say that folks at CEO or executive levels aren't, but I think they're a little bit more black and white because they have so much that they're dealing with that they look to the people that are working alongside them and under them to tell them what's next.
Speaker 1:Yeah right.
Speaker 2:To tell them hey, this is who you need to pay attention to, because they not really, they don't really be tapped in when you get to a certain level.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's real. And the fact that those relationships that you build it's not to bear, they're not going to bear fruit right now. Yeah, it's going to be. You know, could be two years, could be three, could be five, could be 10.
Speaker 2:Yep, after I knew that within my relationship, that we were getting to the point of like marriage and things like that, I definitely started to pay a lot of attention to like married men that were like happily married and how they were, and they were men that had hobbies. I'm interested. They were men that knew how to like do a thing outside of their work. So they were men that like enjoyed working around the house or enjoyed work Like like Vic's dad knows how to build motorbikes why I don't know, but he knows how to like build motorbikes. He knows how to build a bike like just go and get parts and he enjoys doing that, even beyond marriage. Like men who really enjoy their lives are typically men who have like hobbies and aren't just only career and finance focused Things that are like allowing them to put the phone down or like be to their own devices. I'm like those are normally my favorite type of humans.
Speaker 1:In your hobby if it's being purpose driven, like when you put all the ingredients together, the purpose was to make this delicious piece of bread. You know what I mean. I think there's something in our nature that, like we thrive on that, on like having a project and like making it happen, especially with when it's like somewhat physical with it, but it's even just more mental too. You know what I mean. It's just like cause. Then when you get it done, there's something that you get from like oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't want to be the matriarch of my family. I grew up around nothing but matriarchs, the women that take on everything, and they got it. Nope, I don't want that. I know that a lot of that was the result of the women in my family not having men to share the load with. So I remember being like defensive about certain things and it happened to be like oh, you know, what it is is that I don't care to be the matriarch and I I need you actually in certain areas, I want you to lead I'm. I know it might seem like I think to somebody who doesn't know me they might be like oh, she probably likes to be the person in control. No, you actually could go ahead and do that. You could do that.
Speaker 2:I lead in my career and in so many other places in my life. Please leave. Leave Point five. Yeah, please do your thing. You know. So I learned that a lot of like ways that I would react to things that even would cause arguments or whatever, or even same with him, would probably be internalized concerns of whatever, maybe our relationship becoming this or whatever. So we do a great job of like. We discuss everything. We both offer each other enough space to like to grow and be like. Okay, I don't know, I don't know where you finna end up right now, but I'm gonna let you and you love the love is so at the core of who they are.
Speaker 1:Exactly that whole chapter.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly Everything else can change To the core. But I'm like, hey, if you want to explore a new career, if you want to do the okay 21 questions, six different, listen, child. I was cracking up because I just saw a trend of somebody doing that and then he was like what'd he say? Because if I was locked up for a quarter century?
Speaker 1:child like how long you support me mentally?
Speaker 2:child. What did you do to get in there and did you set us up to be good while you in there? Because if you in there for a quarter century, but now I gotta, yeah, yeah, because if you're there for a quarter century, I need details, you know because. But then now I'm struggling and I gotta, I gotta figure it out for the family and you in there for a court of century. I need details, you know. But then now I'm struggling and I got to figure it out for the family and you in there for a court of century and you want me to support you mentally. But I don't know about that 50. If life happens to you, can you be there? I think that'd be.
Speaker 2:My only thing about the 21 questions is I'm like what did you do to get in there for 25 years? Was I in on it? Did I know about it? Because if I was in on it, I've probably prepared myself for the consequences that, hey, he might go down for 25 years for this. But if I find out now, then now, technically, you've kind of broken your vows, because that's different. But I'm like vows, because that's different, but I'm like that, things like that.
Speaker 2:That is something that has been very powerful to think about. When you think about taking vows and you're like, oh okay, I have to think about the level of commitment, the level of just how, how deep and meaningful that is to take. Is that something that you could do in sickness, in health, in all those things? And I think that it's been the craziest idea to ask myself that question. And I had to go through a whole Chad, went through a whole thing with my therapist of literally even working through. What does that look like? What does it look like to trust another human being? And then, when you bring trauma into it for myself, I didn't grow up with my father. My father was my first heartbreak, so experiencing trauma what does it look like to be able to trust a man? And when most of your hurt, or the most times in your life you've experienced feeling unsafe, has been at the hands of a man?
Speaker 2:And but what the beautiful thing about love is for me is like love has never hurt anybody. Only people have hurt people. So if I've, if I'm, hurt, it's because the the human you did that Love didn't hurt me. So I can never fail by taking a chance on love. I can possibly experience hurt by taking a chance on you as a human, and if that happens, well, it's just what happens.
Speaker 2:But I would never give up on love and I think people get so caught up in like the human that gives the love that they're like I'm scared to love and I'm like I'm not scared to love at all. Love has never hurt me. It's been the human that gives the love that they're like I'm scared to love and I'm like I'm not scared to love at all. Love has never hurt me. It's been the human that I was looking to receive the love from and also understanding like I'm going to be okay, though Will it hurt, but I will be okay if I'm willing. I think when you're accepting vows, you're accepting the best and worst case scenario and I know that in the midst of everything, I'm going to be all right. You got to really be willing to be like. You know this is what I want to do and I believe you, I trust you. I've seen some of the ugliest things that you've had to go through and you know I fuck with you, so I'm going gonna do this.
