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SiriusXM Host Bevy Smith Talks New Book ‘Bevelations’, Jay-Z, Lori Harvey, Michael B. Jordan & more
Jan 13, 2021
Bevy Smith has just dropped her new book ‘Bevelations’ and called in to Sway In the Morning to talk about it.
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SiriusXM Host Bevy Smith Talks New Book ‘Bevelations’, Jay-Z, Lori Harvey, Michael B. Jordan & more https://youtu.be/GxgkRxw7f3s
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0:09
all right
0:09
i can't even look up and see the bottom
0:11
of her feet that's how high i put her on
0:13
the pedestal
0:14
ladies and gentlemen this is family this
0:17
is uh an award-winning radio host
0:21
she's a fashion culture official model
0:25
a television personality a businesswoman
0:29
a heavily desired woman by men and women
0:32
they all want to be around her
0:33
come on but one of the things i love
0:36
about her she has been
0:38
constant since the first day i met her
0:41
i could close my eyes and sleep if she
0:44
stood next to me the entire time without
0:47
one worry
0:48
in the world and if we could have had
0:51
her life on social media in the 90s
0:54
there would have been a slew of movies
0:56
made about simply her and her nightlife
0:58
the one and only bethany smith
1:00
[Applause]
1:02
hey baby smith
1:06
what up
1:14
about my book like this is a big deal
1:17
yes it is
1:18
it's a big deal now um hb isn't here
1:20
with us this week she took a few days
1:21
off so it's
1:23
tracy yeah you know you how you scorpios
1:26
do when y'all want to take off y'all
1:28
just go and take off
1:31
respect our priorities absolutely
1:35
now let's talk man let's talk the book
1:37
is called revelations lessons from a
1:40
mother
1:40
auntie bestie and you can find
1:43
revelations on randy
1:45
excuse me radio andy on channel 102. um
1:48
one of the first things i want to start
1:50
with
1:52
is it actually has nothing to do with
1:55
the book i wanted to get your opinion on
1:57
something real quick now that i think
1:58
about it you'll be the perfect person to
2:00
ask about
2:01
uh what recently happened with the cover
2:03
of vogue magazine
2:04
and vice president-elect uh uh kamala
2:07
harris um
2:08
and the mistake that was made one of the
2:11
things
2:11
tracy broke down the story how they
2:13
posted the wrong picture and they put
2:14
her
2:15
in chucks and kind of i don't know
2:18
downplayed the glamour
2:19
a lot of folks was upset about it it
2:20
wasn't the picture they agreed on
2:22
what do you think about them is it a
2:24
mistake that vogue made or is that well
2:26
within their rights i heard they talked
2:28
to her about the picture agreed to it
2:30
but didn't post the picture she wanted
2:33
now wait i didn't hear that that must be
2:35
breaking news i mean the date
2:37
the book launched today so i have not
2:39
been on anything
2:40
but to my knowledge it wasn't
2:44
it was very much a thought out thing
2:46
where it was like you know
2:48
kamala harris is a very relatable woman
2:51
and that she you know she went through
2:54
um you know all of the campaigning in
2:55
her trucks and her sims
2:57
and so they wanted to keep that
2:58
relatability and they wanted to keep
3:00
that kind of like
3:02
you know kind of you know she's like a
3:04
girl
3:05
a woman on the move and she's going to
3:06
get things done and you know
3:08
as someone who wears six-inch heels
3:10
every day you can't get a lot of things
3:12
done in a six-inch hill you definitely
3:13
can't
3:14
run up and down you know off the
3:16
airplanes and
3:18
and run through the halls of congress
3:19
and maybe run away from
3:21
crazy militia people in the capital in
3:23
the six inch hill hello
3:25
uh you know i don't know this is a
3:28
mistake what i will say is that i
3:30
definitely prefer the pale blue
3:32
photo um over the actual cover
3:36
for me the cover just and i like that
3:39
they gave the nod to the aka
3:41
moment with the the pale green and the
3:43
pale pink
3:44
background but that was not enough for
3:47
me
3:47
i know that um the look could have just
3:49
been better i didn't like the dower suit
3:51
i just thought that the
3:52
the pant suit just was like it really
3:56
i've literally seen kamala harris look
3:58
better
3:59
in small intimate gatherings at you know
4:01
in people's homes when she was
4:03
campaigning for a presidency i think it
4:06
looked better
4:06
so i i just felt like it just wasn't
4:10
up to snuff um for the first black
4:13
vice president she's one step away from
4:14
the presidency and i thought that she
4:16
should have
4:17
looked more um presidential if you were
4:20
but i didn't mind the chucks but i just
4:22
didn't like the haphazard look of the
4:24
suit
4:25
yeah okay okay all right that's fair
4:27
enough um
4:28
what are your thoughts about the is am i
4:32
making a thing out of this that vogue
4:33
and her camp weren't necessarily aligned
4:35
on this or
4:36
does this happen well that happens all
4:39
the time because you know traditionally
4:41
magazines do not
4:42
give cover subjects um um
4:45
right of refusal you know they and you
4:47
do not get approval
4:49
you know traditionally you do not get
4:51
approval which is why when beyonce
4:53
actually
4:54
um the last time she had recovered vogue
4:56
she actually did not give them an
4:58
interview
4:58
she wrote it herself and she actually
5:00
selected the young man
5:01
um tyler who actually shot kamala
5:04
harris's cover
5:05
she selected him to shoot her cover
5:08
um and so beyonce's one of the very few
5:10
people that had ever come to vogue
5:13
with such heavy demands and was able to
5:15
