Mixed and Mastered
Mixed and Mastered is the podcast where the untold stories of the music industry come to life. Hosted by Jeffrey Sledge, a veteran music executive and former VP of A&R at Atlantic Records and Jive Records, each episode dives deep into the journeys, challenges, and triumphs of the people shaping the sound of today. From label executives and producers to artists, songwriters, and managers, Jeffrey brings you behind the scenes to meet the minds driving the industry forward. There’s a gap in the marketplace for these voices, and Mixed and Mastered is here to fill it—one conversation at a time. Because the best stories are told by those who lived them.
Mixed and Mastered
Lisa Cambridge-Mitchell: Part 1
In Part 1 of this two-part conversation, Jeffrey Sledge welcomes industry vet Lisa Cambridge-Mitchell for a deep dive into her early life and rise in music. From growing up in New York and navigating a volatile home, to founding We Three Marketing and landing at Uptown and LaFace, Lisa shares candid stories of resilience, risk-taking, and working with icons like Andre Harrell, Mary J. Blige, and TLC.
A raw and inspiring look at how she carved her path in a business that wasn’t built to support women—and why her story still resonates today. Tune in for Part 1 now, and stay locked for Part 2 where the story continues.
Mixed and Mastered is produced and distributed by Merrick Studio, and hosted by music industry veteran, Jeffrey Sledge. Tune in to the discussion on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you catch your podcasts. Follow us on Instagram @MixedandMasteredPod to join the conversation and support the show at https://mixedandmasteredpod.buzzsprout.com/
This week on Mixed and Mastered, we're talking to Lisa Cambridge Mitchell. From starting her own marketing company with two friends, we3 Marketing, to helping Andre Harrell start Uptown Records, to heading publicity and marketing at LaFace Records, guiding the careers of superstars like Usher, tlc and Tony Braxton. Lisa then moved to HBO, jive Records, rca Records and Tidal. Lisa is the definition of a music trailblazer. Lisa is now heading her own company, persistent Joy, coaching creative professionals to navigate challenges, embrace growth and reconnect with their purpose. This is Mixed and Mastered with Lisa Cambridge Mitchell. Welcome to Mixed and Mastered, the podcast where the stories of the music industry come to life. I'm Jeffrey Sledge, bringing you real conversations with the people who have shaped the sound of music. We're pulling back the curtain on what it takes to make it in the music business. These are the stories you won't hear anywhere else, told by the people who live them. This is Mixed and Mastered. Mixed and Mastered podcast with our special guest, lisa Cambridge Mitchell. Hi, lisa.
Speaker 2:Hi Jeffrey, how are you?
Speaker 1:I'm doing good. I got all my peoples coming on here. It's been good. I've been talking to a lot of people and I was going to say, like it's interesting because I always research the interviews, even though I know, you know, the people, I still want to and I always find stuff I didn't know. I always find stuff I didn't know that, I didn't know, I didn't realize he did, I didn't realize he did that, I didn't know that, I didn't realize you did that, I didn't realize you did that or whatever.
Speaker 2:But yeah, let's get started. Okay, I'm so happy for all the people that are supporting you, because I'm hoping that you know this, but everybody loves you, thank you.
Speaker 1:It's so wonderful we're going for a tangent. It's not even fair for you to say that, because you and I are quite a different thing. No disrespect to anybody that's been on here, because I love everybody, but we got other history going on. It's no different. But anyway, it's deep, it's very deep. Exactly One thing I didn't know are you born on? Well, you raised in the upper west side. Are you raised in harlem? Yeah, 95th and columbus baby, yeah, I knew, I knew, I knew your mom's apartment was, but I didn't know if you had moved there.
Speaker 2:Okay, no, you know what I actually? Uh, we lived in queens. We lived in hollis. When I was little when I was born.
Speaker 2:we lived in hollis and um, my mom moved to 95th street. It's really I don't mind sharing this because I feel like it's. You know, it is what it is. My mom, my father, my biological father, was really abusive and tried to murder her, and so she sent me to long Island to live with my grandparents, and she eventually moved to the Upper West side and so I was in Bayshore. I was born out in Hollis. In fact, I think I've told you this before that the dry cleaners in the tribe video is my cousin's dry cleaners.
Speaker 1:I didn't know that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's my cousin and I actually don't have a relationship with them because they're on the father's side. My father's side of the family. But yeah, that was always kind of. I always thought that was pretty cool. Wow, um, they're really nice. I remember them when I was little, but I didn't know them later, um, so, yeah, so I eventually I didn't move to 95th street. I think I was about seven years old, maybe, okay, um, when I moved to 95th street and then that was it. We were just.
Speaker 1:My mom was there for ages every time I would ride past there. I ride my bike past all the time. I'd go from holland down down central park west. I'd cut over on a hunter street, go down columbus, past the whole foods now, and I'd always remember that's what they said.
Speaker 2:I'd always remember that building, yeah yeah, and it was such a different neighborhood, that's all so. So that. So our building if you're going down columbus, our building is on the left. Those those high risesrises on the right, those were all tenements with Dominican immigrants. It was such a great neighborhood. In fact, when my mom moved there, my grandfather was a union organizer for 32B the elevator workers. So he basically was like just what building do you want to be in?
Speaker 2:Okay wow, and they were not happy that she moved. They were like, like, just what building do you want to be in? And they were not happy that she moved. They were like, oh, it's not a safe neighborhood, but it was a great neighborhood to grow up in. You knew everybody. I mean I still most of my friends are from that. Yeah, I loved growing up.
Speaker 1:I loved growing up in New York. That's in New York. I mean there's pockets of it, but it's not the same. You go to a neighborhood I grew up in White Plains. I moved to Riverside on the 150th, 92. I lived there off and on for 20 years, probably 20 years. You get to know everybody in your neighborhood, the many kids up on Broadway. It's kind of a different energy. You just know people, they know you, they knew my son, like literally like growing up they see. So I don't know if New York's quite the same like that, I guess in pockets I don't know yeah, I don't.
Speaker 2:I would say to me what I think. What I would find striking is you know, we live. We live in Connecticut now and we meet people. What I've seen happen we've been here for 20 years which I can't even fathom, and what I saw happen over the last 20 years is when we first moved up here, you meet somebody and be like, oh, I moved up here from New York. And they're like, oh, you did, where'd you live? Oh, I lived here. Oh, I'm a boop. You're like, oh, he moved up here from New York. And they're like, yeah, like where neighbor did you live? And I grew up in New York, named some neighborhood, and they'll just be kind of like oh, okay, you lived in New York. And I'm like, and I always ask the same question when, how long did you live in New York? And it's, it was a pit stop. Yeah, exactly, exactly. So I think that that was unfortunate, but it was great. I loved that time. I loved, loved, loved that time.
