SPEAKER_00 1:48

Welcome to the Hill Pop Love Podcast. I want to interview guests and discuss topics such as business, current events, and pop culture. The motivational podcast for the hip hop millennials.

SPEAKER_02 2:12

Good morning and welcome to this episode of the Hilltop Glove Podcast. My name is Tamaya Allen, and I will be your host today, followed by Skip. Today we have the pleasure of speaking with Miss Brittany Turnip Speed. Britney is a singer slash writer based in Columbia, South Carolina. Brittany is a 2018 winner of the Apollo Theater Amateur Night Competition. So we want to welcome you, Brittany, and thank you for joining us today. How are you doing today? I'm good. I'm good. I'm just gonna I'm giggling over here because of the way you pronounce my last name. I just asked them before we started. I was like, it's fine. It's it's seed, but I always say when people pronounce it speed, that's the telemarket away, so it's okay. Turnip seed? Yeah, turnip seed. So like the vegetable, turnip, and then seed. Why did I put the bead? No, people do it all the time. And like when I did Apollo, it was like the gosh, I'm losing the name of the comedian who was like hosting that year. Uh-huh. He like he I corrected him, but he would just do it on purpose.

SPEAKER_03 3:24

To be funny?

SPEAKER_02 3:26

Huh? He was doing it to be funny. Oh, yes, yes. Oh, yeah, yeah. Doing it to be funny. No, no, no. It happens all the time. It happens all the time. So that's why I giggled about it. It's okay. I'm I promise you I'm not offended. Good, good, good, good, good. So you're doing pretty good this morning? Yes, I'm doing pretty good. Just put some muffins in the oven for the little ones so they can have some breakfast. So my husband's man in the oven downstairs. All he's gotta do is pull it out when it's ready, but just put some muffins in for the little ones. And so far I'm doing okay this morning. Can't complain. So as you know,

Songwriting

SPEAKER_02 4:04

many songwriters have different approaches when it comes to their creative process. So can you explain to us the steps you took to compose your new music and also what kind of music influenced you as a child and what age did you start singing? Who all of those are loaded questions? But I'll take the first one. So my process for creating new music, it really has varied over the years. I have to give a lot of credit to the guys that I work with. So I work with a regular band of musicians. My bass player is Rodney Foster, my drummer is Jaris Rich. We call him Jay Rich. And then my keyboard player, his name is Antonio TJ Mackey. We call him TJ for short. So over the years, I really struggled as recorder, I mean as a singer and recording and whatnot and writing. But with my guys, it's been easier. And it took me a long time to figure out that I do really well live. I perform better live, I write better live, according to live instrumentation and whatnot. So that has really been um a costly lesson for me. But I really learned that, you know, live instrumentation and just being in the moment works really well for me. Now I do write in a, you know, as a pastime, like, you know, poems and different things like that. But that's really what my creative process looks like. It's really working with my guys and you know, them coming up with the music and me listening through it and being able to, you know, kind of, you know, write what I'm feeling at the moment. Okay, that's pretty cool. So you like working with the guys, being only female, you get a vibe, or like what's it like? You know, a lot of pressure. No, it's not, it's really not a lot of pressure because Rodney, especially. So Rodney Foster, he has like his own jazz trio. He does things at like shades, joint, plays Latin band. He does a lot of stuff. So, but I've known him like all my life. We've we've grown up together. TJ feels like I've known him for forever, but we've known each other for a few years, and same with Rich. It just we have a nice tight bond. They're like my brothers. So it's really no pressure when I'm writing with them. If anything, it's like trying to be serious enough to get through a session to where we're not, you know, cracking jokes and you know, really working on music and not just, you know, shooting threes. Awesome. So that's pretty cool. So, what kind of music influenced you as a child? Ooh, everything. My mom has been a very eclectic person when it comes to music. Like she would have me listening to anything from like Anita Baker to Pavarotti to just all kind of stuff. She she never limited what she played. Now, she did go through a little phase where she she got super saved at one point in all I couldn't was gospel music. But I mean, everything, you know, really impacted my my musical taste and really like high school working with Mr. Lyles, Mr. Lyles, mess up my um mess up his name, Mr. Lyles and Mr. Um Miss Cleveland, my course teacher, like just being on the jazz band and being in course, like all of that really impacted my musical taste and just uh where I pull up from you know each of those little places when I'm when I'm creating and writing. Okay, cool. So you actually from Columbia, South Carolina? Oh yes, Columbia's home for me. So what uh high school did you attend? Keenan, the best high school in the leg. And what age did you actually start singing? Lord, my mama said I've been making noise all my life, to be honest. So she um has a story that she tells about me. Like we were in, I'm about to show my age and show that I'm a true Columbia native. So we used to have a store in Columbia called Sears Surplus that was like off of Bushroom. It was like the, I guess like what you would call like a Ross or somewhere now where you like all the like leftover stuff go. And she said, You would be singing in that store so loud, and she said you found an accordion, and she was like, You scream to the top of your lungs to get that darn accordion. And she was like, the manager just was like, ma'am, let her have it. Oh, it was like she's gonna be singing in the future. Just just just just counted a blessing. So my mom says I've been making noise all my life, and I see it in my kids as well. So I think one if one of the two of them is gonna end up being a singer because they are, especially my daughter, she's a noisemaker, so okay. Do you have a son and a daughter? Yes, I have two kids. Yeah, yeah, they are back to back. I lost my mind, and it wasn't in it wasn't intentional, but I I lost my whole mind and had them kids back to back. I have a two and a half year old, and he just turned eight months. Wow. Skip, we were just talking about that, weren't we?

