On this episode, we check-in about the one-year anniversary of being stuck in the house. We miss outside, y'all! Then, we spend the rest of the episode talking about the albums by Black women that have shaped us. Warning: There's a lot of singing in this episode so please be prepared to sing along with us.
Okay, Now Listen Season 2 Episode 3 Transcript
[Music in]
Scottie: You're listening to Okay, Now Listen, a bi weekly show where we chat about what's on our minds, what we're bingeing and what's blowing up our timeline. I'm Scottie Beam, a media personality, content creator, music enthusiast and a wing connoisseur
Sylvia: And I'm Sylvia Obell. I'm a cultural writer, host, producer and lover of Beyoncé.
Scottie: About to find out in a few minutes. It's March, Sylvia. It's March, which means officially a whole year since we've been in the motherfucking house.
Sylvia: Dead as.
Scottie: Inside. A whole year.
[Music out]
Sylvia: It's crazy because season one, which is what I'm calling year one of the, of the 'demic, I think part of me was like, yeah, you know what? Some down time. Cool. Like the people dying part is like not cool, but like the time to sit down and just be at home and like not have to go any -- great. Season two? I'm like, okay God. [laughter] Even me very content with with myself and being alone and being in the house is starting to be like, all right. I didn't know this was going to be a whole 365. Like the first week of March, like that first Saturday of March was the very last time I stepped out. It was the very last time I stepped out. Just out of the house to go to it like just a big, large restaurant gathering. Like with people. Like was -- it's crazy. It's crazy.
Scottie: It's -- yeah. I'm having a hard time remembering things in 2019. [laughter] I feel like because it felt -- it's a year, it feels like three years.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Scottie: So I'm like oh man. Like I don't even know the last time I did this and you know, my mom would remind me and be like that was 2019. I was like, oh! Well it don't feel like it. It feels like three years ago. So yeah it just it -- I don't know what I'm going to do this summer. I am dying to explore. I've never wanted to explore so bad in my life.
Sylvia: When I tell you we are booking every flight the second we can.
Scottie: Oh my God.
Sylvia: I'm like everybody, hey Scottie, you want to go? Hey Scottie, you want to go --.
Scottie: Yes.
Sylvia: Hey, you wanna um?
Scottie: Yes. Yes, yes. [laughter] Not even -- I don't even want to know where we're going. Yes, I want to go. That's how desperate I am. Like it's so crazy. It's so insane. So yeah, I'm just ready for this snow to go away. I'm ready for spring to come. I'm excited.
Sylvia: I know. And I'm hoping I'm hoping that comes -- I'm excited for that to happen for you, too. [laughs]
Scottie: Sylvia, please don't make me reach through motherfucking computer. Like I was trying --
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Cus some of us haven't experienced the snowfall. [laughs]
Scottie: As soon as I said that, I said damn, I fucked up. Cus she about to say some L.A. shit.
Sylvia: Been spring over here, baby. [laughs]
Scottie: Alright.
Sylvia: Well, but you know, moving on. [laughs] Another thing that happens in March, like the spring, is Women's History Month. March is Women's History Month, which, you know, celebrating Black women is something we do quite frequently on this podcast. So having a month dedicated to doing it doesn't really change much for us.
Scottie: yeah.
Sylvia: Just like how Black history--
Scottie: We just triple it.
Sylvia: Just how Black History Month, they really change much for us. Like --.
Scottie: No.
Sylvia: We Blackity Black, Black, Black. We wo-wo-men. I don't, you know, like it is what it is on both sides of the coin be stressing us. But, you know, happy to be here.
Scottie: So happy to be here. It absolutely doesn't. But I'm always down for any reason to give flowers to women who have helped shape me. That's why I'm so excited to get into this convo with you about some of the albums. Albums! We're talking about music by Black women that have helped us shape who we are. So I'm just excited to get into that with you because I don't think you talk about albums enough, Sylvia. We need to talk about music more. Sylvia.
Sylvia: Yes! I love -- I'm excited for us to talk about music more. And not even just like from a purely, like, analytical look, but like even just personally like, like you said, like how it made us, how it shaped us into the women we are. These are by no means our favor -- We're not here to rank nothing. We're just talking about albums that impacted us as women as we enter this Women's History Month. So.
[Music in]
Scottie: Absolutely. And that's my favorite thing to do. My favorite thing is to talk about music and feelings. Let's get to it.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Yes. Lets do it!
Scottie: Surprising to absolutely no one, music has been so instrumental in shaping who I am. I mean, Black women especially have done so much to help guide me into womanhood.
[Music out]
Sylvia: So let's not waste any more time and let's get into these albums. Okay, first up for me, it's going to be Supa Dupa Fly by Missy Elliott. Alright.
Sylvia: [sings] Misdemeanor! Yes.
Scottie: Let me tell you something.
Sylvia: Tell us.
Scottie: Missy. You know, Missy changed the game of music and changed my life. Supa Dupa Fly introduced me to talking my shit and talking my shit and making it impossible for people to recreate my shit. Like she introduced me to that kind of real --.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Originating.
Scottie: Like reality. Yeah. Like, yes. She's the skill. She has the skill. But it was more because of who she is. And like just a song like "I'm Talking." It's on a track, it's on Supa Dupa Fly, where she's literally saying, my style is one in a million. Like my -- I'm fucking fly. I'm I'm going to always have this confidence. I'm always going to stand ten toes down on who I am and my skill. And it speaks for itself, like track after track. The audacity got louder. The funk, the bounce. Like Missy Elliott has this beautiful way of making you feel like she's your sister and she's sitting on the couch and she's telling you what the tea is.
Sylvia: She's giving you a game. Like I feel like Missy gave me so much game.
Scottie: [crosstalk] She's giving you game, especially when her lyrics marry with the flow. Like it's just, it makes it sound like, hey sis. Like, I know -- like "Best Friends". Remember "Best Friends" with Aaliyah.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Scottie: When she sits down with her and she's like reading. She's reading you to tears. It's kind of like how you do me, Sylvia. [laughter] You're like, hey, I'm telling you the truth, but it's with a little razzle dazzle --.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Little razzle dazzle.
Scottie: [crosstalk] So you can feel a little bit better. Just a little razzle dazzle.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Because I love. I'm trying to do the nicest way possible.
Scottie: Right. And that's what the melody is for.
Sylvia: That's what -- [laughs].
Scottie: The melody for.
Sylvia: It's to calm you.
Scottie: The melody for you like, eh! You ain't -- you know, like that nigga be playing with you, right?
Sylvia: Right.
Scottie: Like you keep running back to me telling these same fucking stories. I keep telling you, you know what I'm saying? So I fucking love that.
Sylvia: Missy -- I feel like Missy came like a thief in the night. And we had never seen anything like her, prior to her. To your point about her originating. Like she was -- she did -- you know, this was, this was the 90s. This was 97. Like we were in the thick of like Little Kim, Foxy, you know, just like sexy hip hop. And it was like Missy look -- you know, she didn't look like the other girls. Like she wasn't, she wasn't built like that. She was really like, her and Queen were two of the first like plus size women in hip hop that we were seing. But unlike Queen - and I love what Queen was doing, we were Jersey all day. But like Missy was talking like Kim and them though. Like Missy was like, don't let the size fool you. I'm -- I'll get mine. On -- Missy's the first one who --.
Scottie: [crosstalk] I'm fucking sexy. I be -- right.
Sylvia: She was talking to me about how to get your orgasms, baby. You know, talking about we're having sex too, baby.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Right, right.
Sylvia: Like, don't let my tomboyish this fool you like. And I love that she was able to talk sexy and be a tomboy. She was just a lot of juxtapositions that, like, I was really here for at that time because '97 even, Scottie, where were you?
Scottie: I was seven years old.
Sylvia: Yes.
Scottie: But I, I was a dark skinned little girl who loves sneakers, who loved, you know, who loved baggy clothes, who was really into like hip hop. Like I loved -- I was seven.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Scottie: i was into hip hop. My sister would blast Missy all up and through the house with her, her friend Petril and Ashley. [laughter] And they was like the coolest girls in the Bronx. And they would be like, walking around, listening to the music. But like, to your point, like sometimes hip hop has this traditional mindset. We get caught up with putting hip hop artists in boxes.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Yeah. Like there's a formula.
Scottie: And Missy freed herself and hip hop and me!
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Whoo! And us.
