 Check it, check it, check it, it's a unique host. She's your boy, E-CEO, and I'm here with a lovely, amazing official Mr. Mako, what's going on? Not, not even on my day I walk on. Man, hey man, save man, check it, man. We got this special guest in here today, y'all. She been doing this a long time. She's been on different networks where I've seen her really just displaying her art with the tattooing that she does, man. She also, she's a rapper. She's a rap, she's an artist. I don't like to say rap, you know what I mean? Check it, man, Michelle, Elise is in the building. What's up, y'all? How y'all doing? Stop playing. What? She in here. It happened. She on Boss Talk 101, like my boy, Lil Runny say what a boss is talking. What a boss is talking. I like that. Man. So how you doing? I'm doing good, doing good. It's just an honor and a pleasure for you to come on Boss Talk 101, show us this love. We only been at this for a little over a year. Oh, wow. But the store's been here 15 years. Yeah, the store's been here 15 years. I'm a black entrepreneur. Newer. Niggur. You don't talk about how that took more than that. I never heard that, I like that. And it's not the niggur, it's niggur. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Never ignorant goals accomplished. So how is it like in Dallas, I mean, being at you from Arizona, right? Right, wow. How is it like you being from Dallas, like I'm being in Dallas and seeing the way the music has turned, because you've been here for a while, just seeing how things, and I'm gonna go back into your back turn because she liked to do that. But how is it for you, the music and just the way music is looking right now in the city? In the city. I'm excited. I'm excited. I've been around for a minute in the music scene. I was a painter first in the music scene, so I painted on stage and did different concerts and stuff like that. So, I've seen the progression of, sorry. I've seen the progression of the Dallas music scene. I feel like people are going hard. I feel like everybody's trying to be different, sound different, finally. Nope. But you're talking about overall, so how is it for females? For females, I would say it's the same thing. It's a little, a little different. I find females are starting to sound a little bit the same. Everybody want to sound like Meg or Cardi, you know what I mean? Or as far as the content, I'll say that. What they're talking about. It's a little different. But yeah, that's why you have me, I'm different. You're different. So let's go back. We want to go back first, okay? I want to know about a little Nichelle. Oh, okay. Okay, before you moved to Texas, how old were you when you moved here? Ooh, I was six, 16, 17. Oh, so you're still grown. So you remember things before. So tell us about how it was growing up. In Arizona? Well, is Arizona hot? Because Arizona is, I know this country is hot. Arizona was warm. What is there to do in Arizona? I didn't do anything. I went to school. We learned how to survive in the heat. So we did heat survival classes. How do you survive in the heat? So we had to play outside when it was 110 degrees. They made us go outside. So they made us learn how to cool off, like put the paper towel, the wet paper towel on your back, your neck, put it on your wrist. You know, different things like that because people would pass out on the playground all the time. And they teach you this in school. Yeah, they taught us how to make food outside. It was like a convention, it was like an oven you make. I made cinnamon rolls too, it was good. I remember that. But yeah, it was just, that's why I left. I'll tell you that. It was too hot. It was too hot. Tastes as hot, but Arizona's like the driest heat you ever go find. Okay, well I've said the same thing about Vegas. And Vegas is not very far from Arizona, but what's the difference between the heat and Vegas compared to the heat in Arizona? About the same. It's desert, desert vibes for sure. It's real desert-y dry, it's like a dry heat. It's that dry heat because like I tell anybody, I said if you want, and I've never been out of, come out of a microwave, but it feels that way. Like if I had imagined what it feels like walking into a microwave, when I'm walking out of the hotel and into the atmosphere, that's what it feels like. Yup, I'm happy to be a Texas, I'll tell you that. Brothers or sisters? I have two brothers. Two brothers? I got an older brother, and I got a little brother. So I'm the middle child. No, you're the only girl. Only girl. Wow, mom and dad together? Oh yeah, for sure. That's good. You know, I ask that question a lot, and I want to say 80% of people are like, nah, mom and dad is usually over here, and mom is the one who takes care of them. That's what it is for my son. I take care of my son by myself. Mm-hmm. Oh yep, maybe like that for sure. But why is it that way? Why does never the dad take responsibility and take the child, especially that boy? Right. You know what I mean, and take that responsibility? I don't know. I don't know, I feel like it's been like that for a really long time. I couldn't tell you, I guess society would frown more upon a woman if she was like, no, I'm not gonna do nothing. You know what I mean? I have friends who have kids, or male friends who have kids, and maybe two of them, the baby mother is not really around, and you're like, that is so weird. But like, oh, the dad ain't not around. Okay, yeah. He doesn't wanna like, what in the world? But it is your child's father involved in his life? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You say it like that, like. No. That's your choice. Because that's what it sounded like. It's, you know, sometimes when you have someone that, let me see, I can't word this, is more of a hazard to your child and yourself. And they don't really do a good job as a father anyway, and they don't really care. You just say, okay, I'm gonna protect my kid. You know what I mean? Keep him safe. Well, let me be the devil's advocate. Okay. What would make you be with a guy like that? So I was young. And I was manipulated. I was young. I didn't really know much. I've taken responsibility though. Like I'm not like, oh, he ain't, I don't get on social media and talk about him. I know I made a mistake. I love my child and he's a blessing. How old is your child now? Seven. Oh, okay. He's a baby. But I had to come to terms like, okay, well, regardless of like how it happened and technically like, he's, huh? He's here. He's here and he's doing great. He's an amazing kid, but you know, I did do that. Well, we're gonna keep our prayers for that father to come. Yeah, we want him to come around and be, I still pray for him for sure. You know, sometimes, you know, cause I've seen people that was crazy. I may have even looked in the mirror and seen him. And God, I know he can change people. Of course. You know what I mean? So I just don't ever play with the power of God. That's just me, my belief. I don't push my belief on nobody else. I just know that if you pray for people and if you really believe that people can change, things can change. Especially because I always feel like a child needs both parents in their life. It doesn't have to always be under the same roof. If possible, that's great, but active in their life because every child boy or girl go through stages where you can't deal with that child and he can't and vice versa. Exactly. My son is very, he responds well to like male, males kind of tell him what to do. Like I haven't been a program where it's a bunch of people from my church, males from my church, they have a golf program. So he goes every week, but they teach him how to be, mama shouldn't be picking up your bag. Why you have her doing that? Your mama should, you need to be doing these things. You know what I mean? Just putting some discipline on him. Right. So, you know, I'm trying, I'm trying to get him influenced. Come on, man, just to be a mother is a blessing. Is a blessing. You know, there's people like Hannah in the Bible and Elizabeth and just different people who had tests and trials and who couldn't have children, who wanted to have children. You know what I mean? So for you to even have a child. Is a blessing. Is a blessing, you know? So to have a son. Come on, man. He's dope. It's lit, man. It's lit, man. What? She's like what? I don't know. I don't know. Whatever guy, you know, throw him away. So let's go back to, okay, so when you moved to Texas, you were 16, so you didn't move here by yourself. You moved here with your mom? With my family, for sure. Okay, mom and dad, brothers and so forth. And, but you were, when did you find your love for art? I've always loved art. Oh my goodness, since I was a little, little thing. I was like three, maybe. Who introduced it to you? My babysitter. My babysitter, she needed something for me to do. She was a fashion designer. So she would be drawing her dresses and I would be drawing whatever I was drawing. And that's how we kind of, we got through the little babysitting session. Okay, that's cool. And that's good that you found a love for, so you were like a great kid, because you know how when you have a kid that find a passion early stage? I just sat there and did all day, doing arts and crafts every day. And your parents supported it? Oh yeah, they've always supported me, always. And when did you realize that this has become now a passion? How old were you? A passion. Because you know how when you're young, you just doing something, you just doing it because you like it and you love it. I think when I started buying books, trying to learn more when I was 10, about 10 years old, I have family members who do art. So I'm like, hey auntie, can you help me learn how to draw these eyes the right way? You know, I'm looking for knowledge and I'm trying to get better every day. I figured, yeah, this is the part of me. I'm really putting forth the effort to get better. Some people just draw and they doodle. But I'm like, okay, let me read this book. Let me get a book on sketching hands. Let me get a book on drawing buildings and cars and all types of stuff. But at that age, did you know that there was a career in it? Yeah. Or you were just... I knew because my aunt does graphic design. My other aunts, she do art. My uncles do art. So it's in the family. Yeah, it's in the family. It is. So what at first, what did you want to become because you didn't want to become a tattoo artist at first? I mean, so I'm gonna say this. When I was probably like 13-ish, I discovered tattooing and I always said, oh man, I wanna do that. How did you discover it? I was watching TV. I was watching TV. I was watching TV and there was a tattoo show on or something was going on on TV. And I realized, wow, I could draw on people and get money for it. That's crazy. I'm about to try that. I never knew how I was gonna actually do it. I went and tried to do fashion design and all that other stuff. But I always said I wanted to do tattoos and I wanted to get tattoos. So I was drawing my little tattoos out. I'm gonna get this when I turn 18. That's when I'm getting it. It was ugly, but that's what I'm getting. That would not have worked as a tattoo, but yeah, I've always been into it. So did you go to school for it? I did. For arts? Yeah. Okay. I did. I went to Texas Women's University for drawing and painting or painting