- I'm the kind of person that will open up
like 20 different projects.
- Mhm.
- My mind is going before I even wake up.
So by the time I wake up, I'm already like,
boom, boom boom.
You know what I'm saying?
Like my mind is always going.
So really I, I go, I follow my dreams.
Literally.
(upbeat music)
- Song writer, actress, director, choreographer,
dancer, TV, star, model.
Miss Teyana Taylor.
(cigar burning)
(wind blowing)
(water falling)
Welcome to fellowship by way of Sip n Smoke.
How you doing today, sweetie?
- I'm good, how are you?
- I'm doing good.
So as we do, we got your tequila on hand.
I am drinking wine.
And I'm not sure if you're a cigar smoker,
but I have a cigar for you.
- All right, let me take my jacket off.
- You're getting comfortable.
- You guys, like acohol and cigars,
I don't even smoke,
but cigars seem grown and sexy.
- It is. That you are, that you represent.
So, I'm going to clip that side.
There you go. Boom.
- All right, all right.
- Now, formally get this show started.
Fumble.
There you go.
Look at you.
You better gone now.
Look at you acting like you know what you're doing.
- You know, you know, I got to feel grown.
- You got your drink right there.
- This spot feel real grown, you know?
- It is.
We got your drink right there.
My drink is right here
and we cannot start things off until we make a toast.
So I'll allow you to do that.
So we toasting to?
- Everything.
- Being grown, you know?
And that's important. Cigars.
- We're going with your bad self.
(Teyana laughing)
- When I was doing my research on you
and knowing where we are as a society right now
with social media being so prominent,
how are you able to still have a relationship
in this day and age?
Like what's the secret?
- Managing it.
You know what I'm saying?
I think that when you love someone,
it's really like, when you're actually human
and you're not doing it for social media
or for what people think,
you live that, you know?
No social media can get in the way of that.
You know what I'm saying?
And we have two beautiful kids,
you know, kids to raise.
He's doing his thing, I'm doing my thing.
You know what I'm saying?
So I think there's a perfect balance.
You don't get to see each other much,
so it's like, when we do see each other,
it's just always.
- Yeah, that black love.
But nowadays you see a lot of people,
it's a gift and a curse.
Like obviously you get a lot of attention,
undue attention, some more publicized attention.
- You get the rumors, you fake rumors,
you get all types of stuff.
To the point where it's almost like literally,
what the unfortunate part is about it
is like when people see that you growing
and you glowing together, it's like, oh perfect.
I'm miserable, so how do I make everybody else
miserable with me?
So let me go and just start some shit just because,
you know what I'm saying?
Because they glowing or, you know, whatever it is.
- Mhm.
- So I think it got to the point
where we kind of got used to it.
You know what I'm saying?
And at this point, we don't even bother trying
to clear anything up,
trying to argue with anybody about it.
It's just like, at news day,
it's unfortunate that a lie is more true than the truth.
- This is why I commend you guys
because y'all still are able
to keep this cultural swagish dynamic.
What's the key to keeping it private too?
You know what I'm saying?
Because a relationship is just like anything else.
- Real shit.
- You know, you gotta keep that, that, that,
that, that flame lit.
- Right.
- You know what I'm saying?
And just because you're in a relationship
with a person whether you're a boyfriend,
girlfriend, husband wife, whatever,
homeboy, homegirl, whatever.
If you don't keep watering that plant
and watering that seed, it's just going to die.
- Yeah,
- So how you do that?
- My husband just got picked up by the Brooklyn Net.
So before he got picked up, he was just,
you know, working out while he was a free agent.
So we had a lot of time to spend with one another
and we're building a compound out here.
So, we've been building that and yeah.
(indistinct), building compound,
you know, I have an all-female production company.
- Mm.
- And we're building a production studio out here, so.
- So when you got two different beings, right?
And both of y'all got your own way
of creative, you know, frequency.
- Mm.
- How do you use him to draw inspiration
as well as how does he use you?
- I mean, you know, with both of us being
in music, you know, and fashion,
cause he loves to get dressed.
Like, we're literally almost the same person.
- Yeah.
- You know, he even writes for me,
he wrote on my album, this last album, I just dropped.
He wrote actually on all three of my albums.
So like we really not only just inspired
by one another but we really include each other
in different things.
Like when I'd be in practice,
I'd be like you ain't going to make it.
What you going to do?
You know what I'm saying?
So we really are each other's cheerleaders
that want the best for one another.
That's another good piece of advice.
Be your partner's partner for real.
- Yeah.