SPEAKER_01 8:58

Yes, yes, we're just talking about that. Yeah, I have my yeah, my daughter, she was up here wilding out just a few minutes ago before we got on this call.

SPEAKER_02 9:05

Well, I'm I'm praising God, and I'm just gonna say, since we at home recording, if you hear, you know, something in the background, it's it's still right now. They're quiet.

SPEAKER_01 9:15

Oh, it's cool. That's the whole point of why we're here. Like, that's the whole meeting of the podcast. Like so, trust me, dude. Every now and then we know.

SPEAKER_02 9:22

As long as you feel comfortable if they make an appearance, it's okay. Oh, good, good, good. Thank you. So, to talk about the Apollo,

Apollo Experience & Impact

SPEAKER_02 9:30

um, amateur night at the Apollo Theater premiered in 1934. Since then, the legendary theater has launched careers for many iconic artists such as Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, and Lauren Hill, and continues to maintain its position as an as the nation's most popular arena for emerging and established African-American artists. What are some highlights from your Apollo theater experience in 2018 and what kind of impact did it make on your music career after winning the competition? Oh, okay. So the whole experience was just surreal. Like just being in the Apollo theater, just to visit, is is all is a whole nother beast because I don't know about y'all, but like I grew up watching like you know, Showtime and Apollo on TV. Of course. So to actually like be there, like that was surreal and like just see, you know, they have everybody's pictures, and backstage, they have this huge signature wall of all the you know celebrities that have come through. And just to be able to like just lay your hand on somebody else's signature, like I think I saw Oprah's signature, I saw Jill Scott, you know, you saw the roots, you saw, I mean, all these people's signature, and just to be able to kind of just put your hand on top of it and be like, just touching a little piece of them. It was like really surreal, and just being there and the history and seeing how beautiful it is. And on TV it looks so huge. And it is a large space, but for it to be so large, it is super intimate. It feels like the crowd is like right in your face. Like you're reached out of touch. Yes, even with the lighting, even with because that's one of my tricks. If I'm singing in front of a large audience where I don't get nervous, especially like on a large stage, I play into the lighting because you can't, you know, normally on you know, being on center stage, you can't really see the crowd the way that they have the lighting, you know, set. So it kind of just feels like you sing into an empty room. Nah, nah, nah. Not at the Apollo. You feel like you sing it in a living room full of people because the the intimacy of that space. So just being there was surreal. Uh um, Revenant Tree of Hope was surreal, just knowing that so many, you know, important and just influential and legacy and all the big, wonderful words that you could use to describe the behemoth of talent that has come out of that place. It's just it was just amazing, to be honest. It had an impact on my career as far as I felt like if I could do there, go there and do well, I could do anything and and be in front of anyone because they are I I I say Columbia Church audience and the Apollo audience were neck and neck for the two most intimidating audiences that you will ever perform in front of. Were you nervous? Like, how did you like get rid of the nervousness and stuff like that? Oh, you don't get rid of it. It it doesn't go anywhere. People who say they're not nervous, I don't, I don't know what kind of nerves they have, but from the time you step on and to the time you step off, I was completely like just rattled in my in my nerves. I mean, I had fun. It's almost like, you know, riding a roller coaster or doing something dangerous. It's like I'm scared the whole time doing it, but I'm having a blast while it's happening. That's amazing. So, like, do you have any like pre-things that you do before you go on stage and say a prayer, you know, call someone or you know? I I can't say that I do. Only thing that I can say is my husband was with me through every step of the process because when we first started the audition process, because you well, I so I had a like a I like to say a callback with Apollo. So one of my favorite singers in the whole world is Jill Scott. Okay. And I mean, I love her. She's she's my everything. She's my favorite singers in my in my head, we're best friends, and she's my very vocal godmother. So, and like two years before I actually did Apollo in New York, I had a chance to go to New York and audition for Apollo. We were living in Raleigh, long story short, went through all the rounds, got to the final round, and it clashed with a time where I bought tickets to see Joe Scott in Columbia. Oh, wow. And so the guy was like, You I promise you, you're gonna win