# Jess Hilarious: Postpartum struggles, The Breakfast Club Tension, and Finding her Voice

An episode of [Awf The Record](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1758650789), 30 Apr 2026, 59 min.

Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2372866/episodes/19102144-jess-hilarious-postpartum-struggles-the-breakfast-club-tension-and-finding-her-voice.mp3

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of AWF The Record, Jess Hilarious opens up about the realities of postpartum, navigating a major career shift with The Breakfast Club, and what it actually takes to find your voice in an industry that’s constantly watching. From waking up at 3:30 AM for radio to becoming a published author, Jess reflects on her journey from viral comedian to mainstream media personality. She shares how motherhood changed her, the emotional toll of postpartum, and the pressure of returning to work before feeling fully like herself again. The conversation also dives into the tension surrounding The Breakfast Club, public perception, and the moment things felt like they were happening without her. Jess gets real about misdirected anger, being labelled “difficult,” and what people still misunderstand about her. This isn’t just about comedy or radio. It’s about identity, growth, and learning how to stand in your truth even when the world has an opinion. KEY POINTS - 0:00 Introduction - 3:30 Life on The Breakfast Club and Early Mornings - 10:39 Becoming an Author and Career Evolution - 12:08 The Story That Almost Didn’t Make the Book - 13:09 Co-Parenting, Growth, and Breaking Toxic Cycles - 18:03 Where Her Comedy Comes From - 21:20 Going Viral and Building Her Platform - 22:58 The Wild ‘N Out Breakthrough Moment - 33:38 Mentorship from Kevin Hart and Industry Advice - 43:00 Joining The Breakfast Club and Public Reaction - 46:47 Pregnancy, Motherhood, and Career Timing - 50:24 Postpartum, Self-Doubt, and Returning to Work - 54:54 The Breakfast Club Tension and What Really Happened - 59:17 Misconceptions, Growth, and Moving Forward QUOTES “I never thought I would have done… writing a book.” – Jess Hilarious “I was even questioning me being funny.” – Jess Hilarious “I was worried about how people were gonna look at me… how people still probably call child protective services.” – Jess Hilarious “We had no more time to engage in toxicity.” – Jess Hilarious Jess Hilarious Website: jesshilariousofficial.com Instagram: @jesshilarious_official RESOURCES: Keep in touch with Awf The Record: YouTube: @AwfTheRecord Instagram: @awftherecordpodcast TikTok: @AwfTheRecord Mona Kosar Abdi IG | @monakabdi Jeannette Reyes IG | @msnewslady Keep in touch with Awf The Record: Watch on Youtube: @AwfTheRecord Follow us on Instagram: @awftherecordpodcast Follow us on TikTok: @AwfTheRecord Visit our website: www.AwfTheRecord.com Follow Mona on TikTok and IG Follow Jeannette on TikTok and IG

## Transcript

[0:00] SPEAKER_00: I'm supposed to go back to comedy.
[0:02] SPEAKER_00: If I'm off the scene too long, they're gonna fall in love with another comedian.
[0:05] SPEAKER_00: I may lose my fans.
[0:07] SPEAKER_02: This week, Just Hilarious goes off the record.
[0:10] SPEAKER_00: I am officially an author guy.
[0:13] SPEAKER_02: From the Breakfast Club to Viral Moments Online.
[0:16] SPEAKER_02: So how I discovered you was Just with the Mess.
[0:20] SPEAKER_02: Instagram days.
[0:21] SPEAKER_00: Good afternoon, it's Jess With the Mess, and my news is real.
[0:23] SPEAKER_00: I'm not confronting nobody with a ponytail like that.
[0:26] SPEAKER_00: That's how Nick can notice me.
[0:30] SPEAKER_00: Oh, I like your skills.
[0:31] SPEAKER_01: So wallin' out.
[0:32] SPEAKER_01: Tell me something that happened on wallin' out with you that viewers don't know about.
[0:36] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[0:37] SPEAKER_00: Something that y'all don't know.
[0:40] SPEAKER_01: Jess has built a career you've been watching in real time.
[0:44] SPEAKER_00: That's one thing about me.
[0:45] SPEAKER_00: I'm very resilient.
[0:46] SPEAKER_00: I'm able to get past anything, especially with God.
[0:49] SPEAKER_02: Also opening up about the moment that almost cost her everything.
[0:53] SPEAKER_02: I was everything but a child of God to everybody.
[0:56] SPEAKER_00: Was that your first sense of cancel culture?
[1:00] SPEAKER_00: That is the one of the most shocking stories that almost didn't make the book, to be honest, because I was like, including finding her voice on one of the biggest platforms in media.
[1:09] SPEAKER_00: We had that big blow up on air.
[1:14] SPEAKER_00: Ever since I came back, yes, it was weird.
[1:16] SPEAKER_00: I wasn't too fond of Lauren.
[1:18] SPEAKER_00: Don't ever go live.
[1:20] SPEAKER_00: Talk about your job.
[1:20] SPEAKER_00: You ain't supposed to do that.
[1:22] SPEAKER_00: Don't do that, y'all.
[1:23] SPEAKER_02: Jess opens up about the lessons, the backlash, and the people who helped her survive it.
[1:28] SPEAKER_00: Kevin Hart.
[1:30] SPEAKER_00: When he saw that I started getting into controversial trouble, he would call me and just pour into me, yo, you funny.
[1:37] SPEAKER_00: You don't gotta go on an apology tour.
[1:40] SPEAKER_02: Good evening, your time now is 552.
[1:42] SPEAKER_02: I'm Jeanette Reyes.
[1:43] SPEAKER_02: And I'm Mona Cosa Ramdi, and this is off the record.
[1:46] SPEAKER_02: Not for real.
[1:47] SPEAKER_02: This is off the record.
[1:51] SPEAKER_02: Good evening, your time now is 552.
[1:53] SPEAKER_02: I'm Jeanette Reyes.
[1:54] SPEAKER_02: And I'm Mona Cosa Ramdi, and this is off the record.
[1:57] SPEAKER_02: I'm Jess with the Mess and my news is real.
[2:01] SPEAKER_02: Jess hilarious.
[2:03] SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the group channel.
[2:04] SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
[2:06] SPEAKER_02: We are so excited to have you.
[2:08] SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
[2:09] SPEAKER_02: To talk about your book, to talk about everything that's going for you.
[2:12] SPEAKER_02: Let's start.
[2:14] SPEAKER_02: Yes.
[2:14] SPEAKER_02: With you have first of all, what time did you wake up this morning?
[2:16] SPEAKER_00: 3:30.
[2:18] SPEAKER_00: Girl, 3:30.
[2:19] SPEAKER_02: Does it ever get easier?
[2:21] SPEAKER_00: No.
[2:22] SPEAKER_00: No, I don't care how long you do radio.
[2:25] SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you just well, actually, some people say it's easy for them.
[2:28] SPEAKER_00: See, Charlamagne and Envy have been getting up early for like 28 years.
[2:33] SPEAKER_00: Actually, since the 1800s, let them tell it.
[2:36] SPEAKER_00: But I I have never, and look, I've always been an early bird, but I've never had to wake up, do makeup, turn my personality on, go in there, scream from 6 to 10 a.m.
[2:48] SPEAKER_00: Like I've not it's different.
[2:49] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[2:50] SPEAKER_00: When you just wake up and you roll over on the bed and you scroll and then to having to get up and be somewhere at a certain time and then having to turn your personality on.
[2:58] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[2:58] SPEAKER_01: That's different.
[2:59] SPEAKER_01: I'm curious.
[2:59] SPEAKER_01: I mean, I feel like we've watched you just flourish and level up over the years, right?
[3:05] SPEAKER_01: I I can't even remember the first time I watched you, but to see where you are now, what is like the pinch me moment in this chapter of your life?
[3:13] SPEAKER_00: Ooh, to be honest, being an author, because I've added that notch to my belt, and I never thought I would have done it.
[3:20] SPEAKER_00: I've never thought about writing a book, right?
[3:24] SPEAKER_00: Until Charlemagne came to me and was just like, yo, I think it it would be dope for you to write a book about you and Rome's journey because we're so close, me and my son's father so close.
[3:37] SPEAKER_00: So that that was a pinch me moment for me.
[3:39] SPEAKER_00: That's a pinch me moment for me because I'm like, damn, not only am I an actress, stand-up comedian, that's been killing it.
[3:46] SPEAKER_00: And I look back, I'm like, damn, I've really been doing this for like 12 years.
[3:49] SPEAKER_00: And then um I'm on TV doing, you know, improv and then deaf comedy jam and a host of other things, businesses, foundation, but now I'm an author.
[4:00] SPEAKER_00: Yup Pinch it, girl, pinch it.
[4:03] SPEAKER_00: Because I'm like, well, I be writing, I be writing books now.
[4:05] SPEAKER_00: Period.
[4:06] SPEAKER_00: Till death do we parent.
[4:09] unknown: I tried it.
[4:09] SPEAKER_00: Don't get in your life.
[4:10] SPEAKER_00: Don't try to meet again.
[4:11] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, till death do we parent.
[4:13] SPEAKER_00: Yes.
[4:13] SPEAKER_00: Because it's still the death.
[4:15] SPEAKER_00: These man, these are.
[4:15] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's a lifetime commitment.
[4:17] SPEAKER_01: I mean, honestly, even more than marriage.
[4:19] SPEAKER_01: Yes.
[4:20] SPEAKER_01: This thing is for life.
[4:21] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[4:22] SPEAKER_01: What is something in the book that would shock the hell out of people?
[4:25] SPEAKER_00: Oh my God.
[4:26] SPEAKER_00: Okay.
[4:27] SPEAKER_00: So chapter seven.
[4:28] SPEAKER_00: Oh my God.
[4:29] SPEAKER_00: And look, this is so crazy because my son's father don't even know this.
[4:34] SPEAKER_00: That's why I gave him the book early.
[4:35] SPEAKER_00: I'm like, yo, just read it, just read it, just read it, because it will be a surprise to him.
[4:40] SPEAKER_00: I was dating somebody that left my son in the apartment by himself while I was at work filming.
[4:48] SPEAKER_00: Yep.
[4:49] SPEAKER_00: How old are you?
[4:49] SPEAKER_00: This is when I lived in LA.
[4:51] SPEAKER_00: Uh Ashton was about probably about eight.
[4:56] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he was like eight or nine.
[4:58] SPEAKER_00: And what did you do to that person?
[5:00] SPEAKER_00: You gotta read the book.
[5:03] SPEAKER_00: Girl, but no, that is that is one of the most shocking stories that I all that almost didn't make the book, to be honest.
[5:09] SPEAKER_00: Because I was like, uh, I was worried about how people were gonna look at me and how people still would probably call child protective services, and how just just I would be judged, but I'm like, you know what?
[5:19] SPEAKER_00: I know more than anything, people will be able to relate to it.
[5:23] SPEAKER_00: You know, so that's just live, learning, dating, and living and learning.
[5:28] SPEAKER_01: I wanna I wanna backtrack a little bit actually for people who aren't familiar with your dynamics, with with your son's father.
[5:33] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, just from day one.
[5:35] SPEAKER_01: What is that dynamic and why write about it?