- You feel what I'm saying and hear one another
and listen to one another. You know?
And really see one another.
(upbeat music)
- So I want to ask you this,
like this whole ensemble that you got going on.
- This is kind of like a little lazy fit today.
- But you super fly though.
And it's looking so effortless.
- Yeah. I try not to think about it.
I don't think about it.
- But let me say this too.
Let me give the viewer some real insight.
You popped up in here on some,
Oh, I'm with my my game and with my game is my family.
- Mhm.
- Right? You have both daughters.
They're gorgeous.
We already made that patent, so.
(Teyana laughing)
Come on, like we already done sign this deal.
You know what I'm saying?
But at the same time you came
in here looking so comfortable,
so swaggy, so fashionable.
- Thank you.
- Like, where we at with that?
- Well, right now I'm creative director of PLT.
Pretty Little Things.
It's a clothing line.
- Mhm.
- That they just named me creative director for.
So I'll be designing a few lines with them.
When I'm not designing a few lines with them,
I'll be directing all of their content.
- Mm.
- And creative directing all of their content.
So I'm super excited about that.
And I'm actually working on putting together
my own men's line.
Because I do like to be comfortable,
and I do love men's wear.
- Do you wear men's clothing?
- Yes, that's all I wear.
- Really?
This, so this dude stuff.
- Yeah, this is all, this is dude stuff.
This is actually my homeboy Darrell Brown.
This is one like Army Navy store.
That's the only place I really shop.
It's like Army and Navy stores.
Cause they got all the shit.
- They got all the gems.
- All the shit.
Like my new year's resolution was not
to buy high fashion this year.
- Iman said the same thing.
He's done with the high fashion.
- It's, it's, it's, it's, it's ridiculous
what goes into the money.
Like, it's just like, damn bro.
Like I spent thousands of dollars
on something that I'm only gonna wear once
but the people who are making the high fashion
draw inspiration from thrift stores.
- Mhm.
- You know, the, the, the.
- Army and Navy.
- All those different spaces. You know what I'm saying?
- Yeah. And that's what they're doing.
They're going to the Army and Navy store
and they're picking this up and saying,
okay, cool, I'm gonna throw my logo on here.
And then it will be $1,300
when I probably got these for like $35.
- Where does Teyana go to be like,
man, I got to do this, I got to do that.
This is how I want to do it from,
you know, the upholstery to anything else.
Like where do you draw that inspiration from?
- Honestly, I watch a lot of movies,
like vintage films. You know what I'm saying?
Like, even my music, like I'm literally,
I was that kid that was too grown,
but in a good way, I wasn't fresh,
but I was, I was too grown.
Everybody was over there listening to whatever.
I was over here listening to Nina Baker, Tina Marie.
- Yeah.
- Always, you know what I'm saying?
Or just the vintage films and movies
and different things like that.
So I've always been in love with those kinds of things.
So like the way my house is is very like this,
you know?
I call it the Beauty and the Beast
Because she was on the ladder
and she was swinging back and forth.
And I told myself I wanted floor to ceiling bookshelf.
- Mhm.
- You know what I'm saying?
It's like little small shit that's just like.
- It's dope.
So I'll be remiss if I didn't get to this point.
And before we get to the nightcap question,
you recently retired.
- Mhm.
- And you said you didn't feel appreciated.
- Mhm.
- And this is your opportunity to clear the air
from a person who, like, I want to know.
We want to know. We want like blood.
Like, give us the tea, sis.
(Teyana laughing)
You know what I'm saying?
- I'll give you the tequila.
- Swag,
- No, I think what that was is
at the end of the day I'm a mom first.
- Mhm.
You know? A mom, a wife, a woman.
- Yes.
- And I think for me, I put in a lot of work.
- Mhm.
- I worked very, very hard.
So if you feel unheard and unseen,
with like how I said earlier with my husband,
he sees me, he hear me.
I take that shit serious with everything that I do.
- Correct.
- So if you're my husband or I'm assigned to do that,
everybody that I'm aligned with should see me.
- Right.
- They should hear me.
They should feel me.
- Mhm.
- And if you don't see me, hear me or feel me,
it's a dub for you. You know what I'm saying?
- Dub, that's that lingo.
- It's a dub, you know?
And I felt like, you know,
the label wasn't really hearing me and seeing me.
I felt under appreciated. You know?
So I'm like for my mental health,
my mental wellbeing in the state, you know,
strong for my kids, like,
let me just put this on ice for a little bit.
It's not that I retired permanently,
it's more like, you know, I just don't feel
like I want to move another inch for a company.