Scottie: Like with creating a space, you know, for people who color outside the lines. Shit. People who color off the paper. You know, that's what makes masterpieces. Not allowing criteria to determine your craft and who you are. Like, that's the masterpiece.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Scottie: You know, I am forever grateful for her showing me how to be me and how happy I should be to be me, because there's only one me. And there is only one Missy. And no one can do what Missy can.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] No one can.
Scottie: Not a soul.
Sylvia: Nobody.
Scottie: Not a soul. You can be influenced by her. Absolutely. You can be inspired. But you cannot do what Missy has done. Absolutely not.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] A visionary.
Scottie: So yeah. That's my first album.
Sylvia: Yes!
Scottie: Love her. She is forever my lady. Like she --.
Sylvia: Come on forever my lady.
Scottie: [crosstalk] So yeah, that's it. Forever my lady.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] You better -- you better Jodeci it. You better stay in the time period. [laughs]
Scottie: Hello. Go ahead. Now Sylvia, you tell me one.
Sylvia: Okay, so the -- my -- the first album I'm going to talk about, this is no particular order also. But it is Songs In A Minor by Alicia Keys because --.
Scottie: Okay.
Sylvia: Y'all. The year was 2001. [laughs] I believe. And I was 11. I was you know, I was young. But I also like Scottie was talking about -- like '97. If you have, like an older cousin or like older sisters, like my older cousin, who's like 11 years older than me, lived with us for like most of the 90s. So I felt like I was coming out of the gate with a very mature music base. But what I loved about Alicia Keys and Songs In A Minor was I remember the exact moment I heard Alicia Keys's is voice for the first time. Like I was in my basement, which was my dad's man cave at the time. But sometimes after school I would be the only one home so I go to -- because kids, that's where the only computer in the house was.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Facts.
Sylvia: I know you guys know nothing about that, [laughs] but that was the situation. So I literally was in the basement watching TV, probably TRL or 106 & Park. And the video came -- "Falling" came on the video. I was down there with my God sister. And if you know "Falling" it comes out the gate. [sings] Like I keep falling in love you.
Scottie: Acapella.
Sylvia: And I'm like, I turned my -- like I broke -- you want to talk about the definition of breaking your neck. I broke my neck from the computer. Like, who is the? And I was -- I sat and watched the whole video with my mouth just open. And I can't remember like it was probably one of my first experiences with discovering somebody for myself. And, you know, like the -- like when somebody's not putting you on, but like you see it. You -- and like it was your moment. And I remember thinking I looked at my godsister, I said, she's going to be a star. Like, I don't know who this girl is. I barely caught her name, but like, we're not going to stop seeing her. Like, I know. Like, I don't know. I ain't no A & R person, but I know. I was like, this is a voice. And then she came with Songs In A Minor and the album, you won't talk about a perfect debut album.
Scottie: Let me tell you something.
Sylvia: She's -- like, I just -- sorry, I have to catch my words because it was like, no. I'm not going to be a one hit wonder. The talent is here. And I'm going to take you through these Prince covers. Like "How Come You Don't Call Me"?
Scottie: Which she fucking killed. Like --
Sylvia: [crosstalk] You don't take a Prince song and play --.
Scottie: [crosstalk] We don't talk about the cover.
Sylvia: You don't just take a pretty song and put it on your debut album. Like to get that blessing.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Facts.
Sylvia: That's how you know the industry knew Alicia was going to be it. And like, she came in so strong. And I just really loved, I think what I loved most about especially that first album like cus Alicia wrote, she writes a lot of her music. And like she wrote some heavily in that first album where she was saying, like, it felt like things that I would write in my notebook. But like -- so like our feeling of our writing style -- it was like very similar to like the little sad poetry I was writing about my developing feelings and, you know, like stuff like that. And so, like, I really enjoyed hearing them, like songs like "Why Do I Feel So Sad?" or "Butterflies" or "Caged Bird." Like I remember, "Caged Bird" is what made me go out and buy Maya's book.
Scottie: "Girlfriend" was it for me. That was the more --.
Sylvia: [sings] I think I'm jealous of your girlfriend.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Hip hop-ish. [sings] Of your girlfriend.
Sylvia: But even just that -- that, that feeling, I was like, you know, Oh. Like that is a thing that when you're -- because I think like the other thing about this time period to like, 11, 12. Like I was just starting to like, like boys. I was that wasn't a relationship yet but it was like me starting to get like acquainted with feelings of like, you give me butterflies. You know what I mean? Like you give me something I just can't deny something that's so real. [sings] I just can't control the way I feel. And it's like -- and let's not talk about how Drumline -- that scene in Drumline when they played that song too, was it in the moment. But I -- yeah. The whole album like, like I said. We said, "How Come He Don't Call Me," "Falling," "Troubles."
Scottie: I mean and she was having you find your worth with a "Woman's Worth."
Sylvia: Oh Woman's Worth. [sings] Dooo, do do. [laughs]
Scottie: Like had you realize --.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] [sings] You can buy me diamonds.
Scottie: Who you are.
Sylvia: Listen.
Scottie: [sings] You can buy me pearls.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] [sings] Pearls. And --.
Scottie: Let me tell you.
Sylvia: You know what else was my song -- so "Never Felt This Way" I was so happy about that interlude because that is my like, you know how people use to pick your wedding songs? Like, you know, you used to think you knew what your first dance wedding song was going to be? Like that was a corny thing you did growing up. Like Brian McKnight's "Never Felt This Way" was that song for me for like, honestly, sometimes I still -- it still might be if we ever get there. But like [laughs], like it's always been in my top five songs. Like might be my wedding song one day. So even when she was just covering songs that I was like, oh my God, like I love this interlude. And like, yeah. So for me, Songs In A Minor is just a perfect album. And I don't feel that way about many albums, especially many albums that came out when I was alive and there to experience when they came out. So that's why that album will be very special to me. And just because it just allowed me to emote in a way that felt very familiar to where I was in my life. I loved it. And Alicia was just so talented and she was playing the piano. Like the vocals were there. It wasn't like, it wasn't -- because it was like a very poppy time, like packaged poppy time. And it was just nice to see somebody with the raw vocals who could just come in and be talented and sweep the Grammys. So, yes, that's mine. So what's your, what's your next album? What's the next album that did something for you?
Scottie: Oh. So. All right. [laughter] About five years ago, I had to start reevaluating the things that were no longer serving me and asking why I kept them around for so long, including people. And why I kept embracing my inner masochist. Like why I was becoming the hurt people that hurt people. You know, I had so many questions. And at 25 I realized that there were some things and some growning up I had to do in order for me to thrive. So I had to take this very seriously. So I'm walking down the aisle in Wal-Mart. And I have, you know, sometimes I play the shuffle and "Bag Lady" comes on. And I could not keep it together. It hit me so differently. And I know it came out in 2000, I was 10 years old. And some of these albums, too, came out earlier. But me rediscovering it as an adult hit differently. So I couldn't keep it together. I was an absolute mess. So then I said, like, you know, Erykah Badu may be telling me something and I need to listen to the album. Like I need the answers right now. You know, Erykah Badu is asking me, like, why the fuck was I carrying all of this. Like --.
Sylvia: "Bag Lady" was different --
Scottie: [crosstalk] What was the reason?
Sylvia: [crosstalk] When you're older, like when you're kid --\.
Scottie: Right.
Sylvia: When it first came out, it was like a like it was like -- because it was everywhere. Like we were 10, but it was everywhere. I remember that video being on TV all the time. It was in the car. It was like her big single, but like it was like [sings] bag lady. I I used to joke with my mom like, see mom? You gott stop carrying around these bags. Not realizing I was really, really her deeper than I thought I was.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Had no idea. Had no idea.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Because I really -- she just used to carry so many bags.
Scottie: It just hit me completely differently.
Sylvia: When you realized you talking about emotional bags? Baby.
Scottie: [crosstalk] You're carrying so much. Why you carrying all this?
Sylvia: [crosstalk] That hurt.
Scottie: [crosstalk] And let it go.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Let it go.
Scottie: So then like, I left the Wal-Mart, I went to the park and I sat and listened to Mama's Gun over. And began to dissect it for, you know, because of the album, but also because of my life. And I needed some things from Eryka Badu, like, you know, Eryka showed me what her Black womanhood looked like. And she showed me how to define it for myself, especially with becoming, you know, more conscious of what's going on in the world.
Sylvia: Right, right, right.