actually realize those demands
5:17
um traditionally people are not able to
5:20
so it would not
5:21
shock me if kamala harris did not was
5:23
not aware of what they were going to
5:25
post
5:26
or what they were going to use and it
5:27
would not shock me if it wasn't her
5:29
first pick
5:30
because that's just the way it goes down
5:32
when you're dealing with
5:34
um an american fashion institution or
5:36
actually a global fashion
5:38
institution like vogue okay uh bevy
5:40
smith is with us
5:41
listen citizens the new book is called
5:43
bevelation lessons from a mother
5:46
[Applause]
5:49
auntie and bestie and i couldn't i
5:52
couldn't wait to
5:53
to and all three of these personalities
5:56
are you you're the mother the auntie and
5:58
the bestie
5:59
yes yes yes so the mother comes from my
6:02
really my
6:03
i have a lovely amazing group of young
6:06
um gay sons to take good care of me they
6:08
call me mother but really
6:10
mother the people that first start
6:11
calling me mother ever was on
6:13
bravo fashion queens derek j and miss
6:16
lauren
6:17
who actually are going to be reunited
6:18
with me today on revelations
6:21
channel 102 5 o'clock get it big fashion
6:24
queens reunion
6:26
um and because people love that show but
6:28
they were the first ones to call me
6:30
mother on the set of fashion queens
6:32
but now it's like everywhere i go if i
6:34
see some of my
6:35
my black gay fans they'll be like mother
6:37
bevy and i'm i love it because i i do
6:40
feel
6:40
maternal towards that community because
6:43
they've given me so much and it really
6:45
is a reciprocal
6:47
love there and then of course the auntie
6:49
comes in you know like for my babies
6:51
like tracy
6:52
you know um you know all my little young
6:55
girls who
6:56
uh i'm i'm seeing on the move and they
6:58
and their their powers will do they're
7:00
trying to figure out their careers
7:01
and their personal life well i'm that
7:03
cool ass auntie to them or i'm
7:05
you know sometimes they call me the rich
7:06
auntie you know i'm back to them and
7:08
then of course best is for like
7:10
women like have the bee and you know
7:13
other women down
7:13
in my contemporaries and we're the we're
7:16
the ones that we can sit up and we can
7:17
trade
7:18
board stories okay and um we don't have
7:20
the cocktail we gonna take the trips
7:22
together you know we're gonna do all the
7:24
things together so that's kind of like
7:25
where the
7:26
subtitle came from but overall it's just
7:29
a connection
7:30
and authentic connection between us
7:32
folks that
7:33
and we get each other and then i've
7:34
learned all these lessons over the years
7:36
and now i wrote the book
7:38
to help impart those lessons so i'm
7:40
helping people
7:41
build a personal brand i'm talking to
7:43
you about you know
7:44
um you know the f's and fumbles you know
7:47
i don't know if we can curse but you
7:48
know
7:48
go for it go for it that's what the [ __ ]
7:50
the fumbles of life you know i mean
7:53
because that's a real thing um everyone
7:55
goes through some [ __ ] some fumbles
7:57
and i'm talking about mine and how i got
7:59
through all of those things
8:00
so yeah it's like all the lessons that
8:02
i've learned over the years and
8:04
especially in my life as a fashion
8:06
advertising executive and then changing
8:08
my life
8:08
to become this media personality that
8:10
you see before you and that's a 15 year
8:12
old
8:13
a 15-year journey sway so you came into
8:16
the game young
8:16
you always did what you wanted to do i
8:18
came into this game at 38 years old
8:21
and then look what you was able to do
8:22
with the baby smith ladies and gentlemen
8:24
bevy smith
8:26
quintessential harlem girl uh
8:29
quintessential you know bevy and trace
8:31
i'm gonna i'm you know i'm gonna jump
8:32
out of the way i know you got a bunch
8:33
for betty
8:34
appreciate that uh but i i i know a lot
8:36
about your story just
8:39
you know being in harlem for the past 20
8:41
years and people
8:42
really highly respect you and they
8:45
respect you for a lot of
8:46
who you were prior to social media
8:50
and you even say in this book you was an
8:53
instagram a social media star
8:55
10 years before social media ever hit
8:57
the ever hit the ground
8:58
it's a great thing it wasn't it wasn't
9:01
around back then
9:04
all right so let's talk about back then
9:06
baby smith why not
9:08
all right uh what was it
9:11
i want to go back to because bevy you're
9:14
you're a
9:14
cultural pillar you were around when a
9:18
lot of
9:19
culture was developing especially in
9:21
harlem you were around in the 80s the
9:23
90s
9:24
and you saw the development of harlem
9:26
when we watched the paid in full movie
9:28
and you hear about album rich porter
9:30
you were around during those days you
9:31
saw the rise of
9:33
bad boy records when diddy became this
9:35
prominent figure in harlem
9:37
what was what was it like back then and
9:40
let's say when biggie was big and and
9:43
did he start coming out
9:44
what was it like can you describe harlem
9:48
oh well it was first of all it was the
9:49
golden age of hip-hop right so before we
9:51
even get to the paid and
9:53
well before we get to ditty we gotta go
9:54
through the paid in full error
9:56
and that's my favorite ever that's like
9:58
that's the rooftop roller skating rink
10:00
that's dapper dan and his original
10:02
incarnation
10:04
it's all of these magical moments we
10:06
were kids we were literally
10:07
children like really from the paid and
10:10
full era
10:11
like i was like 17 years old like up
10:14
until maybe like 22
10:15
it's like probably when that error ended
10:17
so when you watch that film
