 Big shit, big shit, big shit, big shit, huh. Name another podcast like this. Check it, check it, check it. It's a unique house. It's your boy, E-CEO. And I'm here with the lovely, amazing official, Mr. Jamaica. What's going on? None of you know my dad. We all gone. Hey, man. Check it, man. Hey, man. We here in LA, man. And, hey, we actually stumbled up on the gym, man. And everywhere I looked, hey, man. When I seen her, man, I said, man, this girl is something special, you know? And the guys that she was rocking with. That's who, that really show who you are. The people you hang around. I remember, I ain't gonna get into it. But at the end of the day, man, who you hang around means something. Association brings about assimilation. It does. So at the end of the day, man, I mean, this lady knows a lot about, a little bit about everything. I ain't gonna say a lot about everything. A little bit about everything, man. Ms. Kenya Ware is in the building. How you doing, man? Hey, y'all, thank you for having me. I love y'all. Boss talk 101, what a boss is talk. Yeah. I just love your voice and I love your personality. I've been watching your videos. Man. Your personality matches your voice. Man. Your voice is top. You know how sometimes you can meet people and their voice is, you're like, I know they're good with kids, cause that voice, you're good with people because of that voice. I love people. I love people. I'm humbled. I'm thankful. I'm happy to be here. And what you see is, that's my everyday life. Awesome. That's awesome. That's my everyday life. I love, I love love. I take it with me cause you remember during the dark times how it felt. So why not just spread love? That's exactly what I was going to say because you say you love love, but I know that we all go through situations where that love, you know, is thrown out of the way because you're like, you know what, you've been treated so. Cause when you love love and you love everybody, not everybody returns that favor back to you. So a lot of times you get discouraged, you get angry like, God, why me? Why don't I get back what I give? That's my argument with God all the time. And I'd be having a conversation in the car about that. But it's funny because you say you want to be like God and he has a copy love, meaning when you hate me or when you do something to me, I still apply love to you. So that's the, you really asking God to do something that he's not with because he loves you, yet and still. And we always, I started, I posted that. Oh, it just made me shiver. I posted that the other day because I try to remember that. But how many of us when we're mad or angry, we don't remember these things. You know what I mean? Because all the things that we do that we get him angry because we don't walk the way in which we should walk. And if he was supposed to be like us, all of us would be down a creek without a paddle. They're right. And I know that feeling. Let's talk about you for a minute. Because so many interviews, you got all these interviews out here. But a lot of times what was missing was the thing that you always start off with. That's how we kill them every time. Because they really don't go there. They too busy trying to get to the, no, they try to get that meat first. And they don't eat the vegetables. You gotta get them veggies because that's gonna keep you strong. That's right. So we wanna get to them vegetables right now. And that's exactly what it is because what you had to go through in the past, bringing you up as a child is what made you into who you are today. And that's what we wanna get into. Where you were raised, you're upbringing. I mean, your mom, your dad, your sister, your grandparents, if you remember it. Before death row, before death row, before ruthless records. We wanna go before that. Because all of those lessons taught you before you actually had to go through it. So tell me about your upbringing. God, so my grandmother, June, God, they say I'm like her. And grandma June knew everybody. Her sister was one of the PR people at Motown. And I never understood what my grandmother actually did, but she knew the good times set. She knew everybody on Soul Train. My grandmother knew everybody. And I remember my fifth birthday party. I remember her big house. I remember over 150 people there. And then I remember my 10th birthday party and she rented out a whole roll skating rink over there in LA for me and hired the Soul Train dancers to come. Awesome. So my grandmother, she was a housewife, but she knew everybody. I remember being on the sets of Good Times in the 70s with Janet Jackson and Rolona on the show. Her granddaughter, my grandmother helped raise her. Is Rolona the same way how she is in person, off camera is the way how she is on camera? Rest in peace, Janet DuBois, Rolona, same person. Cause she was always so upbeat and I mean. That was her and her granddaughter and I, we were raised like sisters since we were six and we still to this day connect. We still talk about trying on her wigs inside the dressing room and Janet Jackson how it was a broken typewriter and they blamed us kids on a good time set. So my early life, it was lights camera action. And my grandmother taught me to be a strong woman. She taught me never to take any shit from a man. She taught me my way. My mother was a hundred percent there, but granny was God. That was the real my dear right there. Was she married? To my grandfather for, when she died, it was maybe 40, 50 years, about 50 years. That's good. So my whole family, everybody's married. You know? That's good. I was the only one to kind of, you know, in, out, in, out. I was the other one, you know, but. How did that make you feel because I have relatives who would tell me everybody in my family is married, but I was the first one to get a divorce and I felt like I was a black sheep. I felt like an outcast because I broke that. It's like I'm cursed. How did that make you feel? I was different from everybody. I mean, they lived this up straight life. I was on the other end of the spectrum, but I was successful at that. They didn't think so. I mean, of course, you know, when I bring home this rapper, I'm sneered upon. They're like, what are you doing? You know, we've. Because they stereotype him. Oh yeah, they wanted me. My grandmother was an AKA, so I'm supposed to follow that trait, but I was, I wanted something else. Were you an only child? No, I had an older brother. Okay. And I had a cousin that was raised as my brother. So two older brothers in the house. So you were a tomboy because you had no sisters. Oh, but I was a fly girl, you know? And I was the one that, if my mother, I stayed in trouble. I remember they, my grandmother, they had a locking key on me. You know, it was during those days, you can't let your daughter spend the night at people's house. The men, they had brothers and men and I'm like, oh, the first. Too many things happened. My grandma had experienced that. So the locking key was on me and I wanted to break out. So that's kind of how I was. But did they ever explain, cause that's one thing I hated about growing up. You know how parents would tell you you can't do this or you had to stay inside, you had to be, but it would never tell you why, because these dangers because of this, did they ever explain it to you? It was just that some men are bad and some brothers are bad. And I know it was from what my grandmother experienced with me. I think she was molested. So it trickled down to me. And I was held on the locking key and I was fighting to get out. I'm like, you guys are gonna let me out this house. My brother or my cousin can go anywhere. I can't. Because you're a girl. I'm a girl. And I'm stuck and I'm like, no. So I became the best escape artist in the world. Yeah. I was at new edition concerts. Are you not supposed to be there? I'll take that L when I get home. I just, I was normally, I was used to taking the L when I got home. Did you got weapons? Oh yeah, grounded. You take my phone, but my mother did some ill, ill stuff. I had this new edition jacket. I had got it to the concert. It was ill. My mother said, okay, I'ma really hurt your feelings. You don't wanna come home on time. You gonna do this? She ripped it back in my jacket. That was worse than anything in the world. I'm like, my new edition jacket? Damn it. I love that. That was my heart. And you gonna. I can't imagine. I still got that jacket. You ripped the rip in there. Ripped in the back. And the boys finally signed. I had, Bobby had got everybody to sign it and everybody signed it. And I'm like, it doesn't matter. They can't see you back. But I look at the rip and it resonates back to that moment when I got in trouble, that rip. But that's a good thing though. That's a good thing. Cause we miss that a lot of times these days. We don't challenge our children enough sometimes in these episodic events that we face. So I think that's dope that she did that. I hate it for you, but I think it's real dope, you know what I'm saying? I still, when I look at it, I'm like, I'm still rockin'. I'm still rockin'. Was there some things during that time, like, was there any tragedy of a strike when you was young? Anything that you can remember? Did everybody just float through? Cause you hear so many stories about gang, you know, all the culture out here on the West Coast. But if you was in a different place, then you was in a different place. But were there times or any times that you had any tragedies to strike when you was a little girl? Cause you were born and raised in LA, right? Yeah, she knew all about it. It didn't, I mean, my grandmother, we were in Culver City. So we were on the other side during that time. I mean, it wasn't any blacks in Culver City. I was probably the only black girl in my class, one of two for six years, seven, eight years, you know, through high school. So did you face racism then? Not really. It was a lot of Hispanics and they showed love. It was never, I never experienced that. I felt like, you know, cause I was a fly girl, it was very important for my grandmother that we went to school fly. And we would go down to Bullocks on the weekends. I had Gloria Vanderbilt, every color. She wanted us to have the Ralph Lauren jacket, jackets, trench coats, long socks. I mean, my grandmother kept us right. So I always looked better than the rest so they didn't know where I was coming from. But it was a great upbringing. It was no tragedies. It was mom, you know, my mom and dad had divorce when we were babies. Grandmother, grandfather was there. Uncle was there. The village was there. So you say your mom and dad divorced? Yeah, they divorced when you were... Yeah, we were, they were like 23 years old. Maybe I'd have been one or two years old. But was your dad still involved in your life? Not really. Not really. He stepped away, he was young. But then my stepfather came in when I was seven or eight years old. Okay. And that foundation was there. Okay. So you was able to transfer over. Did dad ever come back around any, just to try to, like, I want to see my daughter. You know, you... Me and my brother, he came around, but it was still, because he had started, I think he started a new family. And my mom started her new found life. So I felt like I didn't skip a beat because my grandfather was there. Like I had the best of, the best, the best Christmases, the best everything. So I felt like I didn't skip a beat. I get it. I get it. I didn't skip a beat. Like the whole, my uncle was there, everybody was there, my village was there. That's dope. So I felt like when I look at now with my dad and some things my brothers went through, I'm like, my mother knew what she was doing, you know, to move away at an early age. But the things that I always say that, why I always ask people to make sure you know both sides of the family. Oh yeah. Because there are traits that are embedded in your DNA without you even being around that person. That all of a sudden when you start to get to know that person, you're like, oh, that's why I'm like that. That's why I do this. And although you've never really hardly been around that person, it's something that just transfers. And then also for medical purposes, if something, you know, is strong in their gene on that side that you need to, when you go to the doctor, you're like, you know, well, my father has this or my grandfather on that side has that. Something you need to, you know, tell your daughter and so forth. So those are the things that I definitely always tell people you need to know your family because. My dad and I now, I mean, close as close. My stepmom, who he married after, close as close. Oh, awesome. We're all one big happy family. And my mother, my mother died in 04, but her and my stepmom were able to have this amazing bond. So everything became full circle. I didn't know violence. I didn't know things. It was situations that led me to the other side dating men like that. Cause I was supposed to be with a Kappa and he's supposed to be a doctor. That's what my mom planned. But they didn't know with certain situations that led me that way. And what situations are you talking about? This went growing up. And I remember one thing that resonated. I think I was eighth, ninth, 10th grade and we were in Westwood. It was a Westwood or Marina Del Rey and someone that was snatching chains. And I remember I had chains on and these guys came up to us and tried to rob us. And the guy I was