and drawing is how you say it. Two years. Or four years. Four. Four years? Yeah. Okay, you majored in that. Is it easy, hard? It was so easy for me. Because you loved it. It was easy for me. It was almost too easy, though. Shout out to Texas Women's, but it was so easy. I was like, okay. They're like, yeah, this is good. This is good. This is good. It was never like, maybe you should put that tree over there. It's probably because you're talented. Yeah, but even talented, you should be pushed. Or maybe because it's the school. Maybe it's the school. What is the best art school in Dallas? I'm actually not sure. It's a good question. I went to school in New York. You know what I mean? If I had the courage to, yeah, I'd probably go to New York or something. Something like that, I don't know. Because I'd see how it's like. Relationship building? Just to meet people? No, because whenever I go to New York, it's art everywhere. It's more embraced, I feel like. Did you feel, did you see the art when you was there? That's why I saw it a lot in Washington. Man, we went to DCN. Okay, that's dope. But I didn't see it a lot in New York. Really? It depends on what part. You were in Manhattan. You were in Manhattan. Oh, it's like Brooklyn, Harlem and stuff like that. Yeah, we didn't know that. You went to the hood. Yeah. Let that. No, we went to Queens, got my cousin living in Queens, but I still didn't really see a lot. I've never been to Queens. I went to Brooklyn. I went to Queens because that's where I come into America, it's gonna be real with you. That's where I be at. Okay. Because that's where Joaquin met his wife, his girl, his true love. It is, it is. We're better to meet a queen than Joaquin. Okay, I hear that. But no, I think you're one of the dopest females that, are you gonna give me 16 on here? You got some. You want me to give you a 16? Heck yeah. I didn't, okay. What does it mean? Yeah, we'll get you on the trip. I got a card and I'm gonna get you too. Okay, so before we get into that. No, we never do it now. I just let her get ready. She better be thinking over there. I am thinking over there. You know what, we could do, I loved the one with you when you stood the latest one that you did with the mic and everything. Shelly Giuseppe. Yeah, that should be here. Yeah, that should be here. That should have went down on both. So just like that, you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, then took it out there. Okay, I hear that, my bad. Okay, so we're tattooing because you went to school for tattooing. When you go to school for art, is it art or are you going to school for tattooing? Art, art. I did an apprenticeship though. Okay, so. I did an apprenticeship simultaneously. Okay, while you're in school. So did the school actually help you to get that apprenticeship? Or you had to go get it? No, I had to go get it. So. You had to go get it. How did you, because this network can get you everything nowadays. So how did you do that? So networking is a big part of it, I'm not gonna lie. So how, I had said earlier that I was a painter. So everyone knew me as being this painter chick. So when I. So, hold on, so you were painting while you were going to school? Yeah. Were you painting on stage at that time? Yep, mm-hmm. So I would go to class and run and go do a show. Okay, so how did you, so okay, so let me go to reverse before you answer that question. So how did you get on stage? How did you get, because network can get you everywhere too. So how did you, because when we go to Vegas for clothing shows, we've seen those people with the music going on and their painting and doing all these crazy different, you know, there are some people who are dancing while they're painting just to make it look different. So how do you get there? Oh man, I haven't thought about that since it happened. I, oh, I know what happened. I painted a picture of this like cool little monkey guy sitting on this couch. It was a purple couch and then everything else was blue and like real cool. It's like cool colors, which is what you call them. I posted it on Facebook and it went viral. Like, we like to say viral. And I got hit up from everybody like, oh my God, you did this painting? Can I get a print? And then I did a time lapse of it and did another one to the time lapse. Started posting time lapse videos on YouTube so people can see my process. And it really just went up from there. I met people doing hip hop mics and stuff like that. And they're like, hey, I think, what if we put art and hip hop mic together? What do you think that looked like? So that's really how it started. Pretty excited to do it. It was just a little experiment. Was it nervous? Because I always wonder, I'm like, if somebody is doing music, because doing art doesn't take you 10 minutes to do it. It takes you a while to do it. So do you actually get on stage and paint and they're done with their hip hop but you're not done with your art? How much pressure is that to finish this by a certain time? It was, at first, I was shaking. I was shaking like a strip on stage. I was so scared. My first show was at the Palladium, I believe. It was a big show. And that's big. It was a very big show. And that was your first show? First show ever. Oh my gosh, I was so scared. But that's how a lot of people found me. Like they saw, they were at that show and they saw me painting on live. Got my little Instagram and all my Facebook. What did you paint that day? I painted a like a really cool gas mask looking thing with like bright colors flying off of it and stuff like that. So when you're doing something like that, you don't paint something that's very intricate, something that you