10:20
and you see everybody making all these
10:21
moves and doing all these things
10:23
and it looks so fabulous and glamorous
10:25
it it's it's um
10:27
it's sad for me i feel good about it but
10:29
it's also sad for me because i know that
10:31
so many of those guys that perished
10:34
they didn't even make it to 30. they
10:36
didn't even make it to 25 and i know so
10:38
many people
10:39
in our communities have those kind of
10:41
stories but very few of those stories
10:43
are immortalized on film and um you know
10:46
so that's why
10:47
you know um this summer i had a chance
10:50
to spend
10:51
a good amount of time you know around
10:53
alpha and everything because he's back
10:55
outside and everything and
10:57
and you know it it it's it's a
11:00
bittersweet moment because it's like wow
11:01
you know
11:02
you made it through you know we made it
11:04
through and um there's not a lot of us
11:06
still standing
11:07
and still relevant from that era and
11:09
that then that brings us into the puff
11:11
and the biggie era
11:12
you know that's the golden age of
11:14
hip-hop again the 90s right
11:16
and that was a magical time like that's
11:18
the tunnel
11:19
that's when money started getting poured
11:21
into the business you know because
11:23
in the original early days of hip-hop
11:25
people wanted
11:26
the rappers wanted to be hustling and
11:28
then they flipped
11:30
and then the hustlers wanted to be rapid
11:32
and and that's why the
11:34
com um the convergence of the money and
11:36
the culture
11:37
and the music was just so powerful like
11:39
you know i don't mention in the book but
11:41
i remember jade when he was a hustler
11:43
and we used to be at the supper club and
11:45
me and my friends would just be like
11:47
jay give us some champagne because he
11:49
would always have his champagne lined up
11:50
on the bar
11:51
but he was a quiet dude and we were just
11:53
like he was like one of the dudes that
11:54
you could literally go over and be like
11:56
give me some champagne and it wouldn't
11:57
be like well give me some ass you know
11:59
what i mean
11:59
like he was a cool dude you know
12:02
yeah and so there's a and you know in
12:04
the book i talk about the fact that
12:06
biggie introduced me to pop because pop
12:09
came to town
12:10
to do um above the rim i want to say
12:12
with that film
12:13
and that's how i met pop and we
12:15
developed our own relationship i have my
12:17
own relationship with big as well
12:20
can you describe those relationships
12:22
like like you obviously have a
12:24
relationship with alpo let's start with
12:25
him
12:26
a lot of folks might not want would hang
12:28
out with him because of um his track
12:30
record
12:31
what are your what is your relationship
12:32
with like him with them
12:34
well you know i have to say this right
12:36
um
12:38
forgiveness is key and and and
12:41
and anyone can be redeemed right you
12:43
know what i mean and um
12:45
you know the the guy that has come home
12:48
is a very different guy than the guy
12:50
that was out in the streets and that was
12:52
you know
12:53
doing all the crimes that he went to
12:55
jail for the oppo today is super cool
12:58
chill you know he goes about his
13:00
business
13:01
you know he still likes his loud music
13:03
you know he comes by on his
13:05
you know on his big harley davidson bike
13:07
he's gonna be fly but he's
13:09
he's real chill and and a lot more
13:11
subdued you know
13:13
the elbow from when we were kids was
13:15
like you know it was like
13:17
friday night lights every night you know
13:19
it was young flying flashy and he's not
13:22
that anymore and so
13:23
you know i do feel like he's changed and
13:25
um you know i definitely
13:27
know that he's learned from his mistakes
13:28
i'm quite sure he would
13:30
you know now he's looking to do business
13:32
and he's looking to
13:34
you know do films and different things
13:35
like that so you know
13:37
at first yeah i was hesitant i wasn't
13:39
like one of the people that was like
13:40
like
13:41
running and wanted to do a ticket parade
13:43
but over the summer you know
13:45
like i said we we were in each other's
13:47
company a lot and it was
13:48
it was a good time and it was good to
13:50
see them you know what i mean like just
13:52
because
13:52
that's a part of your youth like i'm
13:55
sure you know
13:56
that's a debate you know some fellas
13:58
that maybe did some things that were
13:59
very untoward
14:00
but if you could see him today you might
14:02
actually be like you know what
14:04
it's good to see you man it's good to
14:05
see you my brother right
14:07
y'all know i know a lot of guys have
14:09
done a lot of different things i had
14:10
nothing to do with it wasn't around when
14:12
they did it and i didn't live the life
14:13
they lived
14:14
so if i see him i see him like you still
14:16
the kid i knew from elementary i haven't
14:18
seen you since elementary
14:20
what's up how you been let's talk about
14:22
yeah
14:23
jay-z did you know then like i love
14:25
hearing stories
14:26
like that about jay jay hanging out at
14:28
the bar champagne quiet guy
14:30
anybody can approach him um could you
14:33
see then
14:34
what his future may be no so i had no
14:38
idea so dang dash was my friend
14:41
and um you know dame was like the one
14:44
like dame had all the sparkles around
14:46
him he had all the glitter around him
14:48
right
14:48
does he have that harlem swag about
14:50
himself um he
14:51
you know it's so funny because uh when
14:53
people try and like act like
14:55
like game is like an [ __ ] because you
14:57
know he made all that money with rock
14:59
