The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Jasmine Guy Talks Relationship With Tupac, Jada Pinkett Smith, Freaknik, Hollywood + More

Episode Date: March 22, 2024

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Hey y'all, Niminy here. I'm the host of a brand new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records. Executive produced by Questlove, The Story Pirates, and John Glickman, Historical Records brings history to life through hip-hop. Flash, slam, another one gone. Bash, bam, another one gone. The crack of the bat and another one gone. The tip of the cap, there's another one gone. Each episode is about a different inspiring figure from history. Like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old girl in Alabama who refused to give up her seat on the city bus nine whole months before Rosa Parks did the same thing. Check it. Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records. Because in order to make history, you have to make some noise. Listen to Historical Records on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, my undeadly darlings.

It's Teresa, your resident ghost host. And do I have a treat for you. Haunting is crawling out from the shadows, and it's going to be devilishly good. We've got chills, thrills, and stories that'll make you wish the lights stayed on. So join me, won't you? Let's dive into the eerie unknown together. Sleep tight, if you can. Listen to Haunting on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, what's up? This is Ramses Jha. And I go by the name Q Ward. And we'd like you to join us each week for our show Civic Cipher. That's right. We discuss social issues, especially those that affect black and brown people, but in a way that informs and empowers all people. We discuss

everything from prejudice to politics to police violence, and we try to give you the tools to create positive change in your home, workplace, and social circle. We're going to learn how to become better allies to each other. So join us each Saturday for Civic Cipher on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast,

or wherever you get your podcast. Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about.

It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. one-woman WikiLeaks. She exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. Listen to Crooks everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. wake that ass up in the morning the breakfast club morning everybody is dj envy just hilarious charlamagne the guy we are the breakfast club and we got a special guest in the building the legendary jasmine guy welcome back good morning how you feeling i feel great i love doing your

show the last time and um i got a lot of positive feedback people love you yeah come on it was a different kind of interview though than they're used to my daddy was like you were a little too comfortable you act like they were at your house that was that champagne right yes champagne whatever that was i didn't even like it as I was drinking it. But my father said that you would put more in when I was looking at Kadeem. That's what he said. He said, whenever you looked at Kadeem, he poured more in there. So I'm thinking I'm just drinking one glass.

I probably have four glasses of that. Stop it, you're done. That cold, that. That Oxy Spalanti, whatever that was. glass I probably had four glasses that cold whatever but I drank it anyway at 7 o'clock in the morning how embarrassing is that it got you to talking just laughing

laughing no it was good because you ask questions that people don't usually ask you know we get the same questions over and over, especially about a different world. And I just like that it went into other areas of my life and my career and his too. Because anybody can look at any interviews we've done and get those answers. It's the same answer. You know what I mean?

So can we talk about something else? That's right. Or can we bring it to another element that hasn't been explored with us? And you've done so much more since then. Right. Absolutely. Like right now, you won your first Emmy this year. Yes.

Congratulations. How did that feel? She went for the Chronicles of Jessica Woo. That's right. Yes. That was a trip. So I was going to Mexico to hang out with my girlfriends. And I land and I get all these texts from people saying,

congratulations on your Emmy nomination. And I really thought people were messing with me. Wow. I didn't even call them back I said whatever I wasn't even yeah and then when I realized I really had been nominated I thought it was for the show Harlem okay okay Chronicles of Jessica Wu I had done, it was before COVID. It was a long time ago and I only worked on it for a day. It was a very interesting project to me because the production company was a couple,

a small black production company. The superhero in the piece had autism. But her powers, whatever put her on the spectrum made her a superhero. Their daughter had an autistic child. Anyway, so I said, well, I'll do it because I know after this they're going to need distribution. And who knew?

Wow. You know what I'm saying? Wow. My love for them and what I know about, you know, pitching ideas, you're going to need a name. I know. I've heard it all. And I said, well, I'll be your name. This is going to be good.

And it was a short series, like a webisode series. The other Oscar nomination I got was also from an independent black company and it was um my nephew emmett and i played emmett till's aunt on the night that he was taken from their home and i was like oh shit i do not want to go to mississippi and i'm telling you we stayed right down the street from where he got abducted man um mississippi still got that same energy thank you yeah nothing to change i was gonna say i felt ghosts yeah you know and i did it and they got nominated for an oscar and i when the director called me he was a um a graduate student from NYU film school his mentors was Spike Lee and

Casey Lemons right beautiful brother and the and the crew and everybody I had a great artistic experience um but when he told me we you know we got nominated for an Oscar I thought he was messing with me that says a a lot, though, about how I guess black actors and actresses are conditioned in Hollywood that when they get told that they're even nominated, they don't believe it. When you ignore it long enough, you get the

message. I got the message. If you're not nominating a different world, Debbie Allen, Susan Fells, our wardrobe department, any other actor on that show i stopped focusing on y'all giving me my props i know gives me my props and i told the actors i said we just got to be good you know forget all these accolades or whatever. They obviously, do you know how many times they said to me, even on, I think I did Dennis Miller. Remember Dennis Miller?

I had a talk show. He started with, so how does it feel being between number one and three? And I was stunned because I just sat down, you know, you come out all cute and what not. And I was like, he said, that wasn't a good lead in question. I said, no, it wasn't. You're talking about Cosby and Cheers? Everybody said we were number two because we came between them. Okay.

And that was the first question. That was the message. That was the message that we got as actors, as performers, and we never got our props for not just the acting, but it was Debbie Allen, Susan Fells, me, three black women in charge of that show. You know what I mean? We could have been on the cover of Essence, and I just knew who really saw us

and who really understood us. Why didn't the network fight for that? It's the same white motherfuckers that did it. Go ahead. It's okay. You ain't drinking no cold duck today. I can't blame you. I can't blame you on the cold duck.

