Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to effective immediately. It's your favorite homegirl Gina views. If you see me fangirling out, it's because the blueprint, a mood board for so many of us, is in the building.
Maya, welcome to the show.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: Hey, how are you doing?
[00:00:20] Speaker A: I'm good. How are you?
[00:00:21] Speaker B: I'm good. I can't complain.
[00:00:23] Speaker A: It's so crazy that you hear it's Halloween just passed.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: And I'm one of those people that's, like, all about giving people they flowers while they can smell them.
So in 2022, you inspired my Halloween photo shoot.
[00:00:35] Speaker B: Ooh.
Oh. Ooh.
I love it.
You're brave, lady.
[00:00:45] Speaker A: Well, I was kind of trying to keep it rap, so it ended up being rap lyrics, you know, like, that was why I did it. But super iconic fire. Thank you.
[00:00:54] Speaker B: Yeah, I haven't seen anybody do that one yet.
[00:00:57] Speaker A: No, I just saw somebody just did your best of me look.
[00:01:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:01] Speaker A: For this Halloween. Did you see that one?
[00:01:03] Speaker B: I haven't seen it yet.
[00:01:04] Speaker A: No, I have it. I have it somewhere. I have.
[00:01:08] Speaker B: I missed this Halloween.
[00:01:09] Speaker A: Yes. Look.
[00:01:14] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:01:14] Speaker A: Let me make it bigger for you.
[00:01:16] Speaker B: The white backdrop and everything. Oh, nice.
[00:01:19] Speaker A: Yeah. Shout out to my girl. Be.
[00:01:22] Speaker B: That's on point.
[00:01:24] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. Freaking iconic. That look is iconic. I do want to talk about that in a little bit, but those covers, the King magazine covers, still inspiring the girlies today.
[00:01:39] Speaker B: Word.
[00:01:40] Speaker A: How do you feel seeing your influence still like Maya the Maya you in that era, the early 2000s, the late 90s. How do you still seeing that influence in the generations today?
[00:01:54] Speaker B: That's crazy. Cause I never even connected the dots. I really didn't. I don't ever take credit for that, you know?
[00:02:00] Speaker A: No.
[00:02:01] Speaker B: That's like a whole subculture of other things going on. But, you know, that was in my my love is like whoa era, Popping that smack and being my cocky self.
So that was a whole vibe during that era in 2003, coming out of my shell.
[00:02:24] Speaker A: When you look back at those, like, the magazine covers from, like, back in the day, which is, like, the actresses or the female musicians, and you guys embody confidence and sex appeal, but in such, like, a tasteful way. How do you think those covers back then represent today for the females, the influencers, the artists and things like that, like, what do you the impact or do you think that you guys Impact? I'm not sure.
[00:02:54] Speaker B: I don't even know if they've seen them because it's like, really?
[00:02:57] Speaker A: Well, we not supposed to see them.
Right, right, right.
[00:03:01] Speaker B: The age gap.
[00:03:01] Speaker A: We aren't supposed to see them.
[00:03:02] Speaker B: I think it's an attitude, honestly.
And when you are, I think, connected to hip hop in any way, there's an edge. Or just being a woman and wanting to step into all of you, not just one component of you or being safe, you sort of step out there on a limb and embrace all aspects of you, even the sexy and as bold and confident and cocky as you can.
And a lot of that gets probably more visibility and paid attention to above and beyond anything else, even philanthropy. And it stands out, you know, so I embrace all of that. I didn't ever shy away from her. I love her, you know, it's an attitude.
[00:03:48] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:03:49] Speaker B: And of course, in that phase in your life, you cute, you enjoy being cute, you enjoy being fly, you enjoy teasing, but also, you know, embracing what you got because it doesn't last forever and flaunting it. Yes. You know, so I embrace that era of. Of me, whoever. It's inspired. I'm not exactly sure, but I wasn't the first and I'm certainly not the last.