nation i mean
14:59
rockefeller and all that i'm like pretty
15:02
much
15:02
when he was living in 1199 that was dame
15:05
like
15:06
it's not any different it's not like
15:08
money
15:09
made him the the braggadocious
15:13
you know outrageous dude i mean he was
15:16
that
15:16
before and and jay was like super quiet
15:19
and i never forget i didn't even know he
15:21
was a
15:21
was an inspiring rapper and then one
15:24
night we were at m
15:25
g's that's where we used to go after all
15:27
the parties and stuff we was
15:28
up at m g's and he was like writing some
15:31
something down the pad i guess that was
15:32
wrong
15:33
well probably you didn't care
15:37
you picking up the chat you like me
15:45
a very funny story about that same era
15:48
is
15:48
um i was friends with dmy
15:51
you know from rugby rough riders yeah
15:54
yeah and we went out to freak nick one
15:56
year
15:57
and um we we um i guess we booked too
16:00
late and we didn't have hotel rooms we
16:01
couldn't get them inside the city so we
16:03
had to go to the outskirts
16:05
and me and dmx had to share room but i
16:08
didn't know he was dmx he wasn't dmx yet
16:10
he was in the studio with the rough
16:12
riders but we shared the room
16:14
and nothing happened totally platonic
16:16
and he was like a really lovely you know
16:18
how sensitive he is
16:20
and you know what a deep thinker he is
16:22
and we were just we were just
16:23
talking and we took like long walks in
16:25
the morning and stuff i know early
16:27
rising he was an early riser and
16:28
everything
16:29
and then like maybe a year later i saw
16:32
him at
16:32
m and g but i didn't realize it was the
16:35
same guy but no i realized it was the
16:36
same guy so i said you know how's
16:38
everything going how's the music going
16:40
and he was like it's going good it's
16:41
going good so when i came back to the
16:42
table my girlfriend was like how you
16:44
know dmx i'm saying what are you talking
16:45
about
16:46
there's like that's dmx get at me i'm
16:48
like get out of here
16:49
that's the job that i was hanging out
16:51
with that preakness
16:52
for real get at me though
16:58
yo bevy smith is here go ahead
17:01
you know that was his first single get
17:03
at me get out of my dog
17:06
gotta stand up the charts baby got her
17:08
new book revelation citizens i'm just
17:10
giving you these stories so you go get
17:12
this book
17:12
lesson from my mother auntie bestie
17:15
tracy let me ask you two more things
17:16
wow two god yeah just two that's it uh
17:20
the first one is i met poc this
17:23
it's interesting that you met pock
17:25
through biggie because
17:27
i met biggie through poc wow
17:31
in new york and i want to say at the
17:33
palladium i think i can't think of what
17:35
a venue it was and park ran up to me you
17:38
know he knew me from the town we would
17:40
hang out in the town in oakland
17:41
and he said yo sway sway attack i gotta
17:43
introduce you to somebody
17:45
i gotta introduce you to this dude he's
17:46
the dopest dude in new york i mean hype
17:48
like
17:49
park hype oh this is piggy listen to
17:51
this biggie smalls
17:53
that's how he introduced him biggie
17:54
smalls and big was like yo yo what up
17:56
what up and we we connected that day and
17:59
i was like man
18:00
i was talking [ __ ] i was like yo if you
18:02
come on my show
18:03
you better bring bars
18:08
it was big you know what was your
18:10
relationship with park like
18:13
oh that was a beautiful thing because um
18:16
in the book i talk about you know all my
18:17
different personas so my hip hop hobby
18:19
persona was big bad from uptown
18:22
and she was the quintessential party
18:24
girl now this is the girl that lived on
18:25
the instagram before there was an
18:27
instagram
18:28
you know i was fly i had the you know
18:30
the the hourglass shape
18:32
um you know all the guys loved me um
18:35
i was being sponsored you know i had a
18:38
good job
18:39
you know i i was living the life i was
18:41
living a really good life
18:43
and i was on the scene most importantly
18:45
i was on the scene i was everywhere that
18:47
you wanted to be in hip-hop
18:49
and um so you know when i met pop though
18:53
i was dealing with one of his friends
18:55
and and so
18:56
we were able to hang out because now i'm
18:59
just going to keep it real with y'all
19:00
you know in in the 90s and stuff you
19:03
know people
19:05
we would just like roll around together
19:07
and like you know we would be at a party
19:09
and then everybody would like
19:10
team up like pair off like if you was
19:12
dealing with somebody's friend and y'all
19:14
would all go to the hotel together you
19:15
would get all
19:16
separate rooms of course nobody was
19:18
sleeping together wasn't the orgy
19:20
but you know and then sometimes pop
19:22
would come into our room and we would
19:23
talk
19:26
i said you know like everything got that
19:28
those people
19:29
you know papa didn't have like a lady
19:31
that he was really dealing with like
19:33
that so the girls would just leave or
19:34
whatever and then he would come by
19:36
my room that i was you know with his
19:38
friends and we would just talk
19:40
deep about politics about literature
19:44
and all kinds of things and so i say in
19:45
the book that big bet from uptown
19:49
sat down when park was around and lulu
19:52
brown baby came back
19:53
into the fold because he got to see my
19:56
smart
19:57
shy curious adventurous
20:01
um and empathetic side he got to see the
20:03
core of me
20:04
and i got to see the core of him so when
20:07
he when the the um the book um my rose
20:09
grows out of the com from concrete
20:11
