Skip to playerSkip to main content
Devonte's Paradise
  • 2 days ago

Category

😹
Fun
Transcript
00:00:00Start, start, start, start, start, start...
00:01:00Thank you so much for being here, and welcome to the final event of Women's History Series
00:01:202017.
00:01:21We're so, so excited and honored to be hosting Princess Nokia in conversation today.
00:01:34And the event is the culmination of so many months of work and weird delays and confusions.
00:01:41As I'm sure you all can tell, luck has not been on our side, but now it's happening and
00:01:48it's great.
00:01:50So, for my co-coordinator and I, Sophia, putting together Women's History Series has really
00:01:58been truly a labor of love.
00:02:00We're both so committed to influencing conversation on campus towards deeper thought on issues
00:02:09of race and gender, justice and revolution.
00:02:12And we hope that this event will bring some of those ideas forth today.
00:02:17Our theme for Women's History Series this year is healing for sustainable resilience.
00:02:26And under that banner, we've been attempting to kind of, as I said, kind of put forward a
00:02:31vision of politics that can hold space for spirituality and self-preservation.
00:02:38And so, we hope that through this event, through your engagement with Women's History Series in
00:02:43whatever capacity, you've come away with some new thoughts, some new plans for action on topics
00:02:51of sustainability, healing, resilience, and resistance.
00:02:56I want to give a really quick shout out to the Sarah Doyle Women's Center, which is our
00:03:00home on campus.
00:03:02As I'm sure many of you know, Sarah Doyle is the holding space for a lot of wonderful programming
00:03:13and thought on issues of gender and politics and race and justice.
00:03:19So, come by, see the house, it's great.
00:03:26I have a couple of business notes.
00:03:31In the event of a fire alarm, please proceed calmly to a nearby exit, leave the building,
00:03:36and move away from the doorway.
00:03:38Please note that the location of nearby exits.
00:03:42The closest exit may not be where you entered, and be aware that the way you entered may not
00:03:46be the most direct way out.
00:03:48Sitting or standing in the aisles and doorways is not permitted, so be sure, I'm just kidding.
00:03:55J play.
00:04:00Smoking is also not allowed in a university building.
00:04:03Please turn off or silence all cell phones.
00:04:06We would also like to thank our very generous sponsors, the Sarah Doyle Women's Center, the
00:04:10Office of Institutional Diversity, the Office of the President, Office of the Provost, Office
00:04:15of the Dean of the College, the Division of Campus Life and Student Services, and the Undergraduate
00:04:20Finance Board.
00:04:21So now I want to introduce my wonderful co-coordinator, Sofia Robledo-Rower.
00:04:34She's going to be facilitating this very exciting conversation today.
00:04:39A little background on Sofia, Sofia Robledo-Rower is a queer white Latina Libra from New York
00:04:52who co-coordinated Women's History Series, all the important details.
00:04:56She is a junior concentrating in Africana and Ethnic Studies.
00:04:59She is co-editor-in-chief of Blue Stockings Magazine and a founding member of Students Against
00:05:04the Prison Industrial Complex, a prison abolitionist organizing group.
00:05:08Sofia is a novice herbalist, a young healer, and a farmer.
00:05:15And I'm also so, so excited to introduce Destiny Fraschiere, otherwise known as Princess Nokia.
00:05:38Princess Nokia is an independent artist from New York City.
00:05:51She released her debut album 1992 in fall of 2016.
00:05:54She is returning from her second tour of Europe and the United States and has been featured
00:05:59creator, vice, bustle, etc. and is also maybe performing tomorrow, some of you might have heard.
00:06:06I'm not a musician.
00:06:14I think you just have to hold it.
00:06:18Hello, hello, hi Brown University, how y'all doing?
00:06:22What a beautiful, beautiful crowd here today, some gorgeous folks in here.
00:06:43True.
00:06:44These are like the best folks on campus.
00:06:48No, I completely believe it.
00:06:51Thank you for having me, by the way.
00:06:53I really appreciate the love and the support.
00:06:56Yeah, thank y'all so much for coming out.
00:07:02So, maybe we'll just take a deep breath and settle in.
00:07:05I'm gonna take my shoes off.
00:07:07Yeah.
00:07:08Take your shoes off, do whatever.
00:07:10We all family in here, right?
00:07:12Well, we should be.
00:07:14So, I thought that we would start by, maybe I'm gonna start by asking you about your live
00:07:21shows because anyone who's been to your live shows know how much you care about centering
00:07:26women and centering women of color specifically.
00:07:29And actually saying that and intentionally making that space.
00:07:32So, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about how important that is to you and
00:07:36how it has changed your shows, if it has, and in general, why you choose to do that.
00:07:42Well, I think essentially, when I primarily first started performing, it was a really awkward
00:07:49experience for me and I didn't like it.
00:07:52And it was like this phase that I had where I'd rush and didn't care about myself.
00:07:58So, I didn't care about my art and I didn't put effort into it.
00:08:01And then I, you know, I evolved as a person and I evolved as an artist and I started to
00:08:06take art really seriously.
00:08:09And I thought that my art wouldn't give something to me if I didn't give something to it.
00:08:14So, I said, I can't just like wait till last minute to get ready.
00:08:18But then just like, I used to play like a lot of nightlife, like club shows, very late at
00:08:21night, New York rave, underground queer scene.
00:08:24And it was a very different spectrum and audience to which I perform to now.
00:08:28But when I wanted to reevaluate how I performed, I wanted to, or when I started being Princess Nokia
00:08:35and really, really like giving a lot of effort and evolution to the whole process and schism,
00:08:42I think that I just wanted to create a really cool brown radical kind of like space, you
00:08:47know, like that was like encompassing the hip hop energy, but had like really, really like
00:08:53nasty punk, like unapologetic energy as well, which I think comes from like the riot girl
00:09:01influence.
00:09:02Right.
00:09:03I think that I'm an, I'm an extremely emotional person.
00:09:08I connect to people regardless of where I am.
00:09:12I don't know how to be any other way completely, to be honest with you.
00:09:16So with that being said, I think that I'm a very big fan of science and music and all these
00:09:24different attributes of life and I encompass them all together.
00:09:29And I believe that artists, they create spaces of energy, they create spaces of, of environment.
00:09:38You know, it's an artist really has the power to create an environment for its audience.
00:09:46And I, I kind of always knew and just like how I really, how I relate to myself as my artistry
00:09:52is I have a beautiful bravado about me, but I don't have like ego.
00:09:57So I don't, it's not like I'm like separating myself from my audience.
00:10:01It's, it's a room of love.
00:10:03They come to see me.
00:10:05So how dare I act like I'm better than them or that they should, they should want to hear
00:10:10me perform.
00:10:11No, it's not like that at all.
00:10:14I think that I'm very conscientious of the audience and the young souls that are in the audience.
00:10:23I mean, they're beautiful and I like to look at them and I like, I mean, it's like hard
00:10:26not to, it's hard not to look at someone in their face.
00:10:30So I think that creating these safe spaces, I just wanted to like create a safe space where
00:10:34it was like fun and happy and joyful and safe.
00:10:39Because I have been to places in my youth where things weren't safe and they weren't inclusive.
00:10:45And it really pissed me off.
00:10:47And I think that's why I started rapping and performing in the first place.
00:10:51So I just wanted to create spaces of love that were like, not fake, that were real love,
00:10:57that were really based on love.
00:10:59And that's kind of where it is.
00:11:00That's kind of where it comes from.
00:11:02So in the Fader documentary, you talk about going to a place of fantasy.
00:11:06And I was wondering if you could say a little bit more about the relationship between that
00:11:10space of fantasy and maybe the space that you try to create when you're on stage or how
00:11:14you think about a space of fantasy.
00:11:16Well, I think that music is like my primary escapism, right?
00:11:23And I've used music as a tool to deal with so much trauma or pain in my life.
00:11:31And it's the healthiest, most wonderful, most gratifying escapism I've ever had.
00:11:37And that is a place of fantasy, escapism in some facets that are fantasy.
00:11:42My music is a fantasy for me.
00:11:44As you know, I've done before 1992, I did Metallic Butterfly, I did Honeysuckle.
00:11:49Those are experimental albums that have like no correlation to what I do now.
00:11:54And they were like schisms of fantasy where like I cosplayed.
00:12:00I'm like, I'm a nerd at the same time.
00:12:02So like, you know what I mean?
00:12:04So when I say like, I go home to a place of fantasy outside my own, I've always been
00:12:08a loner.
00:12:09I've always been an awkward kid who daydreamed a lot.
00:12:13You know?
00:12:14I'm like a clairvoyant.
00:12:15I'm like, my head is in the clouds.
00:12:17I can't pay attention to a lot of things.
00:12:19I fantasize a lot.
00:12:21And I'm okay with that.
00:12:22I know that about myself.
00:12:23It's healthy.
00:12:24It isn't very negative.
00:12:25So I think that with fantasy, whether it's like my fantasy with like daydreaming or my
00:12:32fantasies with like the comic book world and like superheroes and like cartoons and anime
00:12:37and comics and all that fun stuff, I just, I have a very innocent spirit.
00:12:43So when I do have like pain or trauma, my escapism are always with fantasy.
00:12:47I'm always like reading like little girl, like princess books and like wearing like
00:12:52a unicorn onesie and like sucking on a pacifier, like some really odd out the world shit.
00:12:58But like, that's my fantasy.
00:13:00And that's where I go to, to make myself feel happy.
00:13:03And it's okay.
00:13:04Cause it's healthy.
00:13:05It ain't, you know, I'm not like self deprecating.
00:13:08I've been there before.
00:13:10So now my adulthood, my evolution, I like healthy fantasies.
00:13:13So kind of going off of that, what is your personal relationship to Princess Nokia then?
00:13:22How do you think about the relationship between Destiny and Princess Nokia?
00:13:25I think that essentially both are the same, you know, like it's definitely the most, the
00:13:33so much the same.