Scottie: Like, you know, "Penitentiary Philosophy" and "A.D. 2000," I started to really question what was going on in the world, question how serious I was taking my life on. You know on like, "Time's A- Wasting" --
Sylvia: [sings] Don't you waste your time.
Scottie: And although she was talking to men, I felt like she was talking to me.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Scottie: Like you, you got to get some things in order to get your life together, start opening your eyes and seeing what's going on outside and how this affects you, you know. And then she told me to embrace and celebrate the body that I have, the "Cleva" and "Booty."
Sylvia: I love the songs you're naming because I like -- it also shows me like how like a good album has like everybody will have favorites and they'll all be different favorites and they'll all be warranted because all the songs are good.
Scottie: Right.
Sylvia: Probably my favorite Eryka Badu song, period, just the way when -- especially when she performs it live is on this album. And I'm still waiting for you to name it. But I love that like all of you, like when you're talking about "Booty" and "A.D. 2000," like songs I probably don't listen to as much on this album. I'm like, dang that's a good point. Like, yes, this album has this too. Like this actually was like -- she was talking about some real things on here, some real social issues.
Scottie: She was talking about some real shit and like, at 25 I really was searching for some answers, child. But I knew that if Eryka was going through this shit and of course I see Eryka as like the goddess of gods. Like she's a problematic god but she's a goddess. [laughter] Yeah, but she -- at the point five years ago, she could do, she could do no wrong. But yeah, I was like, okay, if she's telling me to embrace the body that I have and also like the booty, you know, telling these -- some of these women, like, I don't want yo man, child. Like even if he does want me, I do not want him.
Sylvia: And that was a -- whew, a notion. A notion that we wasn't hearing about.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Right. Stop.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] But I was like, listen talk about it.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Get off me.
Sylvia: Talk about it.. And I saw like -- that woman in the Jazmin Sullivan interlude, talk about it, talk about it.
Scottie: Right.
Sylvia: But man, "Didn't Cha Know," "Didn't Cha Know" is my favorite Erykah Badu song and it is on that album. And I, I don't even know -- like I think, it's just because I lo -- like the thing about Eryka is the texture of her voice for me. It's the tone of her voice for me. It's very much like, it's just such a unique sound. And I love the way she just floats over certain words and like melodies and "Didn't Cha Know", it's one of those songs for me. And I had the bless-ing, top five moment at BuzzFeed is when -- was Erykah Badu came. We used to have people come and do a little office performances sometimes. And she happened -- just happened to have Robert Glasper with her. Just happened to. And he played the keys while she did "Didn't Cha Know". And they did like a little special arrangement of it. And I like -- it doubled down. Like it -- and it was like 15 years after the album came out and it still hits. It's still hits. Can we talk about the magnum opus that is "Green Eyes"?
Scottie: Child.
Sylvia: It is 15 hours long and I still know every word by heart. It is an album in a song. Honestly, like she splits the arrangement up and each it -- like each I -- It's like a five course meal. [laughs]
Scottie: Right. It fits. It fits the feeling of how each phase is supposed to go. Even like the melody. It changes.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Yes.
Scottie: Like it changes because that's how you get when you're grieving a relationship. You have phases. So like it was mind blowing to me. And that was part of my issue with like 25 is I was going through like a breakup. I wasn't heartbroken, but I just was like, what is happening? Like, I just I -- "Green Eyes" is perfect for me. Like as far as the lyrics are concerned and the phases and and how like she changed it, changed arrangements. Like it just it fit exactly what I needed.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Scottie: At the time.
Sylvia: There was so much vulnerability on that track. And like you said, it was just going like deeper, deeper through the stages of grief and like acceptance of letting go. And even just when she's like, I'm insecure, but I can't help it. Like my mind says, move on. But like it's like.
Scottie: [crosstalk] But my heart lags --
Sylvia: [crosstalk] My heart lags behind.
Scottie: [crosstalk] [sings] But I don't love you anymore.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] It is like but I don't love you anymore. Yes, I do. I think.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Yes I do, I think.
Sylvia: Love you. It's like, yes! It was the per -- like it just described the the conflicting feelings that you go through when you --.
Scottie: Yeah. Yeah. Right.
Sylvia: Mmm. Whoo! Let me tell you.
Scottie: I love that.
Sylvia: I love it. Drake ain't the first one. Let me tell you, he wasn't the first one switching the melodies mid-track baby. Okay, GenZ? I just wanted to let y'all know. [laughs]
Scottie: Right. [sings] Never knew love could hurt like this.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Never -- [laughs]
Scottie: [crosstalk] Like I just, I could --
Sylvia: [sings] Hurt like this.
Scottie: When she started to actually, like, embrace the hate.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Like, yes. Anger.
Scottie: Embrace the hurt and the hate. Like the anger.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Silly me. I thought your love was true.
Scottie: [crosstalk] [sings] Love was true.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Change my name!
Scottie: My name to Silly E. Badu.
Sylvia: Silly E. Badu. Mmm.
Scottie: Oh my god.
Sylvia: Mmm, mmm, mmm.
Scottie: Yeah. No it's, it's the message for me and it's the -- yeah it's the voice for me. She really shaped me. Like when we're talking about shaping, she's shaped the -- me to the woman that I am right now. And I am forever grateful for that because those lessons in that album will probably stick with me forever for the rest of my life.
Sylvia: Yes.
Scottie: So, yeah, I love that. I love that music can do that.
Sylvia: Great pick where Mama's Gun that is -- I mean, whew!
Scottie: Sylvio, all right, yo turn.
Sylvia: Girl. So y'alI knew, ya'll knew there was not not going to be a Beyoncé album on this.
Scottie: We gonna talk about it!
Sylvia: The question was not, will there be a Beyoncé album on Sylvia's list. The question was, which.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Which.
Sylvia: Beyoncé album was gonna be on this list because I love them all, like my kids. I don't like to pick a favorite. But when we're talking about albums about made -- that made us as women. 2006 was a year for me. I was sixteen. I was in love for the first time. I was in a relationship for the first time. I was part -- going out a little bit here and there for the first time. And Beyoncé Giselle Knowles.
Scottie: God help me.
Sylvia: She said, sophomore curse where? And dropped B’Day right before her birthday in 2006. And when I tell you that album -- A, it's it's aged phenomenally. But when I tell you that album was a changing point, not just in Beyoncé’s career, but like to me in modern day R&B music at that time, because it was the instrumentals were there, the trumpets, the horns, the the the music, the band. You wanna talk about bringing --.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Talking about, talk about production.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Production!
Scottie: Talking about the production! That made me fall in love, even more in love with production.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Production.
Scottie: Like, The Neptunes, Darkchild, Swizz Beatz. You had fucking Rich Harrison.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Everybody. Everybody who was everybody was producing on this. And then -- and the first single because what the first single is top -- listen, on certain days this is my favorite Beyoncé song. It's definitely my favorite Beyoncé and Jay-Z collaboration. "Deja motherfucking Vu," "Deja motherfucking Vu" is the single that she dropped to introduce the song and all you heard was doom do doom, boom, boom. Like she said --
Scottie: [crosstalk] Doom, doom, doom --
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Tempo. She called, she was calling them instruments, like high hat. [laughs]
Scottie: Tk, tk, tk, tk, tk.
Sylvia: Bass. [laughs]
Scottie: Yo! Bass. Boom, boom, boom.
Sylvia: And this is how Beyoncé would letting you know she was building the momentum.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Oh my god.
Sylvia: Like we are in for a band performance. We are going live, baby! [laughter] Like I am -- I lost my shit the first time I heard "Deja Vu" and I have not stopped losing my shit every time since she hit us with the Josephine Baker choreography. She had the bang. I love Beyoncé, but she had the ba-ang. That was peak ba-ang times two.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Love that ba-ang.
Sylvia: And she did not let go. Like she put her stiletto on the neck and did not let up the pressure till the very end. I'm talking "Deja Vu." We -- gave me body. You wanna talk about "Get Me Bodied" in 2006 and how you wasn't going to nowhere? Nowhere.
Scottie: Right. This is also when, by the way, we was going to the to the, the club. The teen club.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Like the 16, 17 in there, 21 to drink.
Scottie: [crosstalk] So we was out.
Sylvia: Shout out to Philadelphia. [laughs]
Scottie: Yeah shout out to club -- yeah, what was it? Shout out to Club Abyss.
Sylvia: Abyss!
Scottie: [crosstalk] If you've been there. If you know, you know.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] If you know, you know.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Alright.