with ran. And he was the guy that you're supposed to be with. He's a good family, good guy, everything. But no backbone. He ran. And there was one guy there that a guy named Eric Martin, I love him to this day, Eric was mixed. He looked more on the white side. He was small and he stood up to these guys. My date was gone down the street, gone. The kind your mom would have wanted you to be with. My mother wanted me with that guy. And at that moment I'm like, I would never date a man who cannot protect me. I want to feel protected because- You want to thug in your life. I got to have somebody who's going to stand up. You ran and left me and- Right. Anything could happen. Yeah, he ran. And I'm, this is young. I'm young at this point. And I'm like, and that right there took me there. So when you were just a young, beautiful lady, I can only imagine them guys and being that you was in a place where it wasn't many blacks. Culver City at the time, you was like a, you was stand out. You know what I mean? Think about that for a second. No, but listen, when I'm in Culver City and there's no, I'm young, right? There's no black guys around. So being a pretty young thing, PYT. I was, being at my elementary school starting off, I was the only black there. So I was attracted. I didn't know anything about black guys at that point. You was attracted to white boys. I was like an white boys. What? And the Hispanic boys, that's all I knew. And I remember I'm growing up in Culver City. So I got my Schwinn bike. I got my little, my radio, my boom box, my dolphin shirts, my Quicksilver. I was a surfer girl. I was a vans girl. That's what I knew. That's all I knew at that point. And music, I'm talking about death row, death, you know, death leopard. All the rock groups, that's all I knew. And then I remember Michael Jackson came out and they're like, oh, you supposed to like Michael Jackson. I'm like, really? I am. And I have posters on my wall of all the stray cats and Oingo Boingo and Bananaama and Gogo's. I'm a black white girl because I didn't know anything different. The Valley Girl thing was going on too. I was a Valley Girl. That's right. Oh my God, the movie came out and I'm like a gag me with a spoon. It was all about that, right? And I didn't get to the black side until I got to a junior high and that's where it got real. New edition came in. I'm like, ooh, let me take down these rock posters. I took them all down and replaced them. Bobby Brown and New Edition and all these guys are so cute in junior high. Oh my God, what was I thinking? Yeah. The black man. It kicked in. Oh my God, I was like, oh my God. I want you, you, you. I was surprised all these years and I was saying the white guys, they were cool. They were cool, but my brothers, oh my brothers. Man. So how was you when you met that? Oh God, okay. I was like late teens, 20, 90. It was, I was, I was, I'm like two years older than him. Okay, cool. Yeah, so you know, Snoop hooked us up and. Snoop hooked y'all up. But how did you meet Snoop? Okay, so let's go. Okay, let's talk about, okay, so my whole life. Yeah, because I got my first job at 15 years old at Nordstroms, right? Okay. So I'm going to high school and working at Nordstrom and I kept that job for a long time. And a girl named Tracy. What were you doing at Nordstrom? Got, I started in children's shoes and I made my way up to the assistant buyer in Ceylon shoes. So clothing was around me that, I mean, it started down there, but it was around me. And I met Tracy. She would come up there and I noticed this little fly black girl young spending money all the time. I'm like, okay. What you doing? Yeah, like with you, but you, I'm gonna help you cause I'm getting, you know, I make money off of, you know, my commission off of it. So we became friends. I gave her discounts, became friends and she had just hooked up with easy E. She's a fly girl. I'm like, okay, we live in the same neighborhood. We had a lot in common. So we started hanging out. And this is when her and Eric, they had just had E.B., little girl E.B. And I became my best friend. Like we were thick as thieves everywhere. Tracy was Kenya was, met easy. What was this before Ruthless or during the time they were established? This is doing this. Jerry Heller time. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. So you hit them right at that point where. We would go up there and I remember we would go up to Jerry's office and get her child support all the time. I would go up, I would be there with her. I'm like, okay, we're going to, what are we going? We gotta go up to Woodland Hills to go pick up my money. And I'm like, okay. So they weren't together. That's what I showed you in the movie. But they weren't together, but they was, they, but they, but they took care of the baby together. Yeah, oh. They were together off and on. An amazing father to his children. Yeah. He, he, he, he made sure they were right. He made sure the mother had a car, a nice house, nice clothes. I, I respected that about him. Wow. He, he cared. He cared at an early age cause he was young himself. He was young. But the thing I can't stand about the industry is the fact that yes, you took care of home, the kids, but you're not there because you have to work all the time. Yeah. You see what I mean? Yeah. So a lot of times I always say, money isn't everything. Spending time and quality time raising them is everything. But sometimes some, some of the people who've been sitting where you are say, well, I gotta make the money. I know that the person who is raising them, I have all the trust in her. Yeah. To make the right decision. What do you think about that? I mean, you know, here, these rappers, I mean, you have to understand these guys that are getting all this money. They didn't have the women at first. I mean, some of them did. They might have been drug dealers before, but they getting all this money and with that money comes all these women that they've never, ever, ever had. Their egos are stroke. They want the more. They might have one quality woman and, but they want, it's quantity at this point, you know? So I look at easy. Easy's, it's all the women. I want all of them. I can't spend time with everybody, you know? And the women be, they accept this. Okay, well, I'm just the baby mama. I was never, you know, I don't never look at myself as a baby mama. A baby mama. I got into this relationship with dads. I'm like, we were hooked up. It was kind of like we dated. We went through every element together. We started off sleeping on my mother's floor because I had a home, but then he needed a home. Then we started off with the one room apartment with the bed coming out the wall. And then we went to the two-bedroom. Then we went to the three-bedroom. Then we went to the rental house. Then we went to the buying of the house. We climbed that whole thing together. We were broke together. We were starving students together. So going back to, so easy-e, you're around them. So is that how you met Snoop? Yes, so Tracy, you know, her and Eric were on and off, but she's good friends with, of course, Dr. Dre. So they were still keeping contact. So Dr. Dre's leaving death row, I assume at this point. I mean, not death row, he's leaving ruthless. And we're out, we're out over there by the Beverly Center. And I'm hanging out with Tracy, the girl named Carla, and we go meet up with, what do you call it, Dre and some of his friends. And walks should, and this skinny boy Snoop. And nobody would have ever recognized him. I mean, they were nobody at this point, you know? Of course. They were nobody, and we just all hung out. And everybody, the people were flirting, doing things. But I was in the corner doing my homework. I was at Cal State Northridge, and Chug took notice to me not joining in the party, smoking and partying and popping. I was in the corner, because I had my oceanography homework through the next day, and I had, I wanted to hang out, but I had to get it done. So he took notice of that. So the evening went on, and I needed to get home, and everybody was probably high drunk. So Chug was like, where you live at, girl? Where you live at? And I'm like, I live in Bowen Hills. He said, all right, I'm gonna give you a ride home. Your friends, they're too drunk and high. It was, they were partying, and I needed to get home. So he gave me a ride home, and he's like, You didn't look very intimidating? No, I mean, he, nice shirt, you know? No, because I'm from, I'm in Bowen Hills at this point. So Culver City family moves to Bowen Hills. I'm in the Black Beverly Hills at this point. So no, he looks like every typical go guide around the neighborhood. He gives me a ride home, and he takes notice. He said, so what were you studying? Whatever, he says, I admire that. You know, you took a good studying, and we became friends at that moment. I think he just took, I wasn't flirting, I wasn't hanging out. There was a lot of guys in the room, and quite frankly, I wasn't interested in them, you know? So Snoop ends up, I mean, we connect again at some point, but Snoop hooks me up with his cousin, and Dad's not, he's not down here yet. Dad's his mother, or Robert's University. She was, Aileen, right? Yeah, Aileen, Aileen. I love that woman, Rest in Peace. That woman was good to me. She was out there, minister, doing, you know, raising her son in the Bible Belt of Oklahoma, moved, got out of Long Beach, and said, I gotta take him away from this. I need him to be raised somewhere else. They settled in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Dad's down there, he learned the music, he learned the keyboards, he learned everything down there. He was a part of the church band. The foundation was made down there with music for him. At a young age, but really down there with all the instruments. Snoop gets the big deal, you know, that deal comes, the soundtrack comes, he's all over TV, and all the family, they come in from everywhere. That was with Deffro, right? Yeah, yeah, because it was kind of when Deffro was forming, because they weren't, they were forming at that point. Yeah. Dad's was Snoop's most, you know, that was the cousin, but he was talented. There was nobody else talented like Dad's. And he probably was level-headed. That's what he was looking at, too. Snoop, I mean, he could have brought anybody. He had a big family, but he brought his cousin Dad's. Dad's was rapping, making music down there, and he brought his cousin along. Wow, and so when you seen Dad's, as soon as you seen him, you're like, I love this guy. No. Yeah, that's what I thought. Let's get to it. What did you, what did you? What was the first thing he said to you when he saw you? Well, I'm walking in, so I'm gonna break down the whole, okay, the marriage. Me and Tracy hopped out of her, Ezy had got her this Acura legend, it was on some Borbett rims, that's what I had. Yeah, that's what she had. He handed it, he handed it. I got her something, bro. I love that Acura. Yeah, I killed it. Oh my God, we had our Dunion Burke zone, we had our diamond earrings on step, and not the car, we was fly out, you wanna meet my dude. They had hooked this up, they had set it up. Oh, they set it up for you? They set it up. They set it up, we coming to over. Did you see a picture of him before you actually? So you didn't even know? Snoop just said, because there's no internet, there's nothing at this point. Okay. So he looks like me, I'm like, he look like you Snoop. He got curly hair, Snoop. He had hair, he had hair, like Snoop's hair was fly, I'm like, so I walk in and have this, like your man is here, they're teasing me, Dr. Dre, your man is here. It was a big deal that we're hooking up, and I'm like, why? So I seen him and, you know, Daz gets mad at me. You said I wasn't cute then Daz, you were cute, but you weren't my, you didn't engage me. I was a fly girl at that point. And you know, you were just, you. I was shy. Yeah. You were shy. Yeah. Or you know what they always say, well, you were too beautiful, you intimidated me. I just expected, I don't, you know, my eyes were, you know, I'm bawling hills, and I see a lot, and I've been around a lot. I know guys that like me, I know big drug dealers were liking me at that point, but then I was like, hmm. So I was kind of mad, out to say the least, I was. It was a condescending, it was an anti-climatic event. She thought it was going to be more than what it ended up being. And you know, he just, granted, you know, he just moved down here, and you know, he didn't necessarily have to find out things like that, that moment. You know, I was working and fly and doing my thing, and I was like, absolutely not. You know, so I left at that point. So did you, the mother said, did you walk out? I walked out, and Dr. Drace teased me walking out. He says, yo, man's in there, you better go get him. I'm like, fuck you, and fuck you, and fuck you. And you know, no disrespect to Daz, but you know, I'm a fly girl at that point, and you know, I'm used to certain things. So how did he break through? Daz, honey, so I went back, I went back to dating my corny college boys at that point. I'm like, I'm just going to stick to this. And I remember being on other dates with my college guys. Okay. Daz would be blowing me up. They're going to kill us at the studio. You got to come and get us anything that would frighten me to come and get him from the studio. He would call me up, you got to come and get us. There's some stuff going on