paint it sort of like easy so you can hurry up and get it done and over with. Maybe just more expressive and minimal at the same time. So it wasn't like super, super detailed like you were saying. But it could be read from somebody at the back of the venue. So that was a major part of it. Like I could do something cute and small but can you see it from the last person in the back of the venue? So it was, I made it a point to make it something that everybody could see from where they were standing. Did you get a lot of work? From that? Yeah. So how did you manage school with all the work you were getting and the baby and all of that? How did you manage all of that? I don't know. I don't know. That's just how I am. I like being busy. So it's go to class in Denton and you about to drive to Dallas and do this show, drive back so you could be up for class at 7 a.m. Not gonna lie, I failed one class because of that. But I changed my major so it don't even matter because I went for fashion design first and I kept missing that sewing class at 7 a.m. because I was out hustling, you know? So they're like, at the end of the semester, she was like, yeah, you need to change your major because you can't sew. I was like, dang, all right. So I changed it to iron and here we are. But yeah, I was just hustling. Really, I like that. I like, okay, let me go, he gonna do this, I'm gonna do that. I just, I've seen it work for me. So why not? But were you tattooing? When did you start tattooing? Did you tattoo after college? After? No, in college, in college. So you were tattooing in college? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So you don't need, so to tattoo, can anybody just tattoo or you need a certificate? Do you need a license? Depending on where you live. So depending on where you live, you always need a license. But in Texas, the shop has to have a license. So you don't have to be licensed to yourself, but any, you have to work in a shop. So any shop you work in has to be licensed. So you're under a license in Texas. So that's, I just went and did an apprenticeship and I was licensed under that shop. So tell me how you met that person to do the apprenticeship and where was it? Instagram, I believe. They saw me doing them art shows and Pain Live and we just had a brief conversation. Like, hey, what do you think about being our first apprentice? First apprentice? Yeah, was their first apprentice ever? So they just, I went and, okay, so listen, apprenticeship, you're not supposed to tattoo anybody for the first year, sometimes even two years. Just, right. Because technically what they're doing is for that first year, for that first year, that second year, you're learning how to draw. You're like, it's like you're in art school. You're learning how to draw. Yeah, but it's boring. Mm-mm, it's not boring. Because I'm like, it's like I'm watching you do, like, cause if I come in, cause if I come in, I feel like I can already draw. I already know what I'm doing. But if you can already draw, it might cut down the time. For sure, like me, it cut down my time that I tattooed the next day. Like, I tattooed, but I say I went on Monday, I was tattooed on Tuesday. Oh, oh. It depends on who you are, what you got going on. So for me, I tattooed the first 48 hours that I was in apprentice, but that's not coming at all. How hard is it to, cause when you're drawing, cause I see my daughter draw all the time, and you're using brushes and the colors and stuff like that, but now you're going to, I tattooed gun. Right. Where? Machine. A machine, I'm sorry. No, you're fine. Where you have to be careful of how deep you go. Of course. Light you go, all of that sort of stuff. Definitely. How hard it was for you to try to learn that and transition to that. It was hard. It wasn't even hard. It's getting over the fear of doing it wrong. You just have to do it. So like, I always went to light it first when I was an apprentice. It was like, oh, this is, it wasn't like the contrast wasn't there, I wasn't punching it in, cause I was afraid. I'm not going to lie. But some people will just drop that needle right into somebody's arm, and I'm like, dang, about to scar this person. So it's just figuring out your hand. You're going to have to mess some people up here and there to get better or get fakes. You still got to, you still going to mess people up. Well, you know, when I look at, you know, you, and they put you off for Ink Master on that 13th season, I want to know just how disappointed it was. And why were you such a blamer? You just blamed the other person. Like, there's wasn't good enough. I mean, we just, we're just dope. I mean, cause you saying, hey, I see, but I just wanted to know about that season. Just how it was, just run me down that road to even how, how it was being on that show. And just how, you know, just give me the rundown. Ooh. So I was minding my business one day and I got a call and they asked if I wanted to do it or email or something like that. They asked if I wanted to be on Ink Master season 13. Of course they said yes, cause that was a personal goal of mine. And how long were you doing tattooing at that time? I like four years, five years or something like that. Oh, so not that long. Not long, no. I had like, probably the least amount of experience. Maybe one other person had the same amount of experience, but it was an experience, I'll say that. A lot of adversity I had to get over. It's one thing like going on a reality show where you're just yourself like, like Black Ink or something like that and you're just showing your personality. But it's another thing to have to show your personality and then produce work that you don't