Speaker 1:So another thing I didn't know about you. I didn't know you went to boarding school.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so tell me about that, absolutely Tell me about that.
Speaker 2:That was a byproduct of my mother. She was a single mother, okay, and she had a long-term boyfriend. He was awesome, um, and he um, but like I mean you know me, jeff like there was some point I got in trouble. I don't even remember what it was. I got in trouble for something stupid. I didn't like, you know, I went out when I was supposed to and my mother I had the kind of mother that would like scream on you and then stop speaking to you. So sometimes you miss, miss the point. You know what?
Speaker 2:I mean, and I got in trouble for something and my mom like, just let loose on me. And when she was finished I didn't say anything. And she was like, do you have anything to say? And I said, don't you have to go to work? Cause? She was like and you can't do this, and you're not going to do that, and you're not. And I was like I was looking at her like who's going to enforce all this while you're at work? Okay, like whatever. And I also skipped a grade.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:When I moved from Long Island, I skipped fourth grade and my birthday's in October, so I actually graduated from high school when I was 16. Oh, wow. So at this point I'm like 10, 11. And I'm looking at her like whatever lady and she was literally like I got something for your ass. And she had some friends whose daughters went to the same school and so she sent me to visit them and I remember like the first time she sent me I was like I was such a New Yorker. I was just like whatever, like why would anybody be?
Speaker 2:here, Right and with my poor attitude. And then, I think, maybe the third or fourth time she sent me to visit, she was like, would you ever want to go to a school like that? And I was like, oh my God, I would love to go there. And she had already put in a financial aid my application. The only thing I had to do was my interview, and so she was under the clock to make sure I was on board. But I was already basically in the school so I looked up. I can remember the day that I, the day we arrived, I looked up after they left and I was like, wait, how did I end?
Speaker 1:up here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Like I'm here and it was the best thing for me, I mean, I wasn't you know again, my mom, my mom, don't get me wrong, my mom was it was like, let me put it this way, my mom was fun at a party, um, okay, okay, and so there was no square.
Speaker 2:She wasn't, she wasn't no square, she wasn't really like, um, my mother didn't cook, you know. She didn't. You know, I grew up like we grew up across from the cellar, so I grew up between the cellar, under the stairs and the couch, so those were my cafeterias as a kid. So I'm like eight, nine, 10 years old, going into the cellar, look for my mom and Nate, her, her, her boyfriend, and I'm, like, you know, hungry. I'm like, can I, can we have dinner, you know? So I really I felt like I would. Going back to what you were saying about the neighborhood, the thing I feel very fortunate about was there were a lot of people in our neighborhood who looked out for me because I had too much freedom. I had way too much freedom. And the adults even though, like you know, vanessa, by example, you know she was not allowed to even touch the door at the cellar I could just roll up in there anytime I wanted and, you know, be like is my mom in here, you know what's going on.
Speaker 2:So a lot of the adults that were there didn't necessarily agree with it, but they all really liked my mom, like everybody loved my mom.
Speaker 2:She was amazing fun and she was really smart and she was kind in her own way. So a lot of people looked out for me and you know to your point about the neighborhood. I just want to say this that like we had on 93rd Street or 92nd Street I think it was 93rd, 94th, yeah, 93rd Street. La Third Street or 92nd Street, I think it was 93rd, 94th, yeah, 93rd Street, la Familia was like the gang that controlled that corner and they were always very respectful.
Speaker 2:But those guys used to look out for me because if I was out later than I was supposed to be, then they would stay like a half a block, quarter of a block, behind me and be like you need to go home, like we walking you home. But they never had, they never let me be seen with them.
Speaker 2:Right. So I was. I was always looked out for. I mean, I cannot tell you, even in my career, like and being in really dangerous situations where I'm like there's no way I should be the person who I am Like no, there's absolutely no way, there's no way, I don't even know that I should be. I'll say it could be his hit or miss as to whether or not I should even be here. So, yeah, it was. Boarding school was the single biggest thing for me, and my son goes to the same school now for a very different reason and he loves it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and my picture's like in the hallway, in the main room, in the main building. So when the first time we went there, I was like, when you miss me, here I am.
Speaker 1:So tell me about your earliest tattoo. As far as music goes, like you know music, like what was your earliest memories of music? Or you know?
Speaker 2:Since we decided to have this conversation, I've been thinking about this and I realized that in a way, I was always groomed to be where I was. Not it didn't have to be in music, but you know, um again, my mom, my mom was drop dead gorgeous. She was like she knew everybody, like everything. It was ridiculous. She literally knew everybody. I would go places and people would just be like everybody. I would go places and people would just be like so.
Speaker 2:My mom loved music. And then we have we still have her vinyl collection. We have about six or 7,000 pieces of vinyl. Yeah, we have a huge vinyl collection. A lot of it is like old jazz and soul. You know a little bit of rock, mostly old jazz and soul, and then we added our own stuff on top of it. But so she was. My mom was at this like this was unheard of at the time. She was a sales rep for Lufthansa and she did. They basically threw everybody at her who did not want to deal with the Germans. So she used to take. She had the diamond district, she had the garment district and she had the garment district and she had entertainment.
Speaker 1:Because of the Jewish people.
Speaker 2:Exactly so she used to. When they would go to Germany for reparations she would handle all those diamond district has said on. When they would get ready to go to Germany she was the one booking hundreds and hundreds of people and negotiating rates and upgrades and all that kinds of stuff. And one of her clients two, two of her clients, I think had an impact on my life at the time I didn't realize she had Bob Arum who was the boxing promoter, so she did the travel, a lot of the travel for Rumble in the Jungle going to.
Speaker 2:Europe Right, and she was there. And then she also did the newport jazz festival. So when they would come back from europe she would handle all the, the flights, um upgrades etc. Get all the, the um instruments shipped properly. And she was like that she. So she knew everybody, like everybody from all different places. My mother could walk into burgdorf's and just like she could walk on 125th street and be like you would be like, oh yeah, I know everybody.
Speaker 2:She used to take me to jazz festival. They would give her like thousands and thousands of dollars worth of tickets and she really didn't have like, even though she knew a lot of people, she didn't have a lot of friends. So she would, like, you know, take me with her. And so I got to see all of these incredible jazz artists. Um, and then also growing up across the street from the cellar, you know, I always say, like johnny kemp, friday night just got paid. He was always, he was so little he was always jumping around the stage, you know.
Speaker 2:And then my mom's boyfriend was a nick um, he played for the next 69 to 72. So I was like I know the garden, the, the tunnels of the garden, like the back of my hands, because we always we, you know, we were like you know I'm like 10, 11, 12, a teenager, because they were together for like 12 years so I was with.