up here. You know, one doesn't happen to us, do you? And he just worked, he worked through them channels to get me, to pick him up, to take him, to come pick him up. He's like, I'm about to work this girl. You're going to be my girl. And he worked it out, you know? And I couldn't, I couldn't, maybe a couple months. Okay. You know. He kept all that to himself. He was relentless on Kenya, baby. He was on it. And I'm like, oh God. And I would, this guy, this poor guy I will always be on a date with. I will have to say, I got to leave right now. You know, I got to go pick up. I will always have to leave this, just one particular guy and he was like, you know what, I give up. I mean, if you want to go with those, those gangster guys, you can go with those gangster guys. And eventually it worked out. I remember every song resonates where I was. And I remember Chante Moore, precious was out at that point. I'm like, yeah, it was, I'm like, that was dad's album at that point. It was all, it was him. And we worked it out. I remember being with him the first time in Vegas when the first person noticed who he was. Cause he was nobody. And then next thing somebody was like, are you dad's Snoop's cousin from the dog pound? I remember. And I'm like, oh, now they're noticing you. Oh, they're checking you out. And that's when the ego went. Oh, he started getting flyed in. Oh, got fly. When the people took note, they got fly. He started, he had to move with the crew. See, you wanted a fly, God. No, but you know, the ego and all that. It comes with it. It came with it. And, you know, that, you know, we, but he still did the things at home. He still, dad's would always go back to his. How did we get to your house? Like, how do y'all even get to you and him or living together? But like I said, we took stairs, stair steps. We started with it. After two months, three months. No, no, no, it took a long time. I mean, this is a year or two. That's what I thought. And then this is here. Here's the climax right here, you guys. My mother, I had, I lived with them. And dad's always getting in trouble because he would come, try to come and pick me up every night after the studio time. And he was hunked by my window and my parents would get infuriated. So I remember dad said, we're not gonna go through this no more, no more. You're gonna move out with me now. You're gonna move with me. I'm gonna come and pick you up tomorrow night. I'm gonna tooth the horn and get all your stuff. How old were you at this time? I mean, I mean, 19, but 19, 20, 19, 20, yeah. What was your parents saying? I escaped at two o'clock in the morning. He toothed the horn. I had all my bags in my hand. And I've never been home since. What did your parents say? That's the part I'm like, I would have been furious. They could see it coming. They could see it coming, because we were every night. We were in a better way, like, mom, I gotta go. They would get know me. You're gonna respect this house. You're not gonna be leaving at two o'clock in the morning. Mom, I'm dating a guy that two o'clock in the morning is where it is. I mean, we in the studio all day. They got this chronic out of the door. They could have left that next day and be like, you know, see you later, mom. We went, I left my car at the house. I got that car. We moved to Woodland Hills and never went home. That was the rest was history in our apartment. We lived in this. Okay, so that snoops first. They had a rat infested apartment first with all of them first in Hollywood. But now we're moving on. Snoop is moving on up. Everybody else is still in New Yorker. They moved snooping to the summit. And the summit was an exclusive townhouse place in Woodland Hills. Like all the people lived there. Like Brian McKnight was Snoop's neighbor. Okay. But they moved us on the other side where the beds were coming out the walls and everything was all in one room. You know, Dads and Corrup had to follow what I mean. Hey, Snoop was a star. Let me ask you this. I wanna go back a little bit because it was two on three before it was before they even went to just Snoop and the dog. Two on three really in high school. Correct. Was Dads still in Oklahoma when it was two on three? Oh yeah, cause he's, yeah, that's what I thought. Yeah, he's in Oklahoma cause that's high school time. Yeah, yeah, so I get it. So Gorn G, Nate Dogg and Snoop had this bun. Yeah, they're the ones that, they got discovered first. So of course Dr. Dre and people know their brothers only by marriage. Correct. Dre's mom, Mary, Warren's dad. Yeah. And they were brothers by marriage. So how that two on three started, you know, or they were two on three, but then they gave Dre the tape in hopes of getting a deal. Correct, I remember him saying that. Yeah, but Snoop was only one Dre wanted. Yeah, I could see that though, but he would fly. He didn't want the group. He wanted Snoop. He plucked him out. I'm gonna take him, but everybody else stays there. But Snoop knew how to get in there and maneuver and bring his whole, He brought the old dog, Snoop brought everybody. His first department then, it was about 16 of them living there. That's DOC, that's have, dead, that's tight cuss, that's little C-style. Big C-style, corrupt, God warned G, Nate dog. I gotta stop. No, I gotta stop. I wanna ask you, was this the DOC with the voice or without the voice? This is without the voice. Cause remember he already got into it before he was already, he was in WA when he got into that accident. Correct, correct. Yeah, so this is Tracy without the voice. Yeah, yeah. And was Snoop girlfriend back then, which is his wife now? Was she there as well? She was there. Wow. Chante's been, I met her when she was 17. And Snoop instructed me to put her under my wings. And Chante stayed with me at my house a lot, my mom's house, taught her how to drive her first stick. I used to let her at 17 without a license. She would drop me off at work, pick me back up. I would go up to her high school, which is Long Beach, Polly, pick her and all her friends up cause I'm older than them. So I go pick them up after high school and they be with me. So they didn't have no kids or nothing at this time. No kids. They were just together and they loved each other. Just together. Oh God, love. That was Snoop. I love their relationship because they're very transparent. Right, they're very transparent, but I love the fact, cause being in the industry, I was looking at them, not only them, but looking at a lot of actors, actresses who are actually together, cause a lot of these relationships don't last. They come together, they break up, they move on to somebody else because it's hard, whether because of infidelity or trust or money or whatever, it breaks up these families. And I'm like, my hats go off to a lot like Denzel, like Angela Bassett, like certain people who have been married. We don't get in this rap thing. For a very long time and kept it together. You gotta say LL Cool J, Jairu, these people are still with their, with the people who they was with. They've been together forever. And I'm like, how do they make that work? How do they do it when so many can't? Yeah, but it's a lot. I mean, the rap life is no joke, you guys. It's no joke because women, it's a whole nother level of relentlessness. I mean, I've been at tables and girls have come up and tried to sit on people's laps and stuff. I mean, relentless. It was no respect because they want, these women in the nineties, they wanted what you had. Right. No, I didn't. And they wanted, they, by all means necessary. I mean, I had girls around me. Oh man, I mean. Dazz, you know damn well. They knew, but they, them girls knew me because I was gonna come and get you. I mean, me and my squad was gonna show up and you better, you better enter the back door when we come. But you have to be like that. But then, you know, aside from the women, dude, you don't want to start in all this stuff. You bringing all these women and telling them, God knows what, I have to flip it because I'm like, he probably told these women we're not together. Exactly. So, you know, I stopped blaming it on these women because these girls don't know me. They're doing their job, you know, being with groupies, whatever they are, they're doing their job. You know, you have to have respect for me, you know? And some women could stay. I'm too fly to stay with something like that. I'm gonna do that. I mean, if you, you're not gonna embarrass me. When the embarrassment comes in, you're on your own. Well, you think about some of these men who's never had that attention before, never had that money before. Sometimes it gets to their head to know that certain women of certain status and certain caliber actually paying them attention now. You know what I mean? But the women, honestly, the women were below our belts. I mean, my main problem was that, how you gonna go from first class to coach? I mean, I used to tell guys, I'm like, let me hook you up with a bad bitch. I mean, please, because what you're bringing is trash. I mean, it's embarrassing me. Make me feel some kind of way. Cause when I stepped that one, when it was Kenya season, oh, I brought the noise. But you know what men would say? Men would say that they date, or not even date, but they mess with, you know, below because it's not that it's gonna leave you to go to that person, they staying home. So that's what some men would say. Yeah, when you think about it, Joe, the whole movement during that time, it was a different time. When you look at, I wanna go back to EZ a little bit because RIPDZ, he had to be somewhat of a great businessman. And you deal with that at such a young age, right? So you've seen the Tracy coming in, buying all this stuff because she had afforded it through EZ's and just, that's crazy. So Jerry Heller, was he real open with the money or was he tripping with the money? Or did you ever see a time where, cause he's a guy, a white guy, a Jew. He's a businessman. Yeah, but the thing about it here's the business, man, a lot of those guys take it too far and they're protected over money that's not theirs. And that's what I'm saying to him. Like you're protecting money that's not yours. You know, if this man is out making babies, then he has to take care of them. It's not your job to dictate what these kids have. You know, I mean, this man went out and got these babies. This man is conducting this relationship. It's not your money. And I just seen that he was protecting this man's money probably through his benefit. Yeah, just the way the movie kind of showed it as well. Did you ever, like when you and EZ, give me something that easy and you, you know, something that happened between you and either a conversation or just something that stuck with you that happened with you and EZ. Yeah, you know what, with Tracy, we were always on weekends cause EZ stayed in the summit too. But he was there before Snoop got there. And every other weekend, Tracy would stay out there. That was her place and I would stay there with her. It was just amazing. I'm like, all his stuff, his clothes were there. And I'm like, wow, damn, EZ is really looking out for her. Wow. You know? He really locked in here. And I remember going over Mrs. Wright's house and Eric's two kids, Eric and Erica, they were babies younger at that point and they were there. And Mrs. Wright used to take care of the kids and we used to go over there. Tracy had a great relationship with his whole family. And I remember her being so kind. And Eric, this was, you know, he was just out there, you know, a ladies man. Let me ask you this. When he got diagnosed with, well, the age thing happened and he was gone to me. Being in Texas, it seemed like when it happened, it was just that quick. Was it that way for real or? It was, I remember we hearing about it. And next thing you know, I hear Tracy calling me from the hospital that Eric was dead and I was with dads and corrupt and everybody broke down crying. I mean, we were all, you know, we had our tips, but nobody wanted him to be dead. Like it got real at that point. Like he's dead and AIDS. So we didn't know what to think. I'm like, how does he die from AIDS? And he's a ladies man and he don't like guys. Like that was a homosexual disease at that point. So I'm like, I don't mean, that didn't sit right with me because I'm like, nah, something happened. You know, something happened to him. That's what I'm saying because it was rumors and it was just a rumor. They showed a clip on Arsenio Hall all the time about a chug night and saying a body stuck him with some, you know, shoot him with a little easy. I know you heard this. I've heard a million times. Okay. Well, how do you, how do you look? Cause you was in the midst of the whole situation. Do you think that was just an accusation? That was this cap. He was just having fun. You see what I'm saying? That's it. You know his character. Yeah, he did. You look on his face, he was having fun. You know, I think easy, whatever happened to him was bigger than all these local black people. It was bigger than that. It was bigger than that. I mean, it was something bigger. Most black people can't pull that off. They're not thinking on that level at that point. Come on, you guys. I mean, it was bigger. Something happened, but I think it was on a much larger scale. Yeah, something, maybe a blood transfusion or something like that. Something like that. Something could have happened. I mean, it could have