[5:37] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so everywhere I go, people look at me at Rome with a side eye because we're like siblings.
[5:43] SPEAKER_00: He calls me, he literally calls me sis.
[5:45] SPEAKER_00: And I call him bro, like we are like brother and sister, but it wasn't always like that, you know.
[5:51] SPEAKER_00: But the book touches on all of the failed attempts at a relationship, you know, that we tried, and how after a while it's just like, all right, look, I don't trust you.
[6:03] SPEAKER_00: I can't be with you.
[6:05] SPEAKER_00: And you may still want a relationship with me, but it's done.
[6:08] SPEAKER_00: You know, we gotta put it all behind us and be friends.
[6:11] SPEAKER_00: So um after like four or five hard years of that, probably even six, we actually we sat down and we um made vows.
[6:21] SPEAKER_00: We said our vows to each other, like, yo, like I take you to be my co-parent, you know, to do for better or for worse, to be there as a united frontfire son.
[6:30] SPEAKER_00: Because it's not about us no more.
[6:32] SPEAKER_00: Like, we we done, we done with us.
[6:34] SPEAKER_00: But this little boy looking at us.
[6:35] SPEAKER_00: So we gotta figure this out now.
[6:37] SPEAKER_00: We don't have no more time to engage in toxicity.
[6:40] SPEAKER_00: We gotta get it together.
[6:41] SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't until we had that conversation.
[6:44] SPEAKER_00: Um, I remember it like it was yesterday, it was at my house, and he was stressed out about something, and I was stressed out about something, and then we, from then on, we have been like this.
[6:54] SPEAKER_02: The way you write about it is like a flip switch, right?
[6:57] SPEAKER_02: And all of a sudden you make this joke in a way where you're like giving him this vow, like, yeah, will you, Jerome, take me to parent, co-parent with you?
[7:06] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[7:06] SPEAKER_02: And then all of a sudden, I feel like you guys approached it differently.
[7:10] SPEAKER_02: But how much would you say is that also maturing and realizing that, hey, our actions are impacting a whole human being, this little boy that we have?
[7:18] SPEAKER_00: Well, we saw it in our son.
[7:19] SPEAKER_00: We saw it, we saw, um, we both saw it.
[7:23] SPEAKER_00: I noticed it very closely when that there was a difference.
[7:28] SPEAKER_00: Like, Ash was such a happy kid, right?
[7:30] SPEAKER_00: And then it was a lot of times he wouldn't pay attention to our arguments, but when he started to absorb whatever we were putting out, we would get that energy from him.
[7:40] SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, okay, why your little ass walk around mad?
[7:43] SPEAKER_00: And he probably like, because your big ass walk around mad, you and my dad, you know, and so we both saw it, and then he would go to school, and then we we would get calls from teachers, and we're like, ooh, yeah, our drama is bleeding into him, like it's spilling over.
[8:00] SPEAKER_00: And that's the problem.
[8:01] SPEAKER_00: When you feud, it really does not, and y'all heard that Baltimore.
[8:04] SPEAKER_00: I said, When you say we're gonna be a good one.
[8:10] SPEAKER_00: But when you feud, um, no, it nobody wins.
[8:14] SPEAKER_00: And and like I said, we have we had a kid looking up at us.
[8:17] SPEAKER_00: So it took a lot of maturity and also a lot of getting to know each other as adults.
[8:22] SPEAKER_00: Because we were young when we met.
[8:24] SPEAKER_00: Me and Rome, we were 18, 17, 18 when we met.
[8:30] SPEAKER_00: And so we didn't plan Ashton.
[8:32] SPEAKER_00: We just had to kick it into gear and just wean, you know, like we were winging it.
[8:38] SPEAKER_00: And um, yeah, we had to.
[8:40] SPEAKER_02: What I'm surprised about is that you actually had strict parents.
[8:43] SPEAKER_00: I did.
[8:44] SPEAKER_02: Um You surprised at that?
[8:45] SPEAKER_02: Well, I feel I guess I think so.
[8:48] SPEAKER_02: Jeanette and I talk about this all the time because Jeanette didn't have strict parents.
[8:51] SPEAKER_02: I had strict parents.
[8:52] SPEAKER_02: And so when you have strict parents, you feel like you're the only person who's had strict parents.
[8:56] SPEAKER_02: And so you're like, everybody out here going to parties and doing things and living life.
[8:59] SPEAKER_02: So when you said that, I was like, yes, everybody else.
[9:02] SPEAKER_02: Um and then you also talked about even at 19, you were like lying about where you had to be.
[9:08] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, right.
[9:09] SPEAKER_00: Because my mom, she we were born and raised in the church, me and my brother.
[9:13] SPEAKER_00: Um, born and raised in the church, and my mom always had a position in church, like whether she was an usher or um she was in the treasury department, or now she's a deaconess, which she's been.
[9:24] SPEAKER_00: She now she she preaches and everything.
[9:26] SPEAKER_00: So we were in church not only on Sundays, but Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays.
[9:30] SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I said, the first thing I do when I get old enough is never come to church again.
[9:35] SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
[9:36] SPEAKER_00: That's what you say when you're in church.
[9:37] SPEAKER_00: Um, but my dad, he was more lenient than my mom.
[9:42] SPEAKER_00: Um, he was still strict, there were still boundaries and guidelines and everything there.
[9:46] SPEAKER_00: But my dad was my best friend.
[9:48] SPEAKER_00: Like he let me get away with a lot more, you know.
[9:50] SPEAKER_00: He wouldn't make us go to church, you know.
[9:53] SPEAKER_00: Um, but we still would have to go.
[9:54] SPEAKER_00: But yeah, so it was a it was a perfect balance that show definitely shows in me.
[10:00] SPEAKER_00: How do where does the comedy come from?
[10:01] SPEAKER_01: I know the church can be the source of much, you know, just the personalities and all of that, but where does it come from for you?
[10:07] SPEAKER_00: My father.
[10:09] SPEAKER_00: My father is very funny, always been a humorous, comical guy.
[10:13] SPEAKER_00: Um, I grew up, and then my brother, I was raised, so I hung around a lot of boys.
[10:21] SPEAKER_00: I was a Tom girl growing up, so I didn't really have a lot of homegirls ever.
[10:25] SPEAKER_00: I was I was always with the boys, like, you know, cracking on each other and roasting, and I got my roasting degree very early.
[10:34] SPEAKER_00: That makes sense, right?
[10:36] SPEAKER_01: Like I when my husband tells me something, I'm like, that would end a friendship with women.
[10:41] SPEAKER_01: Like, and y'all, they just let it go off their back.
[10:43] SPEAKER_01: So you kind of develop that thick skin, roasting, all of that.
[10:46] SPEAKER_01: Okay.
[10:46] SPEAKER_00: From my father, I got the humorous part from my father, just a jokester all around all the time.
[10:51] SPEAKER_00: And then the tough part from my brother, he used to crack on me all the time.
[10:55] SPEAKER_00: My brother used to tell me I was adopted when he was upset with me.
[10:57] SPEAKER_00: And I believed it a lot.
[10:59] SPEAKER_02: Girls with brothers, you sent me a text that your brother sent you the other day, and I was like, I would have no content.
[11:06] SPEAKER_02: But girls with brothers are built different.
[11:08] SPEAKER_01: They be carried for everything.
[11:10] SPEAKER_01: It gets to the point, and and I'm I'm thinking of wilding out too, because it's like there's nothing you can say to me that hasn't been said.
[11:16] SPEAKER_01: Yep.
[11:16] SPEAKER_01: Like my brother used to call me Ashenese because I stayed being Ashy.
[11:20] SPEAKER_01: Damn.
[11:20] SPEAKER_01: He big toe.
[11:21] SPEAKER_01: I didn't wear sandals for years.
[11:23] SPEAKER_01: Because you'd like big toe.
[11:25] SPEAKER_00: He made you think your toe was big.
[11:26] SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
[11:27] SPEAKER_01: But it's just so funny how those things build character.
[11:30] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[11:30] SPEAKER_01: And and make you who you are today, because you can you can go at it with the best of them.
[11:34] SPEAKER_00: The best of them, with the men, the women, whatever.
[11:37] SPEAKER_00: Like I can roast anybody.
[11:39] SPEAKER_01: So how did you know I got something, I got something special here?
[11:42] SPEAKER_00: When I was younger, um, one of my cousins, I don't know, what was it, stepfather or somebody, what somebody died, right?
[11:51] SPEAKER_00: And we was in the funeral, and I was making everybody laugh.
[11:54] SPEAKER_00: I was about 14.
[11:55] SPEAKER_00: I remember that.
[11:56] SPEAKER_00: I was on my way to high school and I was, I was 14.
[11:59] SPEAKER_00: I was making everybody laugh at the funeral.
[12:02] SPEAKER_00: Not the repass.
[12:03] SPEAKER_00: Not at not no at the funeral on the way up to see the body.
[12:07] SPEAKER_00: You know, what's that?
[12:08] SPEAKER_00: The wake when people come in and they in the line and gotta take turns seeing the body and everybody.
[12:12] SPEAKER_00: And it was this lady, she was crying.
[12:14] SPEAKER_00: That's why I said I don't know who who died, who it was, but they were very close to my cousin.
[12:18] SPEAKER_00: My cousin was watching me for the weekend.
[12:20] SPEAKER_00: And so she, I went to the funeral with her, and you know that big loud cry when somebody, oh my god, why they kill him?
[12:28] SPEAKER_00: What happened?
[12:30] SPEAKER_00: This lady was just going in, going off.
[12:33] SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't even like, it wasn't even the mother.
[12:37] SPEAKER_00: It wasn't like you would have thought it was the wife or the mother.
[12:40] SPEAKER_00: It wasn't.
[12:40] SPEAKER_00: It was just somebody that knew him.
[12:41] SPEAKER_00: And I remember saying, like, she don't even know him.
[12:44] SPEAKER_00: But I was young.
[12:45] SPEAKER_00: I was like 13, 14.
[12:47] SPEAKER_00: And I and I remember my cousin smacked me like, like, shut up.
[12:52] SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, but everybody laughed.
[12:54] SPEAKER_00: Because guess what?
[12:55] SPEAKER_00: She didn't know him.
[12:56] SPEAKER_00: That's crazy.
[12:57] SPEAKER_00: And I didn't know if it was true or not.
[12:59] SPEAKER_00: I was just young and just being trying to be funny.
[13:01] SPEAKER_00: But everybody laughed because everybody expected everybody expected for her to show up because she actually came to the church.
[13:09] SPEAKER_00: She was a church member who goes to everybody's funerals.
[13:12] SPEAKER_00: And she and she cuts up on purpose.
[13:14] SPEAKER_00: That's what they were saying.
[13:15] SPEAKER_00: And I didn't even know that.
[13:16] SPEAKER_00: My little young ass making a joke, but it turned out to be true.
[13:19] SPEAKER_00: She ain't know that man.
[13:21] SPEAKER_02: I feel like comedians can sense, they can make fun of things because they're observant.
[13:26] SPEAKER_02: Yes.
[13:26] SPEAKER_02: And so the fact that you clocked it at 13.
[13:29] SPEAKER_02: Yes.
[13:29] SPEAKER_02: That this woman.
[13:30] SPEAKER_01: My girl.