Speaker 2:I was with him all the time, like going to nick games sitting courtside, um, you know, maurice lucas was one of his best friends and maurice would like drop us home, you know. So it was, it was, but that was normalized, like I remember. I mean this, I'm going to be kind in the way I put this because there's more to it, but like I remember walking in my house and Chaka Khan sitting on the couch Right, um so, and you know, and Phyllis Hyman, phyllis Hyman and my dad, I think my stepfather had like a little affair kind of thing. So that was interesting.
Speaker 2:But I was always around celebrity and we didn't have a television in our living room A lot of the time. Like we had one for a while and then I think my mom got rid of it. We just music was just always playing in my house. And then my grandparents my grandfather is from Panama and he played the timbales and all that and he actually had a bootleg radio station in the neighborhood when my mom was a kid that he would just like play records and transmit it, like on the far down on the FM or AM.
Speaker 2:I think it was FM dial, so music was just always there. And what got me the thing I hate? I hate that I don't play anything Like. I really have always regretted that I don't play anything like. I really have always regretted that I didn't take the time to learn anything.
Speaker 2:You know, I had to take piano lessons and I complained in my way until my mother let me drop them. But um, that was in retrospect, when I was thinking about this conversation, I was like that's really where I got the like yeah, kind of the spark, but more the comfort, right Cause, you know, you and me, like I'm not starstruck, I'm, you know, and that was that was to my detriment. A lot of people I worked for felt that I should be, you know, like you need to be their biggest fan, and I remember Andre used to be like you and Mary J Blige need to be best friends. I was like we literally have nothing in common, like love her, she's good with me, we work really well together. You know, we had a few. It's not gonna happen.
Speaker 2:But I always felt very self-conscious about that because, especially at uptown, because I was always around people who hadn't had some of the opportunities and advantages that I had and they thought, you know, they had their own judgments about me being corny or being whatever, and so I was a little self-conscious about it. But, um, that changed, you know, when I got to the face. But but it was. But I was never starstruck and all my bosses were starstruck, like andre gerald's all the time starstruck like all, like barry like everybody's like.
Speaker 1:It was weird because the people who signed andre like he'd be like yo, that's mary j blige, just like dude. You signed her like why are you shipping? Like? Exactly? You signed her. You. Why are you tripping? Exactly? You signed her Exactly. Yeah that's how he was. That's how he was.
Speaker 2:Yes exactly. And I also am, you know, part of it is being a New Yorker, Part of it is growing up in a bit of a volatile household. I'm real like close to the vest. So you know, everybody's looking for me to be rah-rah and I'm like that is not going to happen. I'm not. Yeah, I'm definitely like the duck, like I'm like-.
Speaker 1:Under the water.
Speaker 2:Underneath the water, but on the top I'm just like Whatever.
Speaker 1:So you graduated from University of Virginia. I did, and then what's your first job out of college?
Speaker 2:I wanted to go to law school. Actually, let me rephrase that my whole childhood I wanted to be a judge. I didn't even I didn't really care much about going to law school. I wanted to be a judge, like that was my ambition. And unfortunately I mean again great career, but unfortunately I went to work for attorneys. The first group of attorneys I worked for were in the same building as ICM. So I remember, like opening the elevator door, opening in Sigourney we were being and she's like there aren't that many people.
Speaker 2:I look up at and I was just like. So I worked in. I worked in kind of like blue blood law firms as a paralegal. I had the most boring job ever. I was a oil case digester, so I used to read depositions. Now it's all AI. I'm sure I used to read depositions from oil cases, like these huge no-transcript people at all. I just didn't like them and, um, you know, and I was young, remember so I graduated from college so I'm like working there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm like I'm working there. I'm like I think I was just 21 when I was working there and I remember my boss pulled me in his room in his office and he was just like listen, and I was still living at home and he was like listen, you need to tone your personality down because it you look like you're having too good of a time at work and what made it really offensive was I worked. I was no-transcript couple of like New York charities. I had like the Bed-Stuy Restoration was also one of mine and they trained me to do associate level work so that they could bill them at paralegal rates, to do associate level work so that they could bill them at paralegal rates. So I'm like out there doing it, meeting with clients. I'm keeping them 501 C like I'm like doing my thing. I'm 21. I'm living at home, like I'm chilling and I'm going out every night, right, and my um, my partner didn't he he liked to be home for he had a young child, was in his second marriage a young child.
Speaker 2:He liked to be home for dinner, so he used to come in at like five o'clock in the morning so that he could leave by six to be home for dinner, so I used to meet him at five o'clock in the morning, and sometimes I would get there at four o'clock in the morning because I would still be out the night before.
Speaker 2:Very often, right, and I was just like I had it down. I would go home like full-on, go to bed at like six o'clock, seven o'clock, and then get dressed, go out, go to sticky mics, go to um, go to save the robots, go to like whatever was going on.
Speaker 2:I was out in the streets, big I um, and he was he. He knew what I was doing. But from the other partners optics, I was leaving at five' optics I was leaving at 5 o'clock, I was leaving at 6 o'clock and all the other paralegals were leaving at midnight. I was just like I get here at 4. What do you mean? I was so offended. I was living at home and I had saved money. I was just like how about this? How about I quit? How about that?
Speaker 1:Because I didn't have any bills I didn't have. I didn't have any. I didn't have any. I didn't have any cushion. Yeah, I had a little bit of cushion.
Speaker 2:I was still at home. I knew I could work temp work.
Speaker 3:That was one time where everybody got out of school and worked.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what? And yeah, so that was that pushed me out of the interest in that. And then I remember we were friends to Troy like we want to be managers, cause we were out in the streets. All three of us were out, we didn't, we only went out together. We very rarely were apart from each other and so and we lived across the street from each other.
Speaker 2:Jody lived in the same building as me. Vanessa's mother and my mother grew up together, so we were like bonded and we went to Troy like we're going to manage her. I think her name was Cheryl and she had a beautiful voice. She had like a Whitney Houston level voice and he literally was like y'all bitches will hate me.
Speaker 2:Y'all can't manage Y'all never, Like you don't have the temperament for it. This is what you're going to do. You're going to learn promotion because there are no women doing it, which I did not understand the power of that at the time. There are no women doing it and like people are going to take the meeting with you guys because you know you all are like my heart on my eyes and then you're going to like, you know, and I'm going to teach you.
Speaker 2:So he literally, like, taught us how to do. He taught me I did retail, I did the retail charts. So he literally, like we would go in his office on the weekends and after work, you know, and he gave us lists, he had us making calls, he showed us how to do it and then he, he started giving us business and then he started giving, like that was how I met you.
Speaker 2:You know he went to everybody, he knew you should hire them and it was great. I regret, if I have one regret, I regret that I was I was, you know again really young and a little insecure and I felt like I didn't know what I was doing. I felt very fraudulent because it was like nobody knew what they were doing.
Speaker 1:Nobody knew what they were doing Everybody was winging it, everybody was winging it. I didn't know that.