You came to the right show. Say what you want. I know you can't say that word, ITV. So you can go back in. Same white motherfuckers. I just want to make sure you don't say that word So you can go back and Same white motherfuckers It's the same world Just look Okay so Carsey Warner

Our producers Also produced A show with Whoopi Goldberg Called Baghdad Cafe Grace Under Fire And the Roseanne Show And the Cosanne Show. And the Cosby Show, right?

So we're one of five. They never asked us to do anything. They asked Roseanne Barr to sing the National Anthem, in which she grabbed her crotch because she can't sing. But we got five singers on our show. That's crazy. You could have had Don, me, Cree, you know, never. When we got offered things that would have, I don't know. I just got things, we got things on our own. And I never felt a part of that network.

Then when I saw what happened with Friends, I was like, yo, that would have helped us. It would have helped us with work. After the show, it would have given us some props that we could have used for future projects. I pitched a lot. I had my own production company after A Different World. All of my projects were rejected. But then I started to see them. That was weird.

Oh, wow. Oh, so they were stealing your ideas. Which ones? Yeah, I had a TV idea about a young woman that inherited a sweatshop in the garment district from her gay friend that died of AIDS. But she still saw him as a ghost. I had even talked to RuPaul about being my ghost, you know. They was just, everything was a reason not to do it,

but then I would see a white girl do it. Then I had this idea about, what was the name of that spy show? It was a French movie, independent movie. Oh, La Femme Nikita. Oh, yeah. Okay. So I thought this would be fierce with Robin Givens. So I wrote up a treatment for a pilot version of it.

No Robin Givens, but a white American girl doing it so i was like well i know my ideas are valid but i just started divorcing myself like a bad relationship stop asking for what you know you're not gonna get i didn't have a parking space like don johnson after miami vice you know he was a star of the number two show on the network, one of the biggest shows on television, EP. He was a producer on it too, right? No. Okay, okay.

Oh, I thought you were a producer on it. No. But even still, a star of that show can't have a parking spot? I had a parking spot, but he had a production deal is what I'm saying. After he did Miami Vice, he had a production deal is what I'm saying. After he did Miami Vice, he had a production deal. You know, and I don't know. I just thought that we were ready and well-equipped to move on into other areas. I definitely wanted to be a producer because I had met so many people on a different world,

and I wanted to bring this writer with this director. You know, and the ideas that I had were not being done. The Dorothy Dandridge story, I pitched that for years. I had to educate first,

who's Dorothy Dandridge? I told them. It wasn't condescending. And I didn't want to say the black Marilyn Monroe because that's all they understand is a black version of what we already know. That's right. So I don't use that term when I'm pitching. And the movie got done.

It just got done without me. And after a while i said okay i understand you know what i mean it's like a bad relationship after a while you gotta understand okay i ain't what you want this is and this is in and so is all it is and other things i'm sure is what leads up to uncensored jasmine guy like yeah you know what i feel like i did uncensored because i did intimate portrait on lifetime i did unsung but they were in different decades of my life i mean intimate portrait must have been in my 40s and then 50s and now I'm in my 60s and I said I may have a different perspective on my truth same things happen but I feel differently

about them I have a different perspective and I'm not I'm trying not to be so precious about my private life because I really do this when people get, like, you know, that's mine. I feel like I do enough with my work for the public. That is my gift to the audience. That is my way of communicating. You don't need to know who I'm sleeping with. Their business don't need to be in the'm sleeping with you they their business don't need to be in the street you from that era though like that era was you didn't really see your favorite celebrity favorite actress favorite actor and when you did everybody went batshit crazy

because you never did like our favorite celebrities growing up as a kid we didn't know who they dated we didn't know where they went to eat we didn't know where they lived we didn't know any of that and that was part of the mystique of them being a superstar real celebrity yep but it's also private i don't feel like i didn't understand why um celebrities would say private things when nobody even asked you that cold duck that's right some cocaine i'm like why you did nobody ask you nowadays i and so with the um oh and and I also get an Instagram. I mean, I've had an account, but my makeup artist said when he went on my social media that it was vintage.

That's a V word. That I had not posted. I said, I don't know what to post. I don't know what's interesting. Because work um fulfill so many parts of me if I'm not working I really don't have nothing to say what I did today I colored I did crossword puzzle people are into that they're into your life outside of just acting they're into what does jasmine guy do what does she enjoy what is she like you

know because we know who you are on different world like off camera is boring people want to see that they want to understand that they want to see what your life's like if you just sit outside and you you knit all day what are you knitting why and to be honest what calms you down because maybe what calms you down will help some calm me down yeah maybe something that you do can help guide me through my life so people are into what people do and now we need some boring shit because like everybody's wilding out here i'm talking about so i'm interested in what you be knitting i want to see that. I'm working on my next Afghan. No, but it's kind of like that.

I like calm. I love my friends. My favorite thing in the world is when my friends come by my apartment. I live in Midtown in Atlanta, so I'm accessible. Because in New York, I used to have an apartment on 78th Street between Columbus and Central Park. Everybody would come through there. If you lived in Queens, if you lived in Jersey, you're going to come by mine. And I love that.

And so that's one of my favorite things is having my people over. And I've been cooking, too. I've been watching HGTV. People like to see what does Jasmine Guy cook. What's your favorite meal? Well, I'm trying to make the perfect chicken wing for me. You don't know how to make chicken wings yet? No, I make them every week.

But for me, other people eat them and they're okay, but I want a certain consistency. I can't get a deep fryer because of my apartment. I can't have it on the patio. So I've tried all different kinds.