have time to really prepare for. Like they tell you what you're doing and you about to just figure it out and tattoo it right there. It's a lot of pressure. So I didn't know it was gonna be like that. I didn't know it was gonna be so stressful. And so you don't get a lot of sleep. How much politics was involved? I don't know. What do you mean as far as like favoritism or you know, or somebody like cause a lot of times even though you don't wanna want that type of thing to be a thing, but it's always there. It's always there because, yeah, because somebody might've knew somebody or anything. I'm just asking you how much did politics play a part in it? I'm not sure what played a part in anything. I was just there trying to survive as a contestant. I don't know. When they make you stand, like they made us stand, they make you stand, you know, when you're getting judged, you have to stand there with everybody. The first person that went up, her tattoo was terrible. It was so bad. And everybody talked about it before, like they make you talk about, who do you think's gonna go home? And then we talk about it. And there was other people, no one said my name. No one, everybody thought it was a beautiful tattoo. And then when they critiqued that same person, thank you. When they were critiqued that same person that everybody was dogging on, they said it was beautiful. And that's when I knew. I literally, if they could have showed it, I looked to my life, I said, I'm going home. And I looked back to the camera. Cause you knew it was something other than your work. I was like, I'm going home. It was so bad. You knew it was something other than your art. Yeah, I was like, yo, everybody said it was bad. That's the politics I'm talking about. I see what you're saying. Cause it's always there. It's always the mess is there, even on jobs. And it's always something. And it's forever be as long as we got humans in it because of behavior patterns and the way that they look at things a lot of times. And certain people may be the grand wizard with the Ku Klux Klan or whatever. Some people may, and they're not gonna tell you this is what they're dealing with. This is something internally that they can't kick and they're gonna play it off and try to figure out a way to inject it into what they're trying to accomplish. So I'm not saying that's what they did, but I'm saying it makes sense how TV works. But I can't remember. How many other black people were on the show? A lot of black people. There was also black people on the show. I mean, bro, we'd go home very soon. I mean. We, black girls don't last long. Go and look, black women, for whatever reason we don't stand on them. Have there ever been a black person that won? There was one guy. There was his name. Oh my God, Anthony, something. That's bad. But he was one guy, but he didn't look black. He looked like, oh, maybe he Puerto Rican or something. Or maybe he's, and he was very like, I just want them to know that I did my best. You know, like he was not a strong black man. He was like, yeah, I've never done it before. So I hope the judges really like my tattoo. I'm like, what is this? He could have been doing that act because he know what it is too. Right, no, I think that's how he is. Because I've seen it. He talks like that. You're right. I mean, you know people that do that. I know people that do that. They know how to play. They know how to do different things and keep jobs. Oh, wow. Oh, it go hard. It's a thing, but it's a thing. That's crazy. People know how to play. Play the part. I was myself. I was like, y'all about to just get this because I'm not about to do all that. But yes, it's a whole nother world. Did it boost your career just to even be on the show? Yeah, it did. Because people know that they like my work. So I've been busy since, since I aired. I've been booked and busy since I aired for sure. Any city I go to, I'm booked. How do you market? I just kind of get on social media and post it. I'll be here every day. I don't do much. Yeah, I don't do too much marketing. I'm not that good at it. So you would advise any artist to be on one of those shows to try to boost their career? Boost their career. Because it can break you, too. It can break you. Because I know some people went on there and did some bad tattoos. And can't get work. And you just go on YouTube and see this terrible tattoo. Why would I go to you to get a tattoo? I've seen that you did this tattoo on Ink Master. It was bad. So it can make a break? It can break you, definitely. Oh, I have a question. Have you ever met a tattoo artist that don't have any tattoos? No, but I've heard of these people. I've heard of these folks before. And they make money. If your work is good and people like your work, what can you do? But I hear some people say, oh, I would never go to a tattoo artist that don't have tattoos. That's what people say to you see a tattoo artist like, hey, I like they work. And then you meet them. They ain't got no tattoos. You going to walk out? You like the tattoos? You might as well get the tattoo. But even like, the way how you're dressed right now, I can't see your tattoo. So you can still be dressed a certain way that you have tattoos and you can't see them. I just don't have my arms tattooed. I have everything else tattooed, just on my arms and my chest. Because I do other stuff. So it's like, I don't want to be typecast theater. Which makes sense. I want my face tattooed. You do? I do. But I won't. I won't. Let me ask you, did we get all the tattoo? Y'all tattooed this thing to death, you know? For 30 minutes, y'all been doing it. No, but at least 17, 17 and 20. I want to talk about the music a little