when that came out i wasn't shocked
20:13
because i knew that tupac
20:16
hmm bevvy smith and then i
20:19
i think you got a i think you got a how
20:23
to
20:23
navigate through you got to write
20:25
another book how to navigate through the
20:26
entertainment through entertainment
20:28
business
20:29
without having to sleep or how to you
20:32
know without having to sleep with
20:33
someone how to prevent that
20:35
because in the 90s come on bev in the
20:38
90s that that was hard body
20:39
toxic masculinity folks you know folks
20:42
did not care
20:43
like it wasn't no me too movements in
20:45
the 90s like how was you
20:46
how was you able to keep them off well
20:50
you know i didn't work in the
20:51
i didn't work in the business though
20:52
yeah i remember i worked in fashion
20:54
advertising
20:55
okay well i was not i was not in it to
20:57
try and be in the business it never even
20:59
occurred to me
20:59
being the music of an entertainment
21:01
business that was not my goal i was off
21:03
i had a really great career
21:06
that was totally separate from from my
21:08
nightlife from my personal life
21:10
so i kept the two very separate so for
21:12
me
21:13
all those guys represented to me was a
21:15
good time it was just my culture right
21:17
so i was i wasn't looking to them for to
21:20
get put on in any kind of way
21:22
you know i was just looking at them like
21:24
okay well you're fun you're popping
21:27
let's go you know and so it's so funny
21:31
because you know
21:32
i have friends that are that weren't
21:35
female friends that weren't in the
21:36
business at that time
21:38
and you know women like myself they did
21:41
we didn't connect
21:42
back then because they were like trying
21:45
to come up through the ranks
21:47
and i was just there for a good time not
21:48
for a long time you know
21:50
if i was just like
21:53
i was the girl that you know i'm coming
21:55
in the studio and you giving me the side
21:57
guy because you're a journalist and
21:59
you're trying to get it done and i'm
22:00
like coming in like big what's up
22:01
[ __ ] you know i'm like you know doing
22:03
all those things and
22:05
and you're trying to get a story done
22:07
and i'm disrupting things you know i i
22:08
mean
22:09
so it's very very different but i will
22:12
say this though
22:13
even though there was a lot of toxic
22:14
masculinity going on back then
22:17
i never got into a situation where i
22:21
um where i was forced to do anything
22:24
and where um i felt like i was being
22:26
blatantly disrespected
22:29
the you know in the book i talked about
22:30
one big hip-hop mogul who did
22:32
it threatened to throw me out of the
22:34
window okay let me ask you
22:36
let me ask you about that moment because
22:38
you don't name the person but it's very
22:40
obvious who it was
22:42
uh is it come on
22:48
i'm from the west i'm from the west
22:49
coast i'm from the west coast you
22:51
a big time what color way
22:55
what color did he like to wear red
22:58
okay
23:03
yeah oakland coming up bev i'm from the
23:06
west come on
23:06
since you didn't say you know but uh you
23:08
didn't say his name
23:09
why did you choose like it's a lot of
23:11
places you don't say people's name
23:13
you even talk about dating a big time
23:15
record executive
23:17
who was at the top of his game biggest
23:19
name in the game and i'm sitting there
23:20
trying to figure out who's she talking
23:21
about
23:22
but you didn't give his name and y'all
23:24
dated for maybe four years right
23:26
what was what was your what was your
23:28
thought process because usually these
23:29
publishers want you to give names
23:32
so this wasn't that kind of book it
23:34
wasn't a tell-all
23:36
you know i mean like and so i was very
23:38
clear about that and when i pitched the
23:39
book to them
23:40
this wasn't about my celebrity
23:42
friendships this wasn't about my
23:44
you know all the famous people that i
23:46
had ever been with it wasn't that kind
23:48
of a book
23:48
this was really about how i reinvented
23:51
and
23:52
and changed my life um and so they it
23:55
wasn't required
23:56
and and i didn't want to do that anyway
23:58
because i mean you know
24:00
that's that's not why people know me i'm
24:02
not like the girlfriend of i'm not the
24:04
wife of i'm barry smith i stand
24:06
alone i stand solid on my own you know
24:09
my own laurels on my own accolades so i
24:12
didn't need
24:13
a man or any affiliation with a man
24:16
to get me a book deal okay so i i wasn't
24:20
going to do that i was going to play
24:21
those games
24:22
okay all right so we you could you know
24:25
uh
24:26
somebody almost she's threatened to
24:27
throw out a window because she
24:32
because she wouldn't go to the floor she
24:34
wouldn't go to the four seasons with
24:35
them for a barbecue
24:37
right right yeah because there's no
24:39
barbecue facility at the fourth season
24:41
so i mean that was just a full-on scam
24:43
and
24:43
and i tell that story in the book
24:45
because i point out
24:47
that i was too old to be outside because
24:49
you know
24:50
at a certain point you age out of being
24:52
the anjanu
24:53
and then you start being the old boy in
24:55
the club that's like scowling at
24:58
everybody
25:01
you go from one to party and hang out
25:03
with people to wanting to set them up
25:04
because you like
25:05
well you know five years ago he didn't
25:08
buy me that handbag so now
25:09
i'm dealing with a grimy dude so let me
25:11
set him you know that means like
25:13
you you age out of it and you have to be
25:16
very careful about that and that's
25:18
something i wanted all my young ladies
25:19
that are reading you know