Sylvia: If you ducked, you ducked. [laughs]
Scottie: If you know you know. But "Get Me Bodied" was it.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] "Get Me Bodied"
Scottie: Like you couldn't tell me shit.
Sylvia: You want to talk about like she bring bringing back instructions? Like when Beyoncé said drop down low and sweep the floor with it. You better believe I did. You better believe I did.
Scottie: You know how crazy we was looking doing? Like --.
Sylvia: Every -- and the D.J. better play it all the way through. You better be playing the extended version and you better not stop until I could pat, pat, pat my weave real quick. [laughs]
Scottie: [crosstalk] Right. Pose for the camera, now click.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Now click. [laughs]
Scottie: Click. We was out here. We was out here just --.
Sylvia: And if you and your girls didn't have the choreo together, y'all wasn't real friends. Y'all wasn't a squad.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Right. Tick, tick, tick, tick, fight. We was really tick-fighting in Club Abyss. Like.
Sylvia: Wewas, oh, oh oh, oh, uh-oh, no, no. Everywhere.
Scottie: Yes.
Sylvia: And I promise you, if that let somebody drop -- let outside open and a D.J. drop "Get Me Bodied," I will do every single move again in the year of our lourd 2021. Yes I will. [laughs]
Scottie: We've taken it for granted.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] We've taken it or granted.
Scottie: [crosstalk] We've taken -- we've taken it for granted.
Sylvia: But yes like, so those were definitely like my stand up songs. But there was -- every song on there, "Suga Mama," "Upgrade U" "Upgrade U" was also a J-track.
Scottie: [crosstalk] talk yo' shit. talk yo' shit.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] talk yo' shit. You want talk about talking your shit.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Your shit.
Sylvia: I know you through them. I know that -- she said, I know that you the block I'm the lights that keep the street on. Okay, what? What? I know that I'm alone, but I'm alone for a reason.
Scottie: [crosstalk] A reason.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Sending me a drink ain't appeasing! Believe me.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Ain't appeasing. Believe me.
Sylvia: Come harder! This won't be easy! Standards! [laughs]
Scottie: I could not wait. I could not wait to grow up and do this in the club because, of course, there were no drinks at the club where I was that.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] That was me with a Coke.
Scottie: [crosstalk] But I was just so ready, so ready to --.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Sending me a Pepsi ain't appeasin', believe me. [laughs]
Scottie: Believe me. Come harder!
Sylvia: This won't be easy.
Scottie: Like I don't know what they were supposed to do. This won't be easy.
Sylvia: Like I -- like then she was also naming brands that I just was able to become even just have a little bit enough money to even know what they were.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Oh god. I ain't have no money.
Sylvia: Cus Beyoncé would -- let me tell you. "Upgrade U" was my sidekick ringtone. Shout out to the sidekicks.
Scottie: Sylvia, what was your AIM name?
Sylvia: Oh, God. You want to embarrass me like this? [laughs] In public?
Scottie: What was your AIM name? I just need to know right now.
Sylvia: I had two, okay. It's a -- one of them was Jerzi Gurl with some set of numbers. But Jerzi, like J-E-R-Z-I-G-U-R-L. That kind of Jerzi Gurl.
Scottie: Gurl.
Sylvia: The other one was Dimplez with a Z 08.
Scottie: Of course it was.
Sylvia: Cus that was the year that I graduated high school and I had dimples. So like everybody like -- that would be like a little bit of my niggas. Sometimes people call me Dimples. So I was like Dimplez08, cus I was --
Scottie: [crosstalk] Wait. There was always a Dimples in a group of girls.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Always. What was your AIM name?
Scottie: [crosstalk] I don't care. I had a dimple. My aim name at the time, this is before we canceled him. But it was Flashing Lights321. Because --
Sylvia: Ah. Of course it was. [laughs]
Scottie: Flashing Light. I was a huge Kanye West fan.
Sylvia: Of course it was. But --.
Scottie: Before that it was Coffee Brown Queen, Please Pray For Me. It was my mom that came up with that name.
Sylvia: Wow. I could just -- I could smell the cigaretts from the spoken word poetry house.k.
Scottie: Right. [laughs] Coffee Brown Queen.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Like just from that name. Like I just, I could just -- it was like, wow. Suddenly I was transported to the den.
Scottie: You missing out the hotep oil from the back of the ear.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Right. [laughs] It's just there. But no. But back to Bey -- but back to B'Day because B'Day was -- I really would just like, just like I remember the hits that was on there: "Ring The Alarm," "Kitty Kat," "Freakum Dress," "Green Light." And these aren't even the -- the number one hit singles. Like "Kitty Kat" -- okay, "Ring The Alarm." I don't even -- like "Ring The Alarm." Let's start there.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Okay. Thank you.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] I'll go there.
Scottie: [crosstalk] I was gonna say, please start.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Let's go to "Ring The Alarm." You want to talk about talking about --.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Child.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] A feeling that I hadn't really heard expressed this well before. About one of the reasons why you don't want to break up with that nigga is because you've done all the work to build a Bobisha. You done Bobisha-ed it up.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Yep.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] And built the bear and then she gonna go --
Scottie: [crosstalk] Pass this nigga on to the next bitch.
Sylvia: [sings] She's going to be rocking chinchilla coats. I let you go. Like --.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Like that's not happening. That's not happening.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] That's not happening. So you mean to tell me if I let you go right now after all the work I done put into this man and his communication skills and all the other things, I'm going to lose him to who?
Scottie: But then in turn, Beyoncé made me so excited to have that experience. Like even with the music video, I was like, I want a wile' out like that. Like that look like some shit that I wanted to do. Like I want to bust up in them motherfuckers.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Ring the alarm. I've been through this too long.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Right.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] But I'll be damned if I see another chick on your arm.
Scottie: [crosstalk] But I'll be damned if I see another chick on your arm. The music video is fire.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] The music video for that was fire. The the literal alarm, like the bell, the whistle. Like she was literally using, if there was a tool or an instrument.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Single tear. Remember when the tear came down? The tear. When she was like, [sings] how could you look at me --.
Sylvia: Yes!
Scottie: Like that line --that tear right here? I said, that's acting. [laughter] Beyoncé is giving us a performance.
Sylvia: [sings] She's giving, giving --.
Scottie: For the Oscars.
Sylvia: [sings] Giving, give it to my ma. But what I'm saying about this --.
Scottie: [sings] Oh, give.
Sylvia: And the point about this and like the empowerment, like the the feeling of like those like, usually think that you might be too ashamed to say. Like I would be damned if I see another the chick on your arm. That's like possessiveness that we weren't really taught to embrace or like told that we get to feel or be like seen with in that way. And then even like "Kitty Kat" when she's talking about how he don't deserve the pussy, essentially. So take it. Let's go "Kitty Kat." Like I got it. You know what I mean? [sings] He don't want no mo'. It's like, it's worth it. Like you have the prize there. Or "Freakum Dress" when it's like -- because when you get them with --because when he does wrong, hit him up top, this is just song. And for me being in a rel -- like I said I was 16. I was in love for the first time. I was in a relationship for -- so I -- that meant I was arguing for the first time. That meant I was experiencing what it was like to trust. Or to like, to -- the fear of trust. Or the concern about being cheated on. Or like even just like the insecurity of like what it feels like to love another being that could just go out and not know how he's behaving when you're not around. Like the --there are certain emotions that were expressed in B'Day that I was being able to have firsthand knowledge of for the first time in my life, just as a woman, which is why I specifically picked this album. I mean, A, it's phenomenal, right. And it was a hugely underrated at the time. But it also was like as much as like, to the left, to the left. Don't you ever get to thinking you're irreplaceable? Go -- like go. I need these. Like you the things we needed to hear in high school about these dusty boys.
Scottie: Right. Them boys was dusty.
Sylvia: But Scottie, the song I've really been building up to talk about -- from B'Day.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Please let's talk about it. Just for two seconds.
Sylvia: I can't -- I would be remiss if I did not speak about "Resentment" because when I tell you it don't matter how in love or single you are, you hit play on "Resentment," you immediately transform into Bernadette in Waiting To Exhale. I don't -- Or like a woman who has just been scorned. Even -- I can't even -- I'm so single I can't even fantasize. I don't even have a nigga fantasize about cheating on me. [laughs] To -- like to even picture while I'm singing this song. And I still, each lyric hits like a bullet.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Right.