[00:04:19] Speaker A: I do think, though, you would know better than I would, but I feel like during that time, just when I even go back and see the people that was on the COVID like Melissa Ford or I forget her real name, but Toni from Girlfriends, she did a couple of covers. Ashanti. I feel like I don't know for sure how it was, and you can let me know, but it kind of seemed like you guys were celebrated in a more respectful way than the quote unquote, like IG models and things are, you know, of today's time. But I feel like the way that you guys did it so tasteful that you are responsible for the way that women are celebrated today when it's respectful, if that makes sense.
[00:05:02] Speaker B: Yeah, it makes sense.
[00:05:02] Speaker A: You know what I'm saying?
It's not raunchy. You guys didn't do anything.
[00:05:06] Speaker B: Raunchy.
Women have been beautiful, and a lot, you know, of. Of eyeballs tend to go that way because women are just so beautiful to look at first of all.
And the power of. In the functionality of what a woman's body is able to do is fascinating.
And then you mix it with culture and eras and times and music and attitude and lyrics.
A lot of things can be, I would say, accented or accentuated just by aesthetics. And, you know, you feel it a little bit more with a visual. So I'm proud of it. It was a time to be alive.
And it was also maybe less accessible because it was on print. We didn't have the digital phase or age back then. And so it was like a moment when something would drop and who was. Who's next? Yes, we would look forward to those things. And you know, we would have trainers like be working out for the COVID It was a moment to be considered for that. Kind of like Sports Illustrated way back in the day, you know, so. But it was for our culture.
[00:06:16] Speaker A: What did those covers mean then? Was that like. Was that one of those things that it meant like you submitted in a game if you got a King magazine cover or just like a magazine cover in general? Was. Was that one of those things that would define your career?
[00:06:29] Speaker B: It wouldn't define your career, I would say, because there's so many aspects to a career, but you know, there's an aesthetic and appeal, you know, likability, a confidence, depending on what phase you are in your life as a woman. And that's the type of time I was on in 2003 when I did that cover, even when I was talking about it fit within the realm of, of course, promoting the music. And the message of my love is like, wow. And that had nothing to do with being safe. It was a very unsafe record.
[00:07:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:05] Speaker B: You know, especially as a female and an R and B female. We were singers, you know, so. To talk my stuff. I don't know if I can cuss on here.
[00:07:14] Speaker A: Yeah, you can.
[00:07:15] Speaker B: Yeah. To talk my shit and accentuate that with a visual, you become the talk of the town. And I was also saying a lot in that interview too, no holds barred.
So that's, I think what that represented for us.
To be you, you know, with no rules, no ceilings, no boxes, and lean more into your sensuality, your sexuality and feel like that.
[00:07:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
And that's gonna be my next Instagram caption.
Cause sometimes you kinda scared, like to push the envelope or you kinda.
I'm like tomboy. But then I like to do the little like that, like what I just showed you and stuff. But for some people, they're uncomfortable just like, no, you're supposed to be the rap girl. You supposed to. You know, we used to seeing you with baggy clothes and stuff like that. But for that's even like literally doing the COVID when I redid you're covered, it made me feel like, oh, this is confidence, this is sex appeal. This doesn't mean that you're a hoe. This doesn't mean anything raunchy. It's just confidence.
[00:08:24] Speaker B: And like you said swimsuits to lingerie.
If that's honest for you at that time in your Life and you're cool with it.
It's definitely turning a lot of heads and the labels love the talk of the town and it's pushing sales and all kinds of other things. So nobody made me do it. I actually wanted to do it at that time in my life because I coming of age and a real woman by that time in my career and grown. Grown. Yeah. I'd pay the dues and I was leaning more into that in my real life anyways. Yeah.
[00:09:01] Speaker A: Okay. Now you mentioned the lyrics. I am a super hip hop fan. So as a hip hop fan, I have to know. How did Miya feel when she heard Dreams by the Game?