this. I'm just telling you, I know you're gonna win this. Um, he was like, You just need to come and do this last, this last performance, and you're going straight to Apollo, and I know they're gonna accept you. And I was like, Yeah, but I was supposed to go see Prince of Essence. I turned it down, thinking I could see him again, and then he died. I'm going to see Jill. I've always wanted to see her. I got my tickets, I'm going. So he was like, I'm telling you, this is a dumb thing for you to turn down, but if that's what you want to do, do it. So turned it down, didn't go. Fast forward two years, my husband submitted a video of me singing with um Jermichael Peebles. He's a local jazz artist. Well, national too, but submitted a video, they picked it, and I was able to go straight with no like standing in the line audition, went straight to them calling me and like, hey, your time for you to your call time is like 10 on Thursday. Wow. Okay. Yeah. So I was like, I I got to meet Jill at some point in time in my life because no, so that was, I mean, that's how it went. And my husband has been with me, he was with me through that whole process. And so when we first started, I I wasn't pregnant, but in between like the first and the second show, I got pregnant. And so I didn't tell them until like the third show. And so the the showrunner and the producers were like, well, if you feel like you can carry for, you know, carry through, just you know, go through. So the last, I think it was one, two, three. So the third round, where it was like the the top dog competition, I was miserable. I was about five ish, six-ish months pregnant. And I was miserable. And I was like, I placed third because it came down to a tie between me and this dance group, and I was just like, Lord, I'm tired. I'm okay if I go home at this point. And I was like, if I don't have to do this again, I've I've I've come this far, God. I'm okay if I go home. You know, these babies are young, they're excited. I'm I'm I'm tired and I'm pregnant, you know. I don't, I don't want to do this. As sure enough, I won, and I was like, shoot, I gotta come back. And so I had to talk to my OB and get clearance from him because he was like, What you doing now? And I was like, Look, Matthew, me and my OB are on the first name. He's really good. And I was like, Look, Matthew, I gotta go to New York. And he was like, Now how much you think you can win? I said, 20 grand. And he was like, if I let you go, you better bring it back. And I said, All right, Matthew, I'm going. So we went, and it was my eighth month. I was like, eight months and some change. Wow. And, you know, won the whole thing. But when I tell you I was tired, I was tired. So I mean, it was that whole process, even going through that was surreal, like being pregnant, having to fly back and forth from South Carolina to New York, you know, taking the subway, trying to navigate downtown New York when you when you're pregnant and all that. I was like, Lord, if you never done anything else for me, you've done enough, and I'm tired. I'm good. So well, that's good. That's good. That sounds like a whole journey. Like you you're gonna be able to tell your kids about that whole experience. Oh, yeah. I had my daughter like three weeks right after I won. I had her three weeks afterward. She came a little bit early, and I always say it was probably because both of us was stressed out by she got it. She was like, Look, I'm ready to go. Come on. Um, you had me up in the air, flying back and forth. Right. That's a whole jerk. I'm proud of you because they say it's a lot. You know, when people watch, you know, Beyonce singing, dancing, do all that stuff when she's pregnant, it's a lot. I don't know how she did it. Um I I I I've had the utmost respect for her. Like, I don't know how she she did all of that. Because just standing still, like I always say, I am I am Lee Williams when I sing. I don't I don't be I don't be moving, I'll be be bopping around. I stand in one spot, I sing my song, and I go sit down. Um and I don't know how people who be singing and dancing pregnant didn't like I was just standing still and maybe did a little a little two-step at one point in time. And this, if you ever get a chance to go back and look at that performance, there's a part where I pause and everybody was like, that was so traumatic. And I was like, I couldn't breathe. I had I couldn't breathe. Like it was, you know, thankfully the musicians were talented and they caught it, and you know, the sound engineer caught it and put some extra reverb on it when I came back. But so many people was like, that was so traumatic. And you, I mean, how did you time that out? And I was like, Wow, that baby kicked me and I couldn't breathe, and I had to catch my breakfast. Listen, you have to meet Kevin's wife, Lisa, because you said Oh no, Lisa! Lisa, we're gonna school together.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

Yeah, I think Lisa's gonna like this episode.

