The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Sister Souljah Talks 'Love After Midnight,' Moving To Dubai UAE, U.S. Politics, Women Empowerment + More

Episode Date: October 17, 2024

The Breakfast Club Sits Down With Sister Souljah To Discuss 'Love After Midnight,' Moving To Dubai UAE, U.S. Politics, And Women Empowerment. Listen For More!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 called a gold mine. 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. Welcome to Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German, where we get real and dive straight into todo lo actual y viral. We're talking musica, los premios, el chisme, and all things trending in my cultura. I'm bringing you all the latest happening in our entertainment world and some fun and impactful interviews with your favorite Latin artists, comedians, actors, and influencers. Each week, we get deep and raw life stories, combos on the issues that matter to us, and it's all packed with gems, fun, straight-up comedia, and that's a song that only nuestra gente can sprinkle. Listen to Gracias Come Again 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. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th, 2017 was assassinated. Crooks Everywhere unearthed 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, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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. Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club.

Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Charlemagne Tha God, Jess Hilarious. We are The Breakfast Club. Now, Jess is on maternity leave, so we have Lauren LaRosa filling in, and we have a special guest on the line right now. She's actually out in Dubai. Ladies and gentlemen, we have Sister Soulja.

Welcome. Peace. And how are you feeling? I feel good. You feel good? Today is pub day, so I'm excited, and I hope that, you know, people will get a chance to read my book and people who enjoy the series will like this new edition. Oh, they will. Now, we ask you to be in person, but they said Sister Soldier is in Dubai.

So have you moved to Dubai? What is in Dubai? Why are you in Dubai? Why did a girl from the Bronx decide she wanted to go to Dubai to start writing. Well, I needed some peace in my life. You know, writing takes a high level of concentration. And so if I want to concentrate, I need things to quiet down and be a little steady. And so I had come here before, maybe around 2013, and I said this would probably be a good place to have that kind of peace of mind. So much was going on in the country as it still is going on. And so now at least I can concentrate and focus and feel safe and healthy, and I can watch what's going on at home from

afar you know peace queen sister soldier perspective how are you i just walked back in the room how you doing i'm blessed black and highly favored i don't blame you for getting out of here yeah no i really uh at the time that i left, I, you know, I was really thinking about it quite clearly. Like, could I, you know, move from where I'm rooted? Can I leave all of my cars and house and everything and go somewhere else? And, you know, I don't know, maybe end up in a little renter car or something. But I was like, yep, I can do that. And I did.

Do you feel a lot of this stuff that you have talked about and discussed throughout your whole life just seems like when you go back and look at some of the things you've talked about, have you spoken about, it seems like things never change. It's like we're still having those same conversations, whether it's politics, whether it's racism in the country. And how do you feel about that? I think things do change and I think it's gotten worse, actually. I agree. When I look, you know, at the news, when I take a break, you know, from my work, I'm always shocked, like every time, you know, I'm always shocked at what's going on at home. And the funny thing is, well, it's not really funny, I guess it's ironic. It's like,

when I'm working, or when I'm with my family over here, everything is peaceful. And then about 6pm is here is the open of business in America. And as soon as I hear from my family at home, I'm like, oh, no. You know what? What's next? You know. Oh, that's terrible. That's sad. You know, and I try to keep my, you know, positive outlook. But I just think that things are not going so well at home. What do you think makes Dubai so peaceful? Order. UAE is an Islamic country, and so it doesn't have as much of the contradiction or the hypocrisy that we have at

home. I think a lot of people at home get confused because at home we have the separation of church and state. That's the way our constitution is set up. That's how our system is set up. And so morality and certain order and certain civility is not part of the legal code. Whereas here, the Quran itself is the law. So you have to follow the guidance and you have to respect the limits. At home, I think our appreciation for freedom leads us or misleads us sometimes to exceed the limits in ways that is not healthy. You know, we're going to talk about love after midnight in one second, but you and the UAE, every black woman that I've met in the UAE, because I love Abu Dhabi, they tell me that they feel like a white man in America feels in the UAE.

That's how empowered they feel there. Well, UAE is considered the safest country in the world. You can walk and not feel any kind of anxiety, whether it's daytime or whether it's nighttime. The police are actually friendly, you know, which is mind blowing if you come from New York City, right? And, you know, which is mind blowing if you come from New York City. Right. And, you know, my husband and I were walking outside one day for exercise, doing some cardio and a cop car drove by and waved. And my husband was like, he's a Brooklyn cat. He was like, are they waving at us? Are they trying to tell us something? You know, what's up? And I said, no, they just saying hi. They just saying hi, because that's how it is

out here. You know, it's not the police versus the people. It's not you don't feel like your blackness is a crime or even a consideration, really. You know, so it's a lot of stress removed, especially if you have children, if you're a parent, if you are a parent and you worry at home, you worry all the time. Every time your son walks out the door every time your daughter you know is outside of your your eyesight and here because everybody knows what the rules are um and they have to respect the limits because the limits are the law that's right um you're here to talk about love after midnight which is the latest installment of the Winter Santiago series. For those who aren't familiar with the series, how would you describe what the series is about? Well, I don't know anybody who's not familiar with the coldest winter ever.

