- If I was a terrible rapper, would you still be with me?
Say no, say no, say no.
Please say no, because I'm not.
So we safe but then now this is a thing--
- If you were who you are as a human being
and you couldn't rap, I would just tell you
let's do something else.
- There we go. - You know?
- Hey, I love you, but here's the honesty.
- Yes. - All right, fasho.
How did we meet?
What happened?
I want to hear your version.
- No, I think, but your version's way better though.
- My version, all right, my version.
We was in a studio--
- Cause you make it so much more interesting.
- We was in a studio and the homie,
you know homie Phonics was like, "This song is Rapture
so it's a woman's appreciation song,"
and the homie was like, "I think this song could use
some violins, some live violins though,"
and then he just started bragging about you.
I was like, "Oh, she sounds awesome.
You know what I'm saying?"
He was like, "Man, she plays violin,
she speaks another language,"
and so, he called and then you showed up
you know, and that was the first time we met.
Nothing happened, didn't nobody get at nobody.
I didn't spit game, but yeah, we met then
and then we stayed in touch.
- But then after that you had me come and be in the video
and then that's how we saw each other again.
- There we go.
- And then after that we met again.
- And then one time, I was like, "Man, you know what?
If we going to keep seeing each other's face,
we should have some food," you know what I'm saying?
And then after lunch, we hung out some more until
it was about dinner time and then it was like,
"Wait, we hungry again, are we still together?"
And then it was just that non-stop conversation
and that's really like,
"You want to turn this into Netflix and Chill," you feel me?
And you was like, "Sure."
I was like, "Oh, I'm kissing you tonight, you feel me?
You're going to get kissed tonight," but nah that shit was,
that was a good time.
It was one of those experiences where you,
I can speak for myself, I knew exactly what it was.
You know what I'm saying, I knew what it was.
I respected it, but at the same time,
I wasn't going to like be too tentative,
too respectful that I didn't like make no move.
'Cause once you said you want it to watch a movie at
(mumbles) AM, you know what I'm saying?
I was like, "Oh, she like me," you feel me?
So hey, - that's the truth.
But what you guys don't know,
is that she speaks Spanish too.
yes
- And that's cool.
They're going to put subtitles on this part
Sure, but I'm not Hispanic, that's one thing.
- Oh, you had to say that because--
- I had to say that. - Because people going to be
like I knew she was Dominican! (laughter)
- No, I am Haitian.
- Haitian, you close to a lot of Latinos.
- Haitian and Jamaican.
Teaching Creole - Okay so, Creole.
- Creole. - Creole.
Creole Haitian.
- Yes.
- So, all right, so what'd you teach me?
I know 'mwen grangou', I'm hungry.
'ki jan ou ye'
'mwen'
Me.
'Oui' Yes.
'mwen renmen ou' I love you.
'mwen renmen ou'
Yup, I love you.
What's your favorite,
what's your favorite thing that we've watched on Netflix?
- Oh, I liked when we watched Major Payne,
I like we watched, we watched literally all three seasons
of Atypical, that was a long--
- Talladega Nights - Talladega Nights!
- That was my favorite.
Really Love. - Really Love
- Really Love was really good.
- [Both] That was good.
- I liked the art of it because I like the storyline
of how he was an artist and she, you know,
was a lawyer and they both like, you know,
they had different lives,
but they both had dreams and they both, you know,
like were at the peak of like, okay, she's like,
"All right, I'm finally getting a job here."
He's like, "I'm finally getting my own show here
and I'm getting..." you know, but like--
- They couldn't figure out how to do it.
- They couldn't figure out how to do it together!
And I was just like dang, y'all could be together,
just talk about it-
- I mean, it would for sure change things for somebody
in there though, you know?
And because I compare it to like The Alchemists, right?
My favorite book.
He meets the person he's supposed to be with
at a time where it's not convenient.
You know, so then they come back together,
but I think it was just tough to see people not communicate,
you know, two passive-aggressive people.
So that part of it was tough, but you got to ask yourself
is the film really doing it's job if it's making you feel?