bit before we end this, man. Just talk about, you know, your career, the love for music. Like, I mean, are you trying to, I mean, cause the last music you kind of whispered, are you trying to go with that new trend? Or I'm just asking. I'm listening. You just have that voice. No, I've heard the other ones early on was like, I'm going to die, die, die, die, die, die, by, by. But then the new ones, like, oh, that's it. It was just the vibe. You understand why I'm coming for a go. You're like this dude is really looking there. It don't take long for me to see what's going on. I just started during quarantine. So I started in 2020. Me and Lauri did that song and it went viral. I love that song. And then, thank you, that was fun. And then I dropped my single after that. And I was very aggressive on the beat because I didn't, that's all I knew how to do. I just knew how to yell in the mic, not yelling the mic, but you know, yelling the mic. How long ago was that? 2020? 2020. 2020, 2021-ish, yeah. So when did you figure out you could rap? What was the name of the song? Which one? The one you was just talking about, you and? Lauri? Lauri. Oh, WAP, it was WAP. She was on there? I didn't even know that. That's when I saw her for the first time. No, I didn't go to that. I wanted you by yourself. Yeah, that was, yeah. But the first song was the WAP song was Lauri. So that's what got me in the door, basically. OK, I get it. But how long before that you were rapping? Not that long. So, OK, so when I told you I was around in music for so long, I was inspired forever. I'm an artist. I just like creating. I like different mediums. I like the challenge. So when I was around these people, like we did a TD East stuff, like Schoolboy Q, I played on stage live, Kendrick Lamar, all these people. But I was like, OK, well, I'm the tattoo girl. I'm the art girl. I'm not supposed to venture out and try to do music. But I knew everything I needed to know. I was around these people. I was picking the openers for these people. I knew what was good music. But I was kind of trying to stay in my lane as a visual artist. So during quarantine, I was going crazy because I couldn't do anything and I was stuck in the house. And I said, you know what? I'm going to try it. I'm going to try it. I have nothing else to do. I have all the time in the world to write, all the time in the world to figure out these rhyming schemes. Let's just do it. And that's really how it happened. Like I was like, this is the only time I'm going to have where nothing's pulling me anywhere. I have time to just sit down and write. You wrote your own verses for what? Yeah, I did. Me and Lardi Wood in the studio, like we did that. OK. She said, hey, I want to do this parody with you. OK, cool. We went to the studio the next day. Then we shot the video the day after that. It was like boom, boom, boom. It was like 72-hour turnaround from her idea to coming out on YouTube. Wow. Yeah. Wow, what was the craziest thing that happened after that? Because I know that. I know it did numbers. It did. It did. It's got, I don't know, like three, four million views on it, too. So did anybody ask you about it? Or had anybody noticed you for being on it? Yeah, a lot of my clients come in and they're like, you did that song? I didn't know you did it. My daughter loves that song. It keeps going viral over and over. So it's always someone like, that was you. That was you. You know, so, yeah. That's pretty cool. When you, tell me about the song, What They Want? What They Want. So that was my first single. That was me on my little braggadocious vibes. That's the one I'm talking about when you get to it. Yeah, I was getting to it. I was being as braggadocious as I could. I was having fun with it. I wanted to see how far I could push it, what I could say that to make people look at me differently than other female rappers, because I don't want to talk about, you know, the normal stuff. The City Girls. I like City Girls. And I turned up to City Girls. But I didn't want to be another one. There's already the City Girls. So what can I do to be different? No, what? Let's talk about Pay For It. Pay For It. I like that song. That song, that was just a song I was playing around with. Like I made a little studio in my house. And I played the beat. My brother was there. And I just started mumbling it, though. Like, na, na, na, na, na, na. He's like, that's a dope cadence. I was like, OK, let me see. Started writing. And then Goods is a battle rapper. He's like a well-known battle rapper. He was like, hey, I want to do a song with you, but I don't want to do something like what they want. I want to do something different. So I sent him like, hey, I just did this reference track, kind of just trying to figure something out, like trying to sound a little different. What you think? He's like, that's perfect. I want to do that. And that's literally how it happened. Yeah, he's like, that's different. And I want to get on that. We're going to do it. Because I noticed you do a lot of features with, like, a lot of these songs have features on them right now. I mean, like two, three, two, three songs. I want to ask about what do you think that you'll ever do something with the tattoo and why you're rapping? Oh, yeah, it's coming. It's coming. Oh, yeah. You see what I'm saying? Because you could be doing that. And then. But how hard would that be? It won't be hard because you ain't going to be really tattooing. You're just going to be acting a lot of times. I got visuals coming from it. I shot a video like that. I just haven't put it out. OK, I just was thinking, I'm like. Yeah, it's been advised that I need to. I started to try