happened at the hospital. It could have happened anywhere during that time. I think it was just something that happened that, you know, cause you don't know. I mean, maybe you needed blood. Maybe you gave blood. You don't know. Who knows at that point. But I don't know. But sure, that's funny. He's just having fun. Yeah, I just, I had to bring it up cause it's such a kitchen. He couldn't even think on that level. I'm like, dude. On that level, like you're not even that fly to do that. He's the third gadget guy to do that. Nobody was thinking on that level at the time, but he made that, when he said that, it's like, damn, how would he even think like that back during that time? He had to be a thinker to even say that though. He was a smart guy. College guy is smart. Came mother and father was still married until his mother, rest in peace, passed away. She was the cheerleader. He was the quarterback. He came from a solid family that were married for 55, 50, so many years. Well, they weren't gang affiliated or nothing before him. No. So he just came over this on his own. Where did he get that? Cause when I think about sugar knife, for me being so green, as they say, that don't know nothing about nothing. When you hear about sugar, you hear about this guy who's this big old thug and he's so intimidating that he gets everything you want. And the movies make him look like that too. That's how I saw him. He was, that was an image that came, maybe after football, but no, he was the youngest. Had two older sisters. He was the baby. He went to school. He went to college. He followed the protocol. The protocol. But what happens when money comes, I mean, different things happen. Now he grew up in Compton. So he knows all the people around there. Like you can grow up there and be affiliated and not be a gangbanger. Not big, right. He knew everybody. So when Defro came, you know, and let's take it back, he's bodyguarding. So he's learning the game. Bobby Brown bodyguarding, this person bodyguarding. He learned the game. And, you know, he knew the game. He had some gangster mentality because he grew up in that. So it was easy to, you know, take the image, you know, and roll with it. Wow. I got a question. With you having that new edition jacket that got ripped, when was the first time you actually met new edition and how? Huh, okay. So 89 backstage concert. God, they always, Greg Mack, let's take it back, because Greg Mack of the Wave is a radio station. He used to run the big radio station here in LA called KDAY. It was the first radio station that brought rap. And every week they would have high school, junior high high schools come up there and represent their high school. So of course, I'm coming up there, you know? So when I used to come up there, Greg took a liking to me. He was like my big brother and let me come up there every week, represent my high school, and I met everybody. So Greg is the one that got me tickets to the concert there, you know, and got me my jacket, got my tour jacket, and got to meet the guys. So here's the crazy thing about it, all right? During that time, because I went to a couple new edition concerts, but one particular time I took Kim, Kim Atherich. Kim Atherich is the sister to Bobby Brown's wife now. Oh, okay, wow. So Kim and I went and we had to bring Alicia because every concert, me and Kim grew up in Culver City together. We were Culver City girls. Alicia was maybe four or five years younger than us. So we would always have the babies at her. And Alicia would always be with us. We went backstage and who would have thought that little Alicia would be marrying Bobby Brown? Alicia was on the Rump Shaker video. She was the girl who played the horn. She went to- So they knew each other for a very long time. They knew each other. Then she became Macy Gray's manager and ultimately Bobby's manager. And she was the one that was there when Bobby and Whitney were getting married and Bobby went in the bathroom and hid in the bathroom because he didn't want to come out. And she used to want to talk to him in the coming out the bathroom to get married that day. So they've been friends forever. And then that's been my little sister since she was eight years old. She got in her first bike wreck with me. I had her on the handlebars and we got hit. So I'm like in Culver City. So full circle. I mean, my girls we grew up with and still friends to this day. Were you ever friends with Whitney as well? No, never, never had met Whitney. Never had met Whitney. I want to just ask about, I guess I'm gonna get back into death row. The death row thing is something else because that was a big deal. This is where the money came. When I say money, this was crazy money at that time for the time we was in, you know what I mean? And dad, he's doing his business, you know what I mean? And he's over there like you just explained. But I mean, we've interviewed so many people that didn't have the financial aspect of this thing situated just like Jerry Heller was able to do things with easy. How was his business since during that time to be such a young guy? For you, you know, you was in the midst of it. Yeah, dad's was learning. I mean, I think we were all learning as we were going and he, depending on me to, you know, like on the house side to, you know, tell him about how you buy a house. Okay. How we get a loan, you know, closing, we buy a house the things we need to do, you know? So we, I knew from grandmother, you know, owning houses and my mom and all that. So I was able to bring that. And we kind of learned together. He didn't know much about. Yeah, that's what I thought. Nothing. He didn't know about the finances. He didn't know when he signed, I think he signed even corrupt signed a deal for $5,000. He didn't know. Wow. And he didn't know, but think about that $5,000. Turned into millions, millions and millions of dollars. That boy, I remember I had never in my life up to that point, seeing a million dollar check come in and come in and come in. I had never, I had never people asked me about death row and I've never seen a record label in the world. And I've been around different people, different labels that their artists, family lived as good as we did. I've never seen that. We lived good. Yeah, when you look at him and just the way he's structured, you know, he would, I heard him say him and Shug would get into fights, you know, far as, you know, little scuffles or whatever. Is this a true statement? No, he means Shug. So is he, is he cabinet? He says he's a big boy. There's nobody going up against Shug. That is a hundred percent cabinet. So that's Cal. Yeah. That just means, well, you know, he just, I had to ask. He means, well, he just, that's shock value for the cameras. Yeah. But they weren't fighting. So it was all, it basically, was it as, was it as crazy as the movie depicted far as when you would go to the studio? Hell yeah. Meaning the way, give me some times in that studio where you was like, what the hell is going on? What the hell's going on is that every, every, every time. You know, and I was nosy. And one thing about Shug, here we go. Shug did not allow all the other baby mamas or exes, girlfriends, whoever. He didn't allow them around. He allowed me to come. Wow. I don't know because he made, he always made sure dad's understood that I knew her first before you. I met her first before you. So that stood, you know, that's my home. Which is big. Yeah. He made it very clear. So when the other girls weren't allowed to come, I was allowed to come. Wow. I got to come to everything. And a lot of them didn't. Did he ever have a crush on you? No, Shug didn't, he didn't like me like that. I think he just took me under his wings because he was, Sharita and him were married. Yeah, Sharita. And he had a type. Shug has a type. It was never, his mother had a nickname for me. Like they, I was their little cousin sister. And I think he took it upon himself to protect me from, because he felt it was some innocence there. And it's like, she got to be done right. Right. Because after me and Das split up, he's like, I'm going to hook you up with somebody very nice. He's going to be a gentleman. So he took, he tried, you know, for the first person, I mean, after, you know, during that time, Das is doing whatever. Were you married to Das? Common law. So people don't, so the judge, when we separated, the judge looked at it as a marriage because we had been together. So assets and all things got split as we were married because it was common law, you know. How did that affect him? He didn't, it didn't affect him until his friends got in his ear. Because Das didn't care about looking out for me. Das didn't care about me traveling with him. He didn't care. It was only when his boys got in his ear. Heck, you had a child for him too. You don't need to be doing that. You don't need to be doing this. So when they got in his ear, that's when things went all right. I don't want you to divorce him just yet. You know, I want to go back into the, I want to go back into when you guys were together. I'm just trying to understand how, like you guys were together when the trailer got shot up in New York. Yeah. You guys were together when Snoop's place got shot up. Yes. So I want to talk about those times, the New York incident came before the song came. New York, New York, big city of dreams. Yeah, the Snoop came. I mean, that's their second apartment on Benton. So they had the first apartment, which was the dog pound. It was a rat infested place down in Hollywood. They all live there. But now you're moving into an apartment and you have Dad's has a room, Snoop's has a room and Sharitha live next door. So we're moving, everybody's moving up, it's baby steps. It's growing, Deffro's growing. It's still not there. Dad didn't get a car at that point. Snoop got his first car, because the first car was my Honda Accord. So that car was the main vehicle. So when the Snoop got to Jeep, then eventually, Sugar gave his old van to Dad. So everything was baby steps. It was never, you just blessed with this. I mean, I really had to be in love with him to hang in there because there was no money. I was giving them money half the time. I mean, I worked at Nordstrom and I remember giving them $50 to go get food in their refrigerator. There was not a lot of money because, you know, at that point, they're not making money. They still have to pay for their studio time. There's still things they have to be paid for. They have to recoup. So there's still not a lot of money, but I'm sticking by him. I mean, I like this guy right now. I might be getting used in a sense. I don't know, but I like him. So I'm gonna roll with him. You grew into loving him. I grew into it. And when I loved him, I loved, I loved that boy. It was nothing that nobody could do. And with that love comes, betrayal comes, everything else. God, heartache, betrayal. Okay, and now, you know, back then, people didn't talk about mental illness as much. They're talking about it now, but I know that you had to go through a lot of mental states then. I look at pictures and God, I was going through so much hell because I can look at the pictures and I was skinny as hell. And I'm like, dang, I was going to do so much hell at that point. Tell me something that you went through with that you can't even get off the top of your head right now. Okay. One thing that stands out to you. Oh God, it was Valentine's Day one year. We're in the big house and we planned on going to the house of blues. It was God, it was somebody, Tina Marie was playing. So Trady, his wife, it was another couple. And we were meeting at my house. Nemo picking us up, everything is good. Everybody's there, Dad's never showed up. Never came back home. Wow. You started crying. I was like, no, I was, it was, it was angry. You know, the anger is building. Like, how fucking dare you? And this is when, you know, the groupies are coming along and, you know, he's the groupies or whoever they're there. And I'm like, how do you do this? We have this great big house. We have all this in your, that's when the not coming home and I'm out there doing whatever I got to do out in the streets started taking place. And I'm like, my mother's like, don't worry about that. Let it, let it go, continue doing you. But it kept escalating to the point where we were, you know, it was, we were about to, Dad's never put hands on anybody, but he loved to tear my cars up. He was a king of that. He's like, you know, he would never, he's a man of men. He didn't do that, but he would tear some cars up. That's what I was going to ask. Doors on? Have y'all ever had physical altercation? Jesus Christ. Oh God. The police knew our house very well up at Silver Lake. They knew it very, very well because, you know, I wanted, I wanted a relationship. I wanted what my family had. And then I was getting the total opposite. These guys didn't know at that point how to navigate a relationship. They didn't know, I've only seen a relationship. I've seen marriage, I've seen this, but I'm trying to emulate my family and I can't, I can't get this guy to do right. He won't do right. He's just out there and all of them are out there. Everybody, but everybody's cool with it. I'm not. Did you ever feel like you should have listened to your mom and dated correctly? Oh God, of course. Yeah, I was like, you know, damn. I mean, I remember we had this big old house, this big giant house and I said, I hate