They're good. And I've done the marinating and everything. Also I've learned meatballs. I got a good meatball that people like. Turkey, beef, pork. It's veal and pork. Jesus Christ. Sorry. pork it's a it's veal and pork jesus christ no i'll make you some turkey

no chorizo sport too i'll make you some but i gave um and cheesecake so i'm using my mother's cheesecake recipe and i'm just doing them over and over until I get it the way you love it my daddy is my guinea pig he has to try all my food and give me notes tell me if it's dry tell me you know and my friend Jamala loves my cheesecakes so I made one for the house gave it to her and um I was like you know let me know how it is or whatever. She gave her mother one piece and she ate the rest of it. That's good.

Oh, yeah, that must be good. She loves him. She's had three whole cheeks. Jesus. She's probably little too, isn't she? Yeah, she's a little bitty thing. I'm like, okay, Jamala, let me tell you what's in this.

So she wrote a book about her daughter. It's a children's book called Mommy, I Think I Have Diabetes. She found out her daughter has diabetes, but it was from her daughter. This was a true story. She made a children's book. And I said, your second book is going to be Mommy, I Think You Got Diabetes. You keep eating whole cheesecakes.

That's right. Blow your roll. I'm glad you like them and whatnot, but, you know, you can't be eating a whole one. Yeah. I got to ask, you know, you mentioned earlier that, you know, when you do these interviews, people ask the same questions about a different world. Are you tired of talking about a different world since you had i mean that was 30 years ago but then i see you on 37 wow but then i see you on the hbcu tours going from school to school i see you having those conversations are you just done with talking about that part of

your life i'm not done with that part of my life because people aren't exploring they're asking me the same thing what's your favorite episode They want me to say the wedding show. That wasn't my favorite episode. That's your favorite episode. I love when the kids ask questions. So we go to these schools. We have a moderator. This past, when we

did Spellman, Morehouse, and Clark, we had seven of us. I love that too. Usually it's no more than four of us. I love that, too. Usually it's no more than four of us. And when the kids get to ask the questions, their questions are different. They're not asking those same things. I mean, really, you could do your research and know the answer already. Of course. But the kids are like, when you were 19, blah, blah, blah.

When you first left home, what did you think about your character? I mean, especially them Spelman girls. First of all, they acted like we were rock stars. They were just off the chain When we came out Then one girl said Miss Sharnel Miss Sharnel I want to thank you

For being a presence For dark skinned girls Miss Jasmine Thank you for showing me confidence And Miss Cree Thank you for being the oddball That was her There you go

Thank you Jasmine She was saying I see you And you help me see me And you don't know you're doing all that when you're just playing your role you know but I know Debbie knew I knew Debbie knew what she was doing

when she hired Cree and Chanel that second season it was very deliberate I was just talking about Chanel and her I was yeah what were you saying we had a whole conversation about who's the most beautiful on a different world and you know turned into that i was like man kimberly reese was the one she was the one

you think there should you think there should be another show or maybe they should relaunch it and the reason is last time i told you the reason i I went to college in HBCU in Hampton was because I seen a different world. And I wanted that experience coming from Queens. Right. I was like, I want that. I don't know if people see that anymore. If they see what a college looks like and the experience and not just, you know, the partying,ying but real life real situations and everything going on i think that's missing it is not there and i thought when we did um you know because when i

did a different world we were coming off school days and it was you know months in between the projects. So it felt like we were part of a wave. I didn't know that it crested and was over because Fox started with Rock Doesn't Show, Sinbad Show, even, you know, before Martin. And once they got launched, they dropped those black shows. Same with CW. You saw what happened with The Game. But I thought we

are part of a new i don't know a new entertainment phase for um black people it wasn't renaissance but it was over yeah after cosby left they just snatched everybody off they couldn't wait to get our time slot wow yeah i've had a lot of conversations about that i feel like after the 90s it was a intentional it was intentional and strategic by hollywood to change the image of black people i really feel that way i think so too charlamagne it went from great scripted shows where people had jobs and careers to reality television where they don't have to pay nobody until you make it big or whatever. And now, even with Harlem, and I love that show and I love doing it.

And I don't understand the streaming thing. Amazon had us for 10 episodes the first season, 8 the second season, this season 6. So what you're doing doing I don't know. We have to do 22 episodes a season. What you're doing is you can't give anybody long enough work. So the writers

on a series, they're giving up four or five months. They're getting paid. But now six, that's two months worth I don't know and I don't know why they're doing it with Harlem because people like that show you know what I mean

and it shows Harlem in a beautiful way it's vibrant and alive and it's not gray and boarded up like the Harlem's like in you know it ain't cooley high and cornbread oil and me harlem it's the celebration so i don't know why they're not committing i find it selfish that you don't give a show enough legs to succeed and let Tracy Oliver do what she do that's right I had so much influence

you know Jermaine Dupri was here yesterday oh really and on it they did a Freaknik documentary oh have you ever been to Freaknik no I was in LA during that time but I've heard about it they said down I-20 that's right there were a lot of babies made during that i'm sure they said that actually different world made freak nick even bigger i guess y'all had an episode where the girls talked about going to freak nick and not telling their parents oh yeah the younger crew like um jada and them yeah yeah and they said that amplified it a thousand percent because so many people were watching different well it was like we're going down to freak net. That's amazing.

You're causing people to get pregnant. Uh-uh. I hope their daddy's paying child support. Question, Ms. Guy. Do you find a sense of vindication in this award at this stage of your career? No. You know what I felt? I was really surprised at how happy I was when I got it. I really felt like I won that award for A Different World in Atlanta.

Wow. And I say Atlanta because when I got to New York, I had been trained. I had been poured into, you know, with my dance schools my teachers the performing arts school i went to my church you know and then and i also knew that even though i was glad that the show won you know jessica woosh i just felt like it was for a different world. It's for what nobody, you know, got back then. You dedicated your award to a different world. That's the reason why, just because you felt like. Yeah, I was like, this is ours. I love that.