SPEAKER_02 19:27

Yeah, yeah. So I'm gonna pass it over to you, Skip. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

Yeah, I definitely think, oh yeah, this will definitely be a good one, especially with that, with that last, like I said, with that experience with this baby kicking on the stage. Because I watched the um episode, I watched the um performance what the night before last. And I and I saw, I think you were singing, was it I Will Survive? Is that the right? So is that the song? Yes, sir. And like to me, I didn't know all this was going on when you were singing that. I didn't know this was go at all with this baby. I did not know that. I was like, okay, she's doing the thing. Like, this is on point. I'm really impressed.

SPEAKER_02 20:01

Yeah, she was still the whole time. She was really still the whole time, and like she shifted towards that last little bit. And I was like, okay, girl, um, I mean, you here too. So you brought the title home. Congratulations. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

So the next question we have, and this one is more or less, I guess, has to do with it's kind of like a bigger picture as far as like jazz from a cultural perspective. So, of course, we know that you have

Bridging The Gap Through Music

SPEAKER_01 20:32

a passion for jazz music. And often, especially with our generation, we tend to associate jazz either with our parents or our grandparents. And sometimes uh many people, especially it even depends somewhat, even on what part of the country you're from, too, if you're younger and you're black, to where we might not even associate jazz with our culture in general, which is kind of strange because you know that's you know, that's where a lot of our cultural roots come from, you know, creatively speaking. And so one of the things um that I love um about watching your performances was being able to see people that look like me and that are the same age as me, creating beautiful water are, you know, there are a lot of great younger artists making their name in jazz. And I noticed locally, you have a lot of them, local, you know, younger jazz artists too, you know, vocalists and musicians. But I've always thought about it how can I process it? It seems like historically, as black people, we've always created genres. And you know what I'm getting into with this, right? We always seem to create genres. So, you know, you have jazz, you have blues, rock, all these things, but after about a generation or so, we tend to leave those things behind. And you can even see that now, even with some, with even with hip hop to an extent, even with certain styles of hip-hop or approaches to it. So it's sort of like our creativity is a gift and a curse in a sense. So, in your opinion, do you feel like jazz can cater to an older, I guess, a younger audience?

SPEAKER_02 22:14

I feel like it, I feel like it really can because, like I said, my first exposure to jazz was school. Like going to Keenan and like working with in the band department, working in on jazz band, like that was my first experience, and that was like seeing it was cool to me to see kids my age doing that and you know, learning how to to scatter, learning how to sing different jazz standards. And it was like to me, and maybe just we was all nerds, so we thought we was the cool kids. I don't know. But it was just cool to see, you know, my friends, my age would like playing different, you know, like playing the sacks and playing the trauma and playing different things like that. And like we stayed doing that through college. Like one of my good friends, and Lisa knows him, Stephen Mitnall. We went to, you know, high school together, and it would be like we would go to Hunter and Gatherer right behind the state house where it used to be, and it would be a lot of like older people there, but it felt like it was so cool because we were like the young kids and they would let us get on the mic. That's when um I actually did the last uh shed with Skip Pearson, like bef when he was, you know, hosting it during time. And like I did the last shed with him, and it was so cool. It was like seeing, you know, the baton kind of being passed to other, you know, local artists. But I I I feel like you like what you're saying. I agree with what you're saying. We create, we create the dream. We create the sauce. We create the essence of what makes things so amazing. And I don't know if we necessarily leave it. I think we get pushed out of it to a certain extent. It's like, no shade to even some of the younger white RB singers that are coming up. It's like sometimes we get so fascinated with other people, how other people can mimic us if we forget we're the originators of it. And we get so excited. And it's like, oh yeah, like look at them runs. And it's like, I yes, I'm glad that Sarah figured out that she can do that with her voice and that she has her soulful voice. But I know about three other women in this church choir who can run her under the floors. Exactly. So I feel like it's it's like you said, it's a blessing and a curse. Like we come up with the drip, we come up with the sauce, it becomes mainstream, and then it's incentivized, and we don't get the we don't get the credit or the the funds that come with it. Right. So I think it's a two-way street because you think about like even here locally in Columbia, you have your black jazz scene and you have a white jazz scene. Well, I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

I did not know that.