[00:09:10] Speaker B: I didn't think anything of it, honestly. I thought every man has the right to fantasize and have a dream.
Martin Luther King had a dream, but he just had a different kind.
[00:09:25] Speaker A: Martin Luther King had a dream. It's crazy.
[00:09:27] Speaker B: He had a different kind of dream.
We're all entitled to having dreams.
[00:09:33] Speaker A: So it was more of a. It was an honor. It was more of an honor rather than being offended.
[00:09:37] Speaker B: I wasn't. I'm never offended.
[00:09:39] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:09:40] Speaker B: You know what I'm saying?
It just is what it is.
[00:09:43] Speaker A: Did you and Game ever have a conversation about it?
[00:09:46] Speaker B: No, I didn't have a conversation about that with Game.
I had a conversation with somebody else that lied.
[00:09:53] Speaker A: Tell us the lie.
[00:09:54] Speaker B: But no, that's old news and I won't get into that.
[00:09:56] Speaker A: Okay, okay.
Okay. Well, I want to get into some more old stuff because I'm a fan girl of Maya regrets. I feel like people are so Sleep on. Take me there. I want to go there.
[00:10:09] Speaker B: What year were you born?
[00:10:10] Speaker A: I'm a 90s baby.
[00:10:12] Speaker B: 90S baby?
[00:10:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:13] Speaker B: You were five?
[00:10:14] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:10:14] Speaker B: That's cute.
[00:10:16] Speaker A: Sitting here thinking about yesterday. It take me back to my childhood. So that's another reason why I'm just so honored to be so.
[00:10:21] Speaker B: That's very talking special.
[00:10:23] Speaker A: Yes. I love the song.
[00:10:24] Speaker B: Did you like the cartoon?
[00:10:25] Speaker A: Yes. Rugrat's my favorite cartoon. Do you mind if you could just take us back to that moment creating that song?
[00:10:31] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness. Yes. I was actually in LA with Teddy Riley in a very small studio and I was cutting at night with him and a songwriter named Tamara Savage, I think laid down the demo and I started with the backgrounds and then ended up doing the leads.
I'm not sure if Blackstreet was already on the record, but I heard the final product later on. I was not in the studio with them. I was just in the studio with Teddi Teddy Riley cutting that Record.
And then I heard the final product probably, like, a couple weeks later.
And then the video concept came through.
I flew in to LA one night from somewhere and had to learn the choreography really late at night with the girls on the set, and we filmed the next day.
[00:11:22] Speaker A: Yeah, you learned the choreography on the set?
[00:11:25] Speaker B: On the set the day before we shot.
[00:11:28] Speaker A: Is that regular or is that.
[00:11:30] Speaker B: No, because it was. Well, no, it's not really regular. We usually get into a dance studio, but because they had to build everything, I'm sure they wanted to do it the night before to maximize time because music videos by the hour are very expensive.
And so we actually rehearsed on set while they were still building, and I learned all the choreography there the night before we shot.
[00:11:53] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:11:53] Speaker B: The music video.
[00:11:55] Speaker A: Great video.
[00:11:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:56] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:11:57] Speaker B: That's fun.
[00:11:57] Speaker A: If I could take you back one more time.
[00:11:59] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:12:01] Speaker A: What is. I'm sure you've answered this question dozens of times, but I've always thought that Best of Me Part two was just a remix, and then there's just a version without Jay Z. I didn't realize that there was a version with Jadakiss, and it's actually slow.
It's a slower version of it.
[00:12:21] Speaker B: So Swizz Beats and I, Toron Beal, Jimmy Cozier, we were all in the studio listening to Beats with Swizz, and I picked that record for the track, and we wrote to it. He was like, oh, this belongs to dmx. I was like, so we could write another record to it.
And it ended up becoming his very first RB record.
And, you know, he was with Rep Fighters and really didn't work with too many R and B artists.