That's right. The coldest winter ever has survived through generations. It's a book that every new set of 13 year old girls and boys read. It's a book that is so popular in the prison system, is so popular in all women's gatherings and even sororities and so on and so forth. So people who follow this series know the winter series is like the coldest winter ever, and then Life After Death, and then Love After Midnight, which is in stores now today. I also, this is my seventh novel, but this is the first time I ever read the audio book. So if you buy the book from Audible or wherever,

you're going to hear my narration of one of my books, which was a big deal for me because I never narrated the books before. How has winter changed since Life After Death? How has winter changed yeah i think winter is so much like um us in other words uh you know how something spiritual can happen to you something really big or you almost uh met your demise or death uh you had a car accident and it spun out of control and you were hanging over the bridge. Or in the case of one of my sisters, you know, she had a car accident where a tree fell on her car. And I think what happens is

it's a really big deal when it's happening. And it's a really big deal when you feel the loss and you feel the pain and you feel the suffering. In Life After Death, I think so many shocking, unknown things happened to Winter Santiago. And when she came out of that experience, really by the grace of God, she was very clear about it. But like most of us, we forget. One day you were praying and thanking God, and then two weeks later, you're like, on with the show. So I think she has changed in some ways. She knows that there is a God and I don't think before her death experience, she knew that. She is all about her business now and now her hustle is legal. It's not illegal and that's a big deal. Her father, Santiago, is her manager now.

She has her own reality show. She has a lot of leverage, though, because she has a brother-in-law who is in the film industry, is quite popular and quite powerful. So how she juggles is what we'll see when to go through in Love After Midnight and how she pursues the things she wants in her life. Like she wants a man, but she's looking for a man that feels like the men of the 90s. And she is no longer the 90s. Now it's the 21st century. And she don't like these new dudes. So she's disappointed because she doesn't have somebody that, you know, she really feels, you know, deeply connected to. And so she's pursuing that. But she's very picky. And she'll, you know, chew somebody up and spit them out in in in an instance so it's good for her

business wise financially it's good for her family wise uh it's a it's a struggle for her because she has a certain kind of personality but i think that people will love uh love after midnight i call it a hood romantic comedy. And the reason why I say hood is because romance in the hood, sometimes it's not that romantic. It's actually more trauma bonding than anything. More toxic. So you're about to experience her trauma.

In the first chapter, Mood, the first couple graphs grabbed me. You say, what Winter is saying, I'm addicted to the struggle and the hustle, moving and maneuvering, fight and fury, action and reaction, pressure and tension. And I was like, wow, you don't, like as a person growing up, like a girl from around, you don't realize how much you're addicted to things that are really traumatizing to you. And you think you need it to kind of like live and survive until you get out of it or until you go through an experience like what she went through in the last book speaking from that perspective like you know as a person who you know you're you're guiding winter what do you want us girls to take away

from this book because when i read that i'm like oh this is deeper than like a lot of people even probably know on the surface watching her journey through this new book all right in the beginning of my novels always there's a poem uh yes and this one you know is what to remember and what to forget so what what as as an author what i'm showing is that sometimes we don't focus on which things we should remember and which things we should forget. And even artists in the entertainment industry have this same problem. A lot of times, if you're coming from hard times and then you get a certain amount of money that you never thought you would earn. Like you're making seven figures. You never thought you would have that in the palm of your hand and you're young. So you want to bring everybody with you.

But if you bring the streets with you into your business, things get complicated. And I think that we can all agree, like, I'm constantly seeing cases on being aired on platforms. So y'all, this is Questlove. And I'm here to tell you about a new podcast I've been working on with the Story Pirates and John Glickman called Historical Records. It's a family friendly podcast. Yeah, you heard that right. A podcast 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. I wouldn't give up my seat Nine months before Rosa It was called a moment 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.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th, 2017, was murdered. There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate. My name is Manuel Delia. I am one of the hosts of Crooks Everywhere, a podcast that unhurts the plot to murder a one-woman Wikileaks.

Daphne exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. And she paid the ultimate price. Listen to Crooks Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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. Hey, everyone. This is Courtney Thorne-Smith, Laura Layton, and Daphne Zuniga.