SPEAKER_02 25:03

I mean, they're two and and it's I mean, and they intermingle, they're not completely segregated, like they intermingle, you know, but there's there are two different scenes to a certain extent. And sometimes I feel like with any industry, with it comes to, you know, if you don't have the accessibility or the the not even gonna say the accessibility, if you don't have the luxury to just say, okay, I'm gonna go to school for this. I don't have to come out of college, you know, worrying about going into a field to support everybody in my family. I have the luxury to go to school for, you know, jazz or the, not even go to school for jazz or just do, you know, low-paying events, get my chops up, you know, all this other kind of stuff, and and not have to worry about the funds because I got support to do that to make my own way, versus people who have nine to fives because we got a family and we got kids, or even you coming out of school and you got pseudo-loan debt. You don't have that luxury to go off for, you know, a summer in Milan or somewhere else, you know, overseas sometimes. So I think that is another barrier for how we may, how we may not be able to, you know, finesse the bag when it comes to some of the stuff that we create. Or we create it and it becomes mainstream, like you think of like the TikTok dances and all of that. Yeah. All of those black creators, like we created it. Yeah. But who gets the mainstream funding for it? It's not that we it's not that we left it, it's just we don't get the credit for it. Yeah, you're absolutely right. I see it all the time, and people are starting to get mad about that. I I think we've been getting mad about it. It's just that we have a megaphone or social media to say something about it. I mean, even if you look at like back in the day with artists like Elvis Presley, like, bro, it wouldn't have been no you if it wasn't for some of those soulful black singers that you copped your whole style from. Right. You know, you and I think it's just something that's been happening. We just now have the the megaphone of social media to say, uh-uh, I want my stuff back. Don't you, you know, I you didn't start that. I did, you know, but it's been happening. If you look at all the genres of music, they've been taken from us in one way or another and putting their seal of approval on it to make it sound like, you know, we've been doing this, but we know that ain't the case.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

Exactly, exactly. And I think one of the things that we can kind of do, especially when it comes to, you know, when it comes to jazz or, you know, just other music, you know, other form genres of music that we have, you know, that we historically that we've created in this country is doing a better job at connecting the younger generation with the older generation when it comes to that. Um so so yeah, so in what ways do you think artists or fans, just in general, just the community in general, could help bridge that divide through jazz?

SPEAKER_02 28:14

I would say making it accessible to younger people in a way of where it's it's fun, it's not so rigid. Like your jazz doesn't have to look like the, you know, and that's one thing that kind of irritates me sometimes about not everybody in the jazz community is like this. So I don't want nobody um tweeting me or bothering me. Um but it's like some people look at like the the jazz greats and say though they are those are the standards and you have to adhere to that. Your jazz isn't jazzing if it's not like that. And it's like, y'all know these people just created this out of thin air. This, you know, while it is a standard of how things are, you know, how you know, some how you play certain scales and do certain things like this, it doesn't mean that it has to be just like, you know, Duke or just like Basie or just like, you know, anybody else. Like these people were creating this stuff out of thin air and just let people create and create how they want to create, you know, and let people do different things in jazz and just let them make jazz what feels good to them. Like for me, I think a lot of young people think jazz and they think, you know, smoky cocktail bar, you know, elevator music. They don't think that jazz can be full of bass. It can be, you can put an 808 in jazz. It you don't think that kind of stuff, you know? And I think you have a lot of up-and-coming artists who, and not uh up-and-coming, but established artists. Like I think of somebody like Trombone Shorty, like I love the way, you know, the bass knocks and stuff. And you know, like you could, it's jazz, but you can feel it in your chest.

SPEAKER_03 30:04

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 30:05

So I think it's just exposing young people to things like that to let them know that, you know, the possibilities are endless. It ain't gotta sound like elevated music. Right. You know, you can scat over a trap beat if you wanted to, you know, it's it's just do it how you want to do it kind of thing. Now, how do you classify your so your type of music? I would say it's a mix of jazz and soul. It's a little bit of both because I have, I like to say I have like two different personas. I I have the Mother Earth persona that a lot of people are familiar with, but like a lot of my new music that I'm working on that's um just about out. Well, we're working the release date is August the 11th for the EP. So a lot of that music is a little bit more sensual, a little bit more sexual in a way, but I I feel like I have two different personas. So like I have the Mother Earth vibe that people get from me, but I also have like the just a a little bit more grown and sexy on the other end. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:05

Okay. Hey, that's one of the things I noticed. I think you had a performance back in January, and I kind of got more of that loud or that grown and sexy kind of vibe from that.

SPEAKER_02 31:15

Yeah, yeah. And I think it's also just been finding my I've evolved myself because a lot of my start was like in church. And so, you know, moving from the church scene and and being a worship leader to like fully finding myself musically, you know, it some it took a minute to kind of not like not cast that stuff aside, but just to find like my own unique individual voice and not, you know, realizing like, girl, you you're third and some change, you grown, you done had two kids. People know how they got here. Like, enjoy yourself on stage, you know, say what you want to say, kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01 31:53

So exactly. So back to the uh we'll kind of stay at a church thing real quick because I wanted to ask you this a few minutes ago, um, a couple minutes back. But I know you said the toughest stages you've been on, or the toughest audiences you've been. Of course, we know about the Apollo. But why has the Columbia church scene? Why is it so tough?