and separate everything. And they're like, that's what makes you different. That's right. So I'm working on doing both of them. You can tell I'm a good manager. I'm already working on it. I know what I'm talking about. Let's get it. For sure. But no, so a top-through artist of all time, Dead or Alive. Dead or Alive. Number one. Any genre. Any genre. I like that. Number one. Number one. Missy Elliott. I love her so much. That creativity. That's what she loves. That's the creativity that I listen to. I can see that. Yes, I love Missy. Kendrick Lamar. Kendrick Lamar. Obviously. Yeah. I put a lot of people on to Kendrick when I first heard about him. Number three. Number three of all time. I'm a lever. We're so bad at picking things. Three is always the one to give them trouble anyway. So you ain't, you know. Yeah, and that's everyone. You're normal as hell. I mean, we could say Michael Jackson because. Money Mike. He got the most. Because, you know, he showed us how to be a superstar. He did it all, like dancing and music. And like nobody, I feel like he was like the first superstar. You know what I mean? He showed us how to do it. So why not? So when I think about it, you said Missy Elliott is your number one. Cabe Reasy. She's a dope artist. She's fire. And she kind of put me in the mind of that. Would you be willing to work with her? I love her. I've been seeing her on Instagram She talked to her. She's dope. So I'd love to see you and her work together. That'd be fire. I'm just thinking of the style. She can go. She probably wanted to, in Dallas, hang on lyrically. Lyrically in Dallas that from Dallas or from. Yeah, I put my money on her. Yeah, she came in here and lit these mics up. That's fire. She ain't playing no games. She ain't playing no games. No, no, she's so, so dope. Like, that's one of the dope ones that came on. We done had some girls on here to really go down through there, but she's one of those ones. So you said you've painted with Kendra Lamar on stage. On stage, yeah, TV stuff. And would you ever do a feature with him? What? That's a crazy question. Oh my gosh, it would be a blessing. Because since you already have that networking, you're already in the door somewhat. Like, why not? Reach out. That's a lot of money. That's a lot. But it's not to say it wouldn't have, right, about to say it, but it can happen. It can happen. So I'll never say it wouldn't happen. But, you know, we'll see what happens in the future. That would be amazing. I'll crack. I'll crack right then and there. For sure. Keep on talking. So I wanted to know, so when, OK, going back to tattooing. OK. When you tattoo, how many of your tattoos percentage wise that you've ever done in your life on someone is your creation compared to someone walking in and saying, hey, I want this tattoo? Right. About 90% is mine. Huh? Yeah. Well, because I don't do the, let me have like a flashbook where you can flip through things and pick something out that 20 people already did. Or somebody already looked up and be like, OK, I want this design. You can tell me what you want, but I'm going to change it. Oh. Because if I do something that somebody else did already or like copy someone else's tattoo, because people would do that, like I want this tattoo on this that this person got. If I go and post that on social media, people are going to look like people are going to talk crazy to me. That's my design. You stole my design. You making money off of my design. You know what I mean? So I, I don't want to do that. I don't want the problem. I didn't know you can do that. You can't do that because you have all these tattoo designs and people always look, oh, I love this. I love this. I'm going to get this at, da, da, da. So I got to go to this tattoo shop and, you know, get it. Yeah. I thought that all you have to do is come to you and say, this is what I want. That's what I'm going to get. Right. And you can, you can find artists that will copy what's there. Now, if it's something that's like flash or something like that, that was intended to be produced a billion times over, that's cool. Maybe I'll do it. Or like a lion that's like. Yeah. Like, you know, but I'm not going to take this person's design line for line and just copy it. I don't want this. I don't want no smoke. Yeah. People get really, social media has a lot of people to really get bold and they will, they will, they'll go off on you. Yeah. Social media is like that now. I'll go off. If I, if I took five hours to design someone's tattoo and then I posted it, I'm so proud of it. And then someone else behind, comes behind me, takes the whole tattoo and does it and makes, I don't know, twice as much as I made. How did that happen before? Not that I, oh, one time. But like, I didn't do anything, but it was one time and they didn't do a good job. So it was like, whatever, bro, like good, good traffic. Has anybody been like, hated what you did? No, God. No, I'm just, I'm just, I'm talking ever since from you started, it could have been like in your earlier days, it might not be now, but it could have been here. No, you know what? I'm blessed cause unless they, they didn't tell me, I'd tell you that. That, ooh, I would cry. You know what I hate? Um, a lot of people like, do tattoos that are all black and white. You don't like black and gray? I don't like black and gray. I like color tattoos. I like, I want to see color everywhere. It's just beautiful to me. Okay. Well, color is pretty, but. It fades. It, it fades because the, the way that color ink is made over time, it just breaks apart. So your tattoo just gonna look like a big mushy thing. Like it's not gonna look like what it did. Like say you got it