Sylvia: It's really just a vulnerability for me. You want talk about like -- I don't think I've ever heard expressed and so thoroughly, especially like in that last verse, what it feels like to be cheated on by the love of your life. And it's like, because I think there's a lot of things you usually -- like we're so used to the anger of it. Like the "Ring The Alarm" of it, or like the "Not Goin' Cry" of it that we won't talk about the -- I know she was attractive, but I was there first, insecurity of it --.
Scottie: [crosstalk] The confusion. It's the con -- insecurity and the confusion. Like I'm angry. Yes, I'm all these things, but I am severely confused. Like I was here first. Been riding with you for six years.
Sylvia: Why did I deserve --.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Why did I deserve that? Like what did --
Sylvia: [crosstalk] And it's like and it's even just like --.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Child, you know, we just talked about heartbreak last episode.
Sylvia: So we just talked -- you want to talk about a song to not -- to not listen to you when you're heartbroken? it's goin -- cus I'm not heartbroken now and I was sad. She, she said I used to be so strong. Now you took my soul.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Now you took -- I'm crying.
Sylvia: Can't stop.
Scottie: Can't stop crying.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Crying.
Scottie: And then if you didn't hear me, nigga, I said, I can't stop crying!
Sylvia: [crosstalk] I can't stop crying! And then she gets to the point of the matter, which is the you could have told me the truth and avoided half of this pain. Cus she was like --
Scottie: Right. You wasn't happy.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] [sings] You could have told me.
Scottie: [crosstalk] You could have told me that instead of wasting my fucking time.
Sylvia: [sings] You wasn't happy. I know you didn't want to hurt me.
Scottie: [crosstalk] I know you didn't want to hurt me but I look what you done did now nigga.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] But look what you did to me now. I got to look at that wack bitch in her eyes --.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Look what you did know. In her mother -- her mediocre fucking eyeballs.
Sylvia: Her crooked, lazy eye.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Her fucking lazy eyes.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] And she has had --.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Her spaced out eyeballs.
Sylvia: Had her unplucked, need to be threaded eyebrows knowing that she had half of me.
Scottie: Half of me.
Sylvia: [sings] When she ain't even half of me. [laughs]
Scottie: Not even a quarter. Not even -- nothing.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] She can't afford half of me.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Not -- nothing!
Sylvia: My stock just went up over two million. And then you want to come and do this? You want to act like this? How could you lie? Like I love it that it ends with that simple question. Because ain't that just the question?
Scottie: [crosstalk] Why did you did that? Why did you do that?
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Why did you -- why did you -- It didn't have to be like this nigga. Like --.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Sylvia. Okay.
Sylvia: It's the perfect. It's the perfect -- it's just -- I just -- she just expressed it so well. And I just I thank her for that vulnerability because it definitely gave me a glimpse. Like my ass was in love. I felt like when I heard "Resentment" I still remember being in the car, driving down the highway. I forget where I was going. And I heard -- I would listen to "Resentment" and I was in love. I hadn't been heartbroken yet. And that shit made me scared as shit. I said, this is where I'm heading. I wish I would have heard this song before I fell in love. It's too late! It's too late! LIke, I can't --.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Right.
Sylvia: I can't do anything. Like, it was really like this is what it's going to -- like it was like a, like a warning. And she won't wrong. She was not wrong. But that --.
Scottie: It's triggering every single time.
Sylvia: The fact that this album had "Deja Vu" and "Resentment" like the range, the range of this album. It was perfect. It was the perfect time. I can't believe this September it will be -- have been 15 years. This is the 15th anniversary year of B'Day. So I'm really excited for that reason too, to honor a little bit. But Beyoncse Giselle Knowels, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you. Scottie, what is your last pick?
Scottie: Okay, now, now there are people who seek refuge in music looking for answers and then there are people who allow music to search for the problem and have you asking questions. So like Seat at the Table, Solange.
Sylvia: Let's just go on and move to the next Knowles sister.
Scottie: Yeah, let's let's make it current.
Sylvia: Let's move on. Let's bring it, let's bring it to now. Yes.
Scottie: Solange was the first time an album had me asking so many fucking questions. That album evoked so many emotions that I've always suppressed, that I didn't think that was important. That album was the biggest check in, self check in that I've ever heard in my life.
Sylvia: Like it was a check we didn't ask for, we didn't know coming.
Scottie: I had no idea.
Sylvia: It was like an intervention. [laughs]
Scottie: The album title alone was what I wanted my whole entire career at that point.
Sylvia: Whew!
Scottie: You know, I was working my kneecaps off to be seen at this job, questioning every ounce of my being because the industry was ripping me apart, thinking I was never, you know, I could never meet the standard of what they were looking for. You know, the higher ups kept wanting to change things about me. And I just felt like I wasn't enough. Like me, the Black girl that I am that I've grown to love was not enough. And the only way to increase my value was to neglect the girl that I've grown to love for 26 years. So I couldn't do it. And I couldn't give up on myself, like I couldn't give up on the girl that I've grown to love. So that made me feel guilty that I wasn't, I wasn't able to do whatever it takes to get the job, which means change myself, you know, have different, you know, morals or, you know believe in different things. Like I just I couldn't do it.
Sylvia: Right.
Scottie: And I was beating myself up for it for so long and not being able to be seen or heard at the job like that really put me in a place where, first, I feel like I was in a sunken pla -- I didn't know that I was hurting that much until Seat at the Table came out.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Hmm. It revealed it --.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Had no idea.
Sylvia: It revealed the pain that you didn't realize you were feeling.
Scottie: Yeah. Well, Solange held up that mirror.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Ooh! She'll do that.
Scottie: You know, she held up that mirror to my face, the whole album. And she showed me that I was not okay. She showed me what my reflection really looked like. You know, like this is what you're going through. You can't suppress it any longer. So you know, that album, even from the top to bottom, the top of it to the bottom, literally, like rise --.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] [sings] Falling away.
Scottie: I teared up. I teared up. That album made me want to take therapy more seriously. That's actually when I started getting into therapy.
Scottie: Okay.
Scottie: Was when I heard Seat at the Table because I knew that there were unresolved things, questions that I needed answers to that this music has posed for me and I needed answers to them. And the only way I could was by peeling back these layers, peeling back the amount of suppression and the throw -- you know, the sweeping under the rugs. I don't know how many rugs I had, but child, it was for me to pull some back --.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] [laughs] The house was full of them.
Scottie: And figure out why this floor is so dirty/. You know, what's the reason?
Sylvia: Whew! Yeah.
Scottie: So A Seat at the Table did that for me, I mean, we, we all know the song, but for me, for me? "Cranes In The Sky" --
Sylvia: Okay.
Scottie: That's exactly what I was doing. I have never felt so seen by a song until I heard that song. And I was like, wait, but that's what that's what I do. I thought that was self care. No, it's not self care if you're trying to keep -- if you know you're trying to distract yourself from your healing, which we were talking about last -- on last episode.
Sylvia: I'm about to say if the distractions won't save you, can't -- distractions won't heal you was a song.
Scottie: That's it.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] That's the song, "Cranes In The Sky."
Scottie: [crosstalk] And that's exactly what I was doing. I was trying to heal myself --
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Tried to drink it away. Smoke going away. Fuck right away.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Cry it away.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Cry it away.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Weed it away. Buy it away. Everything.
Sylvia: [sings] Away, away. Oooh. [laughs]
Scottie: Away, away, away.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] [sings] Away. [laughs]
Scottie: And it just wouldn't go the fuck away. Shit. It was the biggest eye opener ever. I just, I mean that and then "Mad." Now let me tell you something.
Sylvia: Hah-ha! And we needed like, you would talk about telling people you have the right to be mad, the power of telling Black women especially that we have the right to be mad.
Scottie: First of all, I have a lot to be mad about.
Sylvia: [laughs] [sings] Got a lot to be mad about.
Scottie: The constant questions of where did your love go? Where did you -- like where did -- Yes, we still have the love, but I still have a lot of pain, too, and I have a lot to be upset about. I -- and the fact that I'm a -- she said, I'm not allowed to be mad, I'm not allowed to be mad. That's exactly how I felt. I just I'm not allowed to be mad. I have to suck it up and keep enduring this pain that I continue to get because that's normal.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Scottie: It's what comes with being a Black woman, right?
Sylvia: Yeah.
Scottie: We -- that's what you need to to get stronger.
Sylvia: Yeah. She like, took the angry Black woman and flipped it on its head.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Right.
