(upbeat hip hop music)
- Hey, happy Saturday!
I'm Jamila Mustafa, and welcome to Fresh Out Live,
your destination for new music, pop culture news
and your favorite artists, all in one place.
Now, today we have singer, dancer, actress, director
and Harlem's finest, Teyana Taylor coming through.
But first, I wanna get you guys up to speed
on the latest in music news that happened this week.
Looks like G-Eazy is back, but this time
with the vocals, as he showcases his range
in his brand new song, "Nostalgia Cycle".
This single is the perfect lead-up for his brand new album
"Everything's Strange Here" which dropped yesterday.
Cheat Codes has released their new song, "Heaven"
and it's sure to be a divine summer smash.
If you're hungry for new music
then Dominic Fike dropped his new song, "Chicken Tenders".
Blackpink is finally making a comeback.
The K-pop superstars have released their
long-anticipated single and music video
for "How You Like That" and trust me, I like it a lot.
Lauv released a music video
for his song "Dishes" on Wednesday.
Now, the song is one of four new tracks
from his latest EP "Without You"
where he's exploring emotion behind isolations,
relationship, reflection and much more.
Check it out.
♪ Dishes in the kitchen ♪
♪ And dancing in the rain ♪
♪ You're singing in the shower ♪
♪ Your hair stuck in the drain ♪
♪ A party on the weekend ♪
♪ And everyone is here ♪
♪ And it feels so weird without you ♪
♪ Without you without you without you without you ♪
♪ Without you without you without you ♪
- Now if you slept on the star power of our next guest,
(snaps) you better wake up and apologize.
Because her new project "The Album"
is nothing short of spectacular.
Welcome to Fresh Out Live, Teyana Taylor.
- How you doing darlin'?
- I'm doing great, listen,
you look quarantine cozy right now.
- I am, I'm in the bed right now.
- As you should be, how has quarantine been treating you?
- I mean, quarantine has been great.
I think quarantine has worked up a bulk of the album.
And quarantine really gave me time
to actually sit down, clear my mind, reset myself,
and really just dive in and kinda,
not to make it sound selfish, but kinda like
put me first, in the sense of just like,
I know me, I wanna make everybody happy.
And it's just like, well are you happy?
Are you good, are you okay, you know?
So it was time for me to, okay cool, let me focus on this.
Like even when I was moving around it was a lot of like,
Teyana, hop on this record for me,
do this feature for me, da, da, da, da.
I'm like, bro I'm in the studio
trying to work on my own stuff,
but I can't get my own stuff done
if I'm trying to knock out everybody else,
'cause they're talking about they need the verse back.
And it's just not giving that, you know?
So the moment I really started to like put myself first
and really dive in for my album, I was able to lock in,
and quarantine was really perfect for that.
- I have to just kinda expand the conversation,
and talk about the actual album part, right?
What's the vision behind the artwork?
- I mean, well I love Grace Jones.
She's another inspiration of mine
because of, she made me like not be afraid
to embrace my strong features.
You know, my deep voice, my masculine
and feminine side, you know what I'm saying?
She is just overall like goals
in what a strong woman should be, you know?
But even to dig in a little deeper,
it was more a lot more homage
to just our culture and our roots.
If you noticed, besides just the album cover,
just a lot of the artwork for the album
with my clay dreads is really toward our deeper roots.
Even a little piece of my husband.
I met him with a hi-top fade, you know what I'm saying?
- (laughs) What?
- And he's also an inspiration of mine.
You know what I'm saying?
A lot of people don't know that, you know?
So definitely, like I love Grace down,
but she played a big part,
my husband played a big part in that,
our culture, our people played a big part in that, you know?
And I kinda wanted that,
it to feel like it got straight to the point
the same way the title got straight to the point,
"The Album" the black woman, the power,
the strength, the mom, the superwoman,
you feel what I'm saying?
Like it was very straight to the point for me.
- How were you able to connect personally
with Missy, with Lauryn and with the other
immaculate artists that you had on this album?
- I mean, these are also people
that really, really inspire me too.
And I think because I've always been
super respectful and loving
toward the people that I look up to,
I think it's one of them things
that just didn't go unnoticed, you know?
And it's really dope to be able to
not let anybody get in your ear
or make you feel like, aw she's stuck in here,
she's stuck in the era, she's stuck in the '90s
and blah blah blah, and it's just like,
you just never know who's watching.
And those people appreciate that
because they really set the tone.
- One feature that I don't know how you booked this person,
I don't know what the rate was,
but baby Junie, how'd you get baby Junie?
- Yo, you know what's crazy,
I was telling that to a lot of people.
I'm like you know, 'cause everybody
was like they want a video for "Come Back To Me"
and I'm like, first and foremost,
I gotsta holla at Junie's management.
It already took me a long time to get her on the song,
let alone try to get the video with it.
You know, that in itself
was a whole different rate, you know?
I mean, that probably was the most difficult feature
for me to get because Junie, she had a lot of people.
They was kinda giving me the run around.
But I was able to finally get it.
- Hopefully this is a Grammy wining song.
- You know, you know.
- You've been in the director's chair a lot lately.
And your fans have really got a chance
to see your vision through those lenses.
Tell us about your
production company, The Aunties Productions.
- I wanted to be able to tell my truth, you know,
and my story without anybody else controlling
my narrative or my truth or my story, I felt like.
What I've done a lot in this industry,
with this album and this project,
instead of playing the blame game and being bitter
or being upset at others, I've learned
to work on where I can be better, you know?
And I feel like growing up, at a young age
and not really knowing the industry,
like you let a lot of people come in
and kina control your narrative
and control your story, tell you what to say,
tell you how you should do it.
And as I got older I started to learn like, no,
I need to stand for what I believe in.
I always stand for what I believe in.
And I have to learn to be unapologetic about it.
I don't care how old I am.
- This album is immaculate, thank you--
- Thank you. - For staying the course.
Thank you for believing in yourself.
And thank you for giving us
some dope music during quarantine.
- (laughs) Thank you.
- Thanks Teyana for stopping by.
And you guys can check out her new project "The Album"
right now, trust me, it is good.
- I'm Jamila Mustafa, and this is Fresh Out Live.
Until next time, peace.
(upbeat hip hop music)