[13:30] SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
[13:31] SPEAKER_02: Is a regular.
[13:32] SPEAKER_01: It reminds me of that line.
[13:33] SPEAKER_01: I and I almost want to say, like, the best comedians, they'll always tell a joke, but they never tell a lie.
[13:38] SPEAKER_01: What's the what's the line?
[13:39] SPEAKER_00: Well, that's what it is.
[13:39] SPEAKER_00: We'll tell a joke, but we'll never tell a lie.
[13:41] SPEAKER_00: Right.
[13:41] SPEAKER_01: That's true.
[13:42] SPEAKER_01: Right.
[13:42] SPEAKER_01: Those are the best comedians.
[13:43] SPEAKER_02: So how I discovered you was just with the mess.
[13:46] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[13:46] SPEAKER_02: Instagram days.
[13:48] SPEAKER_02: This is, so tell me, tell me the first video you made.
[13:51] SPEAKER_00: Oh, so the first video I made, I'm so good.
[13:53] SPEAKER_00: Nobody ever asked me this.
[13:54] SPEAKER_00: I love this question because I feel like I'm I don't get to talk about it enough.
[13:57] SPEAKER_00: So you know the Maury Povich show, right?
[14:00] SPEAKER_00: Are you the father?
[14:01] SPEAKER_00: That was my very first video.
[14:02] SPEAKER_00: I did a parody of that.
[14:04] SPEAKER_00: And I was everybody, I and I've always liked to play multiple characters.
[14:08] SPEAKER_00: So I played Maury.
[14:10] SPEAKER_00: I played the girl who was bringing her baby daddy there to prove that he's the father.
[14:14] SPEAKER_00: And I played the father who really wasn't the father.
[14:17] SPEAKER_00: And in that video, I posted it, and it it circulated.
[14:23] SPEAKER_00: And I used to take my videos down because I didn't, I was afraid of people stealing the content, right?
[14:28] SPEAKER_00: Um, and they used to have this thing where you would watermark your videos.
[14:32] SPEAKER_00: This was before watermarking, like you had to put your name um with the ad sign or whatever your username was on the video.
[14:38] SPEAKER_00: But I used to post the video, it would do great, and I would take it down.
[14:41] SPEAKER_00: What?
[14:41] SPEAKER_00: And I know, just goofy girl.
[14:43] SPEAKER_00: But that was the first video I did, and that's how people started noticing me.
[14:48] SPEAKER_00: So then I started doing Jess with the Mess on um, it wasn't Vine, was it?
[14:53] SPEAKER_00: It was I it was on Vine, but it wasn't, I used to only do it on Love and Hip Hop episodes.
[14:59] SPEAKER_00: It wasn't really, I didn't open it up to like pop culture, hip-hop, rap, and all that type of stuff until later.
[15:05] SPEAKER_00: I used to just do Jess with the Mess, only centered around that reality show.
[15:09] SPEAKER_00: Love and Hip Hop was my jam back in the day.
[15:11] SPEAKER_00: New York and Atlanta.
[15:13] SPEAKER_00: So that's how I started doing that.
[15:14] SPEAKER_00: But Maury Povich was the first video.
[15:16] SPEAKER_02: And then you get you get noticed.
[15:18] SPEAKER_02: Yes.
[15:19] SPEAKER_02: Um, but tell me about this Nick Cannon story about getting called to wallin out.
[15:24] SPEAKER_02: But your intention was not to audition.
[15:26] SPEAKER_00: No, no.
[15:28] SPEAKER_00: I did this um, oh my God, and this is in the book as well.
[15:31] SPEAKER_00: Oh my god.
[15:32] SPEAKER_00: Um, I did this photo shoot where I was naked.
[15:36] SPEAKER_00: I did the photo shoot.
[15:37] SPEAKER_00: It was my photo shoot, but I wanted my son, he was there with me.
[15:39] SPEAKER_00: I wanted my son to be in one of the pictures.
[15:42] SPEAKER_00: I was naked, but I had socks on and a pair of Retro Jordan Cement 4s.
[15:49] SPEAKER_00: And my son had on clothes, of course.
[15:52] SPEAKER_00: He had on a wife beater, some gray sweatshorts, and he had on the same shoes and socks I had.
[15:56] SPEAKER_00: And I told him to sit like on me to cover all my, you know, my private areas.
[16:01] SPEAKER_00: And we took the picture and I posted it.
[16:03] SPEAKER_00: I go to sleep next morning.
[16:05] SPEAKER_00: I wake up, whoo, we got good comments and we got bad comments.
[16:08] SPEAKER_00: Which one y'all think I got more of?
[16:09] SPEAKER_00: I got more bad.
[16:10] SPEAKER_00: I was everything but a child of God to everybody.
[16:13] SPEAKER_00: And then there was this one particular comedian um who decided to go in on me crazy, just saying stupid things like, oh, that's why we have uh a bunch of gay men right now.
[16:27] SPEAKER_00: Her son is gonna be gay because she's such a uh I don't know if I can say it.
[16:33] SPEAKER_00: Everything but a child of God.
[16:36] SPEAKER_00: Pretty much, yeah.
[16:36] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was just it just got wild, right?
[16:38] SPEAKER_00: And so I roasted his ass like three days in a row.
[16:43] SPEAKER_00: That's how Nick Cannon noticed me.
[16:46] SPEAKER_00: He was like, oh, I like your skills.
[16:48] SPEAKER_00: Okay, cool.
[16:48] SPEAKER_02: Was that your first sense of cancel culture?
[16:54] SPEAKER_00: Actually, no.
[16:55] SPEAKER_00: I I didn't even look at that as cancel culture.
[16:59] SPEAKER_00: I I didn't get canceled until after that, I think.
[17:02] SPEAKER_00: But I didn't even look at that as cancel culture.
[17:04] SPEAKER_00: I looked at it as just like, whatever.
[17:08] SPEAKER_00: This is my child.
[17:09] SPEAKER_00: I'ma do this photo shoot.
[17:11] SPEAKER_00: I mean, I did this photo shoot, I posted a picture.
[17:13] SPEAKER_00: Y'all can do what y'all want with y'all children, whatever.
[17:15] SPEAKER_00: But this is this is my experience.
[17:18] SPEAKER_00: This is what I wanted.
[17:18] SPEAKER_00: This is my picture with my son.
[17:20] SPEAKER_00: And this is the crazy thing that pissed me off.
[17:22] SPEAKER_00: Sierra did the same picture with Lil Russell.
[17:25] SPEAKER_00: I mean, you no, no, no, not Lil, well, Lil Russell, but Lil Future.
[17:29] SPEAKER_00: And ain't nobody say nothing bad about her.
[17:32] SPEAKER_00: And she even had uh Russell in the photo.
[17:35] SPEAKER_00: So what do you think the difference was?
[17:37] SPEAKER_00: She's Sierra, and I'm just hilarious.
[17:41] SPEAKER_00: But I really don't, I honestly really don't know what the difference was, other than her being Sierra, you know, Atlanta sweetheart, and she she's everybody's favorite.
[17:50] SPEAKER_00: Who the hell does not love Sierra, you know?
[17:52] SPEAKER_00: But I I don't know.
[17:54] SPEAKER_00: I guess I don't know.
[17:56] SPEAKER_00: That's a good question.
[17:56] SPEAKER_00: So I know, right?
[17:57] SPEAKER_01: So talk about an upside to some controversy though.
[18:00] SPEAKER_00: Okay.
[18:01] SPEAKER_01: So Nick Cannon, that happened, like what are the next steps following that?
[18:05] SPEAKER_00: So he caused me um to audition, and I was living in Baltimore at the time, and he was like, yo, we're hosting the auditions for Wilden out in New York.
[18:14] SPEAKER_00: We would love to have you.
[18:15] SPEAKER_00: And so I was like, oh, cool, because the person who was talking all the ish is on your show.
[18:21] SPEAKER_00: Perfect.
[18:22] SPEAKER_00: But I didn't say that to him on the phone.
[18:23] SPEAKER_00: I didn't even want to give him a heads up or nothing like that.
[18:26] SPEAKER_00: And so I go up, catch the train, kill the audition, but it's but before I audition, I say to Nick, where your boy at?
[18:33] SPEAKER_00: And he knew I he knew it's like he knew with the Baltimore.
[18:37] SPEAKER_00: He knew why I was coming up there.
[18:40] SPEAKER_00: Today he was like, Yeah, he's not here.
[18:41] SPEAKER_00: He's he's not here, and he's not gonna be on the show.
[18:44] SPEAKER_00: So I was like, oh, you slick, you know dag on well I wasn't trying to get on wildin' out, but I did.
[18:51] SPEAKER_00: And that is the rest is history.
[18:53] SPEAKER_00: You know, the rest y'all have seen.
[18:55] SPEAKER_00: Like, I killed the auditions, and that's where I met two of my great friends, B Simone and Pretty B, and um, they've been my girls ever since.
[19:03] SPEAKER_00: And I I just I just let that go.
[19:06] SPEAKER_00: Um, and then I did the show.
[19:09] SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm curious.
[19:10] SPEAKER_01: Tell me something that's happened on happened on Wildin' Out with you that viewers don't know about something that went down behind the scenes.
[19:19] SPEAKER_01: That's so crazy.
[19:20] SPEAKER_01: I swear, I nothing was that what was the most um like what was any experience on that show?
[19:26] SPEAKER_01: Like what gave you the most growth?
[19:28] SPEAKER_01: What did that show make of you, would you say?
[19:31] SPEAKER_01: In terms of a comedian improv?
[19:33] SPEAKER_01: I mean, man, talk about it's like a bootcamp.
[19:36] SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
[19:37] SPEAKER_00: So around the time that um Danny Lay and the baby was going at it and everything, um that that whole little kerfuffle happened or whatever, and Danny Lay came on the show, and um she didn't want to shoot the show with B.
[19:56] SPEAKER_00: Simone on there.
[19:57] SPEAKER_00: And so we were like, but this is this is our this is our our show.
[20:03] SPEAKER_00: Like, you can't come in here, come away trying to, you know what I'm saying, say you don't want this person on the show, you don't want, but you know, B.
[20:10] SPEAKER_00: Simone had like a thing where she had a crush on the baby, and she be, she would say, My boyfriend, like everybody knows that B um that B.
[20:18] SPEAKER_00: Simone was, you know, she was publicly saying that she had a crush on him or whatever.
[20:22] SPEAKER_00: And um Danny Lay didn't like that.
[20:25] SPEAKER_00: So when she came to the show, um, she was like, Yeah, I'll do the show if B.
[20:30] SPEAKER_00: Simone is not on it.
[20:32] SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, Nick went to be and was like, listen, Danny Lay don't want you on the show.
[20:41] SPEAKER_00: What's going on, you know?
[20:42] SPEAKER_00: And she was like, Look, I don't care, I'm still gonna be in the audience, but I don't care.
[20:46] SPEAKER_00: Y'all can go ahead.
[20:47] SPEAKER_00: Because he actually did give her, and because Nick is very loyal.
[20:50] SPEAKER_00: He actually did say, Look, you wanna wanna still be on the show?
[20:55] SPEAKER_00: He had to tell B.