Sylvia: Like she took that trope and that stereotype and was like, actually the angry Black woman has a right to be mad. She's got a lot to be mad about. So instead of pointing and just calling her and like, like ex --.
Scottie: [crosstalk] How about you fucking listen to her?
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Like dismissing her. How about you figure out what you're doing to make her angry?
Scottie: Right.
Sylvia: How about you figure out why she's -- what the society, this country has done to make her angry?
Scottie: [crosstalk] Stop telling her how to feel.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] And then the fact that this album came out in 2016, during the 2016 election? It was just Black people were mad. We had a lot to be mad about.
Scottie: [crosstalk] [sings] Got a lot to be mad about.
Sylvia: The Black Lives Matter movement was up and swinging. And it was just like a perfect swan song of like, I can be angry, I need to be angry. Because what's worse is if I suppress this anger, what it's doing to me, what it's doing to our loved one, what is doing to our family, what is doing to our healing. We have to you -- we talked about the importance of emoting and like being sad, like going through the feelings. It's important because when you suppress them, that toxicity stays inside your body and it has effects.
Scottie: Right. A lot of times we become the poster children for fuckin, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. But actually, it is killing. It's killing you emotionally, mentally.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Yes.
Scottie: You know, they're talking about the physical, but what's inside matters, too.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Yes.
Scottie: So, yes, it's harming me. It's harmful, you know, to to have that rhetoric of like, yeah, it just makes me stronger. Nigga, by this time --.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] No, no.
Scottie: We are the Hulk. We are the Hulk compared --.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Right. And it will kill you too.
Scottie: [crosstalk] We're good. We don't need anymore.
Sylvia: It's like, yes. And while we're on the subject of being angry, well, I'm mad. It also don't touch my hair, ho. I'm tired of smiley, politely smiling when you -- you can't -- when you're like, oh, your hair is so lovely. I am -- you don't want us anymore. You can't just touch just us when you want to. We are not property. We are people. [laughs].
Scottie: Yeah.
Sylvia: The personal space boundaries.
Scottie: Shit I've been waiting, Sylvia. Just one time.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] I know you're waiting [laughs]
Scottie: I want somebody's crusty ass white a finger to reach --.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Ashy, unmanicured --
Scottie: Reach, reach for my hair. Please do it. [laughter] You want to have it no more.
Sylvia: I'm glad that, I'm glad that that came out too before Covid because keep your hands to yourself, especially in these times. But no, that was necessary. But my -- one of -- another song that I have to talk about that was on this album was "F.U.B.U" because I love-- the song started out, [sings] all my niggas in the whole world.
Scottie: Yeah.
Sylvia: And I just, she said, [sings] this shit is for us. And I love the interlude before I too would Miss Tina about, you know, talking about how like just because we're embracing Black culture doesn't mean that we are putting down yours. Just let us embrace ours.
Scottie: [crosstalk] You don't have a culture, but yeah.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] And the situation with that culture, the fact that it feels threatened and I mean, and in this situation too, like not even just white people like all the -- you know, there's a whole people, all the people of color, like we all like, it's like, yes. [laughter] But like just, like what I said Black. You know it was -- it was that song where it was like --.
Scottie: Yes.
Sylvia: No I said, Black. You know, like people be like Black women, you mean peopl -- no Black. I said Black, capitalize the B when I say Black.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Yes, yes.
Sylvia: And like don't feel like don't be threatened by the fact that you left out of something. Learn how to be left out of something. I wish y'all would leave us outta stuff more. You know what I mean, like please. And that song was just so perfect because I do feel like we were come -- like when Black Lives Matter on a second and came this embracing of us speaking up about how Black culture is culture and how nothing moves without us and embracing what we bring to -- that we created this table actually, that we're fighting to get a seat at, we built it and then y'all pushed us away. And now we're scrapping to get seats at it. And don't be mad when we come together and build rebuild things for us because you won't let us in. And so now do you want to not only not listen to your shit, but when we build shit you feel, you want to be all lives matter-ing it because you're not a part of it now. Or like mad, as you can say nigga. And that's why I love that she specifically said nigga so many times and addressed us as niggas in a loving way. Because you can't have that either. Sorry.
Scottie: Yeah, because it was intentional. And I remember listening to it with the digital team at the time. I was with the digital team and it was all Black kids, at that time we were young. So it was a bunch of Black kid listening to it and we were just swaying and dancing. And this was our first time listening to it. So we were just like, we were so happy that we had something that was ours. And that at the time we were creating something that was for us.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Scottie: That that we can protect, that we're trying to protect. You know, it's a bunch of creative -- Black creatives trying to sit and, and push the world forward.
Sylvia: Yep.
Scottie: I mean, that's what I love most about music, is that it has a way of revealing yourself to yourself. You know, we have albums that also save us from ourselves. And I think that's what this album did for me.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Yeah.
Scottie: You know, it saved me from myself, from, I'm sure, the destruction that I was going to do later. [laughter] Because, you know, had I kept suppressing it. So thank you, Solange for real, for holding up that mirror that I needed, that I hid from myself. So, yes.
Scottie: Yeah, that is my third. Sylvio, give me a third one. And I feel like I'm going to be good.
Sylvia: You know, it's just so I love the last album you did brought us to 2016 because that is also where my third pick resides. That is also the year it blessed us as well. My third pick is Anti, a.k.a Rihanna's magnum opus --.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Child.
Sylvia: A decade into her career, she gave us the bad bitch that is the Anti album. And honestly, I'm surprised she hasn't given it too much since because what -- she gave us so much in this album that I -- when we talk about shaping us as women. The reason why I'm picking this because, again, like this is -- these are not-- I'm not saying these are my top three favorite albums of all time or anything like that.
Scottie: Yes.
Sylvia: I'm just saying that these are albums that specifically spoke to me as a woman, shaped me as a woman. And the thing about Anti, was 26, I had just started working at BuzzFeed, so I was just starting to like finally feel like I'm at a place in my career where like cool. It was also my first single summer as a grown woman. Like grown woman had been -- had two heartbreaks at that point. Realized that like, okay, we might be cruising it. I was like 26 when this album came out but I was like we might not see marriage in our 20s. I was correct. [laughter] You know what I mean?So like what it did for me, a good girl, quote unquote, good girl who didn't really -- who was still trying to figure out as a single grown woman dating what kind of rules or things that society may have put on me that I wanted to reshape for myself, to take control of that narrative with. And Rihanna is the perfect bad bitch to guide you through that journey because she was like, with certain songs, like "Needed Me," "Needed Me" is a stand out from me on Anti because Rihanna gonna talk her shit, but she's also going to, like, not be ashamed of being selfish in her dating life, in her romantic life. And being a savage if she wants to. Like when she was like trying to fix your inner issues with a bad bitch. Didn't I tell you that I was a savage? Fuck your white horse and your carriage?
Scottie: [crosstalk] I'll take them.
Sylvia: She said, fuck the white horse and the carriage. That's where I was at in the year of our lord 2016. I had said, fuck the horse and the white carriage. You could never -- it's like, you needed me. Like you need me. These niggas need us. And me learning the game from like a -- like that kind of standpoint where it's like, oh this is a game we're all playing. And like let me have some fun with it. Let me not make it all about love and heartbreak. Let me enjoy that middle gray area of the fun, the mess, the the learning lessons you get there. You know, having the kind of, yeah, I said it sex. Where you're not, you know, when she's telling him what she wants. Here's what I want. Here's what you're going to do. And one thing about this session, I'm orgasm. Okay? Whatever we gotta do to get there? Like, we're not going --we're not faking it around here, no more, kind of thing. Like it's like, you know, it's like I want to do things. And just even "Kiss It Better." That's another I feel like very sexually aggressive, but like empoweringly sexual song. You know what I mean, we're she's like, fuck your pride, take it all back, take it all back. [laughs] Keep me up all night. Like do what you want to --
Scottie: [crosstalk] Like, so that was the guide for me.
Sylvia: Like --.
Scottie: Like I already knew. I mean, come on, what kind of person I was. But [laughter] the the play with that nigga era was definitely the Anti era.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] The play with that nigga era?
Scottie: [crosstalk] Play with that nigga.