00:13:35But with Princess Nokia, I think like, I kind of take it from like the place where I came
00:13:39up with the name and Princess Nokia, like when a couple years ago, I was like in this really
00:13:45different, interesting paradox where I had like become a viral sensation, like very lowly.
00:13:51And I like avoided all this like label stuff, but I had been like across seas in Europe already.
00:13:56And like, I was just this like person in the music world.
00:14:00But I was still like, I remember like, I was broke.
00:14:04I've been emancipated since I was 16, I bought my own laptop, I didn't have anything like,
00:14:10I lived with my dad, but I had to, you know, provide for myself.
00:14:13I didn't have Wi-Fi in my home.
00:14:15I didn't have a laptop for a long time.
00:14:16And I didn't have a cell phone.
00:14:17I would always be at the library getting Wi-Fi or being on the computer.
00:14:22Most of the business transactions, touring, a lot of stuff I did in the early days, I was
00:14:26at the library doing that.
00:14:28I had an Obama phone, like government Obama phone.
00:14:33And I remember being in high school, my later, like 19, 20 years old.
00:14:37I went back to high school, I had dropped out.
00:14:39I was Wavy Spice in high school, like Princess Nokia, or I don't know, I don't remember actually.
00:14:44I think I was just Wavy Spice.
00:14:46However, I was just doing all this cool shit off this little phone.
00:14:52And I think like, it takes a lot of balls to admit that, number one.
00:14:56And number two, it takes a lot of balls to be able to make such, to be so resourceful
00:15:02with so little.
00:15:04And I have just encompassed like, I'm like a gutsy little resourceful kid, you know?
00:15:09And that's just me.
00:15:10And like, that's Princess Nokia.
00:15:11And that's where it came from.
00:15:12But Princess Nokia has evolved into something so much more.
00:15:15But it's very, very much me.
00:15:16It's not like my stage name or like, I'm two different people on and on stage.
00:15:21Nah, nah.
00:15:23The only thing is that I don't like, I don't really call myself Nokia.
00:15:26Like, I've realized that like, that's your name, like people call you that.
00:15:29So you should like, refer to yourself that as Moore.
00:15:32But like, I'm always like, yes, hi, I'm Destiny, like, nice to meet you.
00:15:35I think that's just because I like my name a lot.
00:15:38And it's just because I never called myself Nokia.
00:15:40It was never a thing like, hi, I'm Nokia, like, hi, hey, it's Nokia, like, or like, I was
00:15:47like, we're only calling me Nokia now.
00:15:49No.
00:15:50I don't think I ever did.
00:15:51No.
00:15:52It's just a cool name.
00:15:54I'd be funny though, because remember that, like that thing that Nicki Minaj did against
00:15:59Remy Ma?
00:16:00She was like, I'm the iPhone.
00:16:02You the Nokia.
00:16:03And I was like, I was like, that's me.
00:16:07I was like, definitely the lower grade.
00:16:12And that's okay with me.
00:16:15The Nokia got snake on it.
00:16:17So come on.
00:16:22It got the game Pong too.
00:16:26So I'd rather go with the Nokia.
00:16:29I'm the baby fat Nokia too.
00:16:32So I'm from New York and so I'm really interested how, you said that you, like, found Princess
00:16:40Nokia when you moved to the Lower East Side.
00:16:43And so I'm wondering, like, what about the Lower East Side or what in the Lower East Side
00:16:46really, like, changed you in that way or gave you that creative, like, jump?
00:16:51Well, I'm originally from the Lower East Side and Harlem.
00:16:55My dad is from, thank you.
00:16:57My dad is from the Lower East Side.
00:16:59My mom is from Harlem.
00:17:01I always lived in the Lower East Side.
00:17:03I moved permanently to the Lower East Side when I left for us to kill.
00:17:06I was very sheltered.
00:17:08I wasn't allowed to do nothing, really have friends or go out the way teenagers can do
00:17:13when they're in high school, but I was still pretty wild.
00:17:16I just was like, oh, I wish I could show you this picture I just showed them of me in
00:17:20high school.
00:17:21It was like me drinking a 40, making an adapter.
00:17:24But when I got to the Lower East Side, I got to live with my dad and I had ultimate freedom.
00:17:31Like, I started, like, really going to raves, really going to parties, really, like, working
00:17:37in the art world and the fashion world and just being downtown.
00:17:40And if you're familiar with that schism of, like, New York downtown, anything happens.
00:17:44Anything can happen in a New York minute.
00:17:45You go to a party, you meet this person, you end up somewhere.
00:17:48It's like synchronarity of the art world scene.
00:17:51You know how Madonna has all those pictures of her and Basquiat and it's real casual?
00:17:56That's very, like, New York downtown.
00:17:58And that's very much what I experienced when I moved there.
00:18:01I just would be in the middle of the street, just in the thick of it.
00:18:05Real, real beautiful New York kind of, like, moment.
00:18:08And I just got to be free.
00:18:10I just got to be free, man.
00:18:11And I just got to, like, I just got to really engross myself in the arts, in the art world,
00:18:17and be around other art people.
00:18:19I went to a parochial school that was corporate work study.
00:18:23I wasn't allowed to be myself.
00:18:25I had to wear slacks and a collar shirt every day.
00:18:28I had to conform.
00:18:29I got sent home for wearing a skirt that was at my knee.
00:18:32You know, like, a lot of things like that, that just really stifled my creativity.
00:18:36So, when I went to the Lower East Side, I really did become Princess Nokia, essentially.
00:18:42I just became, like, that, like, underworld, like, for my first album, I referred to it
00:18:49as this, like, graphic novel of this Princess Nokia was this high school girl that was a
00:18:54nerdy, awkward high school girl by day.
00:18:56And then, like, a singer and nightlife person go-go dancer by night.
00:18:59I was a go-go dancer, like, used to hit all the, like, all the, I was everywhere.
00:19:04You know what I mean?
00:19:05Like, everywhere.
00:19:06And that's just, that was it.
00:19:09And in the graphic novel sense, that's what Princess Nokia did.
00:19:12She, like, went to school, didn't really talk to nobody, smoked a lot of weed.
00:19:16And then, at night, I would, like, wear, like, orange hair, wigs, and, like, you know,
00:19:22it was, like, centric as fuck.
00:19:24And I think, like, yeah, that's, I got to be myself.
00:19:26I got to be free.
00:19:27And then I got to, like, see the hustle between the art world and the music world and, like,
00:19:31me and what I could do with it.
00:19:33That's when I pushed myself further.
00:19:35Mm-hmm.
00:19:36I used to also go to, like, weird parties when I was a teenager in New York.
00:19:40And, like, you know, it was weird.
00:19:43Very much.
00:19:44It took, like, to be a teenager, too, like, seriously underage, seriously queer.
00:19:49It took, like, a lot of toughness to go into those spaces where either you were, like, pretending
00:19:54to be older or, like, you were like, hey, hi, you know?
00:19:58And so I was wondering about...
00:19:59Relatable.
00:20:00I was wondering about, I know you've talked about being torn between feelings of docility
00:20:06and also feelings of power and toughness.
00:20:09And I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about that and maybe how that plays out
00:20:13and how that played out in, like, going to those parties, but also now and how that's changed.
00:20:18Well, I think as a young kid I was really into going to parties because I just loved to go
00:20:25dancing.
00:20:26I'm a raver.
00:20:27Like, real old school raver before EDM.
00:20:30And I think that that was, like, my get down.
00:20:34I just wanted to have a beer, you know, have a couple drinks and just let go.
00:20:40And I think I was, you know, I lived in a really abusive home for many years.
00:20:47And every chance I could let go or be somewhere else, I would.
00:20:50And that was the beauty of my adolescence is that I just let my freak flag fly
00:20:55and anywhere I could go find fun, I would.
00:20:59And that was really beautiful.
00:21:00And the spaces were cool, you know?
00:21:02Like, they were interesting.
00:21:03It was, like, the New York, like, rave, kind of, like, underground warehouse scene.
00:21:07Very interesting part of my life.
00:21:09I don't remember a lot of it, honestly.
00:21:11I used to drink a lot.
00:21:12And I just, I don't want to laugh at that because I don't drink anymore.
00:21:15And I don't disregard drinking.
00:21:18Drinking's cool.
00:21:19But I just don't drink anymore.
00:21:20Like, I used to do it too much.
00:21:22My memories are weird.
00:21:24But it was great and it was beautiful and it was, like, it was kinetic.
00:21:28Like, I remember having spiritual experiences of those lasers hitting me and hearing the drop
00:21:35and the music and voguing and shuffling and raving and, you know?
00:21:41And, like, I went on no drugs either, really.
00:21:44I was just, like, moved, like, by a high of being by myself for the first time.
00:21:50And, like, all the things I used to fantasize about at 12, 13 years old.
00:21:54Read about the Village Voice.
00:21:55Look at online.
00:21:56Look at movies and shows.
00:21:58Like, I got, I was, like, living it.
00:22:00I was, like, oh, my God.
00:22:01I'm doing this.
00:22:02Like, I wanted to do this.
00:22:03And, like, I got out.
00:22:04And I'm doing it.
00:22:05And, like, that feeling of, like, it was, like, the Waiting for Tonight videos.
00:22:09Like, you know, beautiful, gorgeous.
00:22:16Essentially, when I became 19, 20 years old, I started to embark on a spiritual shift within
00:22:24my own personal individual self.
00:22:26I could no longer attend parties the way I used to, actually.
00:22:30I became really sensitive to the energies around me.
00:22:33And I realized that my, essentially, my energy and my intentions or whatever I was about
00:22:43or feeling was very different from everyone around me.
00:22:46And it was very apparent.
00:22:48And then I realized that I started becoming really anxious and nervous at parties.
00:22:54And I noticed, I started realizing how people saw me.
00:22:57And it maybe wasn't the most positive thing.
00:22:59And the shadiness just wasn't worth it.
00:23:02It wasn't at all.
00:23:03And it just wasn't fun for me anymore.
00:23:05And I had to take a long, and then I kind of, like, look back on my life and was like,
00:23:09all right, I'm going to retract from this.