So I snatched the beat and wrote about something that I thought was really important at the time for Fear of Flying. And it was my very first street single, my introduction into that era, by the way. It just turned 25 this year, so.
[00:13:05] Speaker A: Congratulations.
[00:13:05] Speaker B: Featuring Jadakiss. Thank you.
And I really like that record when I'm performing with my band. And the remix, I like in the clubs, you know, that. That type of atmosphere. Mm.
[00:13:17] Speaker A: I love the way that you come in immediately after he says, holla, Jay Z. It was just, like, perfect timing. Oh, I feel like he said holla to you. Lips are telling me yes.
How did the second part come about?
[00:13:32] Speaker B: Oh, Part two came through. You know, back in the day, we would do remixes for everything. Sometimes it was over the same beat and just add somebody as a feature. But the first one already had a feature.
We wanted to go nostalgic with it because that Initial beat is like a classic hip hop beat. Biz Marquis, I think, was one of the first to do that.
[00:13:53] Speaker A: And it was like, you just taught me something.
[00:13:56] Speaker B: And it was replayed so many other times, and other songs were, like, written over it. Before, in Caribbean culture, that's called a rhythm, but this was classic hip hop, and even Mary J. Blige has done something to that. Or, like, elements of that beat are incorporated all throughout hip hop. Anyhow, track Masters and I got in the studio this girl named Makeda Davis. She's from North Carolina. She was a part of Groove Theory at the time.
And she came in and wrote some lyrics based off of the original concept.
And then we kind of, like, collaborated. I laid the song down, like, two hours and add some harmonies.
That's kind of it. And then Jay Z was in a different studio when he laid his part. And then we're in Malibu, California, shooting the video. It was like the shortest music video I've ever shot in my life. Total of six hours.
Yeah. It was a very short video with hair, makeup. And June Ambrose came through and created something so dynamic, cultural nostalgic, the jersey dress. And it was sold all across these stores in New York and everywhere in the hood, you know?
[00:15:23] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:15:24] Speaker B: So she really did her thing, that big number, creating that moment for me. Please tell me fashion.
[00:15:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Mood board blueprint.
You're literally a trailblazer.
[00:15:38] Speaker B: June Ambrose is responsible for that, not me.
[00:15:41] Speaker A: Please. Do you still have it?
[00:15:43] Speaker B: I have renditions of it.
[00:15:45] Speaker A: What? You gave it back to wardrobe?
[00:15:47] Speaker B: I can't remember what I did with it. I have, like, so much stuff from the era I have yet to even go through. My mom saves everything, so I'm sure I still have it. I still have the All About Me outfit. Moving on outfit. So I know it's in there somewhere.
[00:16:00] Speaker A: It would be so nice to see you recreating, like, some of your looks now.
[00:16:04] Speaker B: I did, and I rocked it in Charlotte, North Carolina, I think, like, two years ago. 20, 23. Mm.
[00:16:11] Speaker A: Yeah. That. The. The dress itself is so nostalgic. Once you wore that, did everybody start doing it afterwards, or were they already popular Jersey dresses?
[00:16:20] Speaker B: Uh, no, it wasn't a thing until that video came out. And then it popped up in all the boutiques and, like, the Jimmy Jazz stores in New York City. You know, all of the places.
[00:16:31] Speaker A: Yeah. You need your credit.
[00:16:32] Speaker B: No, I don't take credit for that. It was already a basketball jersey before I turned it into a dress, but I didn't turn it into a dress.
June Ambrose is Responsible for that in her mastermind. Iconic.
[00:16:46] Speaker A: It's like the way that they say that fabulous is responsible for, like, the jerseys and throwing them, turning them to the back and all of that. We gotta give Maya her credit for making the jersey dresses popular.
[00:16:55] Speaker B: I rocked it. Yeah.
I would still rock it too. It's timeless. Yeah.