Sylvia: It was per -- It was just a good -- play with that nigga. "Work" was the per -- like you remember, just "Work" with Drake. Like I'm just glad that Rihanna and Drake, everything that came from it, at least it led up to the gift that was "Work." At least we all got "Work" out of it because the amount of nights, the Brooklyn summers, the nights and little house -- like little bars or restaurants when you dancin or little parties at rooftop kickbacks in Brooklyn and "Work" is playing. And the summer breeze is in the air and the rum punch is hitting, it was a moment.
Scottie: [crosstalk] But also like when when the rum punch hit and you drunk and then you call your ex and you like, this whiskey got me feeling pretty.
Sylvia: Okay? Okay? Yes.
Scottie: So pardon me if I'm impolite.
Sylvia: [sings] so pardon if I'm impolite.
Scottie: I really need your ass with me.
Sylvia: [sings] I just need your ass with me.
Scottie: I'm sorry about the other night. Like --.
Sylvia: [sings] And I know I could be more creative -- Anyway.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Creative. And come up with poetic lies
Sylvia: [crosstalk] And come up with poetic lies.
Scottie: Yes. But you don't mean it. Like I know for a fact you don't mean it. You're drunk. But I know right now --
Sylvia: [crosstalk] But you take me higher.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Come here.
Sylvia: You take me higher. Higher than I've ever been, babe.
Scottie: [crosstalk] [sings] Higher than I've ever been, Babe!
Sylvia: Like I -- It's like that's the thing. It's like one minute -- like it was like you can be all of these things. It was permission to not ask for permission. That's what Anti like -- that's the energy Anti gave me where it was like, you are the bad bitch savage but then sometimes, you know, you can call a nigga back because you have feelings too and you're drunk and you -- we all -- we're not perfect. You don't have to pretend to be too perfect to go from, yeah, I said it in "Kiss It Better" to "Higher" and "Close to you" or "Same Ol' Mistakes," literally a song about being able to make the same mistake over and over again. How that sometimes is a part of your life and your healing journey.
Scottie: Yeah.
Sylvia: I was no longer in the place where I wanted a love album or a breakup album. I wanted the shit in between. You know what I mean. And because that's what I was and that's what Anti. It was Anti standard. It was Anti -- like it's why I love even what it was called. Anti-whatever it is you think I'm supposed to be doing or whatever set of rules, I'm supposed to be following, fuck that.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Right. I'm doing that shit.
Sylvia: I'm Anti.
Scottie: And I'm doing whatever I want to do. Give me a motherfucking break.
Sylvia: Yep.
Scottie: So, yes, I love that. I love it. I love it. I love it. And then we have a collective. We we've set our three each.
Sylvia: Yes.
Scottie: But we have a collective one that I think we can -- we should talk about it a little bit. You know, just a little, because I think everybody has heard this motherfucking soundtrack. If you have not, please fight me outside. But --.
Sylvia: [laughs] Please go get some taste. Go get some taste.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Complete -- improve your palet please.
Sylvia: Go pick it up from the store because this is an iconic, iconic soundtrack that me and Scottie both adore and wanted to share. We couldn't let either one of us only take full claim to it because it definitely shaped us completely.
Scottie: So we're talking about Waiting To Exhale, the soundtrack. Okay?
Sylvia: Yes, Babyface. Put his foot, leg, arm, all of it into this, into this here soundtrack.
Scottie: We love the the movie. Movie's perfect. Absolutely. But it wouldn't have been perfect without that soundtrack. And Babyface literally wrote every single track, which he had intended for Whitney to only sing until Whitney was like, no, I'm not singing. I don't even know if I'm going to sing. [laughter] Bu --.
Sylvia: Whitney's like, I go a lotta lines to memorize. [laughter]
Scottie: I got a lot, got a lot going on right now. But she also said, if I sing on this, that does mean that I get to say who's on it and who's not on it. So we have to thank Whitney Houston, too, for supplying the vibes, for knowing who to put on these tracks. Okay?
Sylvia: It's a sisterhood album. It's a sisterhood album. And it's the perfect soundtrack to talk about Women's History Month, because this is women's history. Waiting To Exhale is women's history. And it was such a time capsule of the best voices, not even just at that time, because Whitney's ear is so superb and Babyface's. These are artists that have stood the test of time.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Of time.
Sylvia: And that speaks to their, you know, ability to to to pick out and curate the vibes in this matter. Let's talk about some of the songs. What what are your favorite? What's one of your favorite?
Scottie: My favorite -- Ha, I can't.[laughter] My favorites are -- I really can't.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] It depends on the week. It depends on the season.
Scottie: It really does.
Sylvia: It does, it does transfer because I will say, like I mean, obviously at the time "Sitting Up In My Room" felt like -- it was the younger vibe because it's to come out early 90s. So like initially that was my favorite song for a long time. I love Brandi. Brandi was hyped to get picked. Lord knows she has not let's forget to this day [laughter] that Whitney hand-picked her. She was the only young girl that got picked to be on this album.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Oh Jesus.
Sylvia: And I, too, would carry that bag with a badge of pride and never let y'all forget it. So I get that. And TLC also with a bit of the youth there. But I would have to say for me, I mean, "Not Gon' Cry" was the song, was the song.
Scottie: [crosstalk] It was the song. It was a song.
Sylvia: For then. But it has become such the commercial song, not to -- but I don't want to gloss over it because it's become the commercial song. Like I was your lover and your secratar, is a bar, working every day of the week.
Scottie: Whew! I'm getting chills. Yes. Like --.
Sylvia: Was at job when no one else was there.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Else was there. Helping you get ah-han, ah-han.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Helping you get on your feet. 11 years [sings] I sacrificed.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Not on your feet. Ha-han your feet. So -- two feet.
Sylvia: And you can leave me at the drop of a dime? I swall -- after I swallowed my tears and stood by, your side? I shoulda left yo ass a thousand times.
Scottie: I don't think anything hurts more--.
Sylvia: Mmm. What hurts?
Scottie: [crosstalk] Than, Why does it hurt so bad?
Sylvia: [crosstalk] [sings] Why does it hurt so bad? [laughs]
Scottie: [crosstalk] Because you thought you you were over him. And then --.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] [sings] And dhy do I feel so sad.
Scottie: Feel so sad. Like --.
Sylvia: I thought I was over you, that's when it's the worst. When you thought --.
Scottie: But I keep crying when I when I when I'm supposed to not love your ass. Like I'm supposed to, not really want to be with you, but I keep crying about it.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] [sings] So why, so why does it hurt so bad?
Scottie: [crosstalk] So -- at -- give me the answers.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] [sings] That I had let you go but
Scottie: Thought I, thought I --.
Sylvia: [sings] I gotta get you out of my head.
Scottie: [crosstalk] [sings] Get you out of -- oh my god.
Sylvia: That's my breakup song. That's the breakup song for me.
Scottie: [sings] Get out ---.
Sylvia: Something about Whitney's voice, the pain in Whitney's voice. Whitney is just so good at emoting whatever the feeling is of the song in her, just in her chords. Those are blessed, anointed chords, child. But that's why --.
Scottie: [crosstalk] My favorite thing.
Sylvia: That's why there ain't no better name. Like why does it hurt so bad? Whoo! That one and Aretha's hurts, "It Hurts Like Hell.".
Scottie: Oooh!
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Aretha's -- because Aretha --.
Scottie: [crosstalk] [sings] Oh baby! Cus she -- she jumps on.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Aretha said, let me remind y'all who birthed this. [laughs] She was like if the kids need me, if I must.
Scottie: When the violence hit and she starts with that, [sings] Oh baby! I said, oh, she's about to really give us the biggest hug ever and like put -- place her hand on the bottom of my back and say, sis, he don't love you. This is not goin to work.
Sylvia: By the end of "It Hurts Like Hell" if you are not in the posture of praise, I don't know. LIke --.
Scottie: [crosstalk] [sings] Love is always supposed to be something wonderful.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] And it would always hit during Bernardine scenes. Bernadine would be her beautiful big ass house crying over this nigga that left her for a white woman. And then Aretha will just so you hear the, [sings]
Scottie: [crosstalk] [sings] Oh baby!
Sylvia: [crosstalk] [sings] Oh baby! Oh. It was like mmm.
Scottie: XxThat right there will take you out.
Sylvia: Those are the songs that hurt the most. But there are also some sexy songs on there that I enjoy. Like --
Scottie: [crosstalk] [sings] This is how it works.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] [sings] How it works. Like TLC definitely that one. But my favorite sexy song on this album is S.W.V.'s "All Night Long." I think it's a very underrated track on this so -- soundtrack. But I love she was like, [sings] baby, you can call on me.