00:23:11And then I'm going to just focus on me and my art and kind of things that I was starting
00:23:16to be into at the time.
00:23:18I started to be really into hiking and praying.
00:23:21And that kind of took over my party life.
00:23:24And it's funny because I think about, like, oh, my God.
00:23:27I used to really be up in there.
00:23:28And then my life just changed.
00:23:30And then I'm grateful for both.
00:23:33I wouldn't trade it for the world.
00:23:34It was the funnest time of my life.
00:23:35No, this is the funnest time of my life.
00:23:37But it was a lot of fun.
00:23:39Yeah.
00:23:40It was a lot of fun.
00:23:45I'm very lucky, too, because I used to walk around a lot by myself at odd hours of the
00:23:52night, a little girl in no clothes.
00:23:55I've got to be honest with you.
00:23:56That's not advisable.
00:23:57I would say, don't do that.
00:23:59That was not cool.
00:24:00But I had guardians all around, you know?
00:24:03Yeah, I'm really curious about, like, your relationship when you're performing energetically
00:24:11with the crowd.
00:24:12And, like, where do you feel the spirits in that, if you do feel the spirits in that?
00:24:17And how do you negotiate those energies and that, like, being able to identify that energetic
00:24:24feeling when you're performing?
00:24:26I think that, more than anything, I move by God.
00:24:31And my definition of God may be different from other folks.
00:24:34My definition of God is the highest supreme feeling of beauty and light and happiness from
00:24:41up there.
00:24:42It's not no man with no beard.
00:24:44Ain't nobody trying to smite me down.
00:24:47You know, it's light.
00:24:49It's light, and that's all it is.
00:24:50And I know it very well.
00:24:52And when I'm in stage, it's a wave of feeling.
00:24:57I can feel it.
00:24:58I can sense it.
00:24:59I can breathe it.
00:25:00And I can see it in the people's faces.
00:25:02And it's back and forth.
00:25:03And it's exchanged.
00:25:04And it's kinetic.
00:25:05And that's what I feel more than anything.
00:25:08Ain't really no spirits.
00:25:10It's good spirits, if anything.
00:25:11But it's godliness.
00:25:13It's happiness.
00:25:14It's uniqueness.
00:25:15And I've had, like, severe pneumonia and a long series of anomalies.
00:25:22I've been, like, almost deathly, like, gonna die.
00:25:27And then I've gone on stage and completely have shifted my entire physicality because
00:25:33I am so moved to perform and put on a good show and have a good time that I've completely
00:25:41healed myself.
00:25:42And the whole show, I was completely, I didn't break no breath.
00:25:46I didn't break a sweat.
00:25:48I didn't cough.
00:25:49As soon as I got off stage, I was sick as fuck.
00:25:52However, it's just beautiful.
00:25:55You know?
00:25:56I think that, like, it's like the energy and it's the, the, what's that called?
00:26:01The, what's that called?
00:26:03The EpiPen that gives you adrenaline.
00:26:05The adrenaline.
00:26:08That's such a rush.
00:26:09And it's a positive rush.
00:26:11And it's like me in this, I throw the punk energy into it.
00:26:14I'm jumping up and down and acting a whole bunch of fools and, you know, I can't look
00:26:18like, I've done the best I can for my appearance today, yes.
00:26:22But, like, I won't look like this by the end of the stage.
00:26:26I don't know, I don't know how women do it.
00:26:29Like, I'm like still trying to figure it out.
00:26:31Because I go on stage and I, at the end of the show, I look like a wet mop.
00:26:35And that's cool.
00:26:36That's great.
00:26:37I, I, like, I was jumping around and sweating and crying and rapping and, like, my makeup
00:26:42is, like, all the way off.
00:26:43Like, you know?
00:26:44And, and it's cool because it's worth it.
00:26:46Like, I'm, like, I'm just jumping around and, like, like, just getting so live and crazy.
00:26:53And it's just so amazing.
00:26:54I can't, like, be demure and walk around and just be like, who that is, ho?
00:27:00You know, like, I don't know, it ain't my style.
00:27:11So, my style is to be really, I'm just so quirky and fun.
00:27:17And I'm just, like, head banging and humping speakers and doing, I used to do a big split
00:27:24on stage.
00:27:25Like, I used to bust it open.
00:27:27I don't do it anymore because I would, I literally injured my knee so many times and
00:27:32it just wasn't cool and it wasn't fun anymore.
00:27:34But I used to, like, bust it open on stage.
00:27:37Like, I just, like, it's, like, the opportunity to be whatever you, do whatever you wanna do.
00:27:42To be nasty and wild and messy and free.
00:27:45And that's the whole reason why I love, like, bringing punk energy to hip-hop or, like, breaking
00:27:52down those taboos that you have to have, like, a thousand fucking people on stage with you.
00:27:57Like, I show up by myself.
00:27:59That's all I need.
00:28:00Me.
00:28:01It's cool.
00:28:02I don't need a whole bunch of people.
00:28:03I don't need an entourage.
00:28:04I don't need, like, a hype person.
00:28:06I'm all of that together.
00:28:08You know?
00:28:09And it's dope.
00:28:10You know?
00:28:11And I think that's what's different with what I wanted to bring to Princess Nokia and
00:28:14what I facilitate.
00:28:15I've toured many countries now.
00:28:18Many shows.
00:28:19I've seen it all.
00:28:20Three weeks after my first album, I had an entire sold out tour.
00:28:24Like, that's numbers that no underground artist does, you know?
00:28:28And that's love.
00:28:29And I just, like, we're going to have some fun.
00:28:32Tomorrow's going to be fun.
00:28:36A lot of beauty in it.
00:28:39So, you've spoken a couple times about, like, getting a lot of almost power from isolation
00:28:44and going into yourself.
00:28:46Can you kind of, like, talk a little bit more about that and how you kind of figured that
00:28:51out?
00:28:52Because I'm sure, like, it's something I know I struggle with.
00:28:54And I'm sure, like, lots of folks here struggle with as well.
00:28:57Listen, young bloods.
00:28:59I always knew.
00:29:00I spent a lot of time alone because I was different and I was weird and I was very unique.
00:29:05And a lot of people didn't understand me.
00:29:08So, I was forced to spend a lot of time alone.
00:29:10I was forced to spend a lot of time at home alone because I wasn't allowed to have friends
00:29:15or play dates.
00:29:17All up in here, with a lot of love, though, thankfully.
00:29:20Thankfully, I didn't become a dog person.
00:29:24I think that I'd always spent my life alone in some facet or another.
00:29:29I was familiar with it.
00:29:31But when I began studying spiritual discipline, you learn that solitude, spiritual solitude,
00:29:40is a huge component in self-evolution.
00:29:45And when you want to evolve or you are evolving, regardless if you want to or not, like someone
00:29:51like myself, who is developing clairvoyant abilities by the age of 20, because that's my
00:29:56genetic disposition as a Caribbean person, it just comes to you.
00:30:01It comes to you.
00:30:02And you have to accept it.
00:30:04And you could denounce it if you want.
00:30:06It's going to be a hard life after that, though.
00:30:08You're going to be at odds with yourself.
00:30:10So, I started, you know, understanding, studying, reading.
00:30:14It came to the point where it says in many books, many esoteric, spiritual books, that it's
00:30:20going to come to a point where you're not going to relate to people anymore.
00:30:24And people are not going to relate to you.
00:30:26And the things that you used to share your time with or anything, whether it be the parties
00:30:32girls, the men I was with, the friends I used to be friends with, they didn't relate
00:30:38to it no more.
00:30:39So, it was a time where I had to have solitude and force myself into solitude.
00:30:44Because I wasn't trying to play myself.
00:30:46If something wasn't right for me, I couldn't force myself in it.
00:30:50My body was rejecting it.
00:30:51My mind was rejecting it.
00:30:52My spirit was rejecting it.
00:30:54So, I had to be alone.
00:30:56And then I accepted it.
00:30:57And I was like, okay, this is what comes with it.
00:30:59It's a gift and a curse.
00:31:01In order to advance as a spiritual person or a clairvoyant person, the Caribbean witch
00:31:06that I am, I have to accept these things that come with it.
00:31:10And solitude is one of them.
00:31:12And that's okay with me.
00:31:14Better than being average and mediocre.
00:31:18Can you talk a little bit about being a Caribbean witch and maybe what Afro-Latinidad
00:31:22means to you?
00:31:23Yes, very much so.
00:31:25So, my identity is very multifaceted.
00:31:28But it's very deep rooted in the genetics of my country and my family.
00:31:34And I am an Afro-Indigenous woman.
00:31:37I'm Puerto Rican, which means I'm triple raced.
00:31:41I'm black, I'm white, and I'm Native American.
00:31:44And I'm mostly black and white.
00:31:46And a lot of Puerto Ricans don't like to admit that to themselves.
00:31:50Some do and some don't.
00:31:51Whatever.
00:31:52I don't want to get into that schism of colorism and self-hatred within the Caribbean countries
00:31:56because of colonization.
00:31:58However, as a mixed person, I'm very, very honest with myself.
00:32:03How do I look?
00:32:04What do I look like?
00:32:06What's my skin color?
00:32:07My hair?
00:32:08My mother?
00:32:09My family?
00:32:10Where do our customs come from?
00:32:12Our traditions?
00:32:13I look at my family personally.
00:32:15Santeria, regla de hocha, and the Yoruban religion has been in my family for centuries.
00:32:22She's passed on, baby.
00:32:25And I can't deny that.
00:32:27And it's a very special part of my identity because it's a powerful part of my identity.
00:32:33It's all that I know.
00:32:34And it's all that my mother left me with when she died.
00:32:37People don't realize that.
00:32:39My mother left me orishas before she died.
00:32:43So my connection to my blackness is very powerful and strong and I'm very proudful.
00:32:50And at the same time, I'm very aware of my privilege as a light-skinned woman.
00:32:54But at the same time, I'm not going to deny that I'm black.
00:32:57There are a lot of Puerto Ricans that do.
00:32:59Do I look?