SPEAKER_02 32:16

Not just Columbia Church, Columbia, period. Like, one thing I say about Columbia is it prepared me for Apollo because Columbia is so talented. Like, you can't go two feet without hitting somebody who can sing, who can play, who can, you know, I mean, Columbia is talented. And I I grew up in a very, my home church is Bethlehem Baptist Church, college place on Eastman Street. And I grew up just thinking that everybody could sing. You know, everybody could sing, everybody could play. You know, at one point in time my church was known for just good music, like the adults, the kids, everything. And with that, with us being so saturated with talent in Columbia, it's like if you get on a stage in front of people, they like, let me tell you something, you better sing. I will not part my lips until you do some vocal acrobatics over here. And um, you know, like I was talking to Mark Rapp about this, and he was saying, yeah, he's like, I do feel that when I come to like in front of black audiences, he's like, not that I don't get my all in white, but he was like, when I'm with the black people, it's like, y'all be looking like, look, like you, you gotta come with it. And it's and it's true because we are so talented here in Columbia. We have so many talented and amazing singers. Like I think about growing up listening to like Benedict Gospel Choir and Regina Skeeter, and like listening to her, and just, you know, like if I could just do half of what she's doing, you know, I'd be okay. And going to like, you know, musicals here and like the gospel musicals here in Columbia, and just hearing people, you know, group after group after group after group shut it down. And so you can't step out in Columbia and think that you just gonna, you know, have saying like it is a terrifying artist because they expect nothing but excellence. Because I know two other people who can outsang you in the audience, you know. Yeah, it is a nerve-wracking market, but it's good. It's a good proven ground. I would say, like, my experience with Shay Alexander here, she, you know, runs Shay's Lounge, like just getting, she really gave me my start of like honing my own show. Like, what does my show look like for me? And so just working with her and like just the audience that comes there, like, they they not playing when they come. Like, either you're gonna bring your A game or you're not. And I've seen people who really thought they could do some things and then they get out there and your feelings get hurt, you know, church and jazz. I would say that the kiss, the kiss of death when you sang it in in church, to me is that okay, baby. All right, baby. Mm-hmm. Yes, honey. That's to me. If you hear that, it's go sit down. Just just just sit down and try it again.

SPEAKER_01 35:21

That's it. So I'm switching gears a little bit. Um I know, I know creative

Creativity & Family

SPEAKER_01 35:30

creativity is something that's very important in family life, especially with younger children. You know, it's a way to engage in meaningful interaction, to bond, and to create lasting memories. This is something that I'm becoming aware of myself. Did you share how, you know, just your creativity and just your, you know, just your singing background. How has that benefited family life?

SPEAKER_02 35:51

It has benefited it and benefited my family life and it has also made it chaotic.

SPEAKER_01 35:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 35:57

At times working full-time and also being a singer part-time is at one point in time, I was almost doing, felt like I was doing two full-time jobs. It makes it hard when you have little people. But one of the best things though, with having little people is sometimes, depending on the environment, you can bring them along. You can bring them to practice, you can bring them up. And I think it's so cool that like my kids get to I have pictures of like Charlotte sitting on TJ's lap playing the keyboard. Like, I feel like it's so cool that my kids get to experience, you know, music in that way. Like they they know, you know, what drums do, they know what keys do. You know, they they get to be in the mix and kind of if they choose it, they've already gotten a good footing in the door as far as like knowing, you know, how to run a rehearsal. I mean, I don't know. But just watching them to be able to play in a way in a space where some kids never get to touch.

SPEAKER_03 36:59

Right.

SPEAKER_02 36:59

Exactly. And it's really beautiful to me. Like my my daughter, everything's a microphone. I mean, she was in her stomach, you know. She's done. Everything's a microphone. We have instruments and all like if she and it's so funny, like I know she watches what I do, but she will come in, like my um upstairs. I have like my own office and whatnot. And it's like a music room, too. She'll come in there and pick up the mic and go. I mean, just to sing in her little heart. She I bought her toy guitar. She is around here just jamming out, you know, she's singing and playing. So I think it's it's great that my kids are immersed in the arts in that way, and that they have, you know, cool stories and stuff that I think they'll have cool stories when they grow up to be able to talk about because like practice time at my house is almost like family time. Like we cook, we do a big meal, you know. Okay, I'm cooking for the band, my husband's cooking for the band, like we eat, you know, we breaking bread. So I think it's good that they have that sense of like there's family, there's music family, but all of us family. You know, so I think it'll give them a good foundation when it comes to like just their well-being of seeing, you know, black creatives hanging out, having fun, you know. And I think that about all the kids that my my of my friends like my my bass player, Rodney, his daughter, when I would come to practice, she was a little, little, little girl. She would sit in my lap and I'd sing and she'd look up at me and I just rock her and sing. Yeah. You know, so they they get that experience and they get to to, you know, like that firsthand of the art. So I think it's great.