this house. People would dream, I have money in my pockets and bank accounts and I hate it at all. I wanted to go back to where we started. I said, I wish we can go back to when we had nothing because I was the best time. I love the fact that you're saying all of this because you have so many women or young girls, teenagers who are looking at these celebrities and want to be their wives, want to be their girlfriend. They don't care about the cost. I've heard even some say, I don't care if they go out here and mess with this girl or that girl, as long as I'm the wife, as long as I'm the one that he's coming home to. You don't feel that way. Your heart is broken in 20 different ways because you remember when there was nobody and now there's somebodies. There's these women that see what I have and they are working very hard to get it by all means necessary. And there's nothing you could do. This stoop ever, he probably mind his business. That Ben Daz is his cousin. No, he didn't. He got in your business. I mean, it put the house- Because it's his first cousin. Yeah, if Daz is mad at me, Snoop is mad at me too. He's mad at you too. Corrupt is the only one that- Now corrupt from the East Coast. Yeah, corrupt remain my friend. I mean, it'll happen to this day. Like if Daz ain't talking to me, he ain't talking to me either. But Snoop wives- So Snoop basically get upset with you when Daz is upset with you. He ride with his cousin. Yeah, he ride with his cousin. He gonna ride with his cousin. But you know, corrupt is neutral because- Give me an incident to where you knew you were- Oh, incident. No, like when he just says, you know, I'm not talking to you and you try to highlight him or something and y'all were going through y'all thing. Give me an instant. Oh, God. I think when they got him and Chantay got married and me and Daz were going through something at that point. He was messing with somebody and Daz got to go to the wedding. I didn't. Damn. And I was- Yeah, you were- I was rolling with Daz. That was my girl. This is my partner, but- What did she say? What she mad at you too? She just kind of- Chantay always kind of was quiet and stayed out the way. So she didn't mess with it? She didn't get too tired. How did y'all talk again? Like when y'all came together after they was married? Oh, God. I mean, I was there. I mean, at all her births. I mean, I was always there with her. Her first child, I was there. Second child, third child. I was there with her. And we kind of always navigated down to each other. Yeah, that's dope. I mean, you know, it's a- I think, you know, when my mom died, we weren't speaking at that point. It was something, I don't know what happened. It was probably something very trivial, but when my mom died, I really got to see, you know, people's true feelings. And she was there at my mother's funeral and stayed there to make sure the flowers were right and made sure that the mausoleum, like she took time. Snoop father was there. Dad's mother was there, you know? Reggie Wright was there. She would try to get out of jail, but he couldn't. Sharitha Knight was there. And it, Dad's was there. It showed the love that people had for you. We all might go through stuff, but then when it's all said and done, we're gonna come back. Y'all family. Yeah, Shantae's grandmother died about four or five years ago. I was there, it was nothing. Gonna stop you from going. And I talk to Shantae's mom all the time. I mean, we all still have love. I mean, we all might have our own individual problems, but if somebody's gonna screw with you, oh, we're still gonna ride. Y'all got together. Sharitha's my friend to the end, sugar's ex-wife. She was there for me when my mom died. And after, you know, people are there when it happens, but I'm talking about after. And when I say after, sugar Sharitha rode that whole ride out with me in Big U. I mean, I went through hell. People didn't know it was hell. I mean, my mom died of a heart attack in front of me out of nowhere at a party and that fucked me up. And Sharitha in front of me and Sharitha didn't go nowhere. Sugar wouldn't go nowhere. Big U wouldn't go nowhere. And that's why I care about those people so much because when it's all said and done, they will still ride with me. So your mom, she didn't show no signs of any people? How old was she? She was only 58. And basically what, kinda give me a- Smoking, 35 years. So how old were you in her life? When it happened, where were you guys? It was at a party. Yeah, it was at a, it was at one of her, she was an esthetician for the stars. So she would take care of, when Kevin Hart first moved out here, my mother took care of his skin. Bernie Mack, she had a room at her salon just for him and would go up on set and take care of his skin. Go to Jamie Foxx's house. My mother took care of everybody in the industry. Alex Thomas, Regina King, everybody, esthetician. And it broke everybody's heart at that point because Kevin Hart, his wife at that moment, they were all very close to her. Alex Thomas, I mean, when I see Alex Thomas now, every time he sees me like- That's the comedian. Yeah. He said he looked like your mama. Any other scares that would come today? Yes. Yeah. Okay. He'll be here today. Yeah. Alex still, Alex, he loved my mom and my mom loved him, Regina King. I mean, those were all my mom's people. Dads. Wow. Dads took my mother's death harder than everybody. I mean, I'm like, are you? He took it hard. Yeah, yeah. It was because my mother loved him. Wow. She protected him. I mean, even when we were going through madness, I'm not getting in the middle of it. I love him. I helped raise this boy and, nah, y'all go through that mess. How did you get to mental space after experiencing that trauma, having her pass away right in front of you? Right. How did you, how did you get over it and how long did it take you to get over it? Oh, God, of course. So, after she died, I was on one, right? And I began, every day, Sugar was like, he gave me a big old party. He was trying hard. Him and Big U were trying hard to keep me sane. And I was with them every day, like in the car. I remember rolling in the bin, Sugar driving Big U, Peepop, Lil' R. We just roll out, roll out. And it came to a point where I'm like, I gotta get up out of here. And I made the decision a year later after my mom passed to move to Atlanta because it was too many reminders. I go up on movie sets. I'm working on girlfriends at that time and everybody knew my mom. So, everywhere I turn, I miss your mom, I miss your mom. I'm like, I'm not gonna be able to get over this here. I don't wanna hear this. I wanna go somewhere where nobody knows my name. Right. So, Sugar Knight was like, all right, you're going down to Atlanta. You know, he's still my protector. And he says, when you get down to Atlanta, if you have any problems down there, because you're going down there by yourself, you're gonna call my boy, Meach. And he's down there and Meach is from BMF. Big Meach, yeah. And he's like, that's my boy, if you have any problems. And I think by the time I moved down there, everything had all kind of went to smoke at that point. BMF got dissembled. Yeah, I'm like, oh, don't have nobody down here. Look out, so. But my whole time in Atlanta, that whole eight years, Big U and his wife, hands down, Big U, his wife, her mother, his mother, they will always come down here to check on it. His sons went to Tuskegee, one of the sons, they were like a fixture in my life. They were part of my healing. You know, she would call me up, part of my healing, Sharitha would come and see me, part of my healing. Dads lived down there. Oh. He was down there. He moved down there before you did. He was down there. He lives down there at this point. Yeah, that's right. His mother, Dads' mother was the biggest inspiration to me. I know you're saying that earlier. I love that woman to no end. It don't get no bigger than a real woman. I think I want to go back to Trady. I didn't get that out of you about him and Snoop's fallout and, you know, just them, basically, then his place getting shot up. I need some, what was going on at that time and if he was with you, I mean, Trady, basically, you say they all came, y'all, I would be like family. Trady was family. How did they end up falling out? I think it was over money, you know, because business practices when I run right at that point, you know? And, you know, Trady, he doesn't bother anybody. He's 100% about his business and I wasn't there when that happened, but, you know, just, it was over money. Had to be about money. And this boy wanted to eat because it's kind of hard when you're around people that are eating good and you barely getting by. Like, when you see the straight out of Compton part of the movie and I worked on that and I just remember that scene, just reading that scene and you driving away in the bends and eating well and steaks and we barely getting home. That's how Trady felt. He was coming from a place he didn't, he just wanted to eat. So were you talking, when his place got shot up, were you talking to Dads at this time and how was that? Dads, I mean, Dads has found everything funny all the time. I mean, you know, everything was just funny, you know, he'll exaggerate it. You know, Dads, for the most part, because, you know, he's still in Long Beach, he kind of stayed out of that. I mean, that's his cousin, but then he's still his roots in Long Beach. So I think Dads and Corrupt during those times, he let, the homie love came in, like, we gotta stay out of it, you know? But you gotta think about it though. He did murder with the case and all his different things and gang supported it with Tupac, you know? That was, that was Dads, right? The producer production of that. Dads produced, like, maybe seven songs on there. So how was it, how was it when, when Poc comes, Tupac comes out of jail? I don't even know. I think she would've got him out or something. He sure did. I'm sure when God Tupac out and he signed the death row and they come out with California love, it looked like these niggas having a great time. He got him out. How was that whole situation when you first met Poc? He got him out. So first off, Dads was writing Poc while he was in jail because he would write and I remember I was sitting off the letter and Poc got home and, you know, we were all so excited. We were, we were genuinely excited. We were, I don't know how the top tier fell because we didn't, you know, this big dog that they put in all this money in his pocket. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But Dads, they're both Germanized. I mean, him and Poc, so Dads was excited and Poc knew this guy was writing him. So I see a list of producers he wanted on his album. Of course, Dads was one and maybe L.T. Hutton and maybe Battlecat and, you know, all those guys. It's feeling good at this point. Poc is home, but then he's moving people out the way and you kind of see the shift like Dr. Dre, he immediately got out of there. That was his opportunity. He wanted to go. That was funny though, because he was like Dre, Dray without old gay ass Dray or something during that time. This is what Poc said. You remember this time, like, but before that he was writing with him on California Love and they like, they were having the best time, but this damn Poc could flip it in a minute, right? Yeah, he was rolling with, you know, Shook's thing, he was a gay, Jay's a guy. But I know I'm just saying the way he was, he was writing. Yeah, I mean, he gonna write, and that's what you do with your homies. I'm writing with my homie. I had an easy, when he would do Tracy wrong, I'm on his head. I heard the interview when y'all was on that radio stage and what was that all about? I mean, well, they called to try him, but he was, I was the young you. Yeah, I wanted to smoke because you did my girl wrong. You out there on my own. How do y'all get on the radio at that time, though? Like, you know what I'm saying? I'm trolling. Y'all calling him like, yeah, nigga, we better get at this nigga right now. He called, they gave us a number. We called and we wanted it all. We went to the studio. He was just on the radio just talking. He just on the radio and I'm just like, you old nigga, you this, you that, I mean. You were going in. I wanted, because you mess with my, Tracy was my best friend at the time. You're gonna play her. So now I'm gonna get on your head. That was with you though. You were down with it. That's my, let me tell you something, me. True story. And back in my Honda Accord, when OJ caught that case, they wrote, what would you do in the back of my car? They were, they were, they were writing in my back of my car and the three of us is rolling and they, what would you do? And they coming up with a song and I said my Honda Accord and OJ inspired that song. What would you do? Dope. That's dope. That's a hell of a story, you know? In the back of my car. That song was jamming like hell too. Did you even read? You like, damn, when you heard it, you be like, I know when they did that. I love that dog food album. Oh my God. I just remember all the moments in the studios. And I remember it was a couple of hooks that dad said, this thing, this part with everybody else in there. You know, anybody in the studio, you gonna get down. You might have to sing. We might need your vocals right quick, you know? Oh, he might tell you that. Anybody. Were your vocals on any of them? It was something, I think, it