today and it was beautiful, vibrant, detailed 20 years from now. No. So you tell your clients to get black and gray. Um, I tell them they, they can get whatever they want, but I tell them, okay, in the future it's gonna fade out. So you're gonna have to keep, keep getting it touched up. Some people like, oh, that's fine, I don't care. And some people are like, oh no, I'm not with them. I'm trying to be one and done. So, yeah, definitely. Is he ready to drop you 16? Oh my gosh. I forgot about that. Yeah, give me a second. Let me think, let me think. You know I've been sitting over just chilling. Just chilling, bro. You know already I'm sitting here trying to get it done. Let me think. Let's go. Check it, man. My girl Michelle, she's in the building, man. Elise, let's get it. Let's go. Ball's top one on one. Yeah, shells. Okay. Big dog riding to the beat. Keep your baby mama on the leash. Pop a nigga right about to sleep. Bad bitch gotta show my teeth. I'm the goddess, niggas pray to me. I'm the goddess, niggas pray to me. I'm just really used to being ruler. I don't like my niggas close to me. I'm the bitch they always want to see. Dream catcher ain't no ghost to me. Bend flyer ain't no post to me. Niggas ain't no coast to me. I ain't never been in too religion. Bucky something holy on my feet. Champagne toaster on the beach. Guess I wasn't only for the streets. CEO, CFO, COO. Need a hundred to walk to the door. MSG, TransFat, GMO. Man, you bitch is faking a hoe. Door dashed on like shopping in stores. Hate flowers, but my cop me a rose. Wrist loaded, but the diamonds is froze. New designer, I can help it, but pose. Check it, man. Hold on, man. Let me stop that. Hey, man, let's stop that thing. Man, she killed that, man. Say, man, I'm gonna give it, man, hey, man. I gotta get started back, man. Yeah, I like that. That was it right there. I know when it's it. That's it, nigga, I get too excited. I love music. So I know when it's it, bro. Man, that's what gonna go down on here. Yeah, I already know. No, so how do you feel when you do the music? Like when you writing it and just vibing out and something like, you know what you just done? I feel great. I'm an artist, right, like we said before. And as long as I'm creating, I'm happy. If I'm not creative, something's not right. So when I'm writing, I'm performing, I'm in the studio. It's kind of like a form of therapy for me. Trying to get away from all the other crazy stuff going on in the world. Turn on the TV, it's nothing on, but sad stuff. So when I go to the studio, it's like, I can make my own environment. I can control what I hear, what I say, what's around me. So yeah. What would you do different if you would go back and change something, say when you were 18 starting out your whole, you know, your whole run here, what would you do differently if you could do something? If I could, the only thing, I wouldn't change anything, but I would say to trust myself more, really. A lot of things I didn't do because I was doubtful and I wish I did do them. That's probably the main thing. Just believe in myself. I'm good, I'm be good. Are you single? I'm single. Wow, so are you looking for love in all the wrong places? I have a song called looking for love in all the wrong places. I think so. I stopped looking though. I feel like it's just gonna come to me. It's gonna come to me. Yeah, when looking for it, you find the wrong people every time. Man, I just want to tell you thank you for coming on the show. Thank you for having me. We love you. Yes, we do. You did a great job. I mean, we talked about a lot of things. Mostly tattooing, so I want to be interested in watching this one because like I said, I love the way that, I mean, we have, we had a tattoo artist on it before. No, no. Oh my gosh, I feel special. Okay. I love that. Is there anything we've missed? Anything coming up that we want to talk about? What's your Instagram and all that? Well, we did, but you didn't talk about tattooing when you talked about something else. But we did have one. Brooklyn, she was on it. Not only Brooklyn, you had IBYB as well. Yeah, but we didn't talk about it. IBYB, wow, I work, I, wow, IBYB. He said, look, he was at the candy shop, right? Yeah, like I was around at IBYB for years trying to learn, he was doing their names fast. I was like, I'll have to do these names right now. IBYB, he's supposed to be coming back on the show. He's been on here. That was when we first started to. Wow, that's crazy. So I remember that. I was like, whoa, I remember that, I know. He's DJ as well. Yeah, he do. Mm-hmm. Check it, man. Hey, man. I haven't heard his name in so long. That's amazing. How can people get a hold of you if they're trying to reach out? You can find me on social media, obviously, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, at Nichelle Elyse. And do you have a studio that people come to? I do. Where is your studio? I own a tattoo shop called Nichelle Elyse Studios. Named it after myself. But at Nichelle Elyse Studios, it's in Plano, off of Parker. Hey. Oh, someone told me to ask you for tattoos. Like, what's your range price-wise? You gonna put it out there like that? Yeah, I know. I don't think so. Just make sure you got your money up. Get your money right. You shouldn't have to even ask, right? Make sure you got your money up, you know? So we don't know what kind of tattoo you want. We don't know what kind you want. It's an investment. That's how you got it. A long-term investment. Yeah, long-term investment. It's the one thing you take to the grave with you. For a show, for a show. Check it, man. It's been another great segment of Boss Talk 101, where the bosses talk, man. Oh, yeah.