SPEAKER_01 38:44

Great, great. So I guess what advice would you give fellow creatives, especially those that are because a lot of us are at that age where if we don't, you know, if we don't have a family yet, we're in that, we're starting to have a, you know, we are having families, so we have little ones coming up. Yeah. So what advice would you give them as far as, you know, being able to incorporate, you know, maintain that balance? Oh, Jesus, that's a loaded question.

SPEAKER_02 39:13

The last gig I was doing, I worked with like a corporate band sometime, and we pulled different musicians, and there was a little guy there. He's a little bit younger than me. He was talking about, you know, dating this girl and all that. And I said, Look, bruh, do all the things you want to do now before you get them kids, because it's gonna be five times as hard to say how you want to, you know, you you we in Charleston now. If you feel like having a few drinks to stay in, you can stay. No, when you have kids, you gotta take your ticket home. So I said, do what you need to do. But I would say for those who are having kids and who are starting to have kids, take them kids with you. Invest in some good headphones, some good noise canceling headphones for them children, and let them churn go with you because you know they will they will get the experience, but also it's incorporating them into a level of family time. That's one of the things that before I was gigging a lot on the like back and forth to Charleston, Savannah. Um, just really doubting they're doing their their wedding scene and whatnot. And so me and my husband were like, okay, I'm a penny pincher when it comes to my my gig money. I'm like, if I can drive it back, I'm not staying there with a night. But for the sake of my marriage and to make sure that, you know, me and my husband were seeing each other at some point in time. We were doing things like, okay, if we're gonna do you do a gig in Savannah, let's have a day in Savannah. Let's make it a day for the two of us. You know, let's hang out, let's go to dinner, let's do the da da da da da, you know, do all the things that we could do while we're down, you know, while we're in Savannah and make it a time instead of me just by myself driving to Savannah, gigging, and then coming back home, you know, three o'clock in the morning, you know, and I hadn't seen them since 10 a.m. that that morning. So, you know, just really as much as you can, take your family and take your kids with you if you're allowed, you know. Try to make it a family experience as much as you can because it is hard if you're working full time and you're gigging on the weekends because you don't get to see them as much as you you would like to if you're really, you know, going out there and doing, you know, doing gigs and stuff. So try to incorporate them as much as you can.

SPEAKER_01 41:23

Okay. So I mentioned uh I know you mentioned something earlier. So is your husband a creative too?

SPEAKER_02 41:28

He plays. He I always fuss at him because I'm like, bruh, as much as I love TJ and I I enjoy playing with TJ. I was like, sometimes I wouldn't have to pace about it if you um practice mode. Um so no, but he plays, he plays a keyboard, but he is um he's in, he's gonna yell at me if I get this wrong. Not in a bad way. We just not, I'm not in any type of situation. I don't want y'all think he's abusive. But no, um he um he is network, he's a network and cybersecurity engineer. So he's into like the the tech and IT. Like I said, he could be building bonds. I don't really know what this man does. Um but he's into that. Um, that's what he does full time, but he does play. He used to play for AME churches and stuff like that. So he could he could bust out of him like nobody's business, but he he ain't quite made it over into the blues and jazz sector yet.

SPEAKER_01 42:24

But you know, so neat, neat. Oh. One more. I know you mentioned performing at weddings. So how long have you been doing that?

SPEAKER_02 42:34

Whoo, I've been doing that for a long time. That was like my first foray foray into performing, like singing at people's weddings. I started doing that when I was like in high school. Oh wow. Yeah, I'm at the point now I like to I like to say I'm not just a wedding singer, like I'm a your your music consultant.

SPEAKER_03 42:53

I like that. I like that.

SPEAKER_02 42:56

Yeah, because I'm at the place where now where I've had a lot of experience. So like I'll get price that'll come to me and they're like, I want this to happen, and now I know the questions they ask. Okay, you say you want this seven-minute song to walk you down the aisle. What part did you really want to hear? Because in your mind, you're thinking it's gonna take you seven minutes to get down the aisle. It's probably gonna be about 30 seconds. Right. So, what what do you really want to hear? So now I I know how to kind of ask those questions and kind of just curate an experience for your wedding that is like, you know, what you really dream in your head musically, because you know, there's a difference to what you think is about to happen and to what actually happens. People think, you know, weddings are this long process. Most weddings, even your black weddings, are gonna be about 45 minutes tops. And 45 minutes is a long time for a wedding. So, you know, I've I've gotten a lot of experience in that, and it's one of my favorite things to do, to be honest, except when you get a real aggravating bride. But for the most part, it's one of my favorite things to do to kind of help people plan out their dream experience musically, because that is a big part of what people hear in their head. People, you know, have been planning what songs they wanted their wedding since, you know, they heard Let's Get Married by Jagged Edge in 2002. So, you know, it's love it's lovely to bring that part to life, you know, as far as what people want to hear and how to plan things, and with the experience just comes wisdom. So I I that's one of my favorite things to do is doing weddings. And especially the reception. I love doing a good party band. Um, even though I am Lee Williams, I can't get a party jumping. Um I ain't gonna be dancing, but but everybody else gonna be dancing, you know.