If we didn't feel nothing, then it would have failed,
but we both over there, you feeling one way,
I'm feeling another way and at the end of it,
it lived with you afterwards like
"Dang, that was its own body of work.
That was something."
- Yeah, it was it's own body of art.
- You're fearless and that's beautiful.
Like you're not from no gangster ass place,
but you fearless, like you like,
"All right, sure. I'm stepping up,"
just like when he said old boy was following you
to your car, what'd you turn around and say?
Hey homie, what'd you say to him?
- Oh my god! - What'd you say to him?
- I said, "Yo, you good?"
But I was like really serious and like--
- Aye, you good?
You was like, "You're not going to chase me,
we going to either stand there and fight it out
or you know," and half the time, that's like life!
If you meet a challenge head on, you know what I'm saying?
It'll usually back up, but if you fear from it,
it'll continue to pursue you like a predator kind of thing.
But how do you feel about being a newlywed?
You married to Daniel.
- Before we were already close, but I feel like
after we got married, it was a whole nother level
of closeness, if that makes sense.
I just feel like we just became...
It just felt like we literally became one.
It just feels divine, for sure.
It feels divine, it feels right.
It just feels like we're going in this intentionally
like okay, this is what we're doing.
We're family and now we're going to build a family.
- It's like joining a gang. (both chuckle)
Because before the gang, you yourself, right?
You yourself and you have a sense of identity,
but when you join a gang, it's like
now that becomes a part of your identity.
Like you're not just you, you that dude from this place.
So, I'm not just me no more.
I'm D Smoke from Westside Angelina gangster,
you know what I'm saying?
- I think Stevie is a beautiful character because
she was able to talk about her dreams
and what mattered to her, but then she also
had this thing of where us women can relate to,
of being in love and then contemplating
"Okay, do I stay here for the love of my life
or do I go to this law firm that I've been dreaming of?"
And I think that we all have been there, especially as women
it's like "Oh my gosh, I have a good thing
and I don't know what I'm going to do."
And I think that Stevie, for her, she felt like
he wasn't there the moments that she needed him.
And so, she felt like I need to make this decision
for the best, for my heart, to guard my heart.
And I think that's what we do as women
when we see a good thing and we feel like
it's not for certain, we go with what we think is best.
Those feelings never left
because although it may seem like she has somebody else,
she literally lit up when she saw Isaiah, you know, so.
- In front of the dude. - In front of the guy, yeah!
- "Oh, this is, um, what's your name again?"
- Stevie.
- Isaiah.
- How you doing?
- I'm good, yeah!
How are you?
- Can't complain.
- Well.
- Hi.
I'm Ahmad.
- Ahmad, this is Isaiah Maxwell, one of the artists.
- Oh, excellent. - Nice to meet you.
- Hey, congratulations.
- Thank you.
- So, I just think Stevie was just in that place of like,
love, but fear, but love, and just going back and forth
with that-- - I know if an old ex ever
walked up to us and y'all have a look like that,
I'm just firing on him, just taking off.
If you just look like, "Oh, it's good to see you too!
This is um, uh, D."
Nah, I'm firing off, taking off.
Taking his head off.
If there was a leader of the relationship, it was Stevie,
you know. - I do agree.
- Isaiah was brilliant, he's a brilliant character.
His paintings were not only skillful,
but that was his voice.
He was like, he didn't have long-winded lines
throughout the movie, he asked a lot of questions to her
and let her lead the conversation.
They had some silence between them.
- Yeah, he was dealing with the dilemma of
not being able to provide for Stevie.
- Yeah, oh absolutely. - Because he didn't have
money at the time and he felt like he couldn't
be a provider for her.
- And Stevie was a rider for--
- But Stevie was a rider for it
and I don't know if he saw that completely.
- There's this thing inside of men that's like,
and I don't speak for all men,
but I speak for a particular type and,
you know, there's plenty of us this way,
desire to fulfill our purpose here.
And a part of that, a primary goal is to fulfill our purpose
on earth and a part of that is building a legacy of family.
You know, for a woman, a lot of times,
love is the main thing and then under that, she's like,
"And I want these, these, these," right?
So she's saying she's willing to give up her dreams.
