00:00I've wanted, since I started, making music to perform at the Essence Festival because
00:07it's one of the biggest festivals in New Orleans, which is my hometown. I was so
00:11excited when I was given the opportunity and it means everything to me because
00:14all my family will be there. I'm really, really excited about it. I don't think
00:19I've been this excited about any performance I've done thus far in my
00:22career. The Lioness, conceptually, is an album about my growth as a woman. I think
00:28that we get overlooked in my age bracket. Everything is about the young girls, and
00:34that's cool, but we got some, you know, sexiness in this area I'm in as well, and I
00:39think a lot of times our issues aren't dealt with in our music, in R&B music, you
00:43know, the realities of what a grown woman is dealing with, and I think that a lot of
00:47the younger girls are dealing with it as well, but it's just not talked about. My
00:50sex life is like...
00:53My sex life is like, don't exist. And I think after you get to a certain age, you're
01:00not just, you're not wilding. You know, you're being very, very selective. I've
01:03always been that way, but I'm even more selective now that I'm older. I wrote a
01:07song called Incredible about when that time comes back around when I'm back in
01:10the game, because I've been out of the game for me. So when that time comes back
01:15around when I'm back in the game, this is how this person's gonna make me feel, you
01:18know, just different subject matters that I deal with as a grown woman, that I know
01:23my friends deal with, and people I come across at shows. You know, we talk about
01:26these conversations that these records aren't being made, and so I'm trying to
01:30make those records that, you know, grown women can have for their
01:34soundtrack to their life right now. I didn't start music because I wanted to be
01:38a star. I didn't start music because I love music so much. I didn't have a job, I
01:42didn't have a home, and I had two kids, and I cried out to God and asked for
01:47a way to take care of my kids, and this is what he gave me. And I know that sounds
01:51like all magical and, you know, but this is the God-honest truth. I'm an honest
01:54person. I cried out to God and asked him for a way to take care of my children, and
01:57he didn't tell me to go to Starbucks. He told me to sing and write, and I did
02:02that. I'm not tripping. I'm not bitter. I'm happy. I'm doing what I love. I may not be
02:07on the cover of a magazine, but that's not what I got into this for, you know what I
02:10mean? So it's not hard for me to keep going because I love this, and that's really how I
02:14feel about my music. I love it like that. Like, God gave it to me, and the world can't
02:19take it away, and I'll do it when I'm 60. I'll be on stage singing jazz, you know what
02:23I mean? Like, I'll be singing until I die. I have this gift. You don't bury gifts. You
02:27just take them and try to give life with them and use them and be a vessel, and that's what
02:31I'm trying to do.
02:33I'll be on stage singing.
02:34Thank you, darling.
02:48Have a great week.
02:49I'll see.
02:50Bye.
02:50Bye.
02:50Bye.
02:51Bye.
02:52Bye.
02:52Bye.
02:52Bye.
02:54Bye.
02:54Bye.
02:54Bye.
02:55Bye.
02:55Bye.
02:56Bye.
02:57Bye.
02:57Bye.
02:58Bye.
02:58Bye.
02:59Bye.
03:00Bye.
03:01Bye.
03:01Bye.
03:02Bye.
03:03Bye.
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