00:33:00I look black.
00:33:01Come on.
00:33:02Just think about that.
00:33:03So when it comes to the schism of accepting blackness, I grew up in a really Afrocentric home.
00:33:09I grew up with dark women around me.
00:33:11My mother's dark.
00:33:12So I think that those are just things that come natural to me.
00:33:16With the schism of a mixed person, I think, yes, I'm mixed.
00:33:21And I try to honor each part of my identity equally.
00:33:26But the Afro-Latino part in me is so huge and it's played such a role in my identity and upbringing
00:33:34that it's kind of like all I know sometimes, you know?
00:33:37And the identity of being a mixed person is really hard.
00:33:42Being a Caribbean person is really hard.
00:33:44Being a magical person is really hard.
00:33:47But I'm very intellectually stimulated by bringing all those truths and those large parts of my family together
00:34:00because they give me strength.
00:34:02And as Queen Afro said, she said, if you don't know the people that bore you, you'll never know yourself.
00:34:10And I think that's very important because in my quest of understanding my womanhood, I just wanted to connect to my ancestors and my family and the spirituality that I am bred from.
00:34:24And that's one of the largest parts of my upbringing and my genetic upkeep.
00:34:30So as an Afro-Latino witch, I think that I realized many years ago, because I introduced the concept of me being a witch like a metallic butterfly when I did Corazon in Africa and when I did Young Girls.
00:34:45And I think that when I wanted to start making art of substance, because I'm very, I'm not really fond of the art that I first made, like Bitch I'm Posh and Vicky Gotti and Visachi Hadi.
00:34:57That's cool, but I'm not proud of that.
00:34:59That's not art.
00:35:00But I started to make, when I started really evolving as a woman, because when I started making music, I wasn't evolved.
00:35:08I was a little teenage girl with a stick up my ass, with a big ass ego, who thought the world owed me something.
00:35:14And I looked different.
00:35:16And I looked more Eurocentric.
00:35:18I looked real, real, like, you know, whatever.
00:35:21And then I started finding myself.
00:35:24And I started realizing a lot of things.
00:35:27And I realized that I'm a woman of substance.
00:35:31I'm a woman of magic.
00:35:33I'm a woman of, like, a lot of, lot of, lot of beauty that comes from a really core place in my country and in my family.
00:35:42And it was becoming so apparent.
00:35:45It was not something that could hide for the life of me.
00:35:49And it was something that I thought was so beautiful in my self-discovery.
00:35:53I had to share with the world.
00:35:55Because, to me, it was the most beautiful part I'd ever discovered about myself.
00:35:58When I found God, when I found out that I was really a witch, man changed my life.
00:36:04And I no longer hated myself anymore or did drugs or, you know, whatever.
00:36:12I was like, wow, my eyes are open.
00:36:15The veil is lifted.
00:36:16I come from a mother who has born me out of magic.
00:36:23It's intense and it's powerful.
00:36:26That's who I really am.
00:36:27And I like the girl I used to be.
00:36:29But this is really who I am.
00:36:31And I had to start checking myself.
00:36:34And when it comes to Afro-Latinidad, I know there's a lot of intersections that are complicated and difficult.
00:36:41I can't apologize for being mixed.
00:36:43But what I can do is try to erase the demonization of blackness within my country and within our culture.
00:36:53Because everybody is okay with being Taino.
00:36:57But nobody wants to be black.
00:37:00You know, and for me, like, I got, I even got friends.
00:37:03I even got people from my tribe that I grew up with since I was four years old.
00:37:07Looked down at me for wearing yawwa.
00:37:10Coming into a powwow.
00:37:12And all white with coyotes on.
00:37:15Real black.
00:37:16And that's okay.
00:37:17That's up to them.
00:37:19I know that I, we have an obligation to our ancestors.
00:37:24And that's where I really stayed with it.
00:37:26And that's why I'm so adamant on my culture and explaining why I am so proud of being Afro-Latina.
00:37:34But I don't identify as Afro-Latina.
00:37:35I identify more so as Afro-Indigenous because I am a Thayuna woman.
00:37:39I am Native American.
00:37:40I'm Afro-Indigenous.
00:37:41And yeah, very white too.
00:37:43And I'm cool with that too.
00:37:44And I'm proud of that too.
00:37:45Because I'm just Spanish.
00:37:46I'm Irish and Italian as well.
00:37:48And I've tried to find beauty in my whiteness as well.
00:37:53And it's funny because if I go to Spain, people look at me funny and be like, you're not Spanish?
00:37:59They, they, they, like, it's a weird placement.
00:38:03No matter where I go, I'm rebuttled back.
00:38:06So it's, fuck it.
00:38:07You're like, I'm here.
00:38:09And that's the best that you could try to do, I think.
00:38:15And, and, and, and, you know, when it comes to, like, my sisters, my Indigenous sisters, or my sister's sisters, I'm trying to, I'm trying to be on both planes with them.
00:38:24But I'm trying to, I'm trying to do it respectfully.
00:38:26And I'm not, and I'm trying to do it by checking my privilege.
00:38:29And I'm trying to do it with respect.
00:38:31But I'm also trying not to hide myself because I mix, you know.
00:38:35It's a, it's a, it's an interesting field.
00:38:38But I think I, I try to play it as well as I can.
00:38:40Mm-hmm.
00:38:41Yeah.
00:38:42That was such a beautiful answer.
00:38:44Thank you so much.
00:38:46Um, I was also wondering if you could talk a little bit about the spiritual or, like, different religions that were around you growing up.
00:38:53Um, and how you, like, negotiated all of that.
00:38:57I grew up so liberal.
00:38:59It's, like, so cliche and corny.
00:39:01It's really, like, a moment.
00:39:03Um.
00:39:04Okay, so I grew up in New York City.
00:39:07New York City's pretty diverse, pretty liberal.
00:39:09My family is a very eccentric fucking family.
00:39:13And I've had many different, I live with different people.
00:39:15So, my family was primarily Catholic.
00:39:19Catholic, Catholic.
00:39:20I baptized in church.
00:39:22Went to church all my life.
00:39:24Well, no.
00:39:25Went to church up until the age of 15.
00:39:28Because that's when I left and didn't want to go back to church.
00:39:31Um, from a big portion of my childhood, my father was actually a devout Muslim.
00:39:38My father had turned to Islam for therapy when my mother died.
00:39:44My father found Islam in prison.
00:39:47And him and his best friend had converted to Islam and became devout Muslims.
00:39:51My father used to go by the name of Al-Amin.
00:39:54When I was a child, my father prayed five times a day on his mat.
00:39:58My father read the Quran.
00:39:59My father and I would wear matching kufis because my grandma would have had a heart attack if he tried to put a hijab on me.
00:40:05So, and there's a, that's, it's a funny thing because people are like, what?
00:40:10And I'm like, yeah, there's a lot of Puerto Rican Muslims in New York actually.
00:40:13It's like, I grew up with them.
00:40:14I knew this woman named Fatima.
00:40:16Her daughter was Rabia and Davina.
00:40:18They was like Puerto Rican chicks.
00:40:19And they was Muslim.
00:40:20And I grew up with them.
00:40:21And like, it's just like a thing.
00:40:23I don't know.
00:40:24Like it's just, that's what it was.
00:40:25My dad was a devout Muslim until I was about the age of seven or eight.
00:40:28And then my father, and then around, when my father had not denounced Islam but had just like, took a step back from it.
00:40:37My father then became a santero.
00:40:39A very devout santero.
00:40:41And he, the mother of my sister had brought him into the religion.
00:40:48So they were a santero couple.
00:40:50And my sister was even born out of magic.
00:40:52So that was like around me a lot.
00:40:54But it was never put onto me.
00:40:56It was just familiar.
00:40:58You know, seeing my parents in all white, having altars in the house.
00:41:03And I would smoke my dad's cigars when I was little because I was a weird kid.
00:41:07So I was just like mad.
00:41:08I don't know.
00:41:09I was like always just trying to smoke.
00:41:11And I, and I like, I remember my like, you know, boom.
00:41:14That was a big, that was a big part of my life.
00:41:16And just my, my, I went to, I attended a Hebrew Jewish camp at the 96th Street Y for 10 years.
00:41:24So Judaism was a big part of my life.
00:41:26And as well as my grandma, she wasn't cool with her family.
00:41:31She was a very interesting woman.
00:41:33My grandmother had schemed the art world in New York.
00:41:37And she had acquired these really wealthy Jewish friends who became, that's a real fact.
00:41:46My brother was a, was a violinist.
00:41:49And there was a lot of movies that were done about his violin programming himself.
00:41:54My grandma weaseled her way.
00:41:56She became best friends with the director, the producer, and the funder.
00:42:00That's a true story.
00:42:02Every weekend I will be at the Kaplan house, or the Shoya house, or the Miller house, you
00:42:08know, with a lot of Jewish people.
00:42:12Like a lot of, like my aunties and uncles, kind of.
00:42:15I extended, we were called the extended family.
00:42:17They were Jewish.
00:42:18So I had a lot of Judaism around me.
00:42:20Just like, wasn't like, I can pray in Hebrew.
00:42:23Like it was, like it was so around me that much.
00:42:26And I thought it was a beautiful, it's a beautiful faith.
00:42:29Like it really is.
00:42:30And I had so many Jewish friends.
00:42:31My first boyfriend was Jewish.
00:42:33I could sing a mozi, like that was cool.
00:42:36I grew up Catholic, went to Catholic school, boom.
00:42:39Santeria, big part of my family.
00:42:44My grandma was a santera.
00:42:46My maternal grandmother, my mother's mother.
00:42:49So, big part of my life.
00:42:51It came back to me in my adulthood.
00:42:54It came full circle.
00:42:55When my mother passed away, my mother was a magical woman.
00:42:59My mother, and my grandmother, and many relatives that I had later found out were practitioners, magical women.
00:43:07My mother, before I realized this, or knew even the orisha, I have a tattoo of a mermaid on my thigh and my hip.
00:43:17I've had it since I was 16 years old.