[00:17:01] Speaker A: They're back in. Well, 2000s itself is just the 2000s aesthetic. And fashion has come back.
[00:17:07] Speaker B: Yeah, definitely.
[00:17:09] Speaker A: Okay, so in light of you joining the Brandi and Monica tour, a clip just resurfaced of you on Twitter, and you're standing on the side of the stage while Monica is performing.
[00:17:23] Speaker B: Really?
[00:17:23] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:17:24] Speaker B: From the tour?
[00:17:25] Speaker A: No. You guys are kids.
[00:17:27] Speaker B: I would love to see this.
Oh, that's Tea Summit.
Oh, my goodness.
That is so beautiful. I love Monica and Brandy.
[00:17:40] Speaker A: Do you remember this day?
[00:17:41] Speaker B: I don't remember that day, but I was a dance posse member and a posse member on Teen Summit bet in 1997 and 98.
And Ananda Lewis, Rest in Peace, was the host with Prince Dejour.
And it was a place where teens could discuss all the issues happening in the community.
Being a posse member, you got to do segments in front of the camera with the microphone and film and ask questions with the audience. It was like a cool talk show, you know, for the community and kids my age. And they would have performers before 106 and park popped off, the performers would come in and you have, like, your mini little concert. They would do one or two songs. And as a dance posse member, we got to freestyle behind the artist sometimes if they wanted dancers. And a couple weeks before my very first single came out, I was dancing behind Mobb Deep and next. It was hilarious.
Yeah. But I will never forget that experience in 97, after I had graduated high school, working at BEC and just kind of like getting acclimated in front of the camera.
[00:18:55] Speaker A: So you were. You pretty much. You did media first before music?
[00:19:00] Speaker B: Well, I'd always been doing music. Always on music and, you know, performing. But prior to the introduction as a recording artist to the public, it was Teen Summit bet in Washington, D.C. what.
[00:19:13] Speaker A: Was your initial career goals? Was it always Initially?
[00:19:17] Speaker B: Yeah, my initial career goals were all over the place. I wanted to be a veterinarian. I wanted to be a child psychologist.
But ultimately, as far as the arts, I wanted to pursue theater in New York City.
That's what the goal was.
And the record deal came first through an independent label based on Washington, D.C. and I got the opportunity. They had signed Drew hill and and who they launched in 1997. And I followed the year after in 98.
And that's where the Cisco collaboration came from. For my very first single, we were on the same independent label.
[00:19:54] Speaker A: Sometimes I wish I was like, could have been outside during that time. It seemed like you guys had way more fun than it was.
[00:20:00] Speaker B: A lot of fun we're having. But the 90s, that whole era, my goodness.
Gems were dropped. So we witnessed hip hop fusion with R and B. Mary J. Blige being the first of our era to like, do it. If there were somebody before her, she did it in the most major way. Chucky Thompson, so many amazing producers and they reached back into the 70s with samples and made these amazing records, musical records, edgy, you know, with the drum sounds of the 90s, which were more heavy.
And you still have music, you have the samples, so you're bridging generations together. And then you add the hip hop element on top of it. The fusion, the collaborations.
Like, it was a time to be alive and witness all of this.
And she was the first really to do that, which is like a staple in our music today in our culture is always R and B and hip hop collaborations. And it's become global now.
[00:21:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:11] Speaker B: So that was the birthing of that. And then to top that off, the fly factor, with fashion being at the forefront in this whole energy and attitude, like we talked about earlier, all of that was captured. So it was such an exciting time for black music and black culture and. And seeing this new fusion being birthed for the first time and it winning and it just being so elevated. It was really great.
And songs that made you feel something too.
[00:21:42] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:21:42] Speaker B: At the same time, she was talking about a lot of who.
Heart wrenching things, you know, and there was joy too, because she would dance, the knee pads and the combat boots. It was still fly, though, what we were rocking in the streets, Carl Kanay, cross colors, coogee sweaters, all of that.