Scottie: [crosstalk] [sings] On me -- Yeah, that's cute.
Sylvia: Xx[sings] Any time that you're in the need. But my favorite part -- and Bryson Tiller just actually recently sampled this song on his new album. But [sings] Baby, you know, I keep it nice and warm and satisfied.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Yes. Yeah.
Sylvia: I'm always hot for you. I love that song. Like it was like --.
Scottie: I love that song. It's really nice.
Sylvia: [sings] Boy I'll do you all -- It's just the vibe. [sings] Night long.
Scottie: I was going to say Chaka's "My Funny Valentine" was my favorite because "My Funny Valentine" has been covered so many times.
Sylvia: So many.
Scottie: And not one can measure up to "My Funny Valentine" by Chaka Khan. Like --.
Sylvia: Chaka said, it's my song now. [laughs]
Scottie: It's literally. You know, that just speaks to how great of a vocalist Chaka Khan is. Like I will forever stan for Chaka Khan. Child, that voice? Like --.
Sylvia: That voice.
Scottie: Even watching her perform still. And she's like performing next to like upcoming singers or, you know, current singers. And you see them wailing like turning over, trying to find, you know, the diaphragm, the voice [laughter] so that the air can come up.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] How do I twist my body to sound like this?
Scottie: [crosstalk] And Chaka is standing in one spot, singing.
Sylvia: Not even moving.
Scottie: With --.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Barely moving her face.
Scottie: All of the power. So, like, yeah, I am forever.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] It's crazy.
Scottie: Same thing with Whitney. It's just insane. Like, if -- take a moment one day and just watch Whitney Houston performances. And literally stand in disbelief that that kind of power can exist in such a small body, little.
Sylvia: Small frame. Like whew. And then but there's the friendship song of all friendship songs.
Scottie: I'm about to say, the first and the last Whitney Houston, "Exhale." Because when she said, when you have friends who wish you well -.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Shoop, shoop, shoop, shoop.
Scottie: You'll find a point when you will exhale.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] You will exhale.
Scottie: [crosstalk] You will.
Sylvia: She created that whole set. You heard of shoop before shoop? You heard of shoop before? I hadn't. She made the like -- Whitney gave us the whole -- she made it up.
Scottie: [sings] Shoo-de-doo. Yeah. And then you got "Count On Me." Now this is what Waiting Exhale did for me. Although it did show how trifling niggas are and whatever.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] It's like we knew that. [laughs]
Scottie: [crosstalk] But what the main message was -- we knew that. We have daddies. But what -- [laughter] what it did for me was pointing out the importance of tribe, the importance of having like a group of friends who really wish you well, who are there for you. You know, my mom has, again, the same friends. And that's what I taylor, I think my friendships. Like my mom's friendships with her friends, where she's been friends with her friends since college. And those are my aunties, you know. Those are the women who shaped me to the women I -- for the woman I am today. So it's just the importance of "Count On Me." Like, I don't care what I'm doing. I'm always yes, shit is going to fall apart, but please count on me not moving not once from your side because I'm always be here. Like that's how I feel about my friends. That's how I feel about my family. And I love when they have the dialog between Whitney and CeCe where --.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Cece [laughs]
Scottie: [crosstalk] She's like, alright -- you know, ugh. I shouldn't. Like I can't. She's like, girl, call me! Call on -- call me. Count on me! Don't play.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Bring back talking on R&B tracks, please. [sings]
Scottie: Right. when they go back and forth. She's like, you sure? Like, yeah, girl call me! I'm not playing with you.
Scottie: A friendship that will never end. When you are weak, you wanna talk about teaching people about how to be your friend. Like I mean I think also watching Waiting To Exhale over and over and over again at such an early time in my life. And then I mean, because my mom loved the movie. Whose mom didn't? My mom had read the book. We had the cassette soundtrack, kids, the cassette, and then we later got the CD. But revisiting Waiting To Exhale in college is really when I started watching it over and over again, just as myself. And learning this soundtrack and even the song where it talks about when you are weak, I will be strong. Helping you to carry on.
Scottie: [crosstalk] to carry on.
Sylvia: Like that is a friendship. Like --.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Call, call on me.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Okay, she's weak, I'll be strong. I'm going to be strong in her weakness. She's going to be made strong in my weakness and vice versa. And we're going to help each other carry on. Like it's about the imperfect, like it's easy to be friends when everything is going right. When your life is falling apart, everything's falling apart. And you know, or even like when you're an imperfect person, you're know you're not being a good friend in the moment, for that love to sustain throughout that is like the core of it.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Yeah.
Sylvia: And I love that this movie and the soundtrack showed me as a woman that your girlfriends can be your soul mates, too.
Scottie: Yes, yes, yes. One hundred percent.
Sylvia: They can be your happy ending because I remember thinking like they have -- only Gloria ended up with a man. What -- why they are so happy? And then it's realizing that like the happiness is not in those niggas.
Scottie: [crosstalk] No. Your real soul mate's your friends.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] It's -- It's with your girls.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Your girlfriends.
Sylvia: That is the love that will stand the test of time. And [sings] when you were -- so I just want to say, [sings] I know sometimes it seems as if --.
Scottie: [crosstalk] As if we're standing all alone but [sings] we'll get through it.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] [sings] Get through it. Mmm.
Scottie: Because love will not let us fall. [laughter] Or love will let us fall? What is it? [sings] Love won't --
Sylvia: [crosstalk] [sings] Love won't let us fall.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Love won't let us fall. Yeah. Love --
Sylvia: [sings] Let us fall.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Oh, yeah, no, that was that's that's -- it's so magical. Like it really is.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] It's magical. And it's a good thing we -- like you and me we've sung that song together before. Like I've sung it with some other -- like I love singing a song with my close girlfriends because that's really what it is like, count on. You can count on me.
Scottie: [crosstalk] I tear up every time at the end.
Sylvia: Yes, they dramatize how long. They keep saying, [sings] count on, count on, count on, count on. [laughs].
Scottie: [crosstalk] Count on, count on. Because it's it's --.
Sylvia: That much.
Scottie: Eternal. It's forever.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Eternal.
Scottie: Don't -- it will never ever expire. I will always be here as long as I'm breathing breath on this earth and probably past that. I am going to be there. I -- You can count on me to be here. So yes, you can count on for minutes.
Sylvia: Scottie --.
Scottie: [crosstalk] [sings] Count on, count on me. Yeah --.
Sylvia: Scottie --.
Scottie: Yeah.
Sylvia: [sings] You can count on me.
Scottie: Oh, I know.
Sylvia: [sings] Yes you can. Sure you can.
Scottie: [crosstalk] Sure -- no I can't. [laughter] Count on -- I love that part. Sure you can girl. [sings] Count on, count on --
Sylvia: Yes I can. [laughs] Whoo! Whoa.
Scottie: Ah, I'm literally going to listen to all these albums right now. Like, thank you to these Black women.
Sylvia: Thank you. Thank you.
Scottie: And to so many other Black women, Nina, I mean, Simone. I didn't get to say an album, but when we talk one day, when we have that discussion [laughter] y'all best believe we gon talk about Nina Simone. And Billie Holiday too, you know, who have created the music that will bring me joy and strength for the rest of my life. So I am forever, ever grateful for music.
Sylvia: [crosstalk] Thankful. Grateful for these women.
Scottie: Yeah. For music and being able to show yourself so that I can be seen. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Sylvia: Yes.
[Music in]
Sylvia: All right. That's our show, guys. Thank you so much for tuning in and listening to all of our favorite picks. I hope you felt seen and represented in our feelings, too. Because I know we were not alone in that. Like, I know you -- like a lot of our listeners were going through the same stuff at the same time with these albums. So I hope y'all dug the conversation.
Scottie: Yes. Our show is a production of Pineapple Street Studios in partnership with Netflix and Strong Black Lead. Shout out to our team. Executive Producers are Agerenesh Ashagre and Danielle Cadet. Our Lead Producer is Jess Jupiter. Our music is by Amanda Jones. Special thanks to Max Linsky and Jenna Weiss-Berman.
Sylvia: Make sure you share your thoughts with us on the episode using the #OkayNowListen. Follow Strong Black Lead on the socials @StrongBlackLead and follow us top. I'm @SylviaObell.
Scottie: And I'm @ScottieBeam.
Sylvia: Until next time folks, stay blessed.
Scottie: Bye. Listen to them songs. [laughter].
[Music out]