was one of the songs and I remember he's, it was like everybody was there and it was just, it wasn't singing but it was just talking and it was, it was a whole bunch of people. And I remember I added, that little thing, I never really heard it but, you know. You was in the mix? I was there. That's in the mix. He was in the mix. That dog food album went crazy. Man, that was the, whoo, that's when it took off. I'm like, whoo, the sky was the limit. It was almost like, like Snoop Dogg, what was Snoop Dogg's album called? That was Doggy Style. But after Doggy Style, that was after Doggy Style and that whole went crazy. It was actually to me, I liked it better than Doggy Style. I loved it way better. I'm telling you. I could still bump that. I loved that whole project. Cause it seemed like Snoop got to do what he wanted to do. It seemed like family. Am I right? Yeah, Daz put his foot in there and he did his thing, corrupted my thing. They were all kicking it, man. It was family oriented. Traveling, they got their own little promotional tours. It was about them. How did they meet? How did Corruption Daz meet? Okay, so initially it was Corrupt and Corruption Daz, Corrupt and Snoop used to battle rap together. Okay. Back at the beach or wherever. They were opponents. Daz wasn't living here, but they met kind of just battling. Battling, okay. And Snoop finally met his match. He met the lyrical gangster. The lyrical assassin. Corrupt was no joke. That Philly fanatic had it going, oh. Yeah, but Snoop was a beast. Snoop was like, at that time, you know what I'm saying? And they were the beast, too. They were going. Competition makes you elevate your game. Oh yeah. But Snoop was here, Corrupt was there. So he's like, let's join forces because they both were super dope. Yeah, yeah. Warren G was a producer. Nate was the singing man. So Snoop evidently hooked Daz and Corrupt up. Yeah, they got to meet and they formed a dog pound at some point. I mean, I think at the apartment when everybody was living there, Daz and Corrupt kind of got together and they formed that probably around the chronic time. That's when it got formed because they were forming things at that point. Was Ra- Well, how did Raids come into them? Forms there, Virginia, I think took the bus down here. Like everybody- Trying to be a part of it. Relics recording studios in Santa Monica on Santa Monica Boulevard. Everybody slept there, grind there and were hoping to get on that chronic and they made it. Wow. They made it. And I'm going to ask you this and then because we got to get to the two part. You hold the keys to my- I'm a two part. You see it on the shirt right there. I'm a two part- The guy, baby. Yeah, I posted an interview in Napoleon but we going to set it up another time but just that whole, just his whole aura. How was he around you? How did you, what was the thing that stuck out to the way that he treated you when you would be around? I think he noticed that Shug carried me under his wings kind of like that was my sister. So it kind of emulated- From him? Him. He seen how Shug really was like my big brother so Pop kind of adopted that and treated me as such. I mean, the boys would hang out. I remember he came home, all of them. It was like they were all thick as thieves and would hang out and just have the men time to studio moments and Pop respected women. That's the thing. Yeah, for sure. And I think with Pop as we got in there he kind of took it personal at some points that I was getting disrespected. Wow. I think because he would always be excited that Kenya's come up. And I think he kind of took it, because Shug took it personal at points when he knew I was being disrespected. He took it personal like, okay, that's like our little sister, like you can't do that to her. Y'all can do that to all of them, but not her. How are you being disrespected? Come on with this. He was out there doing- We were talking with that. Yeah, I was talking with what she was doing. God knows everything, you know? This women, you know, and- Did any of them ever step to dads and was like, you gotta straighten up? No, I mean, I'm sure Shug had talks with him but, you know, their main point was to talk to me. They didn't, you know, Kenya, you know, Shug would always tell me, beauty is only a temporary position, intelligence is forever. You keep your intelligence. Don't ever fall for the bullshit. He would always give me these pep talks. Yeah. Protecting me and building me up because you can't build him up. He is who he's gonna be. Build the woman up and get her right and inspire her and push her. And I always felt respected by Poc. I never felt like I was ever disrespected. I think he appreciated that, you know, I wasn't out there, I wasn't wildin', you know? Did you ever, like when Tupac would, after he got shot, he was pretty angry when he came back, of course. Shot me five times, real niggas don't die. All these different things he would say after he had then got over on the West Coast doing his thing. Did you ever see anything that was like angry toward the East Coast? It was everywhere at the time for it. It would have affected theirs as well. He was angry at that point. I mean, he was hurt and angry because in his heart, you know, he felt like the people that he trusted the most had him set up. We don't know what happened, but if it's in his heart, we don't know what was in his heart. And he had, you know, he was upset, so we became upset with him. I mean, he's our family now, so we gotta roll with him, you know? And it only, you know, escalated when they went to New York, you know? But we all still love New York. So was it New York? We all still love New York. When Snoop and them, when you, I think it was some guy shot. The radio guy shot. The radio guy shot, this was a time where, this was a time where y'all just was visiting up there, or they was visiting up there. No, they went down there to shoot a video. Okay. In Times Square. They brought down about a sub. Why would they think to go down there? And it was already beefing, wasn't it? New York City of Dreams, no, it wasn't, it was only two pox situations at that point. Dog Pound wasn't really beefing with them at that point. They did the beef start it off after that. It was when they shot up the trailer. Yeah, because they came down there and you have, I understand at this point why they felt disrespected because you come into our hood and bring in low riders and they kind of felt like you're shitting on us, like, but the New York, New York song was a Melly Mel sample. They were playing, the original thought was to pay homage to Melly Mel. Yeah. You know, for the New York, New York. Yeah. When things escalated out of nowhere down there, you know, it escalated, it wasn't supposed to go that way. They didn't go down there to shit on them. It was, we're gonna do our video because it's called New York, New York. So where are we gonna film it at? Let's go to Times Square. Let's bring some low riders and have fun and keep it happy. And then it turns to kicking buildings down. After they got shot up. That was a remix after that day. The builders came in after everything happened. Yeah. That was an add-on. You was like, we gonna turn this up a different way. Yeah, but you know, everybody hated New York but I still had a lot of great friends there. I mean, I still love New York. I mean, yeah, it's a lot of bad seas but you know, y'all still love New York. Yeah, so did you end up, did you end up, cause I know Snoop was, Snoop was trying to play both sides. They felt in the midst of this whole thing. Did you feel the same way? I was rolling with Poc at that point. I mean, you know, because you know, me and Daz are, it's teetered all the way off. I mean, and of course, Snoop is not, whenever Daz is not talking to me, he's not gonna talk to me. Yeah, so you're right with Poc. I'm gonna arrive with the people who have been looking out for me and for Snoop. So Poc and Shue rock on me, I'm rockin' with them. How did, what did Daz and them say? They didn't care at that point. They weren't talking to y'all at all? No, we weren't talking. Nobody was talking. It was done. Done. Was he still, was Shue still with, was Cherita at that time? Or they was- They were married. Cause I had a question for you. They were married after that, but they had their own relationships. I wanna really not say that because I was trying to figure that transition between that time, but I will get back to that. But I was just trying to say, okay, so once Poc pretty much had said, I'm dumb with him, and you see the scene where they ride in a jet and Snoop's thinking he's mad at him. These things probably really was going on that they couldn't trust him. What you talkin' about, the Tupac movie? Yeah, yeah. That wasn't accurate. I mean, you know what I mean? That wasn't accurate. So he wasn't, they didn't ride together like that. No, it wasn't, that wasn't accurate. I mean, a lot of the thing, LT, loved him to death, but that wasn't accurate, you know? He was just putting something out of the suit, sauce it up. Yeah, it wasn't like that. Because you wasn't, because you was down there that night when it happened. No, Poc did not insure, we're not talking to Snoop in there. We were, it was everybody. No, it was no talking. So they basically, it could happen on site if we see them too. On site, because two weeks prior, he gets on the radio and, you know, he says he's cool with Biggie and that infuriates everybody. Like, you know, we don't know what happened in New York, but if this boy is rolling with him, you gotta roll with him. And, you know, Snoop crossed the line to me, you know? Cause Poc, he loved him, you know? He loved him. He generally loved him. And, you know, that hurt Poc to the core. Cause he thought that this guy was riding with him. He heard him. So he died not even having no count of love for Snoop. He didn't, I mean, it was, it was, they, nobody was getting along at that point. Nobody was getting alone. Not, they were on the side. So Snoop wasn't at the hospital? No. That's a lie. Well, he, he can come to no hospital now. When I was at Snoop, Snoop's mother and auntie flew down there with me. She went down there to represent Snoop. Okay. Monday. It happened Sunday, late Sunday night, between Saturday, Sunday, and we went back down there Monday. Dads didn't go down there. None of them went down there. You know, Nate Dogg was the only dog pound member in Vegas at this point. He's the only one. He came down because his girlfriend went down there with me and he was infuriated. Yeah. He was, he was like, he was kinda, he was jealous. He was jealous. Oh God. He's like, he got on that thing. Y'all ain't gonna be in the, well, you ain't gonna be out on there with Kenya. He was, oh, he was hiding me. Like, are you take her down here? Cause we coming to have fun. She can't go. Really? But he, he came. That was a big fight that night though. It was party down there. But he came down there and had a good time. Wow. And he saved our lives down there. I believe Nate got us out of there. Cause we thought it was going bad. Nate, they, God rest in peace. Nate, thank you. Thank God he was there. Cause he gave y'all some sense of stability to know how to move. Stability, he navigated us out of there. Wow. God led Nate down there at that point. So did you talk, I know I seen on another interview that you talked to Park before he got killed. Yeah. Before. You seen him after the scuffle with Orlando or whatever. Before he went up and changed his clothes and after. And, you know, he came down and I'm this girl and I'm in this suburban, right? I had this world, it was a rim and tire place on La Cyanica and they tricked my car out. It was dropped, had rim sounds. And when Pot came down, he was like, you know, he got this nigga, he said, dad, he got that nigga to get you another car, my nigga. And we pound and he's on the sidebar of my car. And we're talking and shooting the shit. People in the car, Tasha's in the front, Nate's girl, bumping music. And I remember Pot's favorite song at that point. His favorite song at that moment was Blackberry molasses with Bobby Valentino and that group, Mr. Blackberry molasses. He loved that song. And I remember I played that song over and over again for Pot. I mean, the whole ride, I kept on playing it. Cause it was his favorite song. And then he loved Moken Stuff, the group Moken Stuff. He's mine, you made it. Cause they were gonna sign him to death row at one point. But God, yeah, he, we, you know. That night, we're gonna go back to that night. Like that night was crazy because did you know how they end up Orlando and him having differences like they did? From what, you know, it was over a death row chain. I think somebody had got a chain, snatched them at some point. And the person who supposedly did it was there. And I think it sparked from this, a gold chain. Wow. And, you know, you can have 10 million people kicking you. I can kick you, you can kick him. But Pock's face resonated. To Pock kicked me. And he kicked me. No other faces are recognizable. So. But on that video that night, the way you could see Pock was lit. And I just, I wish that, I know Pock was riding with his boys, but I just wish he never even had gotten involved in that. Like I wish he was protected as an artist. Like, okay, we're gonna push you away. But you can't push him away. These are my homies. I'm gonna ride with them. There's nothing you can do. He was more, he