Because I know what made that show good. And I know we didn't get our props. That's right. From white people. No, that's right. I mean, no, you were embraced by I mean no I have 60 image awards two soul train awards because they know what that does

it gives you power in the Hollywood system we not giving them that that's so disrespectful to me it's not like a person I could cuss out. It's just a cloud of white people. Yeah, right.

I don't know, like white Hollywood. Yeah. Because if that show, but just look what they do with Friends and what they did with Living Single. Just look at the publicity, how much money they made. They were at the Golden Globes.

They got movies. We are no less talented. And the writing was awesome on A Different World because they're doing deep subjects and they have to keep us funny. Because the network wanted us funny. They said, well, if we're going to do this age show how are we going to make it funny well maybe whitley's going to lose her virginity during

what was the beeline that's gonna not make it so heavy you know they have to do that for everything the riot show that they have to still mix in the humor and i think we did that well and that's susan fails hill um i'm so proud of um lena waithe and isa ray to see them as show runners and and starring and this and that i'm'm like, oh, they're fierce. And I hope they get their props. But I wonder how do you think this recognition of the award contributes to the broader conversation about diversity and representation in Hollywood, especially for like OG veteran actresses like yourself who've made significant contributions over the decades? Okay, so what?

Like, what does this do like the award has to do something being that javelin guy can still be so good at this stage in her career that she's still oh yes it does feel validating and um i even said when i when i accepted the award you know thank you for keeping me in in this community because the creative community is my world, whether it's in New York or L.A. or Atlanta. Valor my people. And with the pandemic and then six, seven months on strike, I'm like, I need to work. I need to be with my people. You know, I need other creatives. I need stories at lunchtime. And that goes for everybody. That goes for hair, makeup, wardrobe.

Everybody is expressing themselves. And there's a spiritual connection to that. So I did feel that way. But it has been good to see my peers, like Regina King, Victoria Mahoney, Sally Richardson, the girls that I was, like, acting with, doing, like, directing and killing it like that. And Tasha Smith directed the last episode I did of Harlem. Love her. Killed it. That's a force of nature. Force of nature. Loud as all get up. Just loud as you.

That's my girl though. Gotta be loud sometimes. We needed it. It was a very long day. It was a very long day. It was a long shooting day and her energy was just... Always, always have. Yeah.

And what I was so impressed with was her technical acumen. She really knew her cameras. She really knew what she wanted. She had to map out a 10-page scene, which is very long for anything, for movie or TV scene. And I don't know, she just did a beautiful job.

It was the only episode I've done on that show where I saw other people because all my episodes are with Grace Byers. She's my daughter. Well, I'm her mother, I should say. And everybody was there at this event. So I got to see Debbie Smith was there. Whoopi was there. I don't know. It was exciting.

I was kind of fanned out too. Yeah. That's amazing. I've seen a clip that was released from your uncensored and it talks about being a mixed child was that very difficult in the industry going at that time where you're going up for auditions and people are saying well she's not white or and then well maybe she's not black enough was that difficult well i always defined myself as black but i didn't get roles because I was too light sometimes or I got um

like the my first after I left Alvin Ailey I did uh musical theater Broadway and whatnot and then I started taking acting classes and going out for auditions and um I played three hoes before I got Whitley. I'm just saying. I asked my agent, I was like, is this normal? He said you played three hoes. Yes. I played a prostitute on Equalizer.

I played a hoe on Loving, which was a soap opera back then. And then on my third one, I said, okay, is this? And I was nailing them. Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going.

That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. You know that rush of endorphins you feel after a great workout? Well, that's when the real magic happens. So if you love hearing real, inspiring stories from the people you know, follow, and admire, join me every week for Post Run High. It's where we take the conversation beyond the run and get into the heart of it all. It's lighthearted, pretty crazy, and very fun. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. for all ages. One you can listen to and enjoy with your kids starting on September 27th. I'm going to toss it over to the host of Historical Records,

Nimany, to tell you all about it. Make sure you check it out. Hey y'all, Nimany here. I'm the host of a brand new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records. Historical Records brings history to life through hip-hop. Each episode is about a different inspiring figure from history. Like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old girl in Alabama who refused to give up her seat on the city bus nine whole months before Rosa Parks did the same thing. Check it. And it began with me. Did you know, did you know? I wouldn't give up my seat. Nine months before Rosa, it was Claudette Colvin. Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to

Historical Records. Because in order to make history, you have to make some noise. Listen to Historical Records on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey there, my little creeps. It's your favorite ghost host, Teresa. And guess what? Haunting is back, dropping just in time for spooky season. Now I know you've probably been wandering the mortal plane, wondering when I'd be back to fill your ears with

deliciously unsettling stories. Well, wonder no more. Because we've got a ghoulishly good lineup ready for you. Let's just say things get a bit extra. We're talking spirits, demons, and the kind of supernatural chaos that'll make your spooky season complete.

You know how much I love this time of year. It's the one time I'm actually on trend. So grab your pumpkin spice, dust off that Ouija board, just don't call me unless it's urgent, and tune in for new episodes every week. Remember, the veils are thin, the stories are spooky,

and your favorite ghost host is back and badder than ever. Listen to Haunting on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's up? This is Ramses Jha. And I go by the name Q Ward. And we'd like you to join us each week for our show Civic Cipher. That's right. We're going to discuss social issues, especially those that affect black and brown people, but in a way that informs and empowers all people to hopefully create better allies. Think of it as a black show for non-black people. We discuss everything from prejudice to politics to police violence, and we try to give you the tools to create positive change in your home,

workplace, and social circle. Exactly. Whether you're Black, Asian, White, Latinx, Indigenous, LGBTQIA+, you name it. If you stand with us, then we stand with you. Let's discuss the stories and conduct the interviews that will help us create a more empathetic, accountable, and equitable America. You are all our brothers and sisters, and we're inviting you to join us for Civic Cipher each and every Saturday with myself, Ramses Jha, Q Ward, and some of the greatest minds in America. Listen to Civic Cipher every Saturday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, James Brown, B.B. King, Miriam Akiba.