[20:56] SPEAKER_00: Samo how she felt, you know.
[20:57] SPEAKER_02: Um Do you think like as as cast members, you guys would have been like, no, if she's not in it, if she wanted to stay in it, she's not in it, we're not in it.
[21:06] SPEAKER_02: We tried.
[21:07] SPEAKER_00: And B was like, don't.
[21:09] SPEAKER_00: Well, I know, I, you know, I I tried.
[21:11] SPEAKER_00: I was like, nah, this is my girl.
[21:13] SPEAKER_00: Nah, you don't get to come on.
[21:14] SPEAKER_00: Y'all know me, I'm Rara.
[21:15] SPEAKER_00: I'm like, no, you don't get to come on here and then, you know, say who you don't want on a show.
[21:19] SPEAKER_00: No, we're a family, you know.
[21:20] SPEAKER_00: And B was like, no, it's not even that serious, honestly.
[21:23] SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be in the audience.
[21:24] SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna, you know, and if you pay attention, she's still in that episode, she's just in the audience, or whatever.
[21:28] SPEAKER_00: But yeah.
[21:29] SPEAKER_00: But I kind of do understand it was a lot going on.
[21:32] SPEAKER_00: Um, Danny Lay at the time, I don't know if she had had the baby or not.
[21:36] SPEAKER_00: No, she was, yeah, whatever.
[21:37] SPEAKER_00: But it was, it was a messy situation.
[21:39] SPEAKER_00: And I guess who will want to share a stage with somebody that you feel like has an open crush, a public crush on your baby daddy or your boyfriend or whatever they were at the time.
[21:49] SPEAKER_02: Like I didn't think she was ever serious about it.
[21:51] SPEAKER_02: She was.
[21:52] SPEAKER_02: She was joking.
[21:52] SPEAKER_02: Like B.
[21:53] SPEAKER_00: Simone wasn't really trying to be with the baby, but she, you know, she did have a little thing for the chocolate little brother.
[21:59] SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
[22:00] SPEAKER_01: Was there anything on Wildin' Out that you took personally?
[22:03] SPEAKER_01: Oh.
[22:04] SPEAKER_00: Oh, child.
[22:05] SPEAKER_01: Because I might have beef with everybody at the end of the show.
[22:07] SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
[22:08] SPEAKER_01: And make fun of that big time.
[22:10] SPEAKER_00: Yes, I remember.
[22:13] SPEAKER_00: This uh it and it wasn't even nothing crazy, crazy, but um it's a comedian, Tyler Chronicles on there.
[22:21] SPEAKER_00: He's he's dope.
[22:22] SPEAKER_00: He's a great writer.
[22:23] SPEAKER_00: Comedy.
[22:24] SPEAKER_00: He actually would help me a lot with my jokes.
[22:26] SPEAKER_00: And I remember my forehead used to be real, real crazy big because I used to wear lace fronts back to back.
[22:32] SPEAKER_00: And the hairline, after you wear another person's scalp for so long, you know, the hairline just go racing to the back.
[22:38] SPEAKER_00: Like, all right, you want to wear this hairline?
[22:40] SPEAKER_00: We retreat, right?
[22:41] SPEAKER_00: Ciao.
[22:42] SPEAKER_00: And I got, I had a nerve to get some straight backs.
[22:44] SPEAKER_00: Why would I get some braids?
[22:46] SPEAKER_00: And I know my hairline wasn't restored yet.
[22:48] SPEAKER_00: I was bold, honey.
[22:49] SPEAKER_00: I went on the show and we went up, me and Tyler Chronicles went against each other in one of them games, and he was like, koalin it.
[22:57] SPEAKER_00: And I was like, oh my God.
[23:00] SPEAKER_00: Boy, why?
[23:02] SPEAKER_00: I could not believe that he said that to me.
[23:05] SPEAKER_00: So in real time, did he freeze?
[23:07] SPEAKER_00: Yes.
[23:08] SPEAKER_00: And he won.
[23:08] SPEAKER_00: And I was like, ugh, because I did not see that coming.
[23:11] SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we would share.
[23:12] SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, when you're gonna go up with somebody and you'll meet with them before all the back and forth, and you'll be like, all right, when you say this, I'm gonna say this.
[23:20] SPEAKER_00: And you know, sometimes they won't tell you because they just want your real reaction.
[23:23] SPEAKER_00: But man Tyler, like, because he used to help me with the jokes, and I'm like, yo, why didn't he tell why you didn't tell me he was gonna say that?
[23:29] SPEAKER_00: Like I froze and he won.
[23:31] SPEAKER_01: See, that that show is is is tough because it's beyond improv.
[23:34] SPEAKER_01: There's that part when you're when you're dishing it.
[23:36] SPEAKER_01: Yes.
[23:36] SPEAKER_01: But it's also having a poker face.
[23:38] SPEAKER_01: It's not being um kind of thrown off kilter, right?
[23:42] SPEAKER_01: Like, and being self-aware.
[23:44] SPEAKER_01: So, like knowing, okay, for example, like, I don't know, like my hairline is they might come at me for that.
[23:50] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I know.
[23:50] SPEAKER_01: As opposed to like, wait a minute, my hairline is my eyes would swell up and I'm not.
[23:56] SPEAKER_01: Like you just running a big green.
[23:58] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's why some people, some people wouldn't come to wild and out, like or reach out to certain people to, you know, the guests, and come and they'd be like, mmm, I don't like them people.
[24:07] SPEAKER_01: Especially Can you say who hasn't, who's chosen not to come on?
[24:12] SPEAKER_00: I don't even remember to be honest.
[24:13] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, y'all know I'm open, but I say it, but I just don't even remember.
[24:16] SPEAKER_00: I because mainly what it is, people would be afraid of DC, Carlos and Chico.
[24:26] SPEAKER_00: Them 85 South Boys will give it to you.
[24:29] SPEAKER_00: And and you and don't send in a list of things not to talk about.
[24:32] SPEAKER_00: Because that's the first thing they're gonna talk about.
[24:34] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so you better off just not saying anything.
[24:38] SPEAKER_00: I better off not saying, I remember, I remember T.I.
[24:41] SPEAKER_00: was supposed to come.
[24:42] SPEAKER_00: And TI been a while now, um, but he's supposed to come, and I guess this is around the time something was going on.
[24:48] SPEAKER_00: And he has sent in a list, like, yo, you can't talk about this, don't talk about this, don't talk about this.
[24:53] SPEAKER_00: And they was like, nah, we we're gonna talk about it.
[24:56] SPEAKER_00: T.I.
[24:57] SPEAKER_00: did not come.
[24:57] SPEAKER_00: He was like, nope, not gonna do that.
[24:59] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[25:01] SPEAKER_00: So yeah, but I think I would have listened to T.I.
[25:03] SPEAKER_00: T.I.
[25:04] SPEAKER_00: is a pretty serious dude, so I would have been like, I ain't gonna talk about it.
[25:07] SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
[25:08] SPEAKER_00: But them three, they the I I love DC, um, Carlos and Chico.
[25:13] SPEAKER_00: They funny.
[25:13] SPEAKER_00: They so funny.
[25:14] SPEAKER_02: Did see Nick Cannon has been in this industry for a really long time.
[25:17] SPEAKER_02: Yes, he has really shout out San Diego.
[25:19] SPEAKER_02: He's like the only person who's very San Diego, but um, did you what did you learn about the industry navigating while and out and how he handles the industry?
[25:28] SPEAKER_02: Who did he give you any advice?
[25:31] SPEAKER_00: What I will say about Nick Cannon, not not any direct advice, but Nick Cannon is such a loyal person, and um, he loves to give people opportunities and he leads with God first all the time.
[25:45] SPEAKER_00: He will pray you underneath a table and back from out up under it.
[25:49] SPEAKER_00: Like he he everything he does, he moves with the whole armor of God.
[25:54] SPEAKER_00: And I I I love that about him.
[25:58] SPEAKER_00: I remember when we were about to go into maybe like my third season, but I had got the opportunity to do the Fox sitcom, rel.
[26:07] SPEAKER_00: Um, and I was so scared because I was like, oh, I don't want to go to him.
[26:10] SPEAKER_00: And he'd be like, oh, you gotta pick either or, either or.
[26:13] SPEAKER_00: But I had a conversation with him, and he was like, yo, go do that show.
[26:17] SPEAKER_00: That's a sitcom.
[26:18] SPEAKER_00: You belong on the screen, not just here.
[26:20] SPEAKER_00: Wild and out will always be here for you.
[26:22] SPEAKER_00: Like, we'll always be your family.
[26:24] SPEAKER_00: So go and shoot that.
[26:25] SPEAKER_00: I hope, I hope it lives for however many seasons it's supposed to, and then you come back home.
[26:32] SPEAKER_00: And I cried the biggest freaking tears ever, because I'm like, I was afraid.
[26:37] SPEAKER_00: I didn't think that, you know, you just don't know.
[26:39] SPEAKER_00: You hear about you, you hear crazy stories about people in the industry and how you got gatekeepers and how people just don't want you, they want you to make it, but not too far.
[26:48] SPEAKER_00: You know, people kind of limit your success if they have anything to do with it, you know.
[26:52] SPEAKER_00: Um, but he would, he's always been so supportive.
[26:57] SPEAKER_00: And that that's what I'll say about Nick.
[26:59] SPEAKER_00: No, no direct.
[27:00] SPEAKER_00: Um and also, my son was the first kid to feature on Wildin' Out before before before Nick's football team.
[27:08] SPEAKER_00: Before all them kids.
[27:11] SPEAKER_00: Yes, my son was the first kid to actually be on Wildin' Out because I had to I had to bring him up there.
[27:15] SPEAKER_00: I actually write about that in the book.
[27:17] SPEAKER_02: I wanted to talk about that because that's part of the co-parenting.
[27:20] SPEAKER_02: If you didn't have that support system or that good relationship with Rome, yeah, these opportunities that you were getting at record speed, let's say, wouldn't have happened.
[27:28] SPEAKER_00: No, no.
[27:29] SPEAKER_00: And then at that time, Rome was a full-time student in school.
[27:33] SPEAKER_00: He went to one of the best HBCUs ever, Morgan State University.
[27:36] SPEAKER_00: Shout out to them.
[27:38] SPEAKER_00: But he went to, he was a full-time student.
[27:40] SPEAKER_00: He was working and everything.
[27:42] SPEAKER_00: And like I said, we were young.
[27:43] SPEAKER_00: So I when I asked him, like, yo, I gotta film while in out in New York, and I don't have anybody to help me.
[27:50] SPEAKER_00: Like, can you take Ash?
[27:52] SPEAKER_00: You know, and he was like, dang, Jess, I can't because I'm in school and I got, and I didn't want to ask my mother.
[27:57] SPEAKER_00: So I asked my little cousin to come with me.
[28:00] SPEAKER_00: And um, she was like, all right, I'll come with you up there.
[28:02] SPEAKER_00: And she eventually moved with me, you know, to help me out.
[28:05] SPEAKER_00: But she, if I didn't have my cousin, I feel like I always had a pretty solid village.
[28:10] SPEAKER_00: There was always somebody in my family who would help me with Rome.
[28:14] SPEAKER_00: I mean, who would help me with Ash when Rome couldn't, like he really just couldn't.