25:21
everyone loves to talk about laurie
25:22
harvey and everything
25:24
and for me i'm like lori harvey is
25:27
living her best
25:28
life she's having the best time she's
25:29
super young
25:31
she's beautiful she has a lot of access
25:34
go and have your fun
25:36
and you know what lori harvey just needs
25:38
to get off the street
25:40
before you know she just before it gets
25:43
played out
25:43
you want to always be able to pivot you
25:46
never want to be a one-trick pony
25:49
and i'm sure she will i'm i'm i have no
25:51
doubt that lori harvey is going to wind
25:53
up being
25:54
hashtag goals for any young i think the
25:57
laurie harry
25:57
harvey will probably either marry
25:59
incredibly well
26:01
or even have an incredibly big career at
26:03
whatever it is that she chooses to do
26:06
at least that's my hope for her i i
26:08
agree too and i think she got
26:09
she has an awesome dad awesome parents
26:12
so let's add that to it too
26:13
that's that i said the same thing bevvy
26:15
smith is here the book is called
26:17
revelations lessons from a mother auntie
26:19
bestie uh as well lynn want to show you
26:22
some quick love lyndon pa grand rises
26:24
what up glenn hey hey family
26:29
hey hey hey lynn you got a question for
26:32
bevy
26:34
well i wanted to tell her i love her on
26:36
tv take
26:37
six and all the other shows she's posted
26:40
on
26:40
co-hosted on i'm a very
26:43
much interested in her and i want to be
26:46
adopted by
26:47
auntie baby and then we have a best
26:50
smith here
26:57
no no no but that's the reason why my
26:58
name is not beth smith and tv
27:00
because ben smith already existed and i
27:02
have nothing but respect for her so i
27:04
was like i gotta be bevy because
27:06
beth smith is over right sherry put it
27:08
down you know she was big in the
27:10
80s and and then that 90s she was on bet
27:13
so yeah i have a lot of respect for beth
27:14
smith
27:15
hey lynn thanks for your call make sure
27:17
to get the book revelations lessons from
27:19
a mother auntie bestie
27:21
by baby smith go ahead tracy what you
27:23
waiting on thank you man
27:24
oh my gosh never practiced so much
27:27
patience in my life
27:29
bevy you already know man my love for
27:31
you runeth over in all of the forms girl
27:34
and glamour i feel like is part of what
27:37
connects
27:38
mother to auntie to bestie i have a
27:41
couple of questions for you
27:43
but on auntie you know what it made me
27:44
think about bev it made me think about
27:47
how some women i remember when ava
27:49
duvernay
27:50
um oprah and gail and they were saying
27:52
that they preferred
27:53
not to be called auntie and so i
27:56
wondered for you if you felt like
27:58
more women should embrace that word or
28:01
maybe before someone
28:02
calls someone an auntie they should run
28:04
through like a little mental checklist
28:07
well yeah i mean you know like i said
28:09
when we started the interview
28:11
auntie is really for me the people that
28:13
can call me auntie
28:14
are young women so you cannot be sitting
28:17
up 40 years old
28:18
you know um my nephew my oldest nephew
28:22
is 36 i was
28:23
18 when he was born so if you're older
28:25
than 36 don't call me auntie
28:26
okay that's the way i do it you know
28:34
like you tracy come on yes auntie all
28:37
day
28:38
thank you auntie yeah
28:41
that worked for me but yeah but like if
28:44
you were like you know
28:45
if i'm like 54 and you like 44 and you
28:48
talking about auntie i'm like
28:49
no thank you right we we we slinging
28:53
and and doing the same things like
28:54
that's not that's not gonna work
28:56
right we pierce i get it i get it okay
28:58
now i kind of want to somersault
29:00
into um back to when you was in the
29:02
fashion advertising world sway because
29:04
as soon as citizens when you cop this
29:06
book revelations lesson from a mother
29:08
auntie and bestie
29:09
the glamour just comes at you initially
29:12
from the first pages
29:14
and you was talking about all the perks
29:16
that came of your job you know
29:17
the overflowing expense accounts how you
29:20
had um
29:21
you became accustomed to flying first
29:23
class you know you had the
29:24
20 hours a day with the car and the
29:26
driver the all the european fashion
29:28
shows
29:29
etc etc so baby i need to hear like
29:32
what was the most outlandish
29:36
or luxurious or bodacious or all three
29:40
of those experiences within your memory
29:43
bank
29:45
i mean there were so many of them first
29:46
of all you know from 150th street in
29:48
eighth avenue so the sit front row
29:50
at a as a gucci um by tom ford fashion
29:54
show and then the go backstage
29:55
afterwards and tom ford is like bevy and
29:58
kissing you on both cheeks
29:59
i mean that's pretty heavy stuff um to
30:02
arrive in milan for fashion week and you
30:05
go to your tradition you know you go to
30:07
your
30:08
suite that you get every single time
30:09
you're in the
30:11
the city and you open the door man opens
30:14
the door and there's like
30:15
literally gifts on gifts on gifts from
30:18
every major
30:19
fashion house in milan that's heavy
30:21
stuff
30:22
um you know i mean there were so many
30:25
magical moments especially because
30:27
you know um fashion is very much
30:30
a a thin white woman's game and i'm
30:33
neither one of those things
30:35
so um for me i was always
30:38
like very proud of who i was and where i
30:41
was from i always led with harlem first
30:44
um and i let the folks know that you
30:47
know who i was was
30:48
more than enough and i did not want to
30:50
be like you
30:52
what you have to offer the world is nice
30:54