It was in the music, it was in the visuals. So, yes, it was an exciting time to see, hear, witness music.
[00:22:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:12] Speaker B: Mm.
[00:22:14] Speaker A: She's definitely one of those ones that makes you relate to scenarios that you've never gone through. Cause like, your child, I don't have kids and I never experienced anybody coming and knocking on my door and saying, this is your child. But I was a kid singing your child as if I had went through experience.
I'm so serious. Your child?
[00:22:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
With all the pain.
[00:22:41] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. But it's funny, I was just talking about this, you guys, time that era within, like the early 2000s and then the 90s in general, or like, when R and B, like the era at the time and that you talking about.
Y' all have a skill set that I don't feel like a lot of new artists have, where you were able to connect to the listener.
And even with, like, the. The rappers on those R and B hip hop collabs, I would fall in love with the rapper thinking that they was talking about me. I don't even know this nigga.
But it's like, it's a certain skill set that you guys have. So I don't know if now as I'm getting older and I'm turning into an old head, that I don't like the new music, but y' all just have, like. It's just. It's just a skill that you guys have a quality that the music had that is lost.
[00:23:30] Speaker B: Well, so back then, there were a lot of bridges and songs, modulations where you would take the key up and transpose it.
Then after the bridge, you know, you got probably a chorus. Sometimes you got a saxophone break, depending on what era you were, you know, in. And then a vamp at the end with a whole bunch of ad libs and runs and messy ad libs because. Because it was from a place of passion, you know.
[00:23:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:58] Speaker B: And conviction and crying. And then. Let's not talk about the music videos.
[00:24:03] Speaker A: With rain and spins storylines, though.
[00:24:06] Speaker B: In deserts with leather.
They really meant it.
[00:24:13] Speaker A: The waterproof.
The waterproof radios. Cause how was y' all standing in the rain with the radios? And they wasn't electrocuted no more music videos back then.
[00:24:22] Speaker B: It just made no sense whatsoever.
No sense.
But they were professing forgiveness or their love and no shame.
[00:24:34] Speaker A: Now, that was in the music videos. But during that time where the men of that era, that apologetic where they was outside crying, begging, begging.
[00:24:42] Speaker B: Mm. Really telling on themselves, apologizing. I know I was wrong. And telling the whole story about it. Take me back. I need you back in my life.
I haven't been the same. I haven't eaten, slept, can't breathe.
I loved it.
[00:24:59] Speaker A: These days they breathing without you.
How you out here breathing and living without me?
[00:25:08] Speaker B: No second thought onto my next.
[00:25:12] Speaker A: Before you go, if you can just please share, please, just please share. Your skin routine, your eating habits. What type of water is you drinking? We need to know.
Did you look good?
[00:25:26] Speaker B: A lot of things. You know, sleep is still a struggle, but everybody ages.
I'm definitely aging in many different ways, and I'm proud of it.
I'm glad you don't See it.
But anyhow, yeah, age, I don't know how to be age. That's just something that's a given.
As far as skin care, it's probably what I put in my body because I looked a little older way back in like 2012, 2013, as I look at pictures.
But I was. I had a different type of lifestyle and I do a lot more hydrating fruits and a lot more raw foods. Now, not everything while I'm doing processed vegan foods too, but I'll try to incorporate more or less cooked food. Because when you cook food, you know, you destroy a lot of the nutrients and the enzymes because we overcook a lot of food and then we're reheating it, reheating it, and you just lose the nutrition aspect. So the more raw foods, especially hydrating water based foods that you incorporate into your diet, plus sea moss, like, your skin will hit a little different. So I start there with what I put in my body and then sleep helps.
I use less chemical based products now. So for makeup remover, I'll use a coconut oil instead of like a whole bunch of chemicals.
[00:26:56] Speaker A: The harsh, like wipes, all that stuff.
[00:27:00] Speaker B: And then shea butter is everything, is life.