[28:18] SPEAKER_00: Um, or when I couldn't be, be there.
[28:21] SPEAKER_00: I had to work.
[28:22] SPEAKER_00: And then I remember Nick was like, bring him, bring him on set.
[28:24] SPEAKER_00: I was scared to tell people that um I had to bring my son.
[28:28] SPEAKER_00: Because I was scared of being, scared of being judged.
[28:30] SPEAKER_00: I was just like, uh, they're gonna be like, damn, now you're bringing your son, you know, on set.
[28:35] SPEAKER_00: He running around knocking over stuff.
[28:36] SPEAKER_00: Because Ash was very active.
[28:38] SPEAKER_00: But no, Nick, Nick took him to the Kids' Choice Awards, brought him on stage with him.
[28:43] SPEAKER_00: Like he he asked about my son all the time, even times when Ashton wasn't there.
[28:47] SPEAKER_00: He featured him in in an episode of Wildin' Out.
[28:50] SPEAKER_00: Like, he was very, very good to my son.
[28:52] SPEAKER_01: You know, you mentioned Nick Cannon as someone who's like poured into you and giving opportunities.
[28:56] SPEAKER_01: You I believe you've mentioned Martin Lawrence as far as opening up for him for the first time.
[29:00] SPEAKER_01: Who are some other like key comedians where it's like, man, they they looked out, and even current ones.
[29:06] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[29:07] SPEAKER_00: Um, Mike Epps, I remember he he actually called me.
[29:10] SPEAKER_00: Mike Epps was the first comedian to call me to drop some gems.
[29:15] SPEAKER_00: He taught me about uh ownership and um not letting anybody change you.
[29:21] SPEAKER_00: Um and then Kevin Hart.
[29:24] SPEAKER_00: Kevin Hart is also Kevin Hart.
[29:27] SPEAKER_00: When he saw that I started getting into controversial trouble, he would call me and just pour into me, yo, you funny.
[29:34] SPEAKER_00: You okay?
[29:35] SPEAKER_00: You don't gotta go on an apology tour.
[29:37] SPEAKER_00: Like, you don't gotta do that.
[29:39] SPEAKER_00: And don't you dare donate money to a whole bunch of charities uh to try to clean up what happened.
[29:47] SPEAKER_00: Like you, you don't do that.
[29:48] SPEAKER_00: Don't, don't do that.
[29:49] SPEAKER_00: Don't give money to a bunch of people who still ain't gonna like you.
[29:52] SPEAKER_00: If you're gonna give money to anybody, make sure you you're doing out the kindness of your of your heart.
[29:56] SPEAKER_00: And it's to a foundation or charities that really helps people.
[30:00] SPEAKER_00: Don't just don't try to pay them people off, you know what I mean?
[30:03] SPEAKER_00: Like he really gave me concrete advice um when it comes to that, even content advice.
[30:08] SPEAKER_02: Um who gave you business advice?
[30:11] SPEAKER_00: Hmm.
[30:12] SPEAKER_00: Charlemagne.
[30:14] SPEAKER_00: Charlemagne, he's actually um and Envy.
[30:17] SPEAKER_00: DJ Envy and Charlemagne are one of the two.
[30:21] SPEAKER_00: They're like, they like my big brothers.
[30:22] SPEAKER_00: Um I I can't put it no other way.
[30:25] SPEAKER_00: They yeah, they they pour into me greatly when it comes to that.
[30:29] SPEAKER_00: But but women, Monique, she is pouring into me as well.
[30:35] SPEAKER_00: Lunel, uh, comedian Lunel.
[30:37] SPEAKER_00: She's like an auntie of mine.
[30:39] SPEAKER_00: Um, and Leslie Jones, comedian Leslie Jones.
[30:42] SPEAKER_00: Like they, they're really, really good people and they love me.
[30:45] SPEAKER_02: You have some guardian angels.
[30:47] SPEAKER_02: That's what I mean.
[30:47] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know what I mean?
[30:48] SPEAKER_02: That's not the case for everyone.
[30:49] SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
[30:50] SPEAKER_00: Dion Cole was another one too.
[30:52] SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I got I got some really, really good, you know, dope mentors that came before me that I I love.
[30:58] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[30:59] SPEAKER_01: Was there ever a time in your career where maybe you I don't want to say threw in the towel, but it really tested your commitment to this thing.
[31:09] SPEAKER_00: No, I I didn't think I there were times where I said, all right, I'm gonna take a break.
[31:14] SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna take a break.
[31:15] SPEAKER_00: But I always knew I was never going.
[31:17] SPEAKER_00: That's one thing about me.
[31:18] SPEAKER_00: I'm very resilient.
[31:19] SPEAKER_00: I'm able to get past anything.
[31:22] SPEAKER_00: Um anything, especially with God.
[31:24] SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
[31:25] SPEAKER_00: Like, all right, that I'm able to get past anything.
[31:30] SPEAKER_00: Um because I'm true to myself and I know who I really am, you know, and that's what a lot of people don't know.
[31:35] SPEAKER_00: You know, there are a lot of misconceptions, there are a lot of it, you know, because people look at what you do online and they they think that's who you are.
[31:43] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[31:44] SPEAKER_00: Right.
[31:44] SPEAKER_01: What's the biggest misconception about you?
[31:46] SPEAKER_00: I'm a mean person.
[31:48] SPEAKER_00: I don't care about people.
[31:49] SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, what?
[31:50] SPEAKER_00: You don't even, you don't know me, you know?
[31:53] SPEAKER_00: Um, no, that that I'm a mean person.
[31:56] SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm not I hear I'm not a girl's girl.
[31:58] SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm a girl different than other girls' girl, but I'm a girl's girl, I think, you know.
[32:02] SPEAKER_00: I'm a girl's girl with my girls, you know, which actually ain't many girls, but you know, it's all right.
[32:07] SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm I'm it's a girl, you know.
[32:10] SPEAKER_00: I'm a girl girl.
[32:11] SPEAKER_00: You know, I am.
[32:12] SPEAKER_00: I just, and then I don't call every, I don't think everybody's my friend.
[32:17] SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
[32:17] SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't call everybody friends.
[32:20] SPEAKER_02: And uh Do you think that's why people think you're mean?
[32:23] SPEAKER_02: Because you're not sounds like you make the distinction between acquaintance and I was gonna say that you're not an open book with everybody right when you meet them and you let everyone in.
[32:32] SPEAKER_02: Oh guarded, that's what I'm looking for.
[32:34] SPEAKER_02: Is it because you're guarded?
[32:36] SPEAKER_00: Probably so.
[32:36] SPEAKER_00: And I and I feel like that protects my energy, you know.
[32:39] SPEAKER_00: I I I feel like that.
[32:41] SPEAKER_00: I feel like it definitely protects my energy when you gotta have some type of guard up, you know.
[32:46] SPEAKER_00: You don't gotta be err all the time, but you definitely you have to, especially navigating the industry, right?
[32:54] SPEAKER_00: Um, I noticed when I lived in LA, which I also write about in the book, um, when I lived in LA, I saw how people will call everybody their friends.
[33:06] SPEAKER_00: Like, oh, that's my friend, like this, this is my friend, this is my friend, that's my friend.
[33:09] SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, that's not your friend, because she was just talking about you over there in the corner.
[33:14] SPEAKER_00: I'm nosy because I'm just with the mess.
[33:16] SPEAKER_00: So I'm nosy.
[33:17] SPEAKER_00: And I I heard that coming out the bathroom.
[33:19] SPEAKER_00: Like, she was just talking about you.
[33:20] SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, we'll be at networking events, and girls who said that they didn't like each other are together.
[33:26] SPEAKER_00: And then after that, they'll break off into other groups, and then they're talking about the like I was like, this is the most phoniest place I've ever been in my life, you know.
[33:34] SPEAKER_00: And so I realized that, like, oh yeah.
[33:37] SPEAKER_00: I come from a very real place, you know, um, Baltimore City.
[33:42] SPEAKER_00: Being raised in Baltimore City, um, it will show you like who your friends are.
[33:47] SPEAKER_00: People don't understand the definition of it is when you can confide in somebody, your friends, supposed to know your parents, your kids, like you've been in my house before.
[33:55] SPEAKER_00: Like, I can call you at any time to vent to you about something.
[33:59] SPEAKER_00: Um, I love you.
[34:01] SPEAKER_00: Like, you know what I'm saying?
[34:02] SPEAKER_00: Like, I wholeheartedly love you.
[34:03] SPEAKER_00: I care about what you're going through.
[34:04] SPEAKER_00: When you're going through something, I feel it.
[34:07] SPEAKER_00: You know, empathy, I sympathize with your your situations.
[34:11] SPEAKER_00: Like, those are friends.
[34:12] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[34:12] SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
[34:14] SPEAKER_00: But I feel that.
[34:17] SPEAKER_02: Um let's talk about The Breakfast Club.
[34:21] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[34:21] SPEAKER_02: That is a huge huge platform.
[34:25] SPEAKER_02: And first of all, aside from waking up early, um, it introduces you to a new audience.
[34:31] SPEAKER_02: But does it feel was it difficult going into an established show where this dynamic is established, there's built-in viewers, there's history.
[34:40] SPEAKER_02: There's history.
[34:43] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[34:44] SPEAKER_00: It it was definitely difficult.
[34:46] SPEAKER_00: Um, it was more fun when I was guest co-hosting because I didn't have any expectations.
[34:50] SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
[34:51] SPEAKER_00: I didn't have any expectations.
[34:52] SPEAKER_00: I was just going up there.
[34:53] SPEAKER_00: I've always had great chemistry with Charlamagne and Envy.
[34:57] SPEAKER_00: Um, even when Angela Yee was on the show, I had did, I had uh came up there for Women's Day.
[35:01] SPEAKER_00: She had me on for Women's Day.
[35:03] SPEAKER_00: And um, I don't think Charlemagne was there, but it was just me, her and Envy.
[35:06] SPEAKER_00: Um, and I I've always had a great chemistry with all of them, um especially the two guys.
[35:12] SPEAKER_00: So when I was guest co-hosting, I was up in there.
[35:15] SPEAKER_00: Like I was just going in there.
[35:16] SPEAKER_00: Even when I wasn't on the schedule, I would come up, like, hey y'all, what's up, you know?
[35:20] SPEAKER_00: And um, when I actually got the job, I was like, oh, every day.
[35:25] SPEAKER_00: Okay.
[35:26] SPEAKER_00: Oh, I got the job.
[35:27] SPEAKER_00: So I I can't say this.
[35:28] SPEAKER_00: Oh, I can't talk about that.
[35:30] SPEAKER_00: Damn.
[35:30] SPEAKER_00: Like it's the being so unfiltered and raw.
[35:33] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[35:34] SPEAKER_00: And then transitioning to radio trying to do that is different.
[35:37] SPEAKER_01: What about the reception when you when you were announced as you know, she's part of the dirty chair?
[35:43] SPEAKER_00: The reception, it was mixed, but it was a lot more yay's than um, you know what I mean?
[35:48] SPEAKER_00: But I definitely seen them, um, you know.
[35:51] SPEAKER_00: You read comments?
[35:52] SPEAKER_00: I girl, what?