I shook up the world. James Brown said, say it loud. And the kid said, I'm black and I'm proud. Black boxing stars and black music royalty together in the heart of Zaire, Africa. Three days of music and then the boxing event. What was going on in the world at the time made this fight as important that anything else is going on on the planet. My grandfather laid on the ropes and let George Foreman basically just punch himself out. Welcome to Rumble, the story of a world in transformation.

The 60s and prior to that, you couldn't call a person black. And how we arrived at this peak moment. I don't have to be what you want me to be. We all came from the continent of Africa. Listen to Rumble, Ali, Foreman, and the Soul of 74 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Whatever it is about me. I got that shit before I got back to my apartment I was like okay but

am I gonna play other things what do you tap into to be able to really play a whole now what does she tap into the way they the way they write it they usually write I usually do sarcasm well. Okay.

And they're usually snarky, you know. Now, the other activities, I mean, on the equalizer, I was the hoe that they bought for the guy that just came out of prison. Oh, my God, this scene was nasty. And I'm like, surprise, and I come out, and I'm supposed to do him because he's just been in prison. And then in the scene, he starts coughing. And I say, you catch something nasty where you've been? And he grabs me by the hair and slams me on the end bringing up his trauma he triggered him i got a little too snarky but the thing was i didn't know that that should have

been blocked i didn't it was one of my first acting jobs so because i'm a dancer i was able to go you know slam myself down all you have to do is you know and make it look like he was just and then fall and i did it over and over and the director was like are you okay it was like it wasn't till after that i talked to some of my actor friends, and they were like, nobody blocked you? Nobody. I said, no, it was just like a dance move or whatever. But, yeah. Then when I auditioned for Whitley, first of all,

they didn't even have her name yet. It was Sidney slash Whitney, a black southern belle. Things that make you go, hmm. A black southern belle. You don't know what to say. Anyway, she was hitting on her professor for an A

in the scene. Here's another whole roll. Yeah. We're ruffles. But when I got on the set, now she's a virgin and she doesn't know what's going on. It's just interesting because you play things based on who they tell you you're supposed to be. And then as actors, we often do backstories and, you know, make up something that got us to this point. So we have something to lean on.

But, yeah, I was thinking, well, I guess I'm just going to be. It wasn't that I was playing a hoe or a prostitute. It was just that I wanted to play all kinds of characters. Yeah. I've always wanted that. Yeah. Got to ask a question. This is a personal question. When you started off dancing as a child,

right, did you know what direction you wanted to go into? So I got two girls that dance, right? Oh. And I travel all over the country dancing with these little babies and I mean, they are amazing. Won one first prize overall. What? Seven year old. Over a thousand girls. First prize. What? What? Yes. They get busy.old over 1,000 girls, first prize. What?

Yes, they get busy. They take it serious. Six days a week, four hours a day, gymnastics, flipping, backflip, dancing. Wow. Yes. It's a lot, but I've learned to love it, like really enjoy it. But as a dad, I always think like, well, what's next after dance? Like what do you do as a dancer? like when you get to high school and college like

what happens from that did you know what you wanted to do going into alvin ailey okay so when i was a little kid i thought um i just kept asking for more classes like once a week saturday turned into three turned into five you know and when i saw Alvin Ailey and I saw Revelations I realized that I could do this as a job I didn't realize that you could dance as a job other than be a dance teacher that's all I was seeing

and I told my daddy I said I think I have my calling I want to dance with Alvin Ailey so from 12 to 17 I have my calling. I want to dance with Alvin Ailey. So from 12 to 17, that was the trajectory. Kind of on the level where you are with your girls. Because I danced every day after that.

I went to performing arts high school. I joined Atlanta Ballet. I went to North Carolina School of the Arts over the summer because I knew that I was not technically proficient enough to get into the Ailey company but I was also performing I played Anita in West Side Story and I was young

I was like 13 and I could already act and I could sing but it was that because you know you can't fake dance and you can either dance or you can't dance I mean it's an athletic you know so that's when I knew

do they want to do it as a profession they don't know right now one is 7 one is 10 and they just enjoy it and they want more and it's not just ballet it's not just open for mad it's just it's everything it's it's jazz it's it's tap it's now they just started getting into hip-hop but for me it's like i enjoy it because i know where they are right i know they're not going to want to go to their friend's house i know they're not going to want to go to

the mall because they enjoy so much school's over at 240 from three to seven they dancing seven they come home do homework they're tired and i enjoy it so much. Schools over at 240, from 3 to 7, they dancing. 7, they come home, do homework, they tired. And I enjoy it because I like watching. I'm like, I'm the, there's not too many dads out there for some reason, but I'm the one that's, I know the routine and I'm spinning with them because I, if they enjoy it, I enjoy it. But it's,

I feel like more people, more kids should get into it because it's, it's a great art. Yeah. It's a great art. And it gave me my foundation for everything discipline um being on time confidence like even when i got a different world i remember one of our um our scripties she came up to me and she said are you a dancer? And I was just standing there. And I was like, yeah, like, what gave me away? I'm not what. I was always on time.

I was always there waiting for everybody else. I did not understand the way they did it. And all the breaks they take, I'm like, what are we breaking for? We ain't done nothing. Right. Dancers are the mules of the business. Wow. If the actors are coming out every now and then,

like when I did Fame, we were in rehearsal or performing all day, 10 hours. Actors going to trailers and coming back. When we did School Days, you couldn't be in that movie if you couldn't dance, sing, and act, first of all. But that meant we all came from theater. We shot, we filmed,

I mean, we recorded the song, I Want to Be Alone Tonight, after we filmed that day. And then they said, okay, now you're going to the studio. And we went, and we learned the song and did it. And then we learned the choreography and performed it. Damn.