for you
30:55
but what i have to offer the world i
30:56
think is a lot more
30:58
special and unique and um will bear a
31:01
lot more fruit
31:02
and now of course you see that right you
31:04
see now our culture urban culture
31:06
has really taken over pop culture but i
31:09
knew that
31:09
back then i knew that in the 90s that we
31:11
were that
31:13
so i never did the code switching thing
31:15
i never felt like i needed to be
31:17
other when when they would ask me where
31:19
i was from i would always say harlem
31:21
harlem is in manhattan
31:23
so i could have easily just been like
31:24
i'm from manhattan no no no
31:26
i'm from harlem i wanted them to know
31:28
what it was and i'm glad i did because
31:31
guess what i built my personal brand
31:32
about around being from harlem
31:34
and now there's so much money running
31:36
through harlem and guess who's one of
31:37
the first people that's always um
31:39
being called to do something whenever a
31:41
corporation wants to target on them
31:48
[Applause]
31:50
that wouldn't be the case yeah big bet
31:53
from uptown
31:54
and one more if i could just squeeze it
31:55
in callaway um
31:57
because you mentioned bev lil brown bevy
32:00
you know
32:00
and how little brown bevy is your north
32:02
star that's how you refer to her in the
32:04
book
32:05
you know this is anyone everyone has
32:07
their own little brown bevy you know
32:09
it's just
32:09
who they are at the core and i noticed
32:12
that you bring up
32:13
another family of sway in the morning
32:16
ian lavon
32:17
you bring her up a lot of her gems are
32:19
sprinkled throughout your
32:21
your book and so i'd love for you to
32:23
share
32:24
maybe a moment personally professionally
32:28
that was low for you and how like iyanla
32:31
how you was able to fix it in your life
32:34
like what was that remix you did to turn
32:38
a burden into a blessing
32:40
well you know the remix is always
32:42
starting with mindset
32:43
right the way you think about your life
32:46
and the way you think about
32:47
your circumstances in life it's really
32:49
going to dictate how it plays out
32:51
so in the book there's a chapter called
32:53
broke but blissful and that talks about
32:55
me running out of money after i
32:57
i left rolling stone to create this life
33:00
as a media personality so in the middle
33:02
of all of it it's going really well i'm
33:04
writing for
33:05
essence and glamour magazine and paper
33:07
magazine and all that and i'm doing tv
33:09
with e
33:10
and vh1 and bt and all of that and it's
33:13
going so well
33:14
but i'm not making any money at doing
33:17
any of that stuff as sway will tell you
33:18
when you first start
33:19
when you first break into tv it's a very
33:22
low paying
33:23
proposition if at all
33:27
okay if at all so i ran out of money but
33:30
i was doing everything that i actually
33:32
quit my job to do
33:34
so while i was going to housing court
33:37
and while i was
33:38
trying to stretch a can of salmon into
33:39
three meals i still
33:41
felt very blessed and blissful
33:44
because i was like but i'm clearly on
33:46
the right path because when i went to
33:48
housing court
33:49
and some woman came up to me and said oh
33:51
my god
33:52
i love you on vh1 and i was like oh my
33:56
gosh thank you
33:57
and so most people would have been so
33:58
embarrassed because they would recognize
34:00
the housing court but instead for me i
34:02
was like
34:03
no that's a good thing that i was
34:04
recognized that means that even though
34:06
i'm not even on there every week but
34:08
whenever i do show up on the screen
34:10
obviously people are gravitating towards
34:13
me i'm connecting with folks
34:14
and that means that i'm supposed to be
34:16
on this path i will become a tv
34:18
personality
34:19
and show them off you see what happened
34:21
two shows come on
34:23
you see what happened destiny
34:26
yes indeed let me see what happened
34:32
and what makes your story so amazing um
34:35
number one uh i really
34:39
love the chapter which you wrote about
34:41
your father
34:42
you know oh yeah and i know that was
34:44
hard to do because
34:45
baby's father passed away um
34:49
and you know i got a beautiful daughter
34:51
you see my daughter and
34:52
and and you say in the book i never
34:55
expected to have to write this
34:57
right that write about this how hard was
34:59
that for you or was it easy
35:02
no it was really very tough because i
35:03
wrote about my dad
35:05
my dad passed in april and i think i
35:07
wrote the chapter in may
35:09
uh-huh at the time at that um so it was
35:13
really very hard it was still very fresh
35:15
it still is
35:16
very fresh right um it hasn't even been
35:18
a year yet
35:19
and so you know it's so funny because i
35:21
write that i never expected to have to
35:23
write this chapter in this book
35:25
um and even though he was he was 95
35:28
years old so people are like what do you
35:29
mean like
35:30
clearly he wasn't going to last one
35:31
another 10 20 years and that's true
35:34
but you know he was taken from us um
35:37
due to cope with complications from kobe
35:39
and everything um
35:41
and also you know my dad was there for
35:43
when i
35:44
signed my book deal he was there when i
35:46
handed him the first
35:48
edit you know i mean he was he was
35:50
always there and i talk about it in my
35:52
book
35:52
and sway as a dad as a a dad to a girl
35:56
you'll really
35:56
connect with this my father was always
35:59
there for me and always a protector for
36:00
me
36:01
um and then when he started getting
36:02
really old and sick
36:05
like around 92 which took him that long
36:07
to really get kind of