00:43:20Before my mother died, she made a book for me about a mermaid named Destiny.
00:43:26Excuse me, I'm about to get emotional.
00:43:28My mother made a book about a mermaid named Destiny.
00:43:31And before my mother died, she made my entire room mermaids.
00:43:36Everything was mermaids.
00:43:37I don't know what it was with this woman and mermaids.
00:43:40No Tweety Bird, no Winnie the Pooh.
00:43:42The things that I associate most vividly with my mother were mermaids.
00:43:47And I loved mermaids and aquatic, nautical life all my life.
00:43:52That's why I call myself wavy.
00:43:56And then when I came into the religion and met my godmother and a medium who explained to me my family's history,
00:44:05because that's very possible.
00:44:06People can explain to you your family history.
00:44:08Spirits can come.
00:44:09Your egg wounds can come.
00:44:10Your relatives can come.
00:44:11It all came forward.
00:44:13Like, this was all planned out from before you was even born.
00:44:17And I said, okay, that makes sense.
00:44:20Not weird to me.
00:44:21And those were like the religions, you know, based around in my life.
00:44:24Like, kind of all around the board.
00:44:26And I kind of had a...
00:44:28I'm lucky though.
00:44:29I'm real privileged to have had so much openness within, like, culture around me.
00:44:34Because a lot of people don't have that at all.
00:44:36And, you know, I was able to, like, went to camp with Jewish kids.
00:44:40Went to school with, like, Muslim kids, you know.
00:44:43It was a very unique upbringing.
00:44:46I'm grateful for it because I have love for everything.
00:44:49I've never been closed-minded a day in my life, you know.
00:44:52And I understand religion really well.
00:44:54I studied religion in Catholic school, like many religions.
00:44:58I know theology really well.
00:45:00I'm not a religious person.
00:45:01I'm a very spiritual person.
00:45:03But, yeah, religion is just kind of all around the board.
00:45:07I've had so many different kinds of friends and family members.
00:45:10And I'm grateful.
00:45:12Honest to God, I'm grateful for that.
00:45:14Because I know how hard it is to grow up secular.
00:45:17I know how hard it is to grow up orthodox.
00:45:20I know how hard it is to grow up sheltered from other cultures
00:45:25or be sheltered by your culture.
00:45:28So, grace to God, that was my funny, cool upbringing.
00:45:34So, in the opening to Brujas, you have, like, a prayer to Yemea.
00:45:40And I was wondering what role the Orishas play in your creative process.
00:45:45And how is your song making in relation to the Orishas also?
00:45:52Well, I have a very, very singular relationship with my Orisha that is very different from a lot of people who intersection with those West African religions in the Caribbean, right?
00:46:05My relationship is not even deep-rooted in the religion.
00:46:10It's deep-rooted in a really, really genetic kind of sense.
00:46:16It has to do with my mother.
00:46:18It has to do with a singular Orisha, Yemoya, the mother of the ocean.
00:46:24I was left without a mother.
00:46:26It all correlates to me, my womanhood, who I am as a woman, everything.
00:46:33So, when I made that song, I wanted to honor her.
00:46:36I made the video as an Ebo.
00:46:38That's the offering that you give to receive the Ashe.
00:46:41And my relationship to Yemea is a very motherly, loving one.
00:46:48I don't involve myself in the religion or Orisha houses because I'm magical as it is.
00:46:56I don't need to be amongst other people in experiences like that.
00:47:03My relationship to this Orisha is so maternal that that's what she asks of me, to honor her with love as a mother or a daughter would.
00:47:12And that's what I give to her.
00:47:14And that's what she says.
00:47:15She says, that's enough.
00:47:16She says, don't do your initiations yet.
00:47:19Don't go to an Ocha house yet.
00:47:21Don't get crowned yet.
00:47:23She says, what you do for me is enough.
00:47:25You love and you revere me so much.
00:47:26You keep me in your home.
00:47:28You keep me in mine when you make your art.
00:47:30That's okay.
00:47:31Your intention is pure.
00:47:33You don't use me for other gain.
00:47:36You use me because you just want my companionship.
00:47:41That's beautiful.
00:47:42That's Ashe right there.
00:47:44So I'm filled with Ashe as it is because her love is so strong because she is the mother that has guided me my entire life.
00:47:53And that's why I made that video because that was really my relationship with the ocean.
00:47:59Every time I go to the ocean, I move to the point of tears.
00:48:05Who feels like that?
00:48:06Anybody at the age of 23.
00:48:08Nobody has that mental capacity to be like, this is my mother speaking to me.
00:48:13These are my ancestors speaking to me.
00:48:16These are the mysteries of our people that have been hidden for many, many years.
00:48:22So I'm just like, this is as honest I can be.
00:48:26I don't try to overexert it.
00:48:28I don't put it onto people.
00:48:30It's my thing, not yours.
00:48:31If you like it, you can identify with it.
00:48:33Beautiful.
00:48:34And if you can appreciate it, great.
00:48:37It's done with good taste.
00:48:39It's done with my identity.
00:48:42Because there's some people that don't agree with that video.
00:48:44And some people from the Ocha houses that were like, this is a bit much.
00:48:47You're cursing in the video.
00:48:49But trust me, if I would have done something wrong, I would know.
00:48:52So she loved it.
00:48:55She knows who I am.
00:48:56I reviewed her.
00:48:57That was it.
00:48:59That was so beautiful.
00:49:03So you've talked a little bit about the importance of femininity.
00:49:11I mean, Yemaya is like the mother.
00:49:14And so I wanted to know if you could talk a little bit about masculinity and holding masculinity and tomboy-ness.
00:49:21We talked a little bit about this earlier.
00:49:24We did.
00:49:25I was really happy I could bring up masculinity.
00:49:28Because it's such a big part of my life.
00:49:30My identity.
00:49:31Who I am.
00:49:32My work.
00:49:33My art.
00:49:34My very attitude.
00:49:35Like, I have so much masculine energy.
00:49:38It like, I got more chin hairs than a Baptist church lady.
00:49:43I swear to God.
00:49:46That's real.
00:49:47And I've always been extremely masculine identifying and androgynous.
00:49:54From the very edges of my childhood.
00:49:57I was always very gay.
00:49:59Very queer.
00:50:00Loved making out with girls.
00:50:01Saying like, let's play doctor.
00:50:03And I just like, you know?
00:50:06And my grandmother, it was unfortunate.
00:50:09This may be a little sad, but my grandmother really, really didn't like to exonify my beauty,
00:50:18unfortunately.
00:50:19None of the women I lived with wanted to exonify my beauty.
00:50:23They tried to hide my beauty.
00:50:25They cut my hair short.
00:50:26They made me wear, like, fake name brand clothes.
00:50:30Like, things that people would just get made fun of in school or takes away.
00:50:35Like, I remember I had hair down to my ass.
00:50:38My grandmother cut my hair for no reason.
00:50:41My hair's never been the same.
00:50:42I was marked as a child.
00:50:44My beauty was stripped from me.
00:50:46Like, my crown.
00:50:47You know what I mean?
00:50:49And I just wasn't allowed to be pretty.
00:50:52Like, nobody did my hair before I went to school.
00:50:55I was like, left to be like, I looked really rugged, really ragged.
00:50:59And I just adapted it.
00:51:00I became okay with it.
00:51:01And I was like, cool.
00:51:02But my identity as an attitude was very, like, rough.
00:51:06Like, really gutsy and full of moxie and full of, like, bull.
00:51:10Like, ah, my dick is out.
00:51:12You know, like, that was just me.
00:51:14Like, I've always been that type of person.
00:51:17Always identified it as a kid.
00:51:19Always knew I was extremely queer.
00:51:21Always just knew that, like, I think that more than anything,
00:51:26there is this savantness with androgynous people that, like,
00:51:31that, like, the alpha female does not exist in you
00:51:34and that don't exist in me.
00:51:35Like, I'm an alpha female, but I'm not a queen bee.
00:51:38And I realized that really, really, like, early.
00:51:41That I didn't have this necessity to be dominant over other women
00:51:46or feel insecure or I just was like, I felt like a dude.
00:51:52I was like, oh, she's so pretty.
00:51:53And, like, she makes me nervous.
00:51:55And, like, she's acting fucking crazy.
00:51:56I got to bounce.
00:51:57You know what I mean?
00:51:58Like, I just was like, you know, like, I was always,
00:52:00I always had, like, gentleman-ness to me.
00:52:03Always had masculine energy.
00:52:05Like, very gentleman-like.
00:52:07Like, you know, very, like, hold the door for a girl.
00:52:11You know, like, you know, like, very, I was also brought up
00:52:16with impeccable, like, southern manners.
00:52:18So, my foster mother.
00:52:20So, like, just, like, very, like, conscientious of, like, women.
00:52:23And, like, I don't know.
00:52:25And then as I became, like, a teenager, just was, like, really about being as gay as possible.
00:52:32Because, like, when I was young, that was, like, taboo and odd and still very considered weird.
00:52:38I went to school in the early millennium.
00:52:40So, when I went to school, it was the, like, for me that was, like, amazing.
00:52:45Like, I wanted to make people uncomfortable by my queerness.
00:52:47I wanted people to talk shit about me.
00:52:49Because I was like, y'all, y'all whack, y'all boring, y'all basic, and I'm queer, and I'm a raver, and these are my gay bracelets.
00:52:58I used to wear, like, candy up to my wrist.
00:53:03And I used to have, like, people just, like, I don't know, I used to be a bit exaggerative.
00:53:09But it was just, like, how I wanted to express myself, and how I wanted to be, and how I wanted people to remember me.
00:53:17And I wanted people to remember me as that weird gay kid.
00:53:20And I just, like, was a theater kid, was a drama kid.
00:53:23I was, like, every gay cliche you could imagine.
00:53:26You know, I started the LGBT coalition in my Catholic school, my freshman year of high school.
00:53:32You know what I mean?
00:53:33Like, that was just it.
00:53:34I was just, like, down, I was with the shits from Jump.
00:53:40You know, and I am a queer woman.