[35:53] SPEAKER_00: I used to.
[35:54] SPEAKER_00: Since I've been married, I I I have not.
[35:58] SPEAKER_00: I have not.
[35:58] SPEAKER_00: We'll get to that later, but yeah.
[36:00] SPEAKER_02: Um But I do want to talk about, so I was using the analogy earlier about like if you work at a bank, if you get promoted, demoted, your shift changes, this change, nobody knows but inside the bank.
[36:11] SPEAKER_02: When you work on a public platform, the viewers have an opinion about who should be in that seat, what should happen, um, whether they like it, whether they don't like it.
[36:20] SPEAKER_02: Like it just, it's a different dynamic than any other job.
[36:24] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because it's radio, right?
[36:26] SPEAKER_00: And um, what what Envy, Charlemagne, and Angela Yee built over 14 years of time, 15 years, like they've been connected to people.
[36:38] SPEAKER_00: That's what radio is, that's what media is.
[36:40] SPEAKER_00: You're connecting to the people.
[36:42] SPEAKER_00: And so when they evolve, their listeners evolve.
[36:44] SPEAKER_00: Like what, you know, the in and people have been with them through every phase.
[36:48] SPEAKER_00: So the viewers uh the or the lit and or listeners, they they know what they want, you know, and you're supposed to listen to that, you know, because we've been talking to y'all, you know, speaking like as them.
[37:04] SPEAKER_00: We've been talking to y'all for 15 years.
[37:06] SPEAKER_00: So y'all, y'all know, y'all know, you know.
[37:08] SPEAKER_00: So I feel like the the viewers, they feel like they had a say as well.
[37:11] SPEAKER_00: They have a say in it.
[37:12] SPEAKER_00: No, we want this person, nah, we want this person.
[37:15] SPEAKER_00: But most, I will say most people that I saw, because I was in every comment on every social media platform.
[37:23] SPEAKER_00: Girl.
[37:24] SPEAKER_00: A lot more people were happy that it was me because I bought a young, fresh, you know, energy.
[37:31] SPEAKER_00: It was, I'm I'm a little raw, I'm a little, you know, unfiltered.
[37:35] SPEAKER_00: And look, it don't get no more unfiltered than old Charlemagne.
[37:38] SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
[37:39] SPEAKER_01: You also have a loyal following of your own.
[37:41] SPEAKER_01: You've been growing for a long time.
[37:43] SPEAKER_00: So it almost feels like you have people who are rooting for you.
[37:46] SPEAKER_01: Yes.
[37:47] SPEAKER_01: Who've been invested.
[37:48] SPEAKER_00: And it felt good.
[37:49] SPEAKER_00: It felt good.
[37:50] SPEAKER_00: As soon as I tuned out the noise completely, I was able to set in it and be like, yo, I do deserve this.
[37:55] SPEAKER_00: I deserve to be here.
[37:56] SPEAKER_00: I don't care who don't want to see me here.
[37:58] SPEAKER_00: It was so many radio people, uh, other radio hosts and stuff, like, nah, she ain't, nah, nah, nah, nah.
[38:05] SPEAKER_00: Then when I get to walk past them in the hallway, hey, hey, coworker.
[38:10] SPEAKER_00: What's up, neighbor?
[38:11] SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
[38:11] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[38:12] SPEAKER_02: See my holiday party.
[38:14] SPEAKER_02: Yep.
[38:14] SPEAKER_02: So um, and it wasn't long after you got the gig that you announced your pregnancy.
[38:19] SPEAKER_02: Yes.
[38:20] SPEAKER_02: Was that um, because I've had coworkers before where they're like, oh no, like I just got found my footing, I just got into it.
[38:28] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[38:28] SPEAKER_02: Did it take you by surprise?
[38:31] SPEAKER_00: That I got pregnant?
[38:34] SPEAKER_00: No, because we have been trying.
[38:35] SPEAKER_00: We have been trying.
[38:36] SPEAKER_00: I, you know what's crazy?
[38:40] SPEAKER_00: I was afraid to tell my boss because I was like, damn, this happened right.
[38:46] SPEAKER_00: This happened right, you know what I mean?
[38:48] SPEAKER_00: Because we were trying for a while.
[38:50] SPEAKER_00: So I was like, I didn't know when we would actually, you know, hit the home run.
[38:55] SPEAKER_00: And so we did as soon as I got the job.
[38:59] SPEAKER_00: And so I was like, okay, you little stinking baby, you're gonna come right now, okay, you know.
[39:05] SPEAKER_00: But I took a deep breath.
[39:08] SPEAKER_00: I walked into my boss's office, and I and she is a woman which I love.
[39:12] SPEAKER_00: I've never, ever had a female boss, ever.
[39:17] SPEAKER_00: And it's a difference, it's a difference.
[39:19] SPEAKER_00: She understands me.
[39:20] SPEAKER_00: She doesn't have kids, but she understands me.
[39:22] SPEAKER_00: And she was just happy for me in that moment.
[39:25] SPEAKER_00: I was so scared I was sweating.
[39:27] SPEAKER_00: Girl, I had on a wig, it was coming back, it was it was peeling back.
[39:30] SPEAKER_00: I was like, Thea, I'm pregnant.
[39:32] SPEAKER_00: She was like, Congratulations.
[39:34] SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Whew, now I can breathe.
[39:36] SPEAKER_00: I pulled pulled my wig back up and I was like, thank you.
[39:40] SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I thought you were gonna be disappointed and upset.
[39:44] SPEAKER_00: You know, she was like, mm-mm, you still need to have your butt in the chair every day on the radio, but no, I appreciate I appreciate you telling me.
[39:53] SPEAKER_00: And then I was like, she said, Have you told the guys yet?
[39:56] SPEAKER_00: And I was like, No, I'm just telling you because I I did the right thing.
[39:59] SPEAKER_00: I kept battling back in my mind, I have to tell somebody at work.
[40:03] SPEAKER_00: I can't just spring this on everybody, you know.
[40:05] SPEAKER_00: But I was scared because you know, at one point it was very unheard of to be pregnant at work.
[40:10] SPEAKER_00: They make you, it made it was made to seem like you can't have a baby at your job or whatever, or it slows you down, or no we can't.
[40:17] SPEAKER_00: Especially when you just get a job.
[40:18] SPEAKER_00: Especially when you girl, when you just get when you just get it.
[40:21] SPEAKER_00: I hadn't even started the probationary period.
[40:24] SPEAKER_01: She gets real comfortable.
[40:26] SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm scared of.
[40:27] SPEAKER_00: You get real comfortable, you know.
[40:29] SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, but I was happy at a time.
[40:31] SPEAKER_02: But no, I think, I mean, it speaks to what a lot of women, myself included, like there's no right time to get home.
[40:37] SPEAKER_02: And so you can try the beginning of, you know, when you just get hired, when you six months into it, a year into it, it's never the right time.
[40:45] SPEAKER_02: And it's something that women have to deal with in the workplace, trying to do both things and trying to excel in their career.
[40:50] SPEAKER_01: And then it's like a catch-22, because the higher you go, right, the more it's like, how dare you?
[40:55] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[40:55] SPEAKER_01: Right.
[40:55] SPEAKER_01: And then you you also then you got the nerve to go on maternity leave.
[40:59] SPEAKER_01: I know.
[40:59] SPEAKER_01: I know the nerve.
[41:01] SPEAKER_00: I know.
[41:01] SPEAKER_01: Um, and how was how was that to go on maternity leave?
[41:05] SPEAKER_01: Did it feel like, no, I'm I I deserve this, I've earned this, or did it feel like a luxury that, you know, that you're not sure.
[41:12] SPEAKER_00: It felt like a luxury to be honest.
[41:13] SPEAKER_00: Um, actually, I loved being able to sit down and do radio while I was pregnant the whole time.
[41:19] SPEAKER_00: And then I went out on my third trimester.
[41:21] SPEAKER_00: This pregnancy was a little harder than my son's was when I was pregnant with my son.
[41:26] SPEAKER_00: But um, yeah, this one was low, I had morning sickness, a lot uh, you know, and cramping, a lot of cramping and a lot of things.
[41:34] SPEAKER_00: And I was like, damn, being pregnant in your 30s is way different.
[41:37] SPEAKER_00: Um, but that's why I was I was thankful, very, very grateful to God that I I had, I was stationary.
[41:43] SPEAKER_00: I was like, okay, I can come in and chill, you know.
[41:47] SPEAKER_02: Um, but do you ever worry?
[41:50] SPEAKER_02: Because as a woman in media, I feel like the narrative is don't be gone too long because someone's gonna take your job.
[41:56] SPEAKER_00: That that's what started to creep in.
[41:59] SPEAKER_00: You know, that's what started to creep in.
[42:00] SPEAKER_00: And that that was the that was the whole thing.
[42:04] SPEAKER_00: I was like, yo, I was home, and then I had breastfed, so I couldn't really bounce back as quick as I thought.
[42:11] SPEAKER_00: And then also, I wrote the book while I was pregnant.
[42:14] SPEAKER_00: So I it was a roller coaster of emotions.
[42:17] SPEAKER_00: I was able to get through it.
[42:19] SPEAKER_00: Um, and then I had many, many talks with Rome, and I had to relive a lot of this that I wrote in the book because the whole journey is a roller coaster, it's it's ups and downs, and it and I had, like I said, I had to relive it and um had to recall a lot of it.
[42:33] SPEAKER_00: And when you got pregnancy brain, you forget a lot.
[42:36] SPEAKER_00: And so having to have Rome remind me about a lot of the stories that went into the book, and then the baby gets here and I'm I'm breastfeeding, and then you don't feel pretty.
[42:47] SPEAKER_00: There's a stage that you go through where you don't feel pretty, you don't feel like I was even questioning me being funny.
[42:52] SPEAKER_00: I was like, yo, how am I supposed to go back to comedy if I'm if I'm off the scene too long, they're gonna fall in love with another comedian.
[42:59] SPEAKER_00: I may lose my fans.
[43:00] SPEAKER_00: Like I was thinking all of that, you know?
[43:04] SPEAKER_00: And do you have anyone to talk to?
[43:06] SPEAKER_00: My husband, my husband, my mother, my mother-in-law.
[43:10] SPEAKER_00: I had a really, really dope village, good village.
[43:13] SPEAKER_00: My little sister, she's 11 years younger than me.
[43:16] SPEAKER_00: That's my baby, um, my best friend, um, oh my god, my cousin.
[43:22] SPEAKER_00: Like, I had a lot of people around me who I could talk to, but they couldn't do anything.
[43:28] SPEAKER_00: They they couldn't do anything.
[43:29] SPEAKER_00: And my husband, he just felt so helpless.
[43:31] SPEAKER_00: Like, okay, should we should I get you a therapist?
[43:33] SPEAKER_00: Like, what should we do, babe?
[43:35] SPEAKER_00: Like, what, you know, and I and I'm just snappy and I'm like, I don't know, you know, but it's yeah, in that moment, it's hard to shake that.
[43:42] SPEAKER_01: It's so powerful what you're saying because in spite of the support, I mean, you have extensive support.
[43:48] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's the financial stability that you have, the coveted job, and yet you're still struggling with this, which which only goes to show how I mean, women do the impossible.