36:08
infirm um we we then became his
36:11
caregivers
36:12
but you know i talk about the last
36:15
blackout that new york city had
36:17
and about how my daddy was sitting
36:19
outside
36:20
waiting for me on the stoop with a bat
36:22
and he was in his 80s
36:24
and i'm coming here to make and my mom
36:26
were okay
36:27
and i was like what are you doing here
36:28
daddy he's like i gotta make sure my
36:29
baby gets here okay
36:31
like that's crazy but that's the part of
36:34
us
36:35
that's the father's love man when he
36:37
rests in power i love
36:38
the um you put i don't know if it's a
36:41
piece of poetry that he wrote something
36:42
he wrote in the back
36:44
and uh i got a chance to read that and
36:46
and i wanted to ask you
36:48
when one of the pivotal moments that
36:51
happened in your life that
36:53
i would imagine was a lot of fuel to
36:55
even write this book
36:56
um was a moment that took place in milan
37:00
when you had all these things going for
37:02
you and then all of a sudden
37:04
it was almost like it reads as if you
37:06
had a nervous breakdown in milan
37:08
yeah yeah i i had a milan meltdown
37:11
that's the damn show
37:13
not just um you know there's um and
37:16
and the beyonce song pretty hurt she
37:18
says are you happy with yourself and i
37:20
had to ask myself that and and the
37:22
answer was a resounding no i was not
37:24
happy with myself
37:25
i was not happy with my circumstances i
37:27
knew i
37:28
did not want to continue to do this
37:30
dream job that had become a nightmare
37:33
and it had nothing really to do with the
37:34
job it had everything to do with what i
37:36
wanted out of life
37:38
and when i started really pinpointing
37:40
the things that were
37:42
no longer satisfactory satisfactory to
37:44
me about the job the only thing that
37:46
defined
37:47
was the the money that was keeping me
37:50
there and that was
37:51
you know and even then the money wasn't
37:52
even making me happy you know what i
37:54
mean
37:54
and i was making six figures this is
37:56
like in 2005 i was making mid six
37:59
figures in 2005. you know i mean that's
38:01
a long time ago
38:02
and so that's you know
38:06
yeah it was really great money back then
38:08
and i still was like
38:10
miserable and i have to look at myself
38:12
and say well what will make you happy
38:14
and literally it took me five years to
38:17
even to determine
38:19
what would make me happy and so that's
38:21
why in the book i talk about
38:23
you know changing your life but i don't
38:24
give you these platitudes everyone else
38:26
tells you
38:27
oh you know make a vision board i did
38:29
all of that but it also still took me
38:31
years to even figure out what i wanted
38:33
to do
38:33
then once i figured out what i wanted to
38:35
do i quit rolling stone
38:37
and then it took seven years from
38:38
rolling stone to get to
38:41
bravo's fashion queen and when i got
38:43
bravo's fashion queens that's when it
38:45
all clicked
38:46
and that's when i became a bonafide
38:49
solidified tv personality you can't take
38:52
that from me
38:53
and and honestly guys right now where
38:56
i'm at with it
38:57
this book is the culmination of all the
39:00
work that i put into
39:01
since i quit rolling stone so now we are
39:04
closing the door in that chapter this
39:06
book
39:06
is the book of completion it's over
39:09
hover i'm moving on to the next
39:11
cuz i don't rest on my lawless lawyer so
39:14
now
39:15
so now we got a whole new life planned
39:17
out
39:18
and so we're going to watch that unfurl
39:20
i've already started doing it
39:21
so you know i got a production deal with
39:24
a with a tv network
39:26
you know i just i just did the art um
39:30
curation for a new film that's coming
39:32
out with an academy award winner so
39:34
you're going to be watching this film in
39:35
the fourth quarter 2021
39:37
and when you read the credits it's gonna
39:39
say you know art consultant
39:41
bevy smith that's something i wrote in
39:43
the book that
39:44
i wanted to manifest and i did it i
39:47
manifested it
39:48
it's happening i wrote in the book that
39:50
won the production company
39:51
guess what i manifested that it's
39:54
happening so i'm already on to the net
39:58
debbie smith we love you baby yes
40:02
listen listen all of this conversation
40:05
we ain't even scratched the surface of
40:07
this book
40:10
this book is amazing revelation citizens
40:13
tracy i got to start my book i've been
40:16
saying that don't act brand new now
40:18
okay but damn that was for the radio
40:20
tracy thank you for exposing me
40:28
i love you and and i'm proud of you and
40:30
i'm inspired by you and
40:32
and i love that you yo when we first met
40:35
it was like we already knew each other
40:37
yeah you know we would see each other
40:40
out on the scene with rich nice and
40:42
you know legendary uh damon and all
40:46
these
40:46
different folks we we all be in the same
40:49
circles and i love you like a sister you
40:50
are my sister you family bev and
40:52
one day i'm gonna get a i'm gonna get a
40:54
dinner invite you know dinner with baby
40:58
i'm gonna do a dinner for you baby i'm
40:59
gonna do a dinner with debbie in honor
41:01
of suede come on now that's done
41:03
well you know bevy i'm hall of fame now
41:05
baby you know let's get it now
41:07
you do live in harlem you do live in
41:09
harlem
41:10
i'm in harlem right now
41:12
[Applause]
41:15
love you love you continue success okay
41:19
and make sure you follow her at baby
41:20
smith thank you bev
41:22
thank you have a beautiful day you too
41:25
bye auntie gotta let that breathe
41:42
you
#Arts & Entertainment