00:53:43I've dated women.
00:53:44I've dated men.
00:53:45And I just, like, love my masculinity.
00:53:48And what I did with 1992 and Tomboy, it was, like, I began to realize that the men in my life loved me
00:53:55from my unconventional body.
00:53:57I remember it was the men, because I was insecure about my body, that it was un-woman-like.
00:54:02And because I'm a brown Caribbean woman, you see the measurements on all women?
00:54:07They're crazy.
00:54:08Y'all some gorgeous, buxom women.
00:54:11Holy shit.
00:54:12I don't look like that.
00:54:14So, I was always really insecure.
00:54:17I didn't feel like, you know, fab.
00:54:20Like, I didn't feel like that, like, popping, like, you know, my ass, I had no ass and titties.
00:54:24Boom.
00:54:25But, and I wanted to get surgery.
00:54:27It was a thing I played with for a long time.
00:54:31I was always trying to get my ass done, trying to save money to get my titties done.
00:54:36And then one time, this man in my life told me, you know how much money you would make at a strip club?
00:54:42And I said, what?
00:54:43And we started, went into this conversation.
00:54:45And he was like, you know, he was like, you don't know this.
00:54:48But he said, like, big bustin' women come a dime a dozen.
00:54:52But your body type is very rare and very singular.
00:54:56It's unique.
00:54:57He said, that would make the most money at, like, this was like a man who was into sex work.
00:55:01He was like, your money, he was like, your body would make the most money.
00:55:05And I was like, really?
00:55:06And he was like, yeah, like, it's exotic.
00:55:09And I was like, I'm exotic?
00:55:12And I was like, and then I started to realize, I was like, holy shit, I am exotic.
00:55:17This is like some other, this is some other shit.
00:55:20And like, I don't have no titties, I got basically all areola, right?
00:55:23It's just like a big brown patch.
00:55:26It's a button.
00:55:27It's a pepperoni.
00:55:29And that's what somebody called me in fifth grade.
00:55:34My best friend, Sage, who wasn't my best friend for like a good six years, but became friends again.
00:55:41I'm learning to forgive and let go.
00:55:46She said I had pepperoni nipples.
00:55:48It scarred me for life.
00:55:51Yes.
00:55:52Oh, my God.
00:55:54She grabbed my My Chemical Romance pen off my back and she was like, it looked like this.
00:56:02And I was like, oh, my fucking God.
00:56:06Oh, my God.
00:56:08Oh, my God.
00:56:09I'm blushing because it was so.
00:56:12And then years later, I turned that and I was like, no, this is beautiful.
00:56:20This is like sexy.
00:56:21This is like, this is like fetishy.
00:56:23Like this is like, you know, I thought this was like, you know, and then I was like, and
00:56:28then I started realizing that all the men in my life really liked it.
00:56:31Like, like my body type, like, like my, oh, so another just thing I wanted to dismantle.
00:56:36Well, my little titties, my fat belly.
00:56:38Yes, I know I'm not big.
00:56:40I'm very slim.
00:56:41I had a, okay, this is where I come from, the fat belly part.
00:56:47I've had, I've been allergic to most food all my life and didn't know it.
00:56:51I had a large gluten allergy, vegan, like big allergy to food.
00:56:55I also used to be quite thick back in the day.
00:56:57I've lost 25 pounds.
00:56:59I used to be quite thicker, like I used to be chunky.
00:57:02And I lost 25 pounds, boom.
00:57:05But I had a, I've had an indigestion problem, really severe indigestion problem that would
00:57:10emboge my stomach to the point where I looked about five months pregnant.
00:57:16I've had it many times.
00:57:17It used to happen more often when I would eat food.
00:57:20Any type of like bad food or any, it's crazy.
00:57:24My stomach would engorge and I have passed at the airport, stores, movie theaters for
00:57:29being pregnant.
00:57:30I've gotten away with a lot of shit looking pregnant.
00:57:32I used to scam high school, get on the elevator, anything.
00:57:35I always look pregnant a lot.
00:57:37I used to look pregnant a lot.
00:57:39I used to have a small, small frame and look pregnant a lot.
00:57:42And that was my fat belly.
00:57:44And I had a boyfriend one time be like, oh, I love your little titties and your fat belly.
00:57:50And I would be like.
00:57:53And I remember I wrote a poem on Thanksgiving day because you know those bodycon dresses
00:58:02at rainbow that like, they're not for people like me.
00:58:07They for video girls.
00:58:08They for the girls on Instagram.
00:58:10They're not for people like me.
00:58:11So I was wearing this dress.
00:58:14It was all like, you know them dresses.
00:58:17And my stomach was so big.
00:58:19And also it's like, I know my body proportion.
00:58:22I'm not ashamed of it.
00:58:23But let's be real.
00:58:24Like my stomach exceeds my breasts.
00:58:27I look like the Grinch.
00:58:28It's funny.
00:58:29It's cool.
00:58:30I'm aware of that.
00:58:31It's cool.
00:58:32I'm open about it.
00:58:33I'm not trying to put myself down.
00:58:34That's how my body type looked.
00:58:35So it was like a little fat belly with little titties.
00:58:37It was always bigger.
00:58:38Like, come on.
00:58:39Like nobody really has that type of body frame.
00:58:41So people don't have small breasts like I do.
00:58:44This is very rare.
00:58:45So it just is.
00:58:47You know, like I'm a double A.
00:58:50That's smaller than an A cup.
00:58:53So I just got a big back though.
00:58:56But so I just like the masculinity in my body type and bringing that to tomboy.
00:59:02I wrote a poem on Thanksgiving Day where it was like,
00:59:04With my little titties and my fat belly, I could tell your man if you finna let me.
00:59:08And that was the poem I wrote.
00:59:10And then I remember writing music a couple months later.
00:59:13And I was like, that poem was fat.
00:59:16And I just remember writing on my thing like that.
00:59:19And it was just like, I came up with a song that really glorified where I'd come to about my love for myself.
00:59:27And then around like a year ago, I was 23, 24.
00:59:32Come to a good point in my life where I just loved everything about myself.
00:59:36So unapologetically.
00:59:38So much, so maybe too much, you know.
00:59:40And I just like, that was the masculinity in it.
00:59:43The tomboyness.
00:59:44Like, I can get, I can get like, I like expressing my femininity because it's rare for me.
00:59:49When you see me on like Instagram or anything like that, when I got that weave on, and I'm looking glossy.
00:59:55And that's not an everyday thing for me.
00:59:57So I savor that.
00:59:58Because that's the femininity that I've always searched for in my life.
01:00:01That I can't do normally.
01:00:03Women that, it comes to certain women naturally.
01:00:06Or it's the disposition of all they know.
01:00:08All I ever knew was being a messy kid.
01:00:11All I ever knew was wearing baggy clothes.
01:00:13All I ever knew was being dirty.
01:00:15So all I, I was, I'm a skater.
01:00:17I'm a soccer player.
01:00:18I ride bike.
01:00:19I hike, you know.
01:00:21So when I have the opportunity, it's like interesting when I, when I can tap into my femininity, I'm
01:00:27like, this is like so spiritual.
01:00:29And it's like unique.
01:00:31Because that's not, it's not natural for me.
01:00:33So I like to play with that.
01:00:35And I think it's like a gay theater kid who like, likes to play with all these realms
01:00:39of like identity.
01:00:40It's like, today I'm giving femme.
01:00:43Today I'm giving femme realness.
01:00:45Today I'm giving, I'm giving you like, like, girl that Drake flew in to Mexico.
01:00:53You know what I mean?
01:00:54Like, I'm, I'm like, the lips is plump.
01:00:57And the, and the, like, it's glossy and porn.
01:01:00And ugh, it's sexy.
01:01:03And I, and I'm like, this is so interesting.
01:01:06This is like me, but it's not me, but it's me.
01:01:09And I like, I like to play with that.
01:01:10It's, I like to play with femininity.
01:01:12Like right now.
01:01:13I'm a masculine, I got my afro, got my regular clothes, I don't give a fuck.
01:01:17This is me too.
01:01:18This is my masculine energy.
01:01:20Comfortable.
01:01:21You know, unbothered.
01:01:23And I play with it.
01:01:24I like to play with it back and forth.
01:01:26And it's a spectrum.
01:01:27And gender is a spectrum.
01:01:29Sexuality is a spectrum.
01:01:30We all know that.
01:01:32So on that spectrum, I can go from the pH scale, from seven to one.
01:01:37And depending on how I feel that day, is what I want to give.
01:01:41And I think that's okay.
01:01:42Like, that's a part of the art.
01:01:43That's a part of like, where I want to be in hip hop.
01:01:46It's okay not to look sexy all the time.
01:01:49And that's like really hard because we're in this world of like, looking to look perfect.
01:01:55And that's all I've ever wanted to do, is bring that like, balls to the wall, cojones.
01:02:00I don't give a fuck.
01:02:02I can be either or.
01:02:04I can be both.
01:02:05That's androgynous.
01:02:06That's two spirited.
01:02:08That's my gayness.
01:02:09That's how I seep it into hip hop.
01:02:11And that's where I really, you know, I don't have no agenda.
01:02:14It's just what I do.
01:02:16So, I thought we got this really wonderful question submitted that I'm just going to read
01:02:21because I didn't remember.
01:02:22Let me know if I'm talking too much.
01:02:24No.
01:02:25You're literally here to talk too much.
01:02:27No.
01:02:28Because I, sometimes I just talk and talk and it's like, I'll be like,
01:02:32Daphne, shut the fuck up.
01:02:37Thank you, Belle.
01:02:39Yeah.
01:02:40We started a little late.
01:02:41Thank you, Belle.
01:02:42So, this was a really beautiful question, so I'm just going to read it.
01:02:46And it says, your politics on urban feminism means so much to me.
01:02:49However, as a genderqueer, low income, Puerto Rican person from the hood in Chicago,
01:02:53I can sometimes feel like my gender identity will never be as synchronized as my other two.