Speaker 2:So I thought that if I went to a label, I would like I would, then I would understand, like then I would know and it's kind of my personality, I can like over-educate myself out of things, because I'll be so like like well, I can't, this can't possibly be all the information. I mean. I know that I'm relatively smart, so I would be like, wait, that's all that, that's it, that's everything. That doesn't make sense. There's got to be more. So I would always like reach for the next person who hopefully knew more than I did, and then I would get to know the situation and be like oh. I already know what I'm doing.
Speaker 1:So I do regret. I mean, you guys are so far ahead of the curve with We3 Marketing, correct? Yeah, you guys are so far ahead of the curve, like years ahead of the curve, like you were so far in front of what ended up happening you know everybody be getting these marketing and promote indie promotion companies, indie marketing companies. And I remember like I I remember like you guys like really did a good job, like you were like giving reports and stuff and like it was it. It was way advanced, especially for that time.
Speaker 2:I had a Commodore 64. You guys were so advanced.
Speaker 1:I mean, you guys, all three turned out great. I was like man, I wonder what would have happened if they stayed with that company. If we had stuck with it, we would have probably been a label.
Speaker 2:We would were probably transitioned to being a label. We probably would have transitioned, we would have definitely done more with it, but we just and they, and it was also hard because I I was the connection between the two of them and they didn't really like each other all the time. So I felt a lot of pressure because they would they petty stuff to me, really petty things to each other, and I would be in the middle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what'd you do? Why'd you do that? And we'll be right back.
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Speaker 2:I met Andre Harrell. This is really funny and, speaking of how do you get, how do you end up places, I met Andre Harrell and Russell Simmons on the beach in Martha's Vineyard. We met them on South Beach and the reason that we met them was the three of us were on the beach and again, you know us. We were like everybody was like in this really concentrated area and we had walked past all of them and we were off to the side and we had a battery operated blender and we were just getting lit and hanging on the beach. We had music and we were chilling and, um, I it was either I don't remember which one it was either jeff or brett, jeff, right, jeff brett right or jeff or jeff burroughs, came over and they were like yo, like, can we get a drink?
Speaker 2:and we were like no, and andre was like andre and russell, if you can imagine this, andre and russell. This was when wendy williams was like everybody needs to go to martha's vineyard and Andre and Russell were sitting on South Beach in the vineyard. They had, like, each had a towel. There was no one else with them. Russell looked miserable and Andre was fascinated because it was like all of these Black kids young Black college, you know kids and everybody was partying. He was just like absolutely again starstruck by it, right? So Andre came over and introduced himself to us and he was like I've been watching y'all, like y'all really got something going on over here and we were, we were just like he was so down you know, his personality was so fun like we were and we liked people like that, like if you were going to come and like actually engage with us, we would.
Speaker 2:If you were going to like flirt with us or be like you know, can I? Be it.
Speaker 2:We were like, no, leave me alone, I'm not interested. So all we needed was each other. That was the thing we liked being like hanging out together. And I remember I'll never forget this Andre was like he introduced us to Russell and he was like, do you know who Russell Simmons is? And we were like no. And he was just like, oh okay, well, do you know Def Jam? And we were like no. And Andre started laughing and Russell was getting heated because he was. You know, this was like LL Cool J round-the-wave girl time.
Speaker 2:He's on fire and we're like you know it's like you know, these bougie bitches that are like impressed, don't know, I don't know, I'm not impressed, don't care. So. So then andre told us, you know he was like al, these shores, mine, all that, and you know al had already like been hot at that point, and so that was how I met him and he gave me a really wonderful gift. Andre used to tell me again, because he's, like you know, a fan type of person Andre used to tell me you were groomed for greatness. He's the only person in my life who said that. He used to tell me all the time he would be like yo, you know, you groomed for greatness. Like you like, you need to like really tap into that. And with everything that I had had, you know, had all the opportunities that I had, I was, like you know, I had been a kind of lonely kid. I was a sad kid. I was.
Speaker 2:You know, if you're growing up in a, in a situation that's volatile and violent, there's lots of things going on I always I grew up feeling like if I stay really small in the center of the storm, maybe I won't get swept away, right. So I was not. I didn't have the type of personality I grew into at that time. I really was like I wasn't necessarily a people pleaser, but I knew how to, how to take up smaller space and push somebody else forward, right. So you know, I would be like do you know, do you know my friend Vanessa? Like I was always, I was never like me, me, me.
Speaker 2:I was always like do you know Vanessa? Do you know Jody? Do you know this person? Do you know that person? And yeah, and that was. That was a big survival skill for me as a kid. So to have somebody see through that and be like hey, you groomed for greatness, I carry. I carry that with me to this day that you know, every once in a while I'll be like yeah, it reminds you, when I went to work for him, he didn't pay me anything Like he did not pay women, he did not, we won't.
Speaker 2:That's a whole different story, um, but yeah, we so.
Speaker 2:So that was kind of like all of those things came together. And then I remember the other defining moment was we were out one night and I think it was, I think it was Troy, this was like I this is all kind of out of sequence, but I think it was Troy it used to trip me out that at like two o'clock in the morning I would be like, okay, y'all, I gotta go to work in the morning, like I'll always wearing, like you know, sweats, damn near, and they made like four times the money I made. So I was like I need to understand what you do, because I'm pressed, at two o'clock in the morning that I got to go to work and you're like okay, see you later, you're going to stay. Like you get to work at 10, 11 and you're out all night and you have an expense account and you have a credit card and we are the same age and we're all like you're my peer. I was just like I need more information, I've clearly made some different choices and so all of that.
Speaker 1:So after week three, what was your? You went. You got your first label job after week three yeah, andre hired me away from week three to.
Speaker 2:It was a combination of things, well, so I was doing chart manipulation. I was very good at it. I was very good at it. Wait, can I would put the barcode for what you hired me for on the back of the Hershey. And at this time a lot of the retailers were really not checking for SoundScan because it was such a cash business that they weren't really interested in reporting all the income they got, the planes and stuff.
Speaker 1:They got all the money off the books, you know yeah.
Speaker 2:That's right. I had boxes of cleans in my house for days and for years later I would still be like damn, I still had a box of cleans, Like what am I going to do with that? And so what I would do? When SoundScan came into play, most of the retailers still had two registers right. And I would do when. When sound scan came into play, most of the retailers still had two registers Right and I would do buy, I would do buy one, buy one and get a gift.
Speaker 2:So I've targeted all this, all the stores, the retailers that really supported me. Um, and then I knew you know we're down for it, and so you'd buy. You know it was like, okay, so say, I sent them like 200 hershey bars. It would be gift with purchase, so they would scan the hershey bar, we'd get credit for it, and then and not scan the record, and then I would send clean. So we were charting records.