On July 8th, 1992, apartment buildings with pools were never quite the same as Melrose Place was introduced to the world. It took drama and mayhem to an entirely new level. We are going to be reliving every hookup, every scandal, every backstab, blackmail and explosion, and every single wig removal together. Secrets are revealed as we rewatch every moment with you. Special guests from back in the day will be dropping by. You know who they are.

Sydney, Allison, and Joe are back together on Still the Place with a trip down memory lane and back to Melrose Place. So listen to Still the Place on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 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 Spooky Season 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. or that rap star, this celebrity or that celebrity. And it was the person's inability to transition from one level to another level, not knowing what to remember, what to forget, what to hold on to, and what to regret. Sometimes we glorify things that are not good for us because we're just used to it. Right. And so if you hold on to it because you're used to it, it's going to ruin the gifts that you received.

So I think life is a balancing act. And I think that all of us need guidance and all of us need faith. And I think if you don't have a faith, you know, whether you're Christian or Jewish or Muslim or whatever your belief system is, if you don't have a faith, you don't have guidance and you don't have limits to what you will and will not do. And furthermore, you don't know who is all powerful. So you'll start doing things for people because you think that those people are in control. Right. But really only one is in control.

No, it's crazy. You look at sports and you look at all these other organizations and they have people that actually come in to help these young men or young women transition from one stage of their life to another stage of their life. But when you look at the entertainment industry, they don't have that. Because a lot of these, everybody, most people that come up from the entertainment industry

are from the street. So like you said, they think what's popular or what they should be doing is something that they see and there is nobody teaching them this is not the way there is no guidance um but you know envy there was there were people who were doing that but if it's if it's any interest of people who are financing financing these creative arts for their artists to stay in a state of ignorance, then they block. It's the same like you block somebody on your phone. You block the good people.

You block the leadership. You block the intellectuals. You block the people who are just good people who want to give guidance so that we can prosper from it. Yeah. And we see it so many different times. You know, I just wanted to get your thought, because, I mean, you're so profound in your thoughts and you actually do the homework. What is your thoughts on what's going on now with politics, with Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. What's your thoughts on that? Because you've never been a person to bite your tongue. You're going to say what it is and how you feel and what you think.

It feels like, to add to Envy's point, it does feel like, especially around Israel and Palestine, it does feel like there's a lot of sister soldier moments happening. That's right. Sister soldier moments. Yeah, you know how they call it. You know, these politicians call these things sister soldier moments. And it feels like a lot ofier moments happening. That's right. Sister-soldier moments. Yeah, you know how they call it. You know how these politicians call these things sister-soldier moments. And it feels like a lot of that is happening. Well, you know, politics-wise, I grew weary of politics a number of years ago

because I don't think that the people are given real choices. I think you're always just doing the minimum, you know, like, okay, all right, it's this one or that one. Right. But you don't feel good about any of it, you know? And then there's also the fact of being organized is a really big deal because if a community is not organized, they don't even understand the political structure. It won't even matter what you vote for or who you vote for if you don't have an agenda, if you don't have your agenda backed up by finance, if you don't have an understanding of how the system works. And the system is quite intricate. So I don't know. I think for maybe 40 years i was always that voice that was saying uh was questioning and and uh proposing and suggesting and working and communicating and

so on and so forth it just got to the point where it seemed like it wasn't that people didn't know what to do they just weren't interested in doing it do you think uh well I don't I don't want to say to you what do you think of the vice president Kamala Harris what do you think of this moment that we're here in America do you think it's revolutionary do you think it's historic do you think of this moment that we're here in America? Do you think it's revolutionary? Do you think it's historic? Do you think that it's something that could change things? Oh, boy. excited and probably in tears. And, you know, actually, I was living in Japan when Obama was elected. And I watched, you know, all the different news agencies and everything. And people really were so overwhelmed with happiness and tears. And they seemed to think that the world was going to change in some really huge way.

And, you know, I think that President Obama was a nice guy, but I don't think that the world changed in any huge way. I think it's a matter of knowing and studying and learning and planning. So it's not a matter of, is it going to be this man or this woman? It's not a matter of that because at the end of the day, it's just the face. But you have to know how to work the system. And you have to be how to work the system. And you have to be organized to impact the system. And I think in the U.S., we have a cult of personality. We just pick who we like or who looks the best or these different things.

But it really has nothing to do with politics and power. That's real. Why haven't The Coldest Winter Ever been turned into some type of series or movie yet? I had that same question. Are they scared? Oh my God, yes. I know Jada, if I'm not mistaken, didn't Jada Pinkett Smith option it back in the day?

Or something like that? She optioned it a long, long time ago. Let me just tell you simply, just give you the truth. A Hollywood contract can be maybe 50 pages long and not just be one of them. And there's so many strange things in these contracts. And it makes me understand how other people kind of got caught in a bad situation.