Speaker 1:I saw on IG uh, it came off either Twix page or your page when he did the his interview yeah, the street interview yeah, and he, uh, he asked you like, what does Portland need more of? And your response was optimistic transplants. So that was a hell of a response in the way that you broke it down to as far as, like, people who move here and then complain about the place but don't take the time to like, invest and spend time and really see the beauty of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so I'm just curious. We're here in Portland, we're recording this is a Portland-based show. What is the beauty of it? Yeah, and so I'm just curious. We're here in Portland, we're recording this as a Portland-based show. What is the beauty that you see in Portland?
Speaker 2:You know, I think there's so much power actually in the tight-knit community that especially the Black community in Portland has had to create out of its adversity and out of its segregation that I feel like I've seen a lot of power in the black community here specifically speaking like to the north and northeast. That, at least that I've been able to witness. That, I think, is really dope, because I think people typically romanticize, of course, what's happening in other cities because there is more black folks there, more people of color there, that they end up thinking like there has to be more of a black community. People often say that like, oh, I wish there was more of a black community here, which I think, though, what people want to say is like I just wish there were more black people. But you can often find that in these metropolitan cities, where there are more people of color, that there might not necessarily be as much community though, but there might be more people who look like you there.
Speaker 2:I will say, coming here to Portland, there has been such a power in the way that people try to enrich their communities and actually take pride in it, and I that so much. I think it's been dope to experience, like the down to walk down the street, and that's my you know, mother-in-law's house right here and my sister is five minutes up the street and my best friend is 10 minutes away. The idea of even accessibility to community or your friends or whatever, I think is such a beautiful thing that Portland has and it makes you feel even convicted to invest, like invest in it, because I think it's crazy to come here as a person of color, complain that there's not as many people of color, but then not do anything impactful as a person of color here, like, well, what are you doing to enrich the space? What are you doing to create more opportunity or more space for, you know, black folks and people of color to show up? And so I feel like Portland has been such a inspirational place for me and I've also seen and experienced some of the most successful entrepreneurial business owners of color here than at least what I've been able to see when I've been in other spaces.
Speaker 2:I feel like it because the community is smaller and people do typically network across a lot more, especially in this city. You know a person who is the head of Dada Dada here and who has a small business on Alberta here and who I didn't really have that in in LA, but also LA's far more spread out. So it makes it harder to feel like you have community. Although you might see more people around you that look like you, you might not necessarily feel that community and I will say, being here in Portland, I've felt that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Regardless of the amount of black folks here. I've still been able to feel that, but I've also went out and tried to find these spaces and become acquainted with people who are in that community. So, yeah, I've had a very enriched experience here and I think it's a superpower that Portland has that I don't even know if they know that they have it. I think sometimes they people who are from here can romanticize living in larger metropolitan cities.
Speaker 1:Um, that they don't realize that there is so much that people have accessibility to here yeah, yeah, and the beauty of being a small town, but not a small town, right, we're, we're, uh, I don't know, we're like big city, small town, somewhere in the middle of that, and to be able to walk on any street and see somebody that you know and be able to recognize them and know them by name or whatever, and shake hands and give hugs. I think that doesn't happen in LA, it doesn't happen all the time in New York, and I think when people talk about not having as much exposure to the black community or like wanting more black people here, I think you're, you're right. Like black community is here, although the spaces, it's like we're a blank canvas in the, in the, in the way where the amount of black communal spaces that are here it doesn't equate to Houston, it doesn't equate to New York, it doesn't equate to LA. There's less of us, so then there's less of those spaces, which is a beautiful opportunity.
Speaker 2:To create, more To create that space.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and I think I approach Portland with the grace of its ugly past as well, portland with the grace of its ugly past as well. I give the city grace and the people in it, the black people impacted by the history of the city, grace because they don't. They're also kind of coming in at a deficit of like, having experienced segregation a lot longer than its neighboring cities, having experienced redlining and racism and not even as much of an industry here to have as many black folks that were deciding to even come up here. I mean, from what I know, like the state of Oregon itself has not even ever had like a black, like governor. So it's like we don't.
Speaker 2:We don't necessarily have the foundational history of having droves of black people that came here like a Bay Area, that have more of an industrial rise of oil and all these different things that were that the black people that are here, that are from here, that have come here from the South as well and have had roots here for years, were doing the best with what they could. Yeah, and they're doing their best to fight back against it, like it's only so much that they could do. No, this is not a do. No, this is not a Chicago. No, this is not a, this is not a Detroit.
Speaker 2:But also think about the industries and the things that brought black folks there and why there, why there are so many black folks in these cities, it has to do with their history. That's right. So I give Portland its grace in that and I think if more people came here and said you know, because now they're here for these industries of marketing and they're here for these industries of sportswear that are bringing more people of color here now, ok, we'll invest while you're here. If this is where you lay your head at, do something while you're here to give back, don't just collect your check and complain.