Hydrating your skin is a natural sunblock versus chemical based sunblock, you know, So I do a lot more natural stuff. I'm still, you know, in the processed vegan world sometimes, and that's a struggle, especially traveling. But more fruits, more vegetables, more water. And what I don't do is liquor. What I don't do a soda and any high fructose corn syrup juices because no Capri suns.
It might look a little different on me at 46 than it would at 25, you know, so I have to be aware of that. And I just pull a lot of stuff out of my life and try to replace it with more healthy things.
Yeah.
[00:27:53] Speaker A: Okay. Well, you just changed my whole my day to day up. Yeah, I'm doing everything you said. I'm gonna play this audio for myself in the morning so I could get.
[00:28:03] Speaker B: My day started step by step, you know, removing one thing one step at a time, and then you'll see the difference and feel the difference too. My goodness.
[00:28:14] Speaker A: Also, congratulations on 25 years of fear of flying.
[00:28:18] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:28:19] Speaker A: But talk to us about Face to Face. What's next?
[00:28:22] Speaker B: Oh, Face to Face Face.
You want to hear about that?
[00:28:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:26] Speaker B: Okay. Well, Face to Face is one of those records. It has a hip hop element to it, and I'm kind of talking my swag, but it's Also spiritual, you know, is God aligned. It's having that conversation honestly. Internally introspective, you know, knowing that you need to get your mind right, just giving yourself permission to step away, get it together, assess or analyze yourself in the areas that might be off or might need a little attention, and then going within to either correct those things or just work on you and shutting the world out for a minute to, like, really get into you and what resonates with the real you.
[00:29:17] Speaker A: Self reflection.
[00:29:17] Speaker B: Yes. Self reflection, introspection, wellness, but also swag. I call it my spiritual flex record. Because, you know, when you do the work and then you step outside. When you step outside, it's a different you. And she's about to be a problem.
[00:29:34] Speaker A: So those are one of those affirmation songs. Yes.
[00:29:37] Speaker B: You said it perfectly.
[00:29:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:39] Speaker B: Yeah. And that's a part of the next album. So the album is done. It's coming in 2026. I'm so excited.
Yes.
[00:29:46] Speaker A: Can we get any exclusive? Just any? Like, maybe a feature, something? Just give me a little something.
[00:29:55] Speaker B: So Joyner, Lucas and I did something for his project.
[00:29:58] Speaker A: Well, speaking of Joyner.
[00:29:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
The video. Nevermind.
[00:30:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:02] Speaker B: Oh, I saw it in exchange. Cause we're both independent artists. He's on my album.
[00:30:06] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:30:07] Speaker B: So I haven't said anything about that. You guys heard it first.
[00:30:11] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:30:11] Speaker B: He's on my album, on one of my songs.
[00:30:13] Speaker A: I'll keep you a secret.
[00:30:13] Speaker B: Mm.
You got an exclusive from Yona today for the next album, and It'll be my 10th studio album of my career, but also my 10th independent project on my label, Planet Nine.
[00:30:25] Speaker A: Congratulations.
Honored to speak to you. It's an honor to be able to talk to somebody of such a legendary status. And like I said earlier, tasteful.
Like, you're just so tasteful. You so elegant. You so classy. Like. Thank you.
[00:30:41] Speaker B: Until you get to know me.
[00:30:43] Speaker A: Oh, my bad.
After hours.
[00:30:46] Speaker B: I cut up too, but no, thank you. You keep it cute.
[00:30:50] Speaker A: So do you have a date?
[00:30:52] Speaker B: I do, but that's not.
[00:30:54] Speaker A: We're talking about that yet. Okay. 2026.
Be on the lookout for next year. Okay. All right. Well, thank you, Maya, for chopping it up with me.
[00:31:02] Speaker B: Thank you so much.
[00:31:02] Speaker A: Thank you for Hip Hop Nation as well. It's Maya, effective immediately.