was more live than anybody on that video. Friend. Wasn't trying to hear it. He wasn't gonna, he wasn't gonna, no, I'm riding with you. You guys are here for me. You've got me out of jail when everybody left me to ride. Correct. You got me all these fancy things. My mom has stuff, my sister's set your, everybody is good now. It's because of you. I was riding in jail. How am I supposed to feel? That's dope. That's dope that he had that loyalty that he had that, he had that sense of, I'm down all the way down with him. He loved them. They protected him. He loved them. He wasn't gonna leave their fro like everybody trying to say at the end. Where? I'm gonna tell you why they say that though. They say that because a lot of people sent you away to this Michelle A thing was a situation where it was, it was two or three things going on with her. I don't know if this to be true. I don't know if she your own girl. I don't know her. I love Michelle A. I love all Shooks girl. I love Sharita her too. I was gonna ask you about that transition. How did Sharita and Michelle A kind of transition into that situation? You know, but it was, Sharita was always the wife. She had been with Shooks since, high school, right? So when it, they got married, but when it broke down, they still remain married. Everybody was doing their own thing. She was with Kevin, the policemen and Shook went on to maintain his life, but it was still business. They, they, they navigated their business. They, the marriage was broken, but they still remain married. Business. Yeah. And Michelle A, she wasn't ever with pop. Like they said, or do you even have what they have together? I've never seen them together like that. Pop was, Pop had Kadada. His, I'm gonna tell you what, Dad's, Dad's kind of throw these things out there, shock treatment or not. I'm just telling you. It's like, I mean, she was like, you know, like she was running around with everybody kind of. I believe that. I don't, I believe, I believe with Michelle, Michelle was mentally, emotionally and physically damaged from Dre. You know, they had very turbulent relationships. She was a hurt human being that got on drugs and all that. And I think she was just, at her weak point, looking for a way out. And I think that's how the should thing went. That was absolutely beyond fucking, you don't do that. Like that's your home girl. Cause they were, her and Sharita were very, very, very, very close. So they was close when this happened. No, they were just close. Period. Period. They used to travel together. They were, they were friends. Wow. They were friends. It hurt Sharita, you know, it hurt Sharita that Ms. L.A. got with you. For her. She's a woman. That's my friend. I mean, you know, I had girls that knew me that was getting at dads. I mean, I'm like, so it was just- Real friends don't do that. And these weren't real friends like that. They were just, you know, second tier, third tier friends. But I'm just, I'm still like, how do you do that there? Like, I would never look at Snoop in any kind of way. I would never look at sugar in any kind of way. Or corrupt. Or corrupt. I know they, I mean, I wouldn't do that. They're women or my friends. But you know, sometimes people, we try to put our own, like the what we would do on other people and they not like us. And they go by a different system or code of ethics. So we gotta be careful. We get hurt like that a lot of times. You know what I'm saying? I'm not doing none of that. I'm not, because that's gross. And first of all, what am I after? I'm after what she got. I'm never gonna get what she got. She got because he genuinely loved her. I'm just stepping in because for some fantasy, he don't really care about me. You know? Yeah. But, yeah, Sharita was her mischievous. I don't know. You know, all I know is mental, mental illness and all that was there. And that probably was the leading cause. Because Sharita, you know, I love Dray to the end, but you were wrong. Yeah. You were wrong for doing that poor girl that way. She was broken in 20 ways. And how, you know, I happen to have a strong mother at that point. Who's to know which way I would have went? If I didn't have a strong mother and a grandmother leading me the right way. Right. You know, because a lot of things come at you. I mean, a lot of things come at you. People be wanting to just sleep with you just because. Yeah. But I knew it wasn't real. But let me ask you a question about, so being around Poc, did you ever get to meet Jada? No. No? Because I know she was always around. Just Kada. Kada. It was all, when he got to death row, it was all about Kada Jones. Okay. Jones were there. They were, that was, that was, it's golden goose. That girl, you know, hooked him up with Versace. She had him in places he had never been. Took him to a whole new level. He loved Kada. Kada was a special woman to him. I want to ask you about this new thing, Snoop Guy with Death Row. How do you feel about it? Well, I know it's for, you know, the whole goal is for NFT. It's gonna be ran kind of with the NFT feel. And I just hope that the artists get their just do. That's what I hope. It's not, I was kind of angry that they took all the dog pound because I tell you, that's my go-to. And they took everything off of streaming. I'm like, I can't get my, I can't get my, what would you do fix? Why did they take it off though? Because it's NFT now. So he's running it through that. You gotta be able to get through somebody to get to somebody to get it, huh? Yeah. I really don't, you know, the verdict is not in. I'm just waiting for like a year to see how it transpires, you know? But I do know that there will only be one Death Row records. It would never, I don't think any record label in history will ever give you that feeling that Death Row gave you. How do you feel when you hear people like Reggie Wright saying that they own like the publishing for a lot of the stuff that's being dealt with, you know what I'm saying? With the Shilknight, Reggie is tripping on it right now. Reggie, Reggie, Reggie, that was the one that called me a minute ago. That was Reggie. That was Reggie. I need him over here. You need to get, I need to talk to him. Yeah, Reggie, if he ain't busy. If he ain't busy. One thing to show him. I love to talk to him. Reggie, Reggie's always one thing for Shari's, he's treating me right because I kind of didn't stay out the way. Reggie's saying he got money, got stuff involved with that stuff that people are not talking about and he gonna get to the bottom of it. He, he, he got, Reggie gonna, believe me, he gonna get to the bottom of it. But he does know one thing for Shil, he does make them understand Kenya was there, baby, okay? She was a good girl. And I was, I didn't bother nobody. I didn't, and I wasn't, I kept in my own lane. But Reggie's a good person. He might, you never know what them dudes got. I have no idea. I just, I hate to piss him off one day cause he might have a problem. He say, he say he had something going on in the midst of that. And you know, it's not really something that he's, he say he's gonna come back and get what belongs to him. In a sense, through this whole death row experience. Reggie, I just, you know, they're men. And I tell, I told him, unless y'all gonna finance my birth of a Crip and ladies and death row, I ain't getting in the mix of y'all. Who gonna finance it? I'm gonna be more friends with you. I mean, I, it is, he's been, he's been my partner. Sharith is my partner. I just, I stay out the way. Sugar's my partner. And corrupt is my heart. That's my brother for life. And How did you meet Big U? I've been known Big U my whole damn life. Cause when, as a child, when I moved Culver City to Bowen Hills, Big U's cousin, his first cousin, used to like me. We were kids. And, oh God, Big U, I used to be scared of him. I mean, I was a little girl. This big old guy just poked out, Malcolm, Malcolm X glasses. And I remember this guy lived in, he lived in his mama's house in Englewood, right? In the blood side. He hung a big old Crip rag out in front of the house, flagging, so I dare anybody to come right here, living in the neighborhood. I was like, that's my big home. That's my big home. So I've been knowing him before everything. I've been rolling with those guys. They almost made me miss my debutant ball. I mean, when I was 16 years old, my grandmother wanted me to go there and I'm rolling with them and got into funk with, my car, I had, at that point, my parents had got me the, my first car was a convertible, cabriolet, Volkswagen. It had the rims on, we're not the rims, it was at the radio, at that point, the big Alpine radio system in there and all that. And I used to drive them all around and I'd be getting in trouble all the time. I'm like, I gotta stop getting in trouble. My mom said, I gotta stop. Go to Westwood. Parents gotta pick me up. The Westwood UCLA PD got us detained. I'm like, I didn't do nothing, mom. I was just with them. They were just in my car. So I've been rolling with the big U of the homies for it since I was a little girl. He's always been, you know, been my big brother, you know? He said, you almost made it in my family, you know, you almost made it in my cousins, why I'm like, yeah, but we were young, we were kids then. So I've been like family to him ever since then. I got adopted in back then in the teenage years. So now he's my big bro for life. Yeah, so, so 19, I think you said it was the 90s. You and Snoop talking now or no? No, I mean, Let's be real. No. I don't talk to any, I don't talk to, I talk to corrupt. Okay. And I'm trying to understand how you was there for him when he went to jail. You, I heard you say that on big court, shot on big court, that's my boy, that's he wanted the reason you're here. And, and my boy Kenyatta, I gotta get him boy shot out. But you said on there that you stayed when Master Pete Neum left him in jail when it was a universal party, right? So you was there and you took him home or whatever, took him where he needed to go. And now at this point, he don't talk to you. How does this, how does this life work? How does this work? You know, I think what me and his wife, we were very close, very close and we had differences. So, I mean, honestly, I don't know. Cause when I lived in Atlanta for those eight years, right? That was my best friend. The Snoop. Snoop was. A whole time. He rode with you the whole time. The whole time. So you miss him. Huh? You miss him. That's my friend. I mean, I'm always going to back him up, but I do know that people change all the time. I mean, we were in Atlanta the whole time. My son was, my son was born, you know, I had a different boyfriend down there, right? And I would bring my boyfriend to the concert. Snoop would get, Snoop and dads would get us backstage. Wow. My son was by another man. Yeah. And I brought my son to one of the shows and Snoop got a whole room so my son can be in a room so he wouldn't get the smoke. He said, can you try to tell me something? Is that dad's this kid? I'm like, nope. We were still friends, but when I moved back to LA, it just, I guess, you know. And you don't know what caused the. I think it's because me and his wife aren't close. So, you know, again, you know, if my wife is not close to you, then I'm going to ride with my wife, you know? And, but we had always been up and down me and her, you know, but he still was cool. But when I moved to LA, there's something shifted. So I'm all, I'm riding with it. Do you think that you and her could ever be friends again? Oh no. You see what I'm saying? Like people go through things, people change. I know I love her mother. I love her family. I love her sisters. I love the kids. I mean, there's a lot of history between y'all. A lot. I just think people, like for me, if we had a difference, I'm nine times out of 10, I don't remember it. I don't know. So it was nothing that ever happened. So you don't remember what it is? I think the thing, I think the triggerter, when I did the DPG, I did a documentary. Okay. And only thing I can point it to was that the documentary, my needed Snoop's interview, she was managing him. And maybe I don't think she wanted me to. Include him in there. Include him or interview him, but it was all about them. And sometime, you know, women, you know, it's territorial. Did you interview her? Hell yeah. Got it. And that's what you think true. Stars pick it up. Yeah. And I think we can speak after that. But then my mom died and she was there. So I thought it was, and this is all going back to early 2004. Yeah. I don't know. You thought it would be okay. Ty, have you ever thought about reaching out to her and trying to talk to her? Is it proud of you, Ian? Let's be real. No, I'm open for her. I love. You see what I'm saying? Let me put it out there. I'm gonna always love that girl. Exactly. Whatever it is, you have to understand it's a lot that she's been through. So I don't know. I mean, you know, she's, it's not just me. I think she's fallen out with a lot of people around her. I don't know. But one thing about God, if you're a God-fearing person, I love the part where it says in 1 Corinthians that, if there's any, 2 Corinthians, 5, if there's any, if any man be in Christ, see a new creature, old things are passed away, behold, all things become new. You can always start over again. And I think a lot of times people miss that part. Because if you're looking at it from a natural, carnal state, you won't