But that's how we do. Especially in New York and especially in theater. All my dancing friends can sing and act. All my acting friends can dance and sing. We had to be triple threats to continue to work. You think them divas from Dreamgirls, Loretta Devine,

Shirley Ralph, Jennifer Lewis, you built for it. So when we go out there, we're not even asked to work at our full potential. You know what I mean and your babies are going to be like that too and whatever they do because that kind of training is like an athlete

i want to talk about another training you probably got because you know you you carry yourself with a certain sense of regalness right and when you look at Debbie Allen when you look at Felicia Rashad they have that same regal energy what did what did those two teach you oh my gosh everything I mean Debbie was ahead of me so every time people told me well you're mostly a dancer we don't know about you acting or you're a comic actress we don't know about you doing or you're a comic actress, we don't know about you doing drama. In my mind, I go, Debbie did. I just let them tell me what they thought I couldn't do. And it wasn't just that I knew I could.

She's already done it. She just did it. She had two lines in the same movie. When you see her next, she's directing, choreographing the show. She's producing. You can't let other people tell you what you can do. You don't know.

And the other mantra I always had, especially like when people were certain choreographers, you know, it's not a nice world, the dance world. So they're reading me or cussing me out, whatever, and I would say, you don't know you're not God. All in my mind. So I wouldn't cry because I was like, don't you stand up here and let him make you cry because he's saying, you know, you think you're something, you'll never be anything. And I was saying, you know, you think you're something. You'll never be anything.

And I was like, you don't know you're not God. That's right. How are you going to proclaim my destiny? That's right. You know, so you have to be able to talk to yourself. And Debbie is the same way. Felicia is the same way. They have a sense of self.

Because Debbie told me about how they rejected her at North Carolina School of the Arts because she didn't have a body for dance. Because she got a booty and whatever. And she said, and I took this booty all the way to Broadway, darling.

You know, okay, you don't want me in your school? Well, I'm going to go to Howard. And then I'm going to be on Broadway. And then, and then, and then. You can't let other people tell you what you are and what you're not. Yeah. And I refuse that.

I refuse that on just a general level. Like, there were little dancers in my class that were great dancers, but a little chunky or whatever. And I heard how the teachers talked to them, you know, destroying them. How dare you? How dare you take your responsibility and do that to her? You don't know what she's going to be. And you're only going to go with skinny, skinny tall people i just don't like that if you're gonna teach kids an art form don't add your bitter two cents to it because you didn't

with your fat ass that's not that's not politically correct the politically correct term is big back no it's not don't know we just can't Do women say that or is that a male term? No. Charlamagne bought that up. Big back. He discovered that. I'm not saying big back. Yeah, he developed that term.

Big back sounds better than fat ass. It sounds like a dude term. Yeah. A dude. That dude right there. Now they really going to think I'm gay. He discovered. I'm like, yo, that baby got big back.

That's not going to sound right coming from us. That's not a rumor I heard that you were gay. I didn't hear that from you. it just comes up every now and then if if they don't see me with a man like when i was um i was at an oscar party at georgia's and i was dancing with debbie and all the famed dancers were there. Like, you know, she keeps all her people. They got me, you know, photo of the week, me and Debbie. And they talking about me in the hair salon. I knew it. I think they together. And Norm calls me.

He loved it. I said, well, I'm single. I don't like that. He's like, yeah, that's some funny shit. I said, funny for you? Because you're like, yeah, I with debbie and she's with jasmine then it came up when i was at a lease you know i don't know what it is i don't care but it's just um i don't want to have to undo it yeah Yeah. And then, you know, in New York, I got hit on and stuff. And I was like, okay, but what made you think that I like girls?

Because it wasn't bothering me. You know, I was just developing into my womanhood. It was by some thugs. You got hit on by some thugs. What? Maybe it's the Timberlands. Yeah, it was thugs. I didn't have Timberlands then.

You didn't have Timberlands? I was at Cafe Wah. All right. And it was funk night. And I would go there by myself sometimes. You can't always have somebody come with you, you know. So sometimes I think it's because I'm alone. And then, you know, my best friend at Ailey's, we were walking through the park. And unbeknownst to us, we were walking through the park and unbeknownst

to us we were walking in the wooded gay area the wooded gay I don't know what you call it a glen a valley the wooded gay section the dale of the gay thing

the wooded gay section okay and they step to you okay and they stepped to you somebody saw us there and you didn't know we were in a certain area whatever because i don't know and then when i got back to the school they were like you know they're saying that you and so and so i was I was like, I don't even have a boyfriend. How can I have a girlfriend? Okay. Like, I can't even work, you know.

Right. It doesn't bother me, but when I was younger, it did because I was still developing. And it was pulling up on you. I was developing as a young woman. Yeah. Yeah. Would you ever do a memoir? I mean, we know you got the Uncensored coming out this weekend,

but would you ever do a memoir? I would need some help. You know, I would just need some help. I can't write it myself, by myself. Oh, yeah. Most people get help with their memoir. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I loved reading Jada Pinkett's book, Worthy,

because like Envy was saying earlier and you were saying, it was such a privacy in the 90s. So to get those stories from that era when she talks about you and, you know, Pac and just y'all friendship, just that friendship of black Hollywood. It's just like, man. And I was like. Privileged enough to hang with them because they're so much younger than me you know and it was just easy you know her birthday party and we went to the dragonfly which was funk night that night oh he was in there too i like me some funk obviously i'm like it's funk now you're the dragonfly but um and you know accepting of me because um so uh i think how old is jada 50 i don't know let me look it up i think well i'm 62

so when i'm on the show i'm 25 26 27 they 18 19 They 18, 19. She's 52. Cree, yeah. So now it's not a big deal, but back then I wasn't hanging out with no, you know. I remember I went to a restaurant with Cree, and as we were walking to the restaurant, she said, do they card? I said, card? I mean, I had never been carded Because 18 you know I said how old are you She said