Speaker 1:Do something.
Speaker 2:Do something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel right, do something, do something. Yeah, I feel right. Um, when etai and I were talking about this conversation and planning out the show, uh, both of us resonated around the way that you curate your content and the way that you express yourself across social media. And ty has somewhere, like there's kind of the juxtaposition of, like some artists maybe in the past have kind of remained the mystery, versus some artists you know are accessible to their, to their fans, to the followers, to their friends, whatever you want to call them right, and it seems that you've played this really unique role of, uh, really connecting with your people, like through your own experience, your own lived experience. That's when I hear, like when I watch your reels or see your story and the way that you're talking to us, it's like you're really talking to us, you know. So I just I commend you for that, but also would love to know kind of how you think about it as an artist and like from a maybe even strategic standpoint.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, for one, I would love to be one of those artists that are like a mystery, but I've never even related to those types of people or archetypes of artists ever really. And I think that, when you know, when it comes down to the type of artist I am, I'm just reflective of the generation that I grew up in, and I think that if artistry and music was still within that same space of how it was and the way that they would put artists through artist development and nurture them and you got to see artists in a curated way, if the music industry was still like that, I probably would still just present like that, and I think there are certain artists who still do. They only show up on their social media in a very like curated way. Yeah, um, but for me, I've always interacted with social media, for one as like my television show. I don't, this is my network, this, this is my network. You know what I mean. And so, hey, tap in turn on your favorite show. This is what's going on today, and I feel like I grew up in a day and age that was more personable.
Speaker 2:I grew up in the MySpace era. I had a Twitter account, since Twitter was Twitter, you know. So I've always experienced this like interpersonal relationship with my fans, and it's also hard to not show up this way when so many of them literally have been with me from the start and seen when I was doing covers on YouTube and stuff like that. So I enjoy being that way online because I think, for one, it's important for me, for me to give people context into who I am as an artist and a person, um, and it's fun.
Speaker 2:I think it's fun and it's so funny because now you see more artists being encouraged to do that, but then they've been so comfortable and only showing up in a curated way that sometimes artists feel very awkward about being in front of the camera or speaking candidly. But I also do attribute it to the fact that I'm a theater kid. You know I'm not shy to be on camera or to publicly speak, um, so I've never had the luxury of being like the mysterious, super socially awkward artist like I'm just not that. Have you acted before? Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:It's definitely something I would love to get back into, but not something I've like invested in in my adult years. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I could see it.
Speaker 2:I could too. I could too. I need to start filming some, doing some self-tapes.
Speaker 1:Was it true that you were Dorothy on Wizard of Oz? I do I need to start filming some doing some self-tapes. Was it true that you were Dorothy in Wizard of Oz?
Speaker 2:I was. That was my first role ever, your first role. Yes, it was Dorothy and the Wiz.
Speaker 1:If you were to play a dream role like the one like if they cast you right now, kill it. What would that role be?
Speaker 2:Shoot, I don't even know. Shoot, I don't even know. I don't know, because I think what I love about theater is how expansive it is and how like you have to get it would. It would have to be something that really challenged me and I would love for it to be in anything Ryan Coogler wrote, like anything that he wrote. Yeah, but Amy Rowe, I honestly would love to be in something that is probably completely opposite of my personality.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because I think that's you know, that's kind of easier to do the typecasted type of role. Play a character? Yeah, I would much rather be able to play a character, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was an off-the-cuff question.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel like for me it would be like a like a herman boone type, like remember the titans, you know, like that coach yeah, I could see that actually, yep yeah, um, what's next for you? What's next what we get, what we got coming down the down the pike here new music releasing this summer. Yeah.
Speaker 2:EP releasing this summer Possible tour this summer, well, kind of into the fall, a lot of beautiful things that have been cooking and honestly done, ready to be served, you know, is is finally going to be presented out into the world. So I'm really excited about, about this summer being able to share with people what I've been working on for the past couple of years. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:That's cool. It's uh. It's been incredible hearing about your, your story and your journey in depth. Obviously, we go back a few years now, but I feel like oftentimes, you know, like sitting in this having conversation is something that is few and far between.
Speaker 1:So, I appreciate you being here and the way that you've continued to put the time in on your craft and how you continue to experiment with that craft creatively, you know, across DJing but then continuing to show up in your artistry and dropping EPs and music. It's really inspiring and I appreciate you being here and serving some of that inspiration to me and the team and everybody who's listening. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:I appreciate it. Cheers to me and the team and everybody who's listening. Thank you for having me. Yeah, I appreciate it. Cheers.
Speaker 1:Cheers. There you go, y'all. Another episode of Beast Guard TV Peace. This episode of Beast Guard TV has been brought to you by Scarlet Creative. For the full-length video episode and more content, find us on Instagram, youtube and TikTok at Beast Guard TV and please leave us a review. Drop a comment. What do you want to see? What do you want to hear? Who do you want to hear from? We would love to hear from you. This is your host, with the mostnan, scarlett, signing off Peace.