Speaker 2:Like long after, like people were like what are you doing? Like how is this possible? Because nobody had figured out how to still kind of play with it. So I was doing that and like we, you know we did retail, radio and video, and retail was going away and I wasn't and I was. I did retail. We also kind of had a habit. We had a unofficial policy that we would sit in a meeting. If we sat in a meeting you were different, but not everybody was like this. If we sat in a meeting and we saw that someone gravitated towards one of us more than the other, you would never see the other two again. It didn't matter if that was what you did. So if I got hired to do retail but in the meeting they really liked Vanessa, Vanessa would, would be their client.
Speaker 2:She would handle them as a client. She'd be the person, yeah, exactly like she would be the face. She would schmooze them, she would do whatever and I would do the work. Or if I came in and they were checking, like they wanted to talk to me more. So we always kind of catered that and we did the same thing with like we people thought we were an art. We thought people thought we were artists. Like we got that all the time they're like oh, it's a new girl group. We're like no, because we, what we used to do was just like we were so charming and we were so like it was just fun for us. Like we, we would just be like, hey, so.
Speaker 2:And so like hank caldwell loved vanessa and in a very like you know, yeah respectful respectful way, but he loved vanessa I was like you got it, I'll work this deep cover soundtrack. I'll do all the thing exactly so we, we really um maximized that and we did the same thing with like I, we had our I don't know if you remember we had a headshot that we sent out. And we sent it out for a reason because everybody was like, because we were chatty, so they were like what's she look like?
Speaker 2:Like and I'm talking. I used to always say like I'm talking to, like some guy that works in a record store Whose girlfriend broke up with him and I'm like his therapist once a week, right. So they were like what do you guys look like? So we started sending, we sent out the pictures and we didn't put our names on the picture, we just put we three, we three marketing.
Speaker 2:So I would get on the phone with a retailer, you know who was reporting for me, who was like taking care of hand on business, and they'd be like which one are you and I'd be like which one you think I am, and whoever they thought I was.
Speaker 1:I was like you guessed it. You guessed it like it was jody. On the number you, yeah, yeah, that's funny, so so.
Speaker 2:so when you get to uptown you're doing retail, no, Andre was like Andre was like you should be a publicist. I went to uptown publicist and I have said this to every publicist I respect I was the worst at it, cause I first of all I didn't know what I was doing at all, like I just kind of took the same skills and transferred it over and it was okay, it was good.
Speaker 2:You know it was the same muscle. But I didn't have a list and I remember andre got kelly haley was head of like she was handling all the uptown stuff when I went there and she was an mca and he made her give me her list and she was pissed and so I I got you know, I just started calling and it was the same kind of conversations. I just didn't know. You know I wasn't as familiar so and I didn't. I actually didn't like being a publicist that much. I didn't like the and it was kind of similar to retail. I didn't like the repetitive nature of it. Like um, in 2025, since everybody has 80 ADD or ADHD. I'm going to claim that that's what my thing is, because I love give me a hundred things to do at once and I'm I'm on fire.
Speaker 1:I got it all Give me like do every day the same thing and I'm just like so wait, I interviewed um, so I interviewed Emil Wilberkin and he mentioned you because he told me you sent him 411 early and he was running around blasting to everybody like this is the most incredible thing ever. And he said I forget how he said it, but he said somehow he ended up doing the Mary interview because something fell out.
Speaker 2:John Morgan couldn't do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he ended up doing it and he and mary became friends, which was amazing, because even probably now, but back then mary hated everybody so how was it? How was it working with her back then? You know we're gonna start. You know this fame came to her so fast because that record hit real love came out and then it was just like a rocket ship well, I would add, to remember real love was from I'm sorry not real love.
Speaker 1:You remind me it was you remind me it was you remind me was from the strictly business soundtrack.
Speaker 2:Yes, and so we didn't put the video out. So Mary had moved out of, out of slow bone Like she had. She was like out of Yonkers, she was living her life. She was doing radio shows and everybody, her voice was so big and so mature, everybody thought she was older, right, um, they just didn't. Mary wasn't who they thought. Kind of thought she was, so to speak. So, mary, I'll never forget this, it was really, it was.
Speaker 2:I have a mixed feeling. I have many mixed feelings about stardom and fandom and it's hard, it's really hard on people. And so Mary had the success before anyone recognized her and we put that video out and literally I remember being in the office I don't know if she told me or if it was like someone else in the office told me, but she got mobbed in the grocery store and had and you know Mary was very, you know Mary had a really rough life and she was, she was, she was very uncomfortable, like, like Mary. You could feel there was just a tension about her. You could feel her discomfort. She was always ready to fight, like Mary's the only artist that I have literally gotten into a screaming match with.
Speaker 2:Like I don't even remember what it was about. But, like Mary was just, she was just there, was so much there and she really had like the, the way that the opportunities came for her, she, she wasn't ready for it by any stretch and she came for her. She, she wasn't ready for it by any stretch and she wasn't like she didn't, she had no point of reference, like she just was like girl from the projects.
Speaker 2:It wasn't like oh she's doing talent shows and she came up and she like did one recording of sweet thing that you know went through people's hands, ended up in andre's hands and he signed her. So it was really hard. It was really hard to begin. I mean, they were like, and she was, she was with um, she was dating kc at the time, which josey was like it was a whole, they were a traffic wreck but jodeci.
Speaker 2:But so she was dating kc and in my opinion, looking back on it as a grown-ass woman, there was a lot of like manipulation and jealousy there and there was definitely like abuse and and I was like it was it was hard to watch because Mary should marry, if I don't know how to put this. Like Mary should not have been able to sustain. Like Mary. Mary, first of all, could have been bigger, right, but everywhere we went, everybody saw that she was in pain and they wanted to help her and I think in a weird way that was what helped because you know, she was one of the first artists to just kind of like not show up for rehearsal at Saturday Night Live during the worst snowstorm.
Speaker 2:It was that bit really bad. I think it was 1993, 4, something like that, that big like I think it was 1903 four, something like that that big blizzard she was supposed to be at, she's supposed to be at, saturday night live and she and casey and uh yeah, she and casey were like holed up in the house and they sent the car and she literally opened the door, saw it lock the door and close the door and never came back out. So we had, like you know and this was when sarah net live didn't look black artists right, I'll never forget chris rock was like audrey was there and chris walk was like yo, nobody does this, like you need to get your girl. And so we couldn't I don't want to say control, but we couldn't usher her.
Speaker 2:You know, mary would like show up, like I can remember, like helping her change her underwear at BET, and I was just like this is what my life is, you know. Um. So it was really hard and I give it to her because she did. She worked on herself so hard to get not to be what anybody else wanted her to be, but to find peace right To find like, because the Mary that we see now who, who has a sense of self, you know, I think she's still punching her face if necessary, but she's.
Speaker 2:She worked really hard to get to that place of peace and I remember heavy said something to me when I first started working with him that I never forgot and I always said it to other artists. He him that I never forgot and I always said it to other artists. He was like you know, because he lived at home and when Heavy was like, he was like at his. Yeah, he was living at home.
Speaker 4:He had renovated the basement. It was like the trick-out basement I'd ever seen Right.
Speaker 2:And I remember being like like why do you live at home? And he said at least every time I walk out my door I gotta be heavy bum, diddly, diddly D, whether I want to be or not, I can never just be Dwight. So this is the only place in my life where I can be Dwight. And that resonated all. Every artist I've worked with I've I've said some version of that of like don't forget who you are and where the safe spaces are, where you can be.
Speaker 2:You know, like truly, who you are and not caught up.
Speaker 1:The thing is, a lot of artists don't figure this out too much later is, like you said, when you walk out the house, you're whoever artist. Right, you have a successful artist whoever you are. You have a successful life whoever you are. And so the people who are approaching you, that's the only time in their life they're going to be that close to you and actually meet you and maybe take a picture or whatever, and so you having a bad day to them it's like, yeah, but this is the only time I'm going to meet you. You have to be nice to me and I bought your record or I bought your movie ticket or whatever nice to me and I bought your record, or I bought your movie ticket or whatever.
Speaker 1:It's a very layered thing that I don't think a lot of people take really do a deep thought to. It's like when Hev walks out his door he's like oh, that's Heavy D. Oh, that's Heavy D. He might just be going to get a turkey sandwich, but somebody else in that store is like I saw Heavy D, whereas he's just Dwight trying to get a sandwich and you see that people struggle with that so much. It's a very lonely thing.
Speaker 1:The two artists I saw that were great at it, not surprisingly, were Will Smith. He was great at kind of just. I saw it. I went to Philly with him one time and I saw we were in a van Philly with him one time and I saw we were in a van like a van with me, him and Charlie Mack Will's being like Will, Philly, Will Fuck that shit. I hate this shit. That door would open and click. It would just turn it on. He'd be the fresh fresh for the whole time he was out.
Speaker 1:He'd get back in that van and he'd be like man. It's just bullshit. Another person who couldn't avoid it was Shaq, because he was so big he would not notice him, Him walking somewhere. He would click and he would be Shaq. He'd take a picture and buy somebody something. We'd go to the store, the supermarket, He'd buy the whole line of groceries. But it's a hard existence. It's a very hard existence.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's a talent to be able to do that and there aren't that many. Usher was really good at that and I had a glimpse of it, a really small glimpse of it, because when I worked with Chris Chris used to you know, it was like it was Chris Brown, he was huge, right, and Chris used to thank me on at award shows and stuff. So at some point I hit the radar of his fans, of his like real, like you know, devout fans, and I remember I was going to meet him at the today show and I'm just like walking along it's like, you know, six o'clock in the morning, five o'clock in the morning, stupid and I hear somebody say, yo, that's lisa, she works with chris, follow her. I was like, oh hell, no. And suddenly I have like, and I'm just like trying to act like I don't hear them and I'm just walking and you know, and suddenly I have like I'm like the pied piper with all these kids.
Speaker 2:And the other one that happened was I was with usher. I'll never forget this. I was with usher. We did an in-store brooklyn and it was like he was like dondada. We used to like, we took the limo. You know how you do like the registers were near the projects.
Speaker 2:so you took the limo through past the projects, past the high school, all that, and the kids figured out, like you know, we rolled down the window, he's waving, whatever. And these kids started chasing the car. But they're on foot Right. So we are, we're in the limo. I will never forget this.
Speaker 2:We're in the limo and we pull up and it was I don't remember what record store it was, but they had like a gate and you would go in, so they had the storefront and then they had like the back, the you know back door, whatever was was a chain link fence was there and so we stopped the car in front of the chain link fence and there are like not exactly like 200 teenagers running towards us at full speed and we had to like open the door and get through the gate to get him inside.
Speaker 2:And I just remember being in the car and we were like, okay, you ready, you got to go, cause they're coming, they're coming, they're coming and opening the door, and I just remember being in the car screaming, run, run, and he got through the gate, they slammed the gate and it was like a cartoon, it was just like 200, like it was not 200, 200, but it was like maybe 20 kids that were like like up against the gate, like boom, boom, boom, boom, hitting the gate, and then they turned to see who else was in the limo and I just like slipped out and stood in the crowd like looking like who's that? Oh it's usher, oh that's dope, like because you know I could do that, but that's fandom stuff.
Speaker 2:That's why, when everybody talks about the political thing and trump, I'm like these are fans if you know what fandom looks like. These are fandom is fanaticism, and yeah, and not everybody can handle it yeah, he checked out he, he was, he just couldn't.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he checked out. Um, I had a lot of artists I worked with that had anxiety, you know, and artists artists like I would literally start every conversation when I got was getting to know an artist. I would be like, okay, so tell me about your sleep, like you don't sleep right, and they would just be like, oh shit, how'd you know that? I'm like, because no artist sleeps like you. Guys are just like up and thinking about it, and I always felt like music was the one medium where you're really giving of yourself, right, like if you're an actor, you can have a character, you can develop a craft, but if you're an artist, if you're a recording artist, you're presenting your perspective, your point of view, whether you're a songwriter or not you're presenting yourself and that's hard.
Speaker 2:It's hard on people. So I always felt like I would never, ever, ever want that. You know we have a son, but like I would never want that for my child. I felt that way when I was like 23. I was like I would never want this for my son.
Speaker 1:So you work in an uptown with the great Andre Harrell. Rest in peace.
Speaker 2:Andre Harrell. We did that, we did Uptown MTV.
Speaker 1:Unplugged we unplugged. You had Mary, you had Heavy, you had Father MC, you had Jodeci, you had Guy.
Speaker 2:Well, guy, no, I didn't have Guy. Guy was right before me and I think Guy was.
Speaker 1:Guy at that point was on MTV, so I knew them?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I knew them, but I wasn't.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I didn't work them and I had what was his name I think he passed away.
Speaker 1:Um, I think he's on your chest a little song. I love him. He was very, he was fine. So how long were you at? How long were you at Uptown?
Speaker 2:I was literally at Uptown for two years to the day. I had to fight for my uh, I had to fight MCA, for my vacation pay. So I was there for two years to the day and I was obsessed with, with, with. So when I was working for Andre, it was Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston got married and we threw, like Andre, you know, andre was like, all right, let's make the most of this. So we threw a barbecue the day after the wedding and every, but when I tell you, everybody came.
Speaker 2:But like we didn't have a caterer, I'm like picking up sharper. I remember my foot, like we're like, it's like, it's like everything is all diy. And and I remember, um, la and pebbles were there and you know, pebbles was like for me, pebbles and invoke were the first artists that I saw that looked like me and my friends that were like it was like this respectability that I was like like you know. So we were all down with them. And so they came to to Andre's house for the cookout and it was like they were like, cause Bobby and Whitney didn't come? I don't think, I don't remember, but I'm pretty sure they didn't come. But everybody was like, like you know, la and Perry were holding court and I remember that just it just made an impact on me.
Speaker 2:And then I started like looking at LaFace and you know and that. And then I became completely obsessed with like going to work at LaFace and I used to tell everybody Deidre Tate was like. I used to hang out with Deidre a lot and Deidre was really helpful. At the time Eddie F had a deal with with LA and Eddie was like you need to meet her, you need to talk to her. I was like anybody who kind of knew me well knew that I was like obsessed with LaFace and being a publicist at LaFace.
Speaker 2:And I remember Duvette Singletary was the head of everything there at the time and she was mean. I mean there's no other way to put it, you know, rest in peace, but she was. She was legitimately. She was so mean to me that years later she got in touch with me and took me out for a coffee and apologized for what she did to me. She tortured me Like I have never had an experience like that. That woman tortured me like I have never had an experience like that. That woman tortured me and she poisoned my relationships with artists so like tony braxton hated me for no good reason other than, yeah, divette kind of told her to and I remember, like I have tony braxton plaques and for years my tony at the front of the.
Speaker 2:They were at the front of the car so like if you came to my house, if you were in my car, you'd be like, oh shit, you move those because, like you might hit them, and I was like wow, so so.
Speaker 1:So this then did you move to.
Speaker 2:It was you had to move to atlanta at this point yeah, I moved to atlanta. Um, I left. Andre was pissed at me. I found out years later I was talking to uh ron gillard. He was like he was mad at you for a very long time because he felt like you left he was. You did the equivalent of like leaving your first boyfriend for like the high school quarterback.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:The hot dude, right. But what resonated for me at LaFace was everybody there I mean and like when I say everybody, I mean pretty much the whole staff was college educated. We had a lot of Spelman girls there, we had a couple more house guys, but mostly it was like. You know, andre liked having women and he liked his company worked best, honestly, when women were working. It just he was. He was a very you know all of the things that people hear aside, he was a very solid leader of women, right, because he likes being around us. So you know, and he would and you know, don't I say this to people telling them you're wrong, like you would hit on you, but you would just like. I remember I got into an argument because he was like you know, I'm mad, I didn't shoot my shot I was like you didn't have a shot and he was like he was so offended.
Speaker 2:he was like yes, I did't have a shot and he was like he was so offended. He was like yes, I did.
Speaker 1:It was never going to happen.
Speaker 2:No, you never. It was never going to happen. And I think, coming from from from, from from uptown, you know where it was like puff and puff was doing, puff does. And I mean, it was like misogyny in uptown.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, I have been groped. I had been. I remember, um, uh, tim dog licked my face one day. I, I I can remember this day. I can still smell his disgusting breath. I, I saw him. I was with steve lucas uh, jody c's manager and I walked up to the building and tim was outside and I was like, oh hey, and he came in to hug me and we didn't do that. So I was kind of like, oh, that's what we're doing, okay, and as I got close, he looked me from here to here and it was so humiliating and so disgusting and Andre was like.
Speaker 2:You know, andre kind of said some stuff to him, but it didn't make a difference and there was so much of that. I had somebody like walk up to me and be like, yeah, tati's, look right today and fondle them, you know. So, leaving there, when I left uptown, I was like, especially because I grew up in the city, I got down to Atlanta. I had no chill, none at all. So they used to um, um, la. I remember my first day working there. La came to my office and he started coming around to the side of my desk to give me a hug I was going to be. When he got to a certain point I would be trapped in the corner. I was like nigga, what are you doing?
Speaker 1:He was like I was going to hug you. I was like no.
Speaker 2:I don't do all that, I'm good.
Speaker 2:You need to go back to your side of the desk and he was like on one hand, he loved that about me, Right, Because I was like, nah, like you know, he's from Cincinnati, he lived in LA, Like he's you know, and I'm like New Yorker. I was like, no, I'm good, Like why are we hugging? No, I'm good. And then they would do like the face was like a cult in the best possible sense. They did everything together. We did everything. We hung out with artists and we were in Atlanta at a time when it wasn't like stardom. So you know TLC, they shopped at the Gap, Like if you go back and watch the Creep videos, they're wearing Gap clothes.
Speaker 2:You know, we went bowling, we went. We went paintball. Well, I went paintballing once we went. We went paintball. I went paintballing once. I did not like the bruises, so I gave up on that quickly. Um, we used to rent houseboats together. We used to go jet skiing like we like hung out. But before I got to that point they would be like, hey, so we're gonna all. It would be like friday and they're like all right, so we're all gonna like hang out, we're going, we're all going to so-and-so's house, usually charlotte's. Do you want to come?
Speaker 1:And I was like yeah, right, no, I've seen y'all. I've seen y'all all week. I'm good.
Speaker 2:I was like y'all I have, I said, and I remember I can be Charlotte's to this day gives me shit about this, because I was like I didn't come down here to make friends. I have friends all day. Now we're gonna hang out and by the time I left so as a face at this point, it's who's usher? Tony tlc. Usher hadn't come out yet. I met usher when I was at uptown at the jodeci cry for you video shoot in the dumont dunes of arizona whatever california, yeah, so usher hadn't come out yet.
Speaker 2:He was still recording when I got there first album. Tony's first album was out, so I worked, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Tony was the biggest at that point and the bodyguard and who else was popping off at that time on the face, really the two biggest ones at that time on the face, all those were really the two biggest ones. Just kind of to be at that time. Really, it was that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, at that time and TLC was huge. No, no, no. They came out Like I got there in May of 1994. I think it was, yeah, 1994. And they, they came out in 1993.
Speaker 2:So we were working it, but it hadn't, it hadn't quite broken, we hadn't shot the video. I was when I was there, we shot the video while I was there. So, um, but you know, I I I always say this when I talk to people who are, I'm gonna say, new to the business, but I don't really mean that like in the last you know 20 years, I always say, like what we had was we had these artists that funded all of the other artists, right, so tlc had come off of they were big, but they weren't taken seriously. Like I can remember trying to pitch crazy, sexy, cool and and I I would have to like I was like no, no, no, no, you don't understand, this is an important record. Like just put all that ooh on the.
Speaker 2:TLC tip thing you're thinking about. Put that aside.
Speaker 1:This is big and people were like not you know they were like, oh, it's just a joke, with the condom on her eye and the big hats.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly, and it was like by that time Cross Colors had worn out its welcome, you know. So everybody was looking at it like they were cartoonish. So it was a little bit of a not a struggle, but it was a little bit of convincing with press at that time. And then once they broke, then you know, it was like that, was it? Then OutKast broke, you had Tony Rich and the exciting thing for us and we had Goody Mob, like one of the exciting things about working at With Face is that every artist that I worked there their second album was bigger than their first and I don't know of any other place where that happened. Like you know, whether it was Tony or Outkast or Usher, even you know tlc, like everybody was like, whatever they built, whatever they had, they then tripled, quadrupled or more, um, so we were really in a great position in terms of like, not just moving culture, but like we were, I was.
Speaker 2:I was talking to my son the other day and he was asking me about, like, what it was like back down. I was like, what was it like back in the day, back in your day? I'm like every day is my day, um, but I, you know, we were laughing. He was asking me about like what it was like back down. I was like, what was it like back in the day, back in your day? I'm like every day is my day, but I, you know, we were laughing. He was laughing because I was like, oh, we were big, like we would get police escorts. Like if we were going to the Hawks games, all of our security were off-duty cops, so we would get like police escort to the games. You know you'd roll up at the gate.
Speaker 2:They would see you and let you park.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there was nothing else happening back then. It was just LaFace, pretty small southern city compared to now, so like you would have gone, yeah.
Speaker 2:When it came to campus. It was LaFace SoSoDeaf, and it was really not even SoSoDeaf, it was really LaFace, SoSoDeaf and it was really not even SoSoDeaf, it was really LaFace, jermaine and Dallas and that was yeah, yeah, but it was really even just the people like, because they were, you know, dallas and Jermaine were people who had grown.
Speaker 2:So yeah, and we were like you know, we were all like family, like we used to go to Dallas' moms for dinner on sundays and it was. It was a great like, especially coming being that age and like, if you kind of take the fate I mean take uptown out of it a little bit, coming being that age and coming out of college, it was very collegial. It was very collegial. It was like nobody had kids, nobody was married, nobody. Everybody had like a little bit of money. I remember I literally quadrupled my salary and it lasted, it was chilling.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's how little I was chilling. I was chilling. I bought my first house. I bought my mother a condo. That was when my mother finally believed that I had a career, Because she used to be like she got stuck in the elevator with Jodeci and their whole crew. They rolled so deep. And later, with jodeci and their whole crew, they rolled so deep. And I remember she was coming to see me at work and she got in the elevator. She, they buzzed her, you know. They told me she was coming up and I went to the elevator to meet her and the door opened and my mother's style icon was jackie on right.
Speaker 2:So she was like big glasses. She always was done, she was always white and the elevator doors open and she had her purse. She looked like I I will beat these mongrels down. And so the elevator door opens and they're all like Lisa and she's like you know them, they know you.
Speaker 1:What are you?
Speaker 2:doing? Why aren't you going to law school? Exactly, why aren't you going to law school? So, when I was able to buy her a place. My thing was I still don't think to her past from days.
Speaker 1:My mother actually knew what I did, but she just supported. She didn't care really, as long as you know I was okay, my father, I remember the Low End Theory album, you know, when Platinum was doing great and Q-Tip told me he's like yo, ron Carter. Here's Ron Carter's number. Call him because I want to send him a plaque for the album. So I called him. So I called him.
Speaker 2:Oh, he and my mom were really good friends.
Speaker 1:I was like, yeah, this is Jeffrey Sledge from Conjured Records. You know, q-tip told me to call you about a plaque. He said, oh, okay, and then we started kind of talking a little bit. A little bit. My father was a huge jazz fan. I was like, oh, you know, my father's a big jazz fan, he loves your music. And he warmed up a little bit. We talked like 15, 20. It wasn't like a long conversation we talked, but I'll never forget I called my father. I was like Dad, guess who I talked to today?
Speaker 2:It's legitimate. Is that my website? I hope that's not my internet. I was watching it just deteriorate. Oh, that's not me. I don't know what happened. There you are.
Speaker 1:Hold on, I can't do. Oh, come on, I'm going to count there you go there, you are Okay.
Speaker 2:I don't know what happened, but anyway, so yeah that was legitimate.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my father was like oh, that's Nick Ron Carter, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:But anyway, wait was my family. Sister's ex-husband is hawaiian, so she moved to hawaii and my grandmother she like literally no shade. She was my grandmother's favorite granddaughter, great-grandchild.
Speaker 2:So then my grandmother moved to hawaii to be close to her and then my mom moved to hawaii when she retired so she could be nearby to help with my grandmother and I was. I went on vacation and I had become friendly in a very surface way with tony benn, did a Tony Tony like little MTV Awards. They did a little Tony Tony thing and I was sick. I was working and I was really sick and I was on the stage bringing I brought Tony to the Tony Preston to the stage and Tony Bennett. I saw that I was like suffering basically.
Speaker 2:And he was just like I sneezed or something. And he was just like wait a minute, I've got a tissue here. Let me check my pockets. Right.
Speaker 2:And they're coming down from commercial and they're like tell him you're fine, tell him you're fine, I'm like I'm fine, I'm fine. No, it's okay, mr Bennett, you got to go out on, fine. And he took the time to like pull out, pull out some tissues and gave to me and then I would see him at like Clive's party and he would remember me. And then I eventually and I became friends with somebody at Columbia who had worked in his management.
Speaker 2:So I would get tickets and, like you know, I would go to his shows and like but I would just go by myself because nobody else would go with me at the time and I I was in Hawaii and he had a show and I reached out to see if we could get tickets. And this is like a ball, it's like at the Hilton ballroom, it's not like a real venue. So we're like in the VIP area. He comes over, he meets my entire family, he gushes over my grandmother is just absolutely lovely. And then the next day I took my mom and my niece were swimming with the dolphins and he was there with his much younger girlfriend who I think they were together until he passed, and he's got like this is you know, we've not, this is pre video phone. So he's got like the big camcorder and he's recording her with the dolphins and he's like Lisa, you know. So Tony Bennett was mine for my family wow wow, like.
Speaker 2:Okay, tony Bennett like knows you and takes care of you so wait, real quick, side Tony Bennett.
Speaker 1:So he's like Columbia. So there was a diner on 6th Avenue and 1556th Street. I ran into him one day in there and, like I was a fan, I was like, oh shit, tony Bennett. And in there, and I was a fan, I was like, oh, it's Tony Bennett. And he talked. And then a few weeks later I saw him again randomly on the Upper West Side, on Columbus and the 70s.
Speaker 2:And he remembered you.
Speaker 1:He remembered me and then every once in a very blue moon, I'd see him in the Sony building because I worked in the Sony building, and he would be like hey Walked in the Sony building and he would be like hey, hey, kid how you doing. I'm like look at Tony, he was dope, he was dope. That was just part one of our conversation with Lisa Cambridge Mitchell. Stay tuned next week for part two. You can catch Mixed and Mastered on Apple Podcasts, spotify, iheart or wherever you get your podcasts. Hit that follow button, leave a review and tell a friend.
