• FITNESS
  • Food
  • Beauty
  • Sports
  • Travel
  • Athleisure Studio
  • Athleisure List
  • Athleisure TV
  • THIS ISSUE
  • The Latest
  • ARCHIVE
  • About
  • Press
  • Connect
Menu

Athleisure Mag™ | Athleisure Culture

ATHLEISURE MAG™ | Athleisure Culture
  • FITNESS
  • Food
  • Beauty
  • Sports
  • Travel
  • Athleisure Studio
  • Athleisure List
  • Athleisure TV
  • THIS ISSUE
  • The Latest
  • ARCHIVE
  • About
  • Press
  • Connect

STORING SEEDS | JB SMOOVE

June 26, 2022

We're all about big energy while keeping it real and J.B. Smoove is both of these! You know when you see him on the stage or on your screen that he's going to make you laugh, think and give you his philosphy on life and how to approach it - all while rocking great style. We've enjoyed seeing him in a number of films from Pootie Tang, Barbershop: The Next Cut, the Spider-Man franchise and more. He's also been in numerous TV series from The Last O.G., Woke and of course Curb Your Enthusiasm. He's someone that you see everywhere and yet he aligns perfectly with the projects that we see him in.

We had to check in with him to find out about his journey from being a standup comedian, SNL writer and performer, actor and more. He talked about how he honed his skills, how he navigates his career and what he has coming up.

ATHLEISURE MAG: What was the moment that you realized that you wanted to be an entertainer?

J.B. SMOOVE: You know, I’ve always been the one – some people have a high threshold for pain, I think that that’s what it is. In simple terms, I think that I have this thing and feel for people when I know that people need laughter and they need communication. They need all these fun things that make life easier.

I remember one time that I missed my flight because somebody stopped me and I could tell that this dude needed somebody to talk to about his dreams and I missed my damn flight! I felt like, damn I’ll get the next one. In that moment, it just felt like something was - like sometimes you just have to talk people off the ledge in some sense you know? It’s their life, it’s their everything, but sometimes what you provide for people is something that you can’t buy. I think that shows that you’re a real person and it shows you that you can reach out and touch that person. What I promote is real!

You know how fans get, sometimes they don’t believe that you are who you are or who they think you are, or who they perceive you to be by what you do on camera. You know how it is. Nowadays, the world is faster, people promote certain things, but that’s not who they are. They do things to be accepted, to be liked, to be all these things and it’s not real and it doesn’t come from a real place. I think for me and my upbringing from where I started from is something that I can appreciate more. I’m talking about the days from pulling over and having to make a phone call at the phone booth! Those days, it was more hands on – you know what I mean? There’s automatic transmission and then there’s manual – I’m a manual dude! I got to switch gears for myself. I need to know when to slow down and when to hit the brake! Sometimes I don’t brake at all! Most of the time, I’m just changing gears because brake means that I’m going to stop. When you’re changing gears, I’m just navigating through it! You know what I mean? It’s different!

AM: And it is different!

I think that you have such an authenticity about you and that’s why people love being able to see you. It’s great to see you popping on screen in your shows or starting up my Mon with your podcast. I know that when I hear you, I’m going to get you as an authentic full experience!

JBS: Yes indeed! And that, you know to answer the question – that is something that I do from the heart and for the love of what I do! For the love of being in the moment, for the love of something to hold onto that knowledge and to hold onto that laughter! Holding onto things that makes me happy – it’s the ability to benefit the world or the people who also want to do what I do or just want to be inspired. I do think that it applies to every walk of life no matter what your occupation is or what your dreams are, the same process applies. Come early, stay late, be courteous to people, respect their dreams and what they're trying to do – don’t waste their time, don’t waste your time. There are certain things that will apply always. I think that is the core of growth and the core of achieving your dreams. What I want to do is to be consistent. I want to give this laughter away whether you’re paying me or if you’re not paying for it. I don’t get paid if I stop and talk to someone for half an hour and miss my flight. I can’t say, “oh I got paid for that so it’s ok I missed the flight.” No, I’m doing that because I felt something for this person in that moment that they needed this quick little talk and it’s free.

AM: How did you hone your craft?

JBS: You know, being in real situations. Real situations are a comedian's food. That’s our food. Real situations, you can elaborate on real situations and make them funny. You can take pain and make it funny. You can take funny and make it funnier. So you know, it’s all in the construction of the joke, the construction of the situation, the construction of the scene – you know? That is where it comes from. I always say that anyone can tell a joke if I have to use what I do for a living. Anybody can tell a joke, but not everyone can sell a joke. Everybody can’t sell it – you can tell it – but everybody can’t sell it!

AM: I am the worst joke teller because I forget the parts, I have to stop and reset it – so I definitely can’t sell it.

JBS: Oh yeah, that’s true!

AM: I remember when I first saw you for Def Comedy Jam as a standup comedian and then you went onto SNL as a writer and a performer! What was that experience like?

JBS: To me it was great. But again, you gotta make decisions on your movement because when I started on Def Comedy Jam and I was on BET and did all of these TV shows, guest-starring, touring in colleges, those road gigs, tours and all of the things that I have done, making the decision to move to LA, doing all of that stuff and making the decision to go on Cedric the Entertainer Presents, getting on Lyricists Lounge Show – doing guest spots on TV shows, doing my first CBS deal – all those things I’ve done.

Then to sit there and say, “ok I have this audition for SNL.” My second time auditioning for SNL actually. I did it twice. I was going for cast member. For me, you sit there and you say, I’m going in for cast member and I didn’t make the show as a performer but I ended up making the show as a writer. Even when I got the offer for a writer, I was in the middle of a deal for a host of stuff of my own so I had to say do I put myself on hold to work on Saturday