I just turned 18 I said what the hell am I doing When I'm 18 year old Are you kidding me Kadeem too I saw them as kids I like grown ass men When I was young

30, 32 so that you know I was like 18 but now that they have embraced me I appreciate it because they kept me current

and kept me interested because they Jada and Cree are out-the-box thinkers mm-hmm you know they bring creative ideas to the table that I never would have thought of and I love that and and of course you know Cree keeps me laughing what about Pac? Pac and I would like that too. He always had ideas. I felt so unaccomplished, you know, because he would say something and then do it. I would tell him an idea and not write it and not finish it or it's still like on my shelf um mostly i wanted him to know that i felt he was a great

actor and i heard the murmurings of oh he's just being himself or whatever they're just riding on his fame as a rapper i said everybody that raps ain't acting on there. There were a lot of rappers that had movies. That man can act. I mean, his performances were off the chain, and I just wanted him to know that and not listen to that. One time in Newsweek, they used to have little blurbs like Star of the Week or Celebrity of the Week, just a little blurb. And they said, and surprisingly handsome rapper.

I said, what the fuck is so surprising? How insulting. Yeah, he was fine as shit. It was. I didn't. Sorry, girl. Why is that surprising He's supposed to be ugly

Because he's a rapper I found it racist Then when I got to When I won one of my image awards And I go to the press tent There were two Little white girls there And all they did was ask me about

What I felt about Tupac getting an Image Award. Now, meanwhile, I have my award. It's my sixth one, and I'm not even prepared to... You know how they like to bring up dirt when you're at a red carpet. And I was thinking, what are y'all doing here? This is our party, you knowall doing here this is our party

you know and you're crashing our party and asking me to tell some dirt about somebody else here so I wasn't in the most receiving way they kept asking me if I thought he deserved an image award and I said well I don't know what the controversy is. Well, you know, because of Dolores Tucker and this, that, and other.

And I didn't know. And I said, well, can you tell me which songs you're referring to? At the time, I had only heard Dear Mama, Brenda Had a Baby, and Keep Your Head Up. I honestly didn't know what the controversy was about because these are all uplifting females. And she said, well, I don't know

which song. I haven't heard the CD. I said, well, why don't you do your homework? And then come to me and ask me. I was so mad. In the back of the house, there were two brothers like this. They were from Jet and Ebony. You know?

Because I'm like, how dare you come to our party, insult our guest, and don't even know what the hell you talking about? That's right. But I'm supposed to know? Mm-hmm. They were on the radio, those three songs. And they come in like they well we deserve that.

We deserve to be here. Oh my God I was so glad. So the next day I was in the LA Times. I have my award up like this and my nostrils flaring. And I don't know what they said but my publicist called me and she was like you know

there are white actresses that don't get hired because their breasts are too big I was like first of all I don't have to run everything by you for me to speak you know if you wanted to be by my side you should have been I don't have to run everything by you for me to speak. You know, if you wanted to be by my side, you should have been by there.

But what was she going to do? Interrupt me? You're disrespecting us. You're disrespecting me. And they, and Nafeni saw that article and heard that I stood up for him. And she never forgot that and I think that's part of why she was cool with him staying with me after you got shot yeah because she didn't based on what they knew about me and seeing me on the show she didn't realize that I was like that. You know what I mean? They're very much soldiers.

One of her friends said, oh, you a soldier now? And I was like, I'm sorry. Are we at war? I didn't know what she meant by it. Were you afraid during that time? When you took Pac in after he got shot, did you feel like what if they come looking for him

and I'm here yeah there were times because of the um the regularity of my um going in and out of my apartment i felt like it would be easy if i had been on the radar for anybody to you know follow me or come up and so there was that and i didn't live in a secured building like a doorman building. And I was scared of, like I had never seen a real bullet wound just, you know, on TV like NYPD Blue and when i played a badass in this movie but i was concerned about that you know actually caring for the wounds and making sure he was going to be okay so you had to nurse him back into yeah he should have been in the hospital for at least two or two or three more days on antibiotics i remember he just walked out he signed himself out so you had to help him out

and help me and help him get himself back together he when he left um bellevue he went to his girlfriends and he realized it was equally accessible he just felt like a sitting duck in the hospital but everybody knew he was at his girlfriends nobody knew that we were friends so him coming to my apartment was more Diarrhea Van Frank I just put food under the bookcase but yeah it was on the down low

I didn't know what kind of publicity might have come from that but it wasn't anything I was interested in publicizing so I just shut the family down. I was like, did you tell anybody where you spent it? Because I didn't do that for that reason. It was a personal reason.

That's right. And that was one of those moments where, you know, y'all don't get that. And they respected it all these years until the documentary. They've been wanting to, I guess, thank me. But their love, and I'm part of that family now, has been enough. I don't need public thanks for what I did on a personal level. That's right. So it's interesting. enough i don't need public thanks for what i did on a personal level that's right so interesting the documentary um said okay jasmine you can talk about that part of it now because i

really thought well just you know i'll go to my grave with certain things not because I'm ashamed but I don't like the exploitation factor of things that you do in your personal life for your kids or for people you love or whatever you know was your story I mean it's in the doc Jada talked about in her book yeah this is all your story she called me and tell me what is in the book this is all all I said. I didn't talk about this. I didn't talk about that. And I really was calling her more for support because when I wrote Afeni's book, I didn't know all the other stuff you have to do for a book, the preface, the book tours, you know,

and I just wanted to make sure she was. And there was a kind of loneliness to her story to me. To Afini? No, Jada. Jada, oh, okay, gotcha, gotcha. Yeah, I can see that. There's a loneliness, like the bigger and richer, and you get more isolated. You know, there's more things you can't do, and You always have to, I don't know.