[44:00] SPEAKER_01: When they shouldn't have to.
[44:00] SPEAKER_01: Hello.
[44:01] SPEAKER_01: Right?
[44:01] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[44:02] SPEAKER_01: So what was that dynamic as you're getting ready to go back to work?
[44:06] SPEAKER_00: Do you feel 100%?
[44:07] SPEAKER_00: Do you feel like to be honest?
[44:09] SPEAKER_00: No, I didn't.
[44:10] SPEAKER_00: I did not feel 100%.
[44:12] SPEAKER_00: And I wasn't even finished writing a book yet.
[44:14] SPEAKER_00: I was like, damn, I thought I perfectly timed this.
[44:18] SPEAKER_00: I was supposed to be finished the book.
[44:20] SPEAKER_00: By the time I went back to work, you know, because I'm everything I do is on a schedule.
[44:24] SPEAKER_00: And I I'm my own hardest critic.
[44:26] SPEAKER_00: I'm very harsh on myself.
[44:28] SPEAKER_00: And so I'm like, yo, I wasn't so that prolonged.
[44:32] SPEAKER_00: But I went back to work.
[44:34] SPEAKER_00: I didn't feel as if I was 100% ready.
[44:40] SPEAKER_00: I was still pumping my boobs in between segments and everything.
[44:44] SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah.
[44:44] SPEAKER_00: But the thing is, I wanted to go back.
[44:46] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[44:46] SPEAKER_00: And I and I I pushed myself to go back.
[44:50] SPEAKER_01: How long was your leave?
[44:51] SPEAKER_00: My leave was three months.
[44:56] SPEAKER_00: Like three, yeah, like three months.
[45:00] SPEAKER_00: Probably four.
[45:03] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like three to five.
[45:04] SPEAKER_00: I believe it was probably four.
[45:05] SPEAKER_00: Probably so.
[45:06] SPEAKER_00: Um, but it was longer than you see women um out usually.
[45:12] SPEAKER_00: Um and then they weren't pressuring me to come back either.
[45:16] SPEAKER_00: They were they weren't, but I was like, no, no, I'm I'm sitting here, I'm I've been sitting too long, I gotta get back.
[45:22] SPEAKER_00: I know I'm I'm feeling like my world is like crumbling.
[45:25] SPEAKER_00: I I gotta get out of this house, I gotta, you know.
[45:28] SPEAKER_00: And so I went back and um and I realized like, okay, maybe I did come back too early, but I I still felt like I do belong here, I'm good, and I already came back, so I can't leave back out.
[45:50] SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
[45:50] SPEAKER_00: Going back to poke, this ain't it.
[45:53] SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go back.
[45:53] SPEAKER_00: I'll be back in two weeks.
[45:55] SPEAKER_00: I'll be back in three months.
[45:56] SPEAKER_00: I'm good.
[45:56] SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
[45:57] SPEAKER_00: But yeah.
[45:57] SPEAKER_02: Explaining your state of mind now, um, I I empathize for you a little bit more with the noise that you came back to.
[46:07] SPEAKER_02: Because I feel like obviously the dynamic with you and Lauren and and the breakfast club is great, but it's hard when there's an echo chamber and other people, like that four, you're always like the what the fifth co-host, you know what I mean?
[46:19] SPEAKER_02: Yes.
[46:19] SPEAKER_02: Um, but I empathize even more because it's like, wow, like you are, you have all these hormones.
[46:24] SPEAKER_02: You're you have postpartum to deal with.
[46:27] SPEAKER_02: Um writing a book.
[46:28] SPEAKER_00: I'm just trying to do so much.
[46:30] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[46:30] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's like, and then you have Ash as well.
[46:32] SPEAKER_02: Do you feel like um you felt all those emotions?
[46:37] SPEAKER_02: And then that was heightened, and that that you were more sensitive, maybe when you came back?
[46:42] SPEAKER_00: I was sensitive, absolutely, but um, you know, two things can be true at one time, right?
[46:49] SPEAKER_00: You know, I I was definitely on the postpartum end, right?
[46:55] SPEAKER_00: But I still didn't like how things went, you know, um, because I felt like I love my coworkers, I love them.
[47:05] SPEAKER_00: Why wouldn't they tell me?
[47:06] SPEAKER_00: I love, I love corporate.
[47:08] SPEAKER_00: Why wouldn't y'all tell me?
[47:09] SPEAKER_00: I love the producers, why wouldn't y'all tell me, you know?
[47:12] SPEAKER_00: Um, but my anger was misplaced.
[47:17] SPEAKER_00: I put my anger on Lauren LaRosa, you know, who was doing the same thing I would have done, you know, in that position.
[47:26] SPEAKER_00: Like, not trying to stomp on toes, but they made space for me here.
[47:32] SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna go after what I what I'm because I'm a journalist.
[47:37] SPEAKER_00: Speaking as Lauren, like I'm a journalist.
[47:39] SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
[47:40] SPEAKER_00: So she came from TMZ.
[47:42] SPEAKER_00: She worked her butt off, you know, she's a great journalist, and that's why that's what I liked about her.
[47:49] SPEAKER_00: I'm not a journalist, I don't want to be one.
[47:51] SPEAKER_00: You know, that's just something that I ain't into.
[47:53] SPEAKER_00: I'm a comedian.
[47:54] SPEAKER_00: I I do commentary on headlines, and so that's why I all I knew it was a space.
[48:00] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[48:00] SPEAKER_00: And space enough for both.
[48:01] SPEAKER_00: We don't do the same thing.
[48:03] SPEAKER_00: But it was just how it happened.
[48:05] SPEAKER_00: I just wasn't down with it.
[48:06] SPEAKER_00: But I was mad at the wrong person.
[48:08] SPEAKER_00: And I was just, you know, and then yes, it was a lot of it.
[48:12] SPEAKER_00: I was very emotional, you know.
[48:14] SPEAKER_00: So that's why I did things like cry, you know.
[48:16] SPEAKER_00: I'm like, damn, this is the most I've ever cried in my life, you know.
[48:19] SPEAKER_01: So what would you say?
[48:22] SPEAKER_01: Because there's what's going on internally that you guys are seeing, and then there's the the viewers who aren't seeing everything.
[48:28] SPEAKER_01: What's the biggest misconception as far as what went down between you and Lauren and that whole dynamic?
[48:34] SPEAKER_00: That I couldn't work with another black woman.
[48:36] SPEAKER_00: I was intimidated.
[48:37] SPEAKER_00: Um, it was either me or her.
[48:39] SPEAKER_00: Um, and um, yeah, that that was that.
[48:44] SPEAKER_00: And I'm a hater, I don't like her.
[48:47] SPEAKER_00: Uh well, I didn't like her full minute because I was like, uh, when you going home, you know, but but that's what I'm saying.
[48:53] SPEAKER_00: When'd you find out?
[48:54] SPEAKER_02: Because or was it one of those like, oh, okay, you're back again today.
[48:58] SPEAKER_02: You're back again today.
[48:59] SPEAKER_00: Or yeah, it was, it was, yeah, it was a little bit of that, and then it was like, okay, all right, but she's on the show because she because they had introduced the the component of her being a uh producer, working behind the scenes and like providing the stories and stuff.
[49:18] SPEAKER_00: And then it was like, oh no, she's on air.
[49:20] SPEAKER_00: She's oh okay.
[49:21] SPEAKER_00: This, oh, she's doing a segment.
[49:23] SPEAKER_00: Okay, ooh.
[49:24] SPEAKER_00: All right.
[49:26] SPEAKER_00: Well, damn, where does that leave me?
[49:27] SPEAKER_00: Like, was was how are we gonna the clock is already full?
[49:30] SPEAKER_00: Like, was, you know, and then um and then and then the whole live thing happened because I felt like I just wasn't getting answers.
[49:39] SPEAKER_00: I'm like, yo, somebody not telling me something.
[49:41] SPEAKER_01: It sounds like the worst possible way to have handled something like that that ultimately puts it on YouTube.
[49:49] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[49:49] SPEAKER_01: You know, you have two highly qualified women who are very different in terms of what they bring to the table.
[49:54] SPEAKER_01: And it didn't, it didn't have to go down that way.
[49:57] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it did not.
[49:58] SPEAKER_00: It didn't have to go down that way.
[49:59] SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
[50:00] SPEAKER_00: I'm kind of glad that it did because um I knew I wasn't crazy, right?
[50:07] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it may have been a little postpart of me, but I wasn't crazy.
[50:11] SPEAKER_00: I feel like a lot of women have said that before.
[50:12] SPEAKER_00: I knew I wasn't tripping.
[50:14] SPEAKER_00: Media will make you feel crazy.
[50:15] SPEAKER_02: That's it.
[50:17] SPEAKER_02: They'll never tell you, even if, like, for example, they're trying to get rid of you, they'll never tell you.
[50:21] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, slowly your airtime just decreases.
[50:23] SPEAKER_02: So then you're like, am I paranoid?
[50:25] SPEAKER_02: You're like, nothing is going on.
[50:27] SPEAKER_02: You call it out because then you're the angry black woman.
[50:28] SPEAKER_00: Because then you're the angry black woman that don't that want to be the only woman on the show.
[50:32] SPEAKER_00: And I was like, how dare they think I want to be the only woman on the show?
[50:36] SPEAKER_00: I just thought that that was how things were, because Breakfast Club always been three people, two men and one woman.
[50:43] SPEAKER_00: It's always been two bald head men and one woman.
[50:45] SPEAKER_00: So I thought I'm like, what is going on?
[50:47] SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
[50:48] SPEAKER_00: But like I said, it was more so like me and Lauren like this, you know, and it's like, nah, wait, wait a minute.
[50:58] SPEAKER_00: It does not have to be that way, you know.
[51:00] SPEAKER_00: But I love the chemistry now, and I'm glad that it went down the way that it did.
[51:04] SPEAKER_00: Um, we had that big blow up on air.
[51:06] SPEAKER_00: And then sometimes, sometimes you have to address the elephant in the room, you know.
[51:14] SPEAKER_02: Are you a person who doesn't beat around the bush?
[51:16] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[51:17] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[51:17] SPEAKER_00: I don't.
[51:18] SPEAKER_00: I don't.
[51:19] SPEAKER_00: I didn't.
[51:20] SPEAKER_00: I don't slow down, I done slowed down on beating around the bushes.
[51:24] SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
[51:24] SPEAKER_00: I no, I don't beat around the bushes.
[51:26] SPEAKER_01: I I would almost rather that because I don't have to wonder where you stand.
[51:31] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[51:31] SPEAKER_01: You see what I'm saying?
[51:32] SPEAKER_01: Like I don't have to read between the lines.
[51:33] SPEAKER_01: I don't have to, if you're off, if something, if you got an issue with me, yeah, you know, you'll you'll say it.
[51:38] SPEAKER_01: So I wouldn't, I wouldn't retreat and go and mix in a little beating with the beach, right?
[51:43] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but I but don't try that at home, y'all.
[51:45] SPEAKER_00: Don't ever go live and talk about your job.
[51:47] SPEAKER_00: You ain't supposed to do that.
[51:48] SPEAKER_00: Don't do that, y'all.
[51:51] SPEAKER_00: Are you more corporate now then?