see it. But when you start to look at it from a spiritual mindset, then you can get past your differences because it ain't that big. It's not that, you see what I'm saying? You gotta forgive. But you know what I always think about when you say that, or even the situation, and it might not be on your part, but you know, people tend to put it off, oh, we'll make backup later on. We're gonna make backup later on till it's too late. And you're like, man, I've been putting this off for so long and it hurts so bad if you lose that person. I mean, I will always love her because again, it's so much history. And she's probably in a different space now. Snoop is on a whole different level. He's on a whole different fucking atmosphere right now. And I don't know, you know what she has to deal with. You don't know. I don't know what it is. But if something happened to her today and she was taken away from this earth and you had to go and help, you gotta go to her funeral. You gotta be there like y'all was together and everything else. So why not take a, do you know what they call it? A Hail Mary. A Hail Mary. Yeah, but I do express, but you know how I express it? I call her mama up and check on her. There you go. Her mama, that's my girl. That's dope. I love her. That's dope. I still talk to, here we go. This is how the love is there, you guys. So my brother under me, Kevin, this is my step brother. He has a dinner party last year and it's at one of the big steak houses out in Orange County. So he has the whole room. So I'm sitting in the room. There's 30 people in there. We rented out this room and I started seeing, I seen Chante's mom pass by. I'm like, Pam's here. And I seen all the cousins and all the, I'm like, so where is it? No, I seen her pass by. Oh, wow. So I said, the family's here and her sister and I. Dope. Close. So I come out the room and I seen her auntie, Lisa. I said, Lisa, can you give me a big old hug? She goes in the room and gets the whole family. They all come in here. Her whole family ends up in our room taking pictures. She didn't come, but everybody comes. That's dope. The love is there. The love is still there. One day, you know, and I have to put it on her. It's probably her, whatever the difference is, but it was, I don't know what it is, but that's just her. I mean. But you love her. Love her to death. It's never, I love Michelle. They're my ladies right there. They're never going to. So you're Michelle. Do y'all talk to them? That's my girl. So y'all still talk to them. Oh my God. Sharith is my girl. They might have differences, but. You still love both of them. That's my girl. That's good. And they respect that. They do. No one gets on me when you talk to her. Even Shug's girl stormy. I love her too. Man, that's dope. You like a bridge. We can go back to the Tammy. We had differences, a little difference, but I still have love for her. She didn't, it was always nice to me. We never had a relationship, but I have no problem with nobody. Let me tell you something. You got a beautiful spirit. I mean, the way you are, the way you illuminate the room when we came in, I always knew it through the phone lines. It's just the way that you carry yourself. I can't see how somebody could look at you in any kind of way, but I do know people have differences, but just the way, keep on being that loving person that you are. Keep on shining in the midst of the darkness cause we need that. People can be led out of darkness through the lightness in you. You know what I mean? So keep on doing that, man, because you put a smile on my face. I felt so good about the conversation. Yeah, he told me. He told me about it. I was like, man, you had to hear this woman. She's, because when I first, I was like, I was like, man, I need to get this woman number from King Yacht. And King Yacht said, oh yeah, she's not like, she's gonna call her. You have this thing about yourself that people, and even big court, he was like, man, she gonna come, man. But it's just like, they know that you have a loving spirit. Yeah. And it's dope, man. I love all my people. It's not, nobody on death row that has anything to do with death row that I don't like. I kind of loved, I love everybody. Like, just because he has a problem with, I love Reggie. Reggie's been nothing but happiness. Shug, nothing but happiness. Sharifa, all of them. And they respect that, I'ma still talk to these people. It's nothing you can do about it. When Shug and Snoop are going through that, Shug never got mad at me, cause you go over there with them. They gon' respect that, cause I love everybody. Wow. Ain't nobody gonna ever be able to talk bad about them. You talk bad about Snoop and Chantay, I'ma be in your ass. I'm ready. So what I wanna get into now, I wanna get into what you're doing now with the costumes. Yeah. Yeah. Cause you've always been in fashion from Nordstrom. When did that became a passion? Where were you then when you started drifting off into the costume? Well, my first job was at Mecca, USA. That's out of New York. And I was the West Coast marketing rep. That's that Mecca brand for a long time. We used to carry in the store. In 90's. So I got a job there. And that was my first job after me and dad's are separated. And I remember Kenya, it's time to get, you know, like I always had my hustle, but now I'm not gonna be leaning on his money. I gotta get my own. Got a job there. And that job ultimately led to me getting into the union in 98, 99. And my first job was on MTV. And my resume went from there. It went up. I mean, from there, I went to the television show, Girlfriends. Stayed there for five years and. Cause they ran for a long time. I stayed with them until I moved to Atlanta. I moved to Atlanta the first week I'm there. I'm walking through Nordstrom, you know? See a girl, a very big designer, Sean Barton. Sean Barton is like, Kenya, what are you doing out here? I'm like, yeah, I'm moved down here. You want a job? Hell yeah. I'm not knowing they doing any work down here. She's working on ATL, the movie. Wow. Jumped on that movie. Then Stump the Yard. Then there's Big Mama's house. Fast and Furious. Hunger Games, Mockingjay one and two. I jumped three Stooges. I went Atlanta. I built up my movie resume. Wow. The resumes on Hunger Games was ridiculous. I learned so much on there because, I mean, I remember this, we were at being asbestos and mold and, cause down there it was, you just gotta get it. But I was so happy to be working and I worked on so much and I knew when it was time to come home, Hunger Games. I'm like, okay, I need to get back home. I'm paying my union dues in LA and here. It's time to get back home. But I came back with a different mindset. I came back. You came back with a built resume. Yeah, oh, the resume was built, but then I'm like, I'm a producer. Okay, I'm a costume designer. I'm a costume, but I'm a producer. I produced that documentary. It didn't resonate to me that I was one of the first black women to get a deal through black stars with a documentary. I beat everybody. And I never really carried that on my shoulder. I know it was your first production. That was my first. I did that. Got that in old 304. Right. It played on stars. I licensed it out for two years for them and I own the masters on it. It's mine. I still own it. It's mine. Wow, that's dope, man. So I'm like, I'm gonna keep on flying. I am this. So with my new projects, the Ladies of Death Row started a long time ago. When I got home, I assembled all the girls. I called everybody, everybody. And every D-Barns, Ms. Chalet, Vivica Fox, because she was married to six, nine. He was part of the group, six feet deep. Them girls, they signed in the release form. Signing them, Vivica signed her at three o'clock in the morning. That's my dog. That's my dog. You like Vivica? I mean, she rolled in Atlanta with me for years. Me and her thickest thieves down there. Counting money in back of a car, like we ain't going to that club. They pay me all my money is here. All right, let's go. My dog. My dog. She seemed like she all business. Oh my God, so much business. And I assembled all my girls and they all came through. D-Barns gave me a hey, Kenya. So what does this contract really mean? What is it? Lover to Death is D. But the girls, we went up to the universe. So we tried to get a deal. Oprah really, Oprah's own label took a liking to us because we did two meetings with them. But it was all about love and couples and all that. And nobody never knew what to do with the ladies. We were putting out there as a reality. And I'm like, oh God. I'm off the reality tip now. It's a television series and it's a documentary. And I'm gonna shoot it myself because I wanna own everything. So I'm doing it myself. And then this birth of a Crip, I got the rights, Raymond Washington's mother, 92 years old, next week. I got a center her birthday gift in the mail so she can be happy. She can be 92. Got the rights to that. Shot a sizzle for that. Bart Big U N is my partner in there because he is the Crip and he represents everything. He loved the idea and symbolized my team. And we're gonna get a deal with that too. I mean, we've talked to everybody, but we have to get- So you love the film industry right now. I love it. But I love ownership. I wanna own. But you know a lot about it because you've been working in the back scenes doing all those costumes. So when you were doing that, you were trying to soak up everything. Soak up the game. Soak up the game. I probably didn't know what it was gonna be but God, that's how God worked. God worked like that to where you can't own it. You don't know what it is, but you know you're working on some. I can imagine what you're doing though. So I used to do videos before I got in the union, before Mecca music videos on my stylist too. So Francis Lawrence was a big director with Hype Williams and Benny Boone. They were all big names down there, Christopher Robbins. I got on Hunger Games, Mike and Jane one and two. Well Francis Lawrence is now the director for all the Hunger Games. I seen him and I was like Francis, he says, yo, Junior, what's up? We used to do them videos with Junior Wine back in the day. And everybody's like, how does she know him? Cause he's big Francis Lawrence now. He's the Hunger Games. And we're set up to have a conversation. I'm like, we started together and look at him. That's God showing you that. And then Ava DuVernay, let me tell you about her. She was PR for girlfriends. Ava and I used to talk on the phone because during that time of girlfriends, the guy Reggie, the black guy on there, I was his personal and his PR person. That's how I learned the PR. The executive producers put us together and I handled all his business and met Ava. Ava was just doing the PR back in the days for girlfriends and Ava DuVernay is a director. So I'm inspired by her. I'm inspired by Mara Bronca Kill because she got to deal through girlfriends. I'm inspired by all my sisters that I started out with and I look at them, I'm like, that's me. I love the way how you keep on elevating because I think I read something to say that when you first started in the fashion industry, it wasn't black girls who actually gave you the foot up to help you. White girls only. Right. I'm on a show right now, I'm working on a mass singer and I'm probably the only black girl in my department and they love me and the guy who brought me in was a white guy. See. I mean, I have to say, I have to say through my whole career of moving, my work at everything in Atlanta, it was these Caucasian designers that showed me love, that kept me going. I mean, my daughter, I got her in union now and they're calling her now. So I have to give up. They thought you were trying to take their spot or something like that. No, black girls thought I was taking their spot. Right. Black girls never cared. They came from Atlanta like, let's go. That's a good thing, man. Hey, man, thank you so much. Top the artist of all time, Dead or Alive. Any genre. Number one. Dead or Alive? Dead or Alive. Number one. Michael Jackson, baby. Michael Jackson. Number two. Prince. Number three. Tupac. I knew that. I knew that. I was waiting for that name. Dope, man. So how can people get older if they really wanted to reach out to you? Somebody might need some help. Anything. And I get a lot of DMs and I think I've helped more stylists. I talk to more people. I give my time because somebody took time with me. Amen. At Kenya Wear, Kenya Wear on IG. At Kenya Wear Films on IG. Kenya Wear on Facebook. And that's the three things I really pay attention to. I'm not into the Twitter and all that. Twitter and TikTok. I can't, no, I'm not into all that. Hit me up on IG. That's the main hub right there. Man. You can find me. Y'all better look for it. She dope, man. One of the dopest interviews I'd have had out here in Los Angeles, California, man. Hey, man, Kenya Wear is my family. You niggas gon' get it. Man, thank you so much, man. We love you. Thank you. And I'm so inspired by this husband and wife team. Man, is it the first time you've been interviewed by a husband and wife? Yeah. That's dope. First time? I love it. No, I love that. I'm inspired by them. I'm like, yeah. Mm-hmm. They're not looking so good, man. Keep coming. Man. Keep coming. Did we leave anything out? No, I think that's it. I think we covered everything, man. Man, check it, man. It's been another great segment of Boss Talk 101. What a boss is talking. And we out.