- That ain't pulling in your same direction.
- That's what I'm saying.
(upbeat music)
- Super talented.
I mean, you got wife, actress, songwriter,
dancer, choreographer, model, director,
mom, the list goes on.
But how do you compartmentalize
and still have this creative
kind of mental through it all.
And where do you draw,
Like, what do you say is next?
Like what do you say, okay,
I got all these different pieces.
How do you draw inspiration?
And what do you decide you do next?
- Oh, I dunno.
I mean, that's a pretty tough question
because I am the kind of person,
I ain't going to front.
I'm the kind of person that will open up
like 20 different projects.
- Mhm.
- Like I like to rip and run.
Like my mind is gone before I even wake up.
So by the time I wake up,
I'm already like boom, boom, boom, boom,
boom, boom, boom, boom.
You know what I'm saying?
Like my mind is always going.
So really I go, I follow my dreams.
Literally. Not like on no cliche shit, like.
If I dream about it and I'm thinking about it,
and it's about 8:00 AM and my eyes are still closed,
I'm still in bed,
I'm already dreaming about what I want
to do for the day.
- Mhm.
- Or you know how I want things to run,
or how I want things to be.
Like, it's really strange that I work like that,
but that's just how I work.
So if I get up and I want to do it,
and I dreamt about it, I'm going to do it.
- Well, how do you, so when you do that,
you're all over the place when
you say 20 different things.
- Yeah.
- How do you finger point and just say,
okay this is what I'm doing.
How does something get your undivided attention?
- Oh, how does someone get my undivided attention?
And by my mom, my mom's a manager as well.
She's like Teyana, sat down.
Here's the list of things that we have to do today,
because honestly it's not like,
that's why it's so hard to answer the question
because it's really not a thing where I'm like,
this is what I'm going to do.
It's like, okay, from three to four
I need to go and finish designing this.
From four to five, I need to blah, blah, blah, blah.
Or from four to four 30,
I need time to travel so I can make it here.
- Mhm.
- Like I'm here today.
And then tomorrow I wake up
and I got to go to The Bahamas.
- Yeah.
- You know what I'm saying?
Because I have to do work there
and then I have to get back and design someone's home.
And then after that I have to finish designing my own.
You know what I'm saying?
So it was literally.
- Shit don't stop.
- It don't stop.
(upbeat music)
- Let's get to the nightcap question.
And we always use the same question
and I want you, Miss Teyana Taylor,
to answer this question.
What's now, and what's next for Teyana Taylor?
And is there anything that you would like
to do that you haven't done yet?
- Mm.
What haven't I done? No, I'm playing.
What's happening now is my five acre compound,
which will feature 360 green screens,
dance studios, recording studios.
- Yeah.
- Prop house, literally everything
you can possibly think of.
So it was like my little mini mini mini
mini mini little light time,
Tyler Perry kind of studios.
But it's on a way smaller scale,
but it's somewhere, I'm starting somewhere.
- Girl, you better publish.
- You know?
Cause I'm gonna get to that 300 acres real soon.
Real soon, you know, I'm claiming it.
But that's the goal, you know,
he's one of my biggest inspiration.
So that's my goal to do it for just creatives.
We're going to create a,
like a little university as well.
So what I envision is kind of like,
of course you've seen X-Men.
So it's like a little, whole little school,
university for creatives.
Cause you have a lot of creatives
that are so creative but may not have anywhere to live.
The parents feel like that's not
what's gonna make money.
That's not gonna bring money home.
So it was like, you gotta go somewhere else
with your dream, blah, blah, blah, blah.
But we want to create a space where people can come
and create and shelter's provided
and you literally can just come
and create for however long,
we'll be open 24 hours.
- Mm.
- And we'll just be, you know, getting to work.
We got camera equipment, we got everything,
you can make movies, videos, all that.
- Everything.
- You know. So it's coming up.
- All that.
- All right, listen here, man.
The beautiful Teyana Taylor, thank you.
- Thank you.
- For blessing, you know, Sip n Smoke
with your presence,
fellowship with your presence.
You came, you saw, and you definitely conquered.
You impacted so many viewers that's going to look at this.
Man and I'm signing off.
One finger, one pinky, one thumb, one love.
Thank you.
Sip a smoke, we out of here.
(upbeat music)
- I remember you.
I remember seeing an interview
where you talked about it, but it wasn't open yet.
I never even knew like if it opened.
- That with the big (indistinct).
We'll keep it open for you.
Not for everybody else though.
(upbeat music)