[51:52] SPEAKER_00: I'm more corporate.
[51:53] SPEAKER_00: Yes, I get the chance.
[51:54] SPEAKER_02: No, but I honestly I love the dynamic now.
[51:57] SPEAKER_02: You both are very talented women, and like I love that everyone has a space and they do what they're good at.
[52:03] SPEAKER_02: And you're right, you're not the same person.
[52:05] SPEAKER_00: No.
[52:05] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[52:05] SPEAKER_01: Um, I wonder with all that you've accomplished, you still got a whole life ahead of you.
[52:10] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[52:10] SPEAKER_01: What do you want to?
[52:11] SPEAKER_01: You're an author uh or um the actor on um girlfriends.
[52:15] SPEAKER_01: I'm an authoress.
[52:17] SPEAKER_01: I'm an authorist.
[52:18] SPEAKER_00: I'm an authorist.
[52:19] SPEAKER_01: Uh what do you wanna, what do you want to do now?
[52:21] SPEAKER_01: What mountain do you want to scale now?
[52:23] SPEAKER_00: Hmm, Lord.
[52:24] SPEAKER_00: Of course, more TV.
[52:26] SPEAKER_00: Um, because that that's the whole reason why I got in the game in the first place.
[52:31] SPEAKER_00: I always saw myself on TV.
[52:33] SPEAKER_00: I didn't know what I wanted to do on there.
[52:35] SPEAKER_00: I just knew I was always gonna be good in front of the camera.
[52:38] SPEAKER_00: And then I was like, I don't know if it's gonna be modeling, acting, something, comedy, whatever.
[52:44] SPEAKER_00: I just know I want to, I wanna be on the screen.
[52:46] SPEAKER_00: And then as I got older and I evolved, I'm like, no, I want to be an actress.
[52:50] SPEAKER_00: I want to be a TV talk show host.
[52:52] SPEAKER_00: I want to be um, I want to be the biggest household name.
[52:56] SPEAKER_00: Like the when you hear my name, you're like, oh, I'm I love her for this.
[53:01] SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, because everybody's not gonna like that one thing about you.
[53:04] SPEAKER_00: That's why you have to do so many other things.
[53:05] SPEAKER_00: So then you can you can have everybody, you know.
[53:08] SPEAKER_00: So I love that I'm a different person on the comedy stage.
[53:11] SPEAKER_00: I love that I'm a different person on the Breakfast Club, which is now on Netflix, you know.
[53:16] SPEAKER_00: And I also love that, of course, I'm an author now.
[53:20] SPEAKER_00: That's a whole new world.
[53:22] SPEAKER_00: And it's different.
[53:23] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it feels good.
[53:26] SPEAKER_00: And I'm proud of, I'm proud of that.
[53:28] SPEAKER_00: I I did.
[53:29] SPEAKER_00: You should be that girl, because I never I never envisioned writing a book.
[53:33] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[53:33] SPEAKER_00: Um, but once I read it back after, you know, editing and my, you know, me and my editor went through it and everything, I'm like, dang.
[53:40] SPEAKER_01: I'm that girl.
[53:41] SPEAKER_01: You know, she's still proud.
[53:43] SPEAKER_01: I wanna, I know we gotta wrap here soon, but I do want to ask you really quickly since you mentioned The Breakfast Club on Netflix.
[53:48] SPEAKER_01: You uh shared kind of like the pros and cons of that in a video.
[53:53] SPEAKER_01: What have been some of the downsides maybe of being on Netflix?
[53:57] SPEAKER_00: Um it's just, you know, like anything that's new, right?
[54:02] SPEAKER_00: You you have to you have to approach it like with no expectation because it's new, right?
[54:11] SPEAKER_00: And so Netflix doesn't have a comment section.
[54:14] SPEAKER_00: And that's what the that's what most of the beef is.
[54:17] SPEAKER_00: It goes down in the comments.
[54:18] SPEAKER_00: Right.
[54:18] SPEAKER_00: And that's and and and when you're in radio, people love to engage.
[54:22] SPEAKER_00: When you're in media, people love to engage.
[54:24] SPEAKER_00: So that's that's one thing I was just touching on on my vlog.
[54:28] SPEAKER_00: I was just like, nah, you know, but really, the only thing that's changed is that we don't um have our you can't watch the full interviews on YouTube anymore.
[54:38] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we still got clips, we still got content.
[54:40] SPEAKER_00: We're we're doing other content, you know, across all of our platforms.
[54:44] SPEAKER_00: Um, but the full episodes are not on YouTube and the full interviews are not.
[54:51] SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that's what I'm saying.
[54:52] SPEAKER_02: When Birdman gets up and walks out, hey, oh, the breakfast.
[54:55] SPEAKER_02: I need to be in the comments and I need to see the comments.
[54:58] SPEAKER_00: You know, you gotta be able to say that type of stuff.
[55:00] SPEAKER_01: Uh there's a game we want to play with you.
[55:02] SPEAKER_01: Okay.
[55:02] SPEAKER_01: Before we sit.
[55:03] SPEAKER_01: Uh, you want to start?
[55:04] SPEAKER_02: Yes.
[55:05] SPEAKER_02: All right.
[55:06] SPEAKER_02: Gentle parenting.
[55:09] unknown: No.
[55:11] SPEAKER_00: I'm raising no limit soldiers.
[55:13] SPEAKER_00: Ain't no way.
[55:14] SPEAKER_00: Ain't no way.
[55:15] SPEAKER_00: No, I don't do the gentle money.
[55:17] SPEAKER_00: They bought about it, girl.
[55:18] SPEAKER_01: Um, comedians apologizing for old jokes.
[55:23] SPEAKER_00: Please.
[55:24] SPEAKER_00: Please.
[55:25] SPEAKER_00: That's one thing you won't see me doing no more.
[55:27] SPEAKER_00: Apologize than ever.
[55:29] SPEAKER_00: You're taking Kevin Hart's advice.
[55:30] SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
[55:31] SPEAKER_00: And Mike Epps, stop it.
[55:33] SPEAKER_02: Stop.
[55:33] SPEAKER_02: You alright?
[55:35] SPEAKER_02: Uh lending money to family.
[55:41] SPEAKER_00: It should just be giving, because I know I ain't getting it back.
[55:45] SPEAKER_00: I know I get it back.
[55:46] SPEAKER_00: Especially when you come and ask me, yo, let me just give$7,000.
[55:49] SPEAKER_00: You know you're not gonna give that back.
[55:51] SPEAKER_00: And why do you think I just casually got that laying around for you?
[55:54] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[55:54] SPEAKER_00: Anyway.
[55:55] SPEAKER_01: Um sharing your location with your partner.
[55:59] SPEAKER_01: Oh, all the time.
[56:00] SPEAKER_01: I better know where he's at.
[56:01] SPEAKER_00: I better know where my husband is at.
[56:03] SPEAKER_00: Yes.
[56:04] SPEAKER_03: Perfect.
[56:04] SPEAKER_02: Um, I'm just like, yeah, because if you kidnap me, I need to let you know.
[56:10] SPEAKER_02: That's not even about any bad.
[56:12] SPEAKER_02: No, I know.
[56:12] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, definitely.
[56:13] SPEAKER_00: That's because they because that man, there's some people I'm pretty sure want to kidnap you.
[56:17] SPEAKER_00: So bang, keep that location on.
[56:20] SPEAKER_02: Working with friends.
[56:21] SPEAKER_02: I feel like you'd feel different about this.
[56:24] SPEAKER_00: Or no.
[56:25] SPEAKER_00: Mm-mm.
[56:26] SPEAKER_00: Okay.
[56:26] SPEAKER_02: No more.
[56:27] SPEAKER_00: No.
[56:28] SPEAKER_02: Okay.
[56:28] SPEAKER_00: Nah, you can't work with everybody cool with you.
[56:30] SPEAKER_00: Well, like you can't work with, you can't work with your friends, man.
[56:34] SPEAKER_00: No.
[56:34] SPEAKER_01: All right.
[56:35] SPEAKER_00: Not in my experience, not in my opinion, no.
[56:38] unknown: Okay.
[56:39] SPEAKER_01: Um, okay, last thing.
[56:40] SPEAKER_01: We're gonna do the anchor voice.
[56:42] SPEAKER_01: We're gonna say um something real, you know, corporate, polished, and you gotta translate what we're trying to get at.
[56:48] SPEAKER_01: Okay.
[56:48] SPEAKER_01: All right.
[56:50] SPEAKER_01: Good evening.
[56:50] SPEAKER_01: Your time now is 552.
[56:51] SPEAKER_01: I'm Jeanette Ray, as we just got breaking news that a person was uh kind of trying us, as the kids like to say.
[56:58] SPEAKER_01: And they're gonna bring out a side of us that they're not really going to like.
[57:02] SPEAKER_01: You're going to discover uh something new.
[57:04] SPEAKER_01: You're going to uh mess around and discover something.
[57:07] SPEAKER_02: That's what they said.
[57:08] SPEAKER_02: Um the comments did not land as intended.
[57:11] SPEAKER_02: They were interpreted a little differently.
[57:13] SPEAKER_02: Uh, Jess, would you like to tell the people what we're talking about?
[57:16] SPEAKER_00: You came for me, don't come for me, because I'm telling you, you'll get your ass whooped.
[57:20] SPEAKER_00: Don't even do it because you will f around to find out and find out with me.
[57:23] SPEAKER_00: And you don't want to do that.
[57:25] SPEAKER_00: So keep it cute.
[57:27] SPEAKER_03: Perfect!
[57:30] SPEAKER_00: I like that.
[57:31] SPEAKER_00: That was so cute.
[57:33] SPEAKER_00: Y'all funny.
[57:34] SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
[57:35] SPEAKER_00: I appreciate it.
[57:35] SPEAKER_00: We are looking for you.
[57:36] SPEAKER_01: We love you, and we're so proud of you.
[57:38] SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
[57:40] SPEAKER_01: And where can folks find your book?
[57:41] SPEAKER_01: When do you come?
[57:42] SPEAKER_00: So it's available for pre-order now.
[57:43] SPEAKER_00: Um, my website, just hilariousofficial.com, Amazon, uh, Walmart, Barnes Nobles, wherever you find your books.
[57:51] SPEAKER_00: And I think it's very important to state I did my own audio book in my Baltimore access.
[57:56] SPEAKER_00: So, yes, y'all gonna hit all them d's, twos, and you's and all that.
[57:59] SPEAKER_00: But yes, I wanna, I just oh, Simon and Schuster also, you can get that on the website as well.
[58:04] SPEAKER_00: I wanna thank my editor.
[58:06] SPEAKER_00: I wanna thank Simon and Schuster and my bald head brother Charlamagne.
[58:11] SPEAKER_00: I really do.
[58:11] SPEAKER_00: So, yes, I appreciate y'all for this opportunity.
[58:13] SPEAKER_00: No, I appreciate it.
[58:14] SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
[58:14] SPEAKER_02: I read it was hilarious.
[58:15] SPEAKER_02: Of course, I expected nothing less.
[58:17] SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
[58:18] SPEAKER_02: And thank you, all of you guys, for joining us as well for another episode of Off the Record.
[58:22] SPEAKER_02: So, yeah.

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