My name is V Bozeman and I blew a little bag.
♪♪
Probably know me from Empire.
That young lady that sang on the first episode.
"Until the End of Time" Timothy Boom. We were naked, twirling
we got all that black love.
I worked from Home Depot. I worked at Joe's Crab Shack.
Now that was the very last job I ever had.
>> I was in Atlanta in Alpharetta Georgia.
Welcome in all types of interesting customers
and I hated it. I was miserable.
So that was the last job I had
until Babyface got wind of our group
and he was my saving grace. Lord have mercy.
He was the saving grace from Joe's Crab Shack.
And really I really felt like I should've walked out of there
when Whitney Houston came to
Joe's Crab Shack but I didn't know if she saw me.
I didn't know. I'm like I've gotta get out of here like this
is like like my fairy godmother
than she doesn't even know it like this is like the reason
why I sing like she comes in and Joe's Crab Shack.
She's with Bobbi Kristina.
Bless our soul, both of their souls
and I'm just like Oh my God.
And the whole time I'm looking at Whitney
like I'm a stalker. I went to the back
and I just didn't let her see me the whole time
I just wanted to say hi but I'm just like
I can't she can't see me and Joe's Crab Shack gear.
The group I was in, it was called Mahogany.
I'm just gonna give you the name.
Lord have mercy. So we perform for Babyface
and we we knock it out the park, wooty woot woot.
And I'm like "man is he going to call?
What's gonna happen?"
So he calls basically that day was I like
I'm going to sign y'all.
That group was a total nightmare.
It was a huge life lesson.
You know Babyface he took a chance on us.
So we go into L.A. Reid's office and we're like
OK we're about to get our deal
The other girls,
they climb up on L.A. Reid's desk
and start gyrating and gyrating and doing all types of thangs
and kicking his kids pictures
and the frames and messing up his beautiful wood table
and scratching up and heels coming off
and it was just mayhem.
Nobody told anyone to climb on the desk.
See that's what happens when you're in a girl group
and people don't know their positions.
They try to outdo each other and that's what happened.
You have every executive
that was in that Sony building just looking mortified.
And trust me I was mortified.
So at the end of our performance
L.A. Reid is like "Oh okay, oh right."
And then we're just like "Thank you. Thank you."
It was it was like the worst moment of my life
for how I felt in that moment. I was like my career is over.
I was like What 19 or 20, I don't know.
Yeah. We didn't get the call back from L.A. Reid
I never talked to Babyface again
probably four or five years later.
Talk to him for the first time.
I mean it was it was horrible.
This is something that you know
will stay in at office to the end of time.
You know what's so funny because when I first
got my very first big big check
it was from I got all my biggest bags from Sylvia Rhone.
Let me tell you what I did when
I first got that check from Sylvia Rhone.
I would just tell you guys I got no shame, I was young.
I got that check
and I'm like Sylvia where I'm a cash this check.
I mean I call Sylvia at work while she was
doing what she was doing
"I'm mean where am I going to cash this check?"
she was all like "V you could cash it anywhere
like you know just..."
I don't know what she told me
but I know I was probably bugging her.
But that's how young I was like
I didn't even know where to cash his big old cheque.
I bought clothes, paid a couple of bills you know
I did what a normal artist would do that's out here struggling
and really don't have that much guidance would do.
So when I signed with Timberland
everything was amazing the music I was in a good place.
We were vibing
and he was like Let me hear your stuff
like what you got going on what you got going.
I had a lot of material but it was one.
Piece of material that was really supposed to let him see
but I was like not gonna let Timbo see this.
As soon as he saw it
he was like "damn I didn't know you could act too."
He was like oh shoot this over to Lee Daniels.
Lee Daniels saw it and he called my manager,
Monica Payne,
He called her right away and the rest was history.
I was written into Empire.
The most irresponsible purchase
I ever made was loaning money to somebody
that wasn't going to give it back.
That's the most irresponsible thing
that I ever did. It wasn't so much a purchase,
it was loaning money to somebody you know damn well ain't
gonna give you your money back.
My first big check
I was petrified mortified to spend the damn
money because I had never seen so much money.
I'm a girl from South Central L.A.
I'm a singer. I mean you know I get money here
and there but to get like this amount of money
I got it was kinda like extrafied alien to me.
To be honest I really got a place of my own to stay.
That's where I spent most of my bag.
I got a nice place to stay and you know
I fixed up my home very nicely and you know
I was just comfortable in that
I wasn't out here going on Rodeo Drive
you know buying Lamborghinis
and you know Mercedes I wasn't doing all of that.
You know I'm saying you got an image to uphold
and then you want to make sure you lookin' fly, period .
When I got over the the shopping sprees
and all of that I really was focused on making sure
that I am reinvested in myself as far as my music
as far as my creative process. So yeah I blew the bag on myself
and I definitely don't regret it.
Like the biggest thing I blew my bag on
was when I got my place.
It was a really amazing place and I just decked it out.
I laced it.
It's about to be a whole reinvention going on
with V. Bozeman and I'm very excited.
Working on my album right now.
♪♪
I'm working hard for that bag.
So, I'm V. Bozeman and I blew a bag, before ok?
More bags to be gotten, more bags to be gotten.
With some luck you'll have a chance to win a bag
by entering the Blew a Bag 4K sweepstakes.
With some discipline, Maybe you won't blow it.
Just click the link in the video description
to be redirected to the sweepstakes for your chance
to win four thousand dollars.
But I hope you paid attention because to enter you have
to answer a trivia question about the new episode
you'll get to choose five numbers between 1 and 25.
If your five numbers match the five winning numbers
drawn next Wednesday at 2:00 p.m., eastern time,
via BET Instagram Stories
then you'll win the jackpot of four thousand dollars.