He's like, "I'd never asked you to,"
because from his perspective, he'd never do that
because the primary thing as a man is to be like,
"I can't look at you, I can't rely on you long term.
I won't respect myself and then I began to resent you
for depriving me the opportunity to prove something
to myself, to prove that I can pursue my dreams
until something comes of it."
I really like, there's something about the scene
that stuck out to me is when they were walking.
And it was a lot of silence in that conversation,
a lot of dead space.
And it was a really long shot with them
coming down the street, but it felt like a real,
kind of chill conversation.
And once I realized how intentional
and how long that shot was, I really,
I just felt a whole lot of respect
for the people who made the movie.
I was like, "Damn, that's beautiful."
It just felt beautiful to see somebody walk that long.
You knew there were no cuts in that whole shot,
so you really get to watch these people
and it felt vulnerable, it felt really real,
like a love growth moment, you know what I'm saying?
So, I remember that, I just, it was just every time
those horns came in and they just played these beautiful
long arrangements, they came in like harmonies and chords
and it was just, that was beautiful to me.
So yeah, what about you?
What was your favorite part of the movie?
- My favorite part of the movie was
when they finally had a conversation like,
and they finally broke and she was like,
"If you told me to stay, I would have."
That was my favorite part because I'm like, "There it is!"
- We just had an amazing night together,
you just gonna leave like that?
Tell me you don’t still feel something.
- Of course I still feel something.
- Okay then what's the problem?
- If you had asked me to stay, I never would have left!
- Stay, I want you to stay.
- You support me a lot, like when I'm trying to send out
arrangements, violin arrangements and stuff,
you record me and not only record me,
but also input in the arrangement, yeah,
and we both work together on that.
Like we both like, "All right, you should add this part
in it and you should add this part in it--"
- That's like our special sauce.
- Yeah, and we both just put it together
and it's really cool!
It's, of course, love, but it's also because
we like each other, we like to do music together.
We like to hang out and just be besties
and just be like, "Okay cool, we're going to try this part.
We're going to try this part,"
and you're on the piano and we literally just sit on
the piano for like 30 minutes, just singing, runs--
- And we don't over do it.
- And just making and recording like, "This sounded good,"
and it just becomes into a song
and we're like, "This is cool how that happened."
- I enjoy us creating together
and then I also know how to respect your own hustle
as a writer, as a artist, you know what I'm saying?
As a violinist.
I can cheer, I can just put my little things to the side
and show up and stand on the side
and pull my phone out and look like the proud hubby,
you know what I'm saying, and just film it.
And that's, you know, that's key,
and you for sure do the same, like.
- Mhm.
You literally are so attentive to me more than anybody
I've ever known, like you literally like...
The way that you check in with me,
it's not even just a "How you doing,"
it's like you look me in my eye,
you're always just like, you know.
- I can see it. - You always, yeah,
you look me in my eye and you're like,
"I'm checking in with you," and it's like,
you always want to have a real moment with me
before we go out into the world,
before we talk to other people, before we,
when we're in the car on the way to other events,
having to hug and kiss, family or people,
it's like you always find importance of us
paying attention to each other
and checking in with each other and just tapping in
and I think that's so beautiful
and I think because we have such great communication too,
that's what makes us gel so well.
- We different in the right ways.
You're not from no gangster place, but you got all the heart
in the world, you know what I'm saying?
And I'm from Inglewood, but at the same time,
I know how and when to be real sensitive to you,
you know what I'm saying?
- You do.
- And I know how to push you to be a gangster, girl, so.
- It's cool that now we're in this marriage,
it's like you're able to be that full self of you
and me too and that's the best thing.
- I'm looking forward to children, of course.
Looking forward to having kids.
Four, five, six, seven kids, something.
You know what I'm saying, you ready--
- Seven?
- Seven for the hood,
you know what I'm saying?
No, I'm kidding.
- We said four. - Four.
- It's still a lot, but I think we can do it.
- You can do it,
I, for sure, could do it!
But no, it's all about building.
So, I'm excited about building, I'm excited about growing.
- We could do our...
- I love you. - I love you, baby.
(laughter) - She's committed to it.
I love you too, baby!