I just didn't want her to feel that loneliness. She could talk to me about whatever. It was a lot of personal information. Her gauge is way past mine. That's what I mean about the younger ones. They showed me that I don't have to be that old school about my practices. That's cool. So you didn't say, you know, when Tupac stayed with you, you saw that little piece. Like, you ain't going to go in it like that.

I didn't tell nobody. Yeah. I mean, when my family saw the documentary, my best friend said, what? I told two people. And they both lived in New York. Because why tell somebody that can't get to me? Because I was worried that anything could happen, you know? And those two of my friends that lived in New York, that was it. So all my other friends, I just, because two

weeks is a long period for me not to call you. I wasn't missed yet. Maybe had it been a month. Right. Yeah. So now when that documentary came out, a lot of my friends were like,

Whoa, that's what you did for that two weeks. When did this happen? Where were you staying? How come I didn't know? Did his girlfriend at the time have a problem with that? I mean, because that's Pac and Jazz McGuire. I have no idea, child. I wasn't dealing with that.

I don't care. He's 21. I'm not like, your girlfriend, and it was dire. I mean, he'm not like, your girlfriend. And it was dire. I mean, he was in trouble. Yeah. And he was still open.

Like, it wasn't healed yet, you know? So I wasn't thinking about that. Yeah. They got back together, I think. They got back together. Yeah, I'm sure you talk about this on Uncensored. This is my last question. Like, when was the last time you spoke to him? Tupac? Yeah. Like, sure you talk about this on Uncensored and this is my last question. When was the last time you spoke to him?

Tupac? Like before you died. Do you remember the last conversation you had or the last time you saw him? I was visiting a Fainian Stone Mountain when they had a house there. And he came through. Now, this is after he had been in prison

for 11 months. I hadn't seen him for a while. Yeah, so I saw him at the house. That was the last time. You remember the conversation? That's personal. It was just like, hey, you know, and he was like,

I'm strong now because he was infirm. So he wanted me to see his, you know, little prison push-up muscles. Knuckles were all black from doing it on, you know. He wanted, I was like, yeah, you look good. And then he went out with his friends and, you know, I hung out with the feigning. The thing that really hurt my feelings about him getting shot like that, when he was with me, I thought I was helping him go to the next part of his life.

Like grow above, yeah. I was like, you're going to go to prison and then get shot again? Mm-hmm. And I knew that second shooting wasn't, the wounds he had the first time were in his appendages, not in his lungs. I was so disappointed yeah and he told me he was gonna

he wasn't gonna make it past 25 I always thought he was just talking shit all the time that's legend put that in the book I was like nigga I'm not writing a book about you stop telling me that I'd be like

I'm never telling anybody anything about this experience nah you need to you know blank in the bathtub like you need to put this in the book what am I your fucking now I'm your chronicler yeah blunt in the bathtub like you need to put this in the book. What am I? You're fucking.

Now I'm your chronicler. Yeah. And he kept telling me he was like 21. And I really didn't understand that world. He knew I wasn't from it. I thought it was ridiculous for him to say he wasn't going to live past 25. I treated him like I treated my little cousins that make these statements about life. So that hurt.

I can't wait for people to hear your story. You lived a life, Ms. God. Y'all got to watch Uncensored this Sunday. March 24th. You need to write ath, 10, 9 central, TV 1. Y'all got to make me, I'm going to take my lashes off because I'm going to the airport. Leave them here. I'm going to put them on eBay. They still are because I'm going with lashes. If you take them off, I'm going to put them on eBay.

No. I got you. I got you. They on. Make sure they know it's not roaches or a spider Because they look like bugs When you just put them on the couch Oh that's on my lashes For Jasmine Guy ladies and gentlemen

Thank you so much We love you so much You are a cultural icon We appreciate you so much We value you Thank you always It's Jasmine Guy It's The Breakfast Club

Good morning. Wake that ass up. In the morning. The Breakfast Club. Hey, y'all. Niminy here. I'm the host of a brand new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records. Executive produced by Questlove, The Story Pirates, and John Glickman, Historical Records brings history to life through hip-hop.

Flash, slam, another one gone. Bash, bam, another one gone. The crack of the bat and another one gone. The tip of the cap, there's another one gone. Each episode is about a different inspiring figure from history. Like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old girl in Alabama who refused to give up her seat on the city bus nine whole months before Rosa Parks did the same thing.

Check it. And it began with me. Did you know, did you know? I wouldn't give up my seat. Nine months before Rosa, it was Claudette Colvin. Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records. Because in order to make history, you have to make some noise. Listen to Historical Records on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hello, my undeadly darlings. It's Teresa, your resident ghost host. And do I have a treat for you. Haunting is crawling out from the shadows, and it's going to be devilishly good. We've got chills, thrills, and stories that'll make you wish the lights stayed on. So join me, won't you? Let's dive into the eerie unknown together. Sleep tight, if you can. Listen to Haunting on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, what's up? This is Ramses Jha. And I go by the name Q Ward. And we'd like you to join us each week for our show, Civic Cipher. That's right. We discuss social issues, especially those that affect black and brown people, but in a way that informs and empowers all people. We discuss everything from prejudice to politics to police violence, and we try to give you the tools to create positive change in your home, workplace, and social circle.

We're going to learn how to become better allies to each other, so join us each Saturday for Civic Cipher on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories,

their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th 2017 was assassinated Crooks Everywhere unearths the plot to murder a one-woman Wikileaks She exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state Listen to Crooks Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app

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