But I read the contracts line for line. And I have my red pen. And I write notes on the side and I negotiate because a contract is a mutual agreement between two or more parties. movie houses seem to think they write down whatever they want to write in this contract and you just sign on the dotted line and don't ask any questions. So I think my intelligence has worked against me in terms of the Hollywood system. But at the same time, I wouldn't want to just sign some weird agreement and end up regretting it. So I don't. So we were at a major studio and, you know, I just found the experience not to be what it should be. If somebody came to you with the right situation that you were comfortable with and you could trust, would you do it?

Or are you just completely against it because of like the politics that go behind, you know, closed doors sometimes with the right situation that you were comfortable with and you could trust, would you do it or are you just completely against it because of like the politics that go behind, you know, closed doors sometimes with the Hollywood studios? No, I'm not against it. The right deal, yes, the right deal. Let me give you a better example so you can see what I'm saying. So I said to you, I have seven novels. So say I say, okay, I'm interested in making

The Coldest Winter Ever into a film. And the Hollywood studio says, great. And then they come back with a contract. And then the contract says that they are accessing The Coldest Winter Ever, A Deeper Love Inside, and some other book that I wrote. And I say, no, no, no, no. That's not what I'm selling. I'm only doing a one deal with the Coldest Winter Ever, the film version. And they say, yeah, okay. So what we're going to do is we're going to freeze all of your other works. So you agree that during this whole process, you won't sell or discuss with any other company or business person converting this book into a film.

And we're going to freeze it for five years before and after the film is made. Just strange situations. There are even some contracts that want you to not write anything else until this is produced. So I'm not interested in legal shackles, you know? It's like if i had 10 houses and i'm selling one of them and you tell me okay i'll buy this one but you're not allowed to sell the other nine what yeah but they're my house that's right that's right so what are you talking about okay well you can sell it in 10 years come Come on, man. What are you discussing here? So I think that the contracts are also set up in a way that they're using a very, you know, legalistic language, of course,

a very high language. And so they expect you to not understand. But I know what in perpetuity means. It means forever. You know, so you're agreeing to something forever. When you look at these contracts, if you have any kind of independence in your thinking or intelligence in your thinking,

you're not going to sign them. And so people think, oh, we'll just let her sit over there and wait. She'll get tired of waiting and then she'll come and be more obedient. But that's not really the case. That's right. Because you live a great life. Alhamdulillah, I do. You know, I try to be a good person. I make my prayers, you know, every day, throughout the day. And Allah takes very good care of me, alhamdulillah. So I have no complaints. I'm not in a desperate state. And that makes me really comfortable. Well, you know, my daughter just turned 16. So I'm gifting her the whole

book series, The Coldest Winter Ever, Life After Death, and now Love After Midnight. I think, you know, she's ready to read those now, I think. I believe she is. I hope you give her the Midnight books also because she needs to know how to evaluate the guys that, you know, she will come across in her life. I don't want to think about that. Y'all might got to talk through those. She need to read and then y'all sit down and talk.

Because the Midnight series, it changed my whole, yeah. Wow. Yeah. But it's so good, though. You need to know, she needs to know what a man is and what a man isn't. And really what a woman is and what a woman isn't. Because the Midnight books don't only address manhood, they also address womanhood, you know, and that main character is very influential. And that Midnight series, I think, should be required reading instead of some of the silly stuff that you get in high school. I agree. Well, make sure you pick it up. If you're out and about, pick up Love After Midnight.

And Sister Soulja actually did her own audio this time. So you can pick up the Audible as well. And we appreciate you. And be safe out there. We love you. Thank you so much. Thank you, Queen. All right.

It's Sister Soulja. Peace. 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. 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. Welcome to Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German, where we get real and dive straight into todo lo actual y viral.

We're talking música, los premios, el chisme, and all things trending in my cultura. I'm bringing you all the latest happening in our entertainment world and some fun and impactful interviews with your favorite Latin artists, comedians, actors, and influencers. Each week, we get deep and raw life stories, combos on the issues that matter to us, and it's all packed with gems, fun, straight up comedia, and that's a song that only nuestra gente can sprinkle. Listen to Gracias Thank 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. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th, 2017, was assassinated. Crooks everywhere unearthed 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, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey everyone, I'm Madison Packer, a pro hockey veteran going on my 10th season in new york and i'm anya packer a former pro hockey player and now a full madison packer stan anya and i met through hockey and now we're married and moms to two awesome toddlers ages two and four and we're excited about our new podcast moms who puck which talks about everything from pro hockey to professional women's athletes to raising children and all the messiness in between.

So listen to Moms Who Puck on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.