SPEAKER_01 44:38

So no, that's right. I know that's right. So, because I know right now

Current Projects

SPEAKER_01 44:42

we're about to get ready to finish up. But what no, what current projects are you working on? And how can we find your music and how can we support you?

SPEAKER_02 44:52

Well, my current single is out, it's called Love Drunk. It's out on all music prop platforms Apple, iTunes, all the good stuff. Wherever you find music, you find me there. Just pay attention to my social media page. My Instagram is Britney T Sings. Nope, I said that wrong. That is my Facebook, you'll find me as Britney Turnipse. Um the tagline is Britney T Sings. And then on Instagram is Britney Turnipsy Music. So just look for my full name and you'll find me on Instagram and on. I'm on Twitter, but I don't, I have not quite grasped the concept of Twitch yet. But I'm on Instagram, I'm on Facebook, but definitely keep an eye out. I'm working very closely with Sevent Sunday, Deion Generate, his his brand, they're working on my release. So they're doing that for me because sis girl is a creative, but she don't always have direction. So it's better when you see somebody who does who do who's doing Things well for them to just help you out. So I called the audible and I said, Deion, I need help. And so Deion is doing a wonderful thing. And just keep your eyes on him in Columbia. He is doing some awesome stuff. I call him Um Columbia's Don Cornelius because he's doing some great things, but they're working on getting my EP release. We're going to do a digital format and then we'll have like an actual live show coming up soon. Okay, cool. So I was just about to ask about that because I'm I'm ready. I'm ready for it. Yeah, I have I had to be kind of so with the last baby, I I was had to be on lockdown because I was with COVID and all that kind of stuff. But I got both, so I'm I'm out here in these streets now. But so I as long as Delta don't act up too bad, I'm still out here in these streets. So, you know, definitely the digital, we're doing a digital recording on August the 11th. So look for that, and then we'll be doing a live show subsequently after. So I'm really excited about that. I miss being in front of, you know, folks and and having my own show and whatnot. So I'm excited. I'm excited for you. Congratulations on everything. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, the the title for this EP is called The Intro Focused. So I'm finally focused and got my got my ish together. I'm excited. Just excited to showcase the work that me and my guys have done. They have worked super hard on making this EP awesome and just sounding great and everything. Like we got some great features on there. So I'm excited. Thank you. Thank you for letting us know about it. Would you like to shout out anyone before we wrap this up? Just my guys, my band, I call them the Happy Accidents because I'm a big Bob Ross fan. So I called him the Happy Accidents, but just my guys, um, like I said, TJ, J. Rich, Rod Foster. Especially, like I said, keep your eyes on Dion Jenner with the Seven Sunday group. Also, my girl Tiffany J. She one of the people that I definitely look up to. I definitely have to call her and call some audibles with her too and be like, hey, I need help. And then also one other person that I really like to shout out who I call him my um thorn in my side, but he's a good thorn. I already said his name was Jamaica Peoples. He's a wonderful artist here in Columbia, guitarist, vocalist. I call him Sensei Peoples because um he's one of the first people to kind of just throw me out and then say you better start doing what you need to do. So, but that's that's all my shout-outs. And shout out to my but and he's gonna punch me if I don't say shout out, and no, he ain't gonna really punch me, y'all. Shout out, shout out to my husband, Carl Grooms. He is definitely, I wouldn't be able to do a lot of what I do without him. That man helps hold down the household when I'm not dead. I can leave the kids with him, you know. He cook, he, you know, makes sure he even dibbles and dabbles into helping to manage like my time and make sure I'm where I'm supposed to be when I'm supposed to be. So if without my husband, I couldn't do a lot of what I do, and I'm so grateful and thankful to have a supportive partner because everybody can say that. Yeah, it's true, it's true. So that's it for me. We really enjoyed this episode, and thank you everyone for tuning in to this episode of the Hill Top Glove Podcast. I am Tamaia Allen and Skip. Thanks for this one. I enjoyed it. So you guys stay tuned. You can check us out on all streaming platforms.

SPEAKER_00 49:11

That's it for today's episode of the Hilltop Glove Podcast. Make sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and other platforms. Also follow us on Instagram and Facebook at Hilltop Glove.