01:02:57I would like to ask, how are genderqueer, nonbinary, femme, and trans folks included in your politics
01:03:02on urban feminism?
01:03:03Is there a place for us in the Afro-Latinx communities?
01:03:06And if so, how do you work towards that?
01:03:08Can I see that real quick?
01:03:11Yeah.
01:03:12It's a top one.
01:03:14It's a long, good question.
01:03:28Well, check this out.
01:03:30Everybody and anything is included in my politics.
01:03:34But I don't have politics.
01:03:36I have principles.
01:03:37And when I've done Smart Girl Club for three, four years, that was the motto.
01:03:43I've said this many times in my radio show.
01:03:45This is about principles and not politics.
01:03:49And that's why I'm very careful with the gray areas that I go into and why I'm not so adamant
01:03:57on politics because sometimes I can't back them up.
01:04:01But my principles have clear intentions and they have clear accuracy from where I see things.
01:04:07So with the sense of urban feminism, urban feminism applies to anybody who is an urban feminist identifying
01:04:14person.
01:04:15You don't have to be a woman, be an identifying woman to be a feminist.
01:04:20And you don't have, and urban people come in many different races.
01:04:26Urban feminism was something for poor, black, brown, yellow, red girls, and that can be a
01:04:37spectrum of any type to identify with because they didn't maybe agree or identify or have
01:04:43accessibility to mainstream white feminism.
01:04:46And that's why I coined urban feminism because, yeah, I like Riot Grrrl.
01:04:51Yeah, I like Bikini Kill.
01:04:53Yeah, I like, you know, like I knew about like different parts of the women's liberation movement
01:04:59from suffrage to burning bras to equality pay to, you know, like the 90s fourth wave.
01:05:08But feminism really comes from like the existence of resistance, the strength that comes from inequality
01:05:19and unfairness and oppression.
01:05:22So for the sister right here, I think that she always has a place in urban feminism
01:05:29because that's what urban feminism is for.
01:05:31It's for the women that never could fit into any other box.
01:05:35It's for the brown women that have no, like, that have no binary.
01:05:39I don't have no binary either.
01:05:41Yes, I'm on some spectrum.
01:05:44I'm more subdued and maybe my identities are my labels.
01:05:48But with that being said, I think that if she is a genderqueer non-binary person,
01:05:53why would she be excluded from the Afro-Latina community?
01:05:56I just don't see that.
01:05:57How is that possible?
01:05:58Is it from the machismo or the tabooness in it or the traditionalism?
01:06:02Perhaps.
01:06:03That don't got to do with me, though.
01:06:05You know what I mean?
01:06:07So I think that in my podcast, what I've always done with Urban Feminism and Smart Girl Club,
01:06:13I always said, this is a safe space for everyone.
01:06:18Because I didn't want to get too particular with intersections,
01:06:26and I didn't want to step on nobody's toes or have my foot in my mouth or exclude anybody,
01:06:32I just said from off the back, Smart Girl Club and what I did with Urban Feminism is for everybody.
01:06:39It's not about politics.
01:06:40It's about the principles.
01:06:41And that's where I stand on it continuously.
01:06:44So everyone and anyone, no matter the identity or the binary or the intersection,
01:06:51is truly, truly, truly identifiable in my scope.
01:06:55Because my scope is about the emotion of the heart and what is right.
01:07:00And not what's, like, right on paper.
01:07:07And I think this is going to be our last question because...
01:07:10It's not?
01:07:11Okay.
01:07:12I thought you were saying two questions.
01:07:13Oh, okay.
01:07:14We're chilling then.
01:07:15Okay.
01:07:16Good.
01:07:17Because I was curious, like, why the aversion from politics in that case?
01:07:23Like, could you get into that a little bit?
01:07:26Because at least on this campus, politics are, like, a lot of things.
01:07:31Because I'm undereducated in politics and I don't want to fake the funk.
01:07:35And that's why I say that.
01:07:37I'm undereducated in politics and I don't like to involve myself in them because they have dark spaces that I do not want to touch.
01:07:43And those are for my own personal reasons.
01:07:45So, with that being said, I know that limits me and my knowledge and that may be a poor answer, but it's an honest answer.
01:07:54I don't involve myself in politics because they're extremely intricate and complicated and they're always demised to oppress.
01:08:08And politics are really, really intricate and complicated and I'm just too fucking lazy for all of that shit.
01:08:15But what I do have in my heart is intellectual value and humanistic compassion.
01:08:22And that's why I tee the lines of politics because people say, oh, your music's very political.
01:08:30And I go, no, it's not.
01:08:31Like, you ain't never heard me talk about no politics.
01:08:34My music is very principle driven, very culturally driven, very, like, very core driven.
01:08:42Feminism, I don't consider that politics.
01:08:45I consider feminism a birthright, a way of life, a lifestyle, a way for women to uplift themselves and heal themselves
01:08:57and understand the truth about oppression through history.
01:09:02I don't think that, and yes, some people can say, yes, feminism is a big part of politics and you're right.
01:09:10But that is your understanding and your knowledge.
01:09:15That's their knowledge.
01:09:16My knowledge comes from a really, really humanitarian, spiritual, compassionate component.
01:09:21And that's why I don't involve myself in politics.
01:09:25I just don't have the mindset for it.
01:09:29And that's cool.
01:09:30I know who I am.
01:09:31I know what I'm about.
01:09:32And I say it first.
01:09:33So I never have to fake the funk after that.
01:09:36That's what it is.
01:09:38I appreciate the honesty.
01:09:41Kind of switching gears, I'm really curious, since you do have such a grueling schedule,
01:09:48like you literally just got back from Europe.
01:09:50Yeah.
01:09:51And I'm wondering what, if any, are your rituals of self-care and how do you keep yourself whole
01:09:57and healthy doing so much shit?
01:10:00Well, okay, so the keys on self-love, self-help is that you have to commit to it.
01:10:07And I read this really wonderful book that I'm still rereading.
01:10:10It's called Sacred Woman by Queen Afua.
01:10:13She's a wonderful, wonderful African American herbalist, like humanitarian, like contributor
01:10:22to the like comedic, philosophic, you know, community that wanted to raise the vibration
01:10:29of holisticness and health in the black community in the last 25 years.
01:10:34I read her book.
01:10:35She says that in order to change your life or to prolong a healthy life or a sacred life,
01:10:43you have to commit to health first.
01:10:45If you don't, then you don't have anything.
01:10:48So health is a really big part of my life.
01:10:51It was something that I began to change and evolve when I became 20.
01:10:56And I just like couldn't eat processed food no more, couldn't like drink alcohol no more,
01:11:01couldn't sniff cocaine no more.
01:11:03It was like everything like bad, bad, bad.
01:11:06And I said, okay, I've got to adapt to holisticness.
01:11:09Five years later, navigating the tools of my lifestyle, I am an old soul.
01:11:17So I'm not like a stubborn kid who's like, I'm going to party all night.
01:11:21And I'm like, talk all night and like run myself dry.
01:11:26Like, no.
01:11:27I knew from a very early age and when I wanted to develop my career that where I want to be in life,
01:11:34I don't want to be no internet artist.
01:11:36I want to be an iconic force.
01:11:38Many, many, many accolades and accomplishments of excellence under my belt.
01:11:43How does one progress to that?
01:11:47They have to have a very, very secular lifestyle.
01:11:50They have to make very, very sensitive choices in every aspect of their life.
01:11:56They have to sacrifice a lot.
01:11:58I've sacrificed a lot of being a young kid, being a normal kid, being a normal person,
01:12:05being mundane, being lazy.
01:12:07I'm naturally very lazy.
01:12:09Very, very, like, I don't want to be bothered with nothing.
01:12:11I want to smoke weed, watch Totally Spies all day.
01:12:14However, when Beyonce released the Beyonce album, my life changed.
01:12:23And I said, this woman created an iconic album where no one knew it.
01:12:31And she just, like, made this, like, 17, like, song visual album.
01:12:38I thought, like, I saw that merit of work.
01:12:41And I said, I want to amount to that one day.
01:12:45I want to, whatever she has, whatever she's, whatever.
01:12:51I was like, what's a 24-hour day in Beyonce life?
01:12:56What hour does she wake up?
01:12:58What does she do to accentuate herself?
01:13:00What is she taking on every day?
01:13:02Like, what is in this woman's schedule?
01:13:04I said, I want to amount to that.
01:13:06I want to be on some sort of plane like that.
01:13:09You can't be no regular person and be a superstar at the same time.
01:13:13I ain't no, like, and I'm not average.
01:13:16So I started sacrificing a lot of things.
01:13:19You know, I eat really well.
01:13:21I eat really clean.
01:13:23I have to force myself to eat really clean.
01:13:25I have to, I'm forcing myself to even alkalize my diet even more now.
01:13:29Because I just, like, I have to.
01:13:32I try to get really, really sufficient good sleep.
01:13:36No matter, you know, unfortunately I can't hang out with people after my concerts.
01:13:41I have to go right back to my hotel.
01:13:43Not speak to nobody.
01:13:44Be by myself.
01:13:46I have to, you know, holistic stuff.
01:13:48What am I consuming into my body?
01:13:50It has to be godliness.
01:13:52It has to be goodness.
01:13:53I got to take time with myself.
01:13:55Take time with my health.
01:13:57I spend a lot of time in solitude.
01:14:00Every morning I pray for an hour fully.
01:14:03Those are not things that young people primarily go to first in their day to days.
01:14:10That's what I have to go to in order to be able to travel as much as I do.
01:14:16And then what I did with 1992, like, I put out six videos in one year.
01:14:21I put out an album.
01:14:23I did a lot, you know.
01:14:25I pushed myself constantly.
01:14:27I was like, with every opportunity of time and energy, I'm going to utilize this with the productivity of a genius.
01:14:36I'm not a genius, but I want to be.
01:14:38I want to emulate genius.
01:14:40I don't want to hold myself back anymore.
01:14:43I'm lazy.
01:14:44I procrastinate.
01:14:46I do all a bunch of these things.
01:14:49I ain't never going to be nowhere where I want to be unless I kick myself in the ass and really commit to this healthy lifestyle.
01:14:58This productive, hard-working, hard-living lifestyle.
01:15:03And with self-love, I have to reiterate, every morning, like, yeah, we learn about self-love.
01:15:09We learn about positivity.
01:15:10We learn about affirmation.
01:15:12It can sound corny.
01:15:13It can sound cliche.
01:15:14But every morning, I truly look to the sky and tell myself, I am a beautiful, beautiful woman.
01:15:21I am capable.
01:15:22I am limitless.
01:15:23I am infinite.
01:15:24I am magical.
01:15:26I am powerful.
01:15:28I am ascending.
01:15:30I have to tell myself that every day because if I don't, I take NyQuil every day.
01:15:35You know, I'm like, I am a Gemini duality like you would never believe.
01:15:42One side of me is like skateboard, scumbag, stoner, a lot of terribly sociopathic tendencies.
01:15:51Other side of me, productive, highly genius, you know, spiritually Afrocentric, beautiful, like, force of nature.
01:16:04I got to let go of this girl right here.
01:16:07I'm still letting her go.
01:16:09In order to have love myself, I have to make myself love myself.
01:16:14I have to take time with myself, pray with myself.
01:16:17I love, like, my self-love comes from whenever I have the time, I'm spoiling myself as much as possible.
01:16:23I wake up in the morning.
01:16:25I love to take my vitamins.
01:16:27Oof, girl.
01:16:29I'm like, yes, Destiny, take your vitamins, girl.
01:16:32Love this sacredness.
01:16:34Love what you're bringing into your body.
01:16:36Everything has to be, and it's positive, and it's sweet, and it's joyful, and it's colorful.
01:16:40So it's like, there's sacredness in everything you do.
01:16:43That's self-love.
01:16:44When I wake up, when I wake up, I pray, like, my herbs, you know, wear my all-white, you know, do my sound bowl.
01:16:53I get so much joy out of those little moments with myself that are so holy and so special and so, they're just so innocent, so sacred.
01:17:04I get a lot out of that.
01:17:05That's my self-love.
01:17:06I'm, like, doing things that, you know, most people my age won't do or don't do or don't know how to do.
01:17:13But I know how to do them, and I'm teaching them to myself.
01:17:16And I know that's the key to living well and being healthy.
01:17:19So that's self-love.
01:17:21And the fact that I'm practicing it is self-love.
01:17:24And the fact that I'm trying to reiterate it even when I don't want to, because sometimes I don't.
01:17:28And I'm very honest with that.
01:17:30I still do it anyway.
01:17:31That's my little self-love.
01:17:33Make a nice, healthy, clean, you know, make a nice little smoothie bowl for myself.
01:17:37A little nice, healthy omelet.
01:17:39I'm, like, I fill my body with love.
01:17:42You know, cooking is magic.
01:17:44How you prepare your food is magic.
01:17:46The love you put into your food.
01:17:48I don't rush to make my food.
01:17:50I put on, you know, my little salsa, my little, you know, the Yorubin songs I listen to.
01:17:55My little panyol, my all-white.
01:17:58And I'm, like, little kitchen witch.
01:18:01And I'm, like, catch the spirit.
01:18:07And that's self-love because that's the truest part of me.
01:18:13That's me.
01:18:14I've been many things.
01:18:16I've been many people.
01:18:17But that's the woman I like the most.
01:18:20That's the woman I like the most.
01:18:23That's the woman that is the healthiest.
01:18:25That is the woman that loves herself the most.
01:18:28And I know that now.
01:18:30So my self-love comes from those little routines, those consistency, those vibrational instances of sheer selfishness and love.
01:18:38Selfish people live longer.
01:18:39Remember that.
01:18:40And I got to be selfish with myself.
01:18:41So, yes, I practice.
01:18:45So, with, you know, traveling and taking on albums, working on a TV I can't talk about yet.
01:18:51Show.
01:18:52You know, being a motivational speaker at the same time.
01:18:58Like, it's a lot of things.
01:18:59But I want to be those things.
01:19:01I don't want to be a typical 24-year-old.
01:19:04And I love typical 24-year-olds.
01:19:06But that's not me.
01:19:07I want to be fabulous.
01:19:10I want to be like Russell Simmons.
01:19:12You know, I want to be, like, I just want to have so many things of accomplishment.
01:19:16I didn't get to finish high school.
01:19:19I can't go to college.
01:19:20I don't have the mental capacity to do class yet.
01:19:23I tried it.
01:19:25I have been envious of people who have sought and completed higher education their whole lives and have those more secular lifestyles and day-to-days.
01:19:37All my life I knew that I couldn't do that, that I couldn't sit in the office, that I couldn't get along with people, that I have a short attention span, that I'm going to get fired.
01:19:45All I ever did was get fired from every place I worked.
01:19:47I had to find a way where I could make it work for me.
01:19:51And now where I made it work for me, I want to do it all.
01:19:55Because I'm not just a rapper.
01:19:56I'm an artist.
01:19:58And I'm not just an artist.
01:20:02Like, I'm about to, like, I have a column with Elle Magazine now.
01:20:07I'm a writer.
01:20:08I started in journalism.
01:20:09Those things still matter to me.
01:20:11I want to work on my photography book.
01:20:12I used to be a photographer in New York.
01:20:15Big photographer.
01:20:17All those parts of me I don't want to denounce.
01:20:19I want to include them in my art and include them in my vocation that brings me to higher places.
01:20:26I want to direct movies.
01:20:27I want to act.
01:20:28I want to write children's books.
01:20:31There's so much in my life I want to do and that I'm trying to do that exceeds what a little internet artist is supposed to be.
01:20:40And I'm going to do it, God damn it.
01:20:41I swear to God.
01:20:46I think this is a good place to end.
01:20:48Thank you so much for coming.
01:20:50I just want to say these moments are really humbling to me and I get really emotional.
01:21:07And they're just so humbling to me that my self-discovery is shared and appreciated by my brothers and sisters younger or older than me.
01:21:20So I thank you for taking the time and respecting me as a peer, respecting me as an artist, respecting me as a woman, accepting me, loving me, supporting me.
01:21:32I don't come here with ego at all.
01:21:35I come here and I think, is this my life?
01:21:38Is this truly my life?
01:21:40I am just like you.
01:21:41I am brown, poor, oppressed kid from whatever the walks of life I came from.
01:21:48Yo, life is short.
01:21:50Make the best of it as you can.
01:21:52And love yourself, God damn it, because you was made to live in a world that tells you not to love yourself.
01:21:57So loving yourself is the most revolutionary thing you could do because it facilitates so much happiness within your path.
01:22:05It took me a long time to learn that.
01:22:07But in these spaces, I want to share that with y'all.
01:22:11That loving yourself, having joy for no reason, that's the goal.
01:22:16Fuck anything else.
01:22:18Those are the real hashtag goals.
01:22:21I appreciate you for respecting my art, respecting my journey, respecting me as a person.
01:22:27I really do.
01:22:28The applause.
01:22:30That's God giving me that.
01:22:32Truly.
01:22:33And I am in so much, so much gratitude and appreciation.
01:22:37And yes, for all of you beautiful brown folk at Brown University.
01:22:42I am proud of you.
01:22:44I could only imagine how much.
01:22:45I just hope you're proud of yourselves.
01:22:47Because this is something else.
01:22:49Institutions like this, they take a lot of courage.
01:22:52They take a lot of commitment.
01:22:53They take a lot of strength.
01:22:55It takes a lot to wake up in the morning.
01:22:57To keep going.
01:22:58To do them tests.
01:22:59To be in spaces that some people are just like, oh my God, what am I doing here?
01:23:06I know how college is.
01:23:08I know how university institutions are.
01:23:10Y'all the real ones.
01:23:12I get to have fun.
01:23:14You work hard.
01:23:16Hard.
01:23:17I work hard too.
01:23:18But you really work hard.
01:23:19So I commend you and I thank you for sharing the space with me.
01:23:26Thank you very much.
Be the first to comment
Add your comment

Recommended

Islamia College University Peshawar
akashamar789
10 years ago
A Girl of Kinnaird College
Showbizbuzz
9 years ago
egypt princess
Pakistan s trending News
8 years ago
Islamia College Peshawar Anthem
mix videos
8 years ago
“And Forever We’ll Be Together”
Devonte's Paradise
1 day ago
“Just An Old Man w/ A Guitar”
Devonte's Paradise
1 day ago
“The VSN + Forever Born New Introducing Liz Loves Weed”
Devonte's Paradise
1 day ago
trae on LyME LyTE 📀 talking about mike jones.
Devonte's Paradise
2 days ago
🎸daylyt talks about 6ix9ine🎸.
Devonte's Paradise
2 days ago
“A Kavi Vibe Live Performance”
Devonte's Paradise
2 days ago
“Model Showcase: Jay Swolle”
Devonte's Paradise
2 days ago
“Fighter Unlocked: TLA Biggs”
Devonte's Paradise
2 days ago
“Kiosk Cash Payment + Bank Account By 21 Savage”
Devonte's Paradise
2 days ago
“Lil Rheuk + Hard II Love”
Devonte's Paradise
3 days ago
“They Like How You Do It”
Devonte's Paradise
3 days ago
“Make A B***h Tip When I Know The Bag Is Light”
Devonte's Paradise
3 days ago
“Yeah We Gon Ride Forever”
Devonte's Paradise
3 days ago
“Model Showcase: Harmoni Boo”
Devonte's Paradise
1 week ago
“A Donovan Santana Live Performance”
Devonte's Paradise
1 week ago
“Liz Loves Weed”
Devonte's Paradise
2 weeks ago
“Kavi Vibe”
Devonte's Paradise
2 weeks ago
“Dachie Fah”
Devonte's Paradise
2 weeks ago
“9 Tre Smoke”
Devonte's Paradise
2 weeks ago
“Just Tell Me Is It Right”
Devonte's Paradise
2 weeks ago
“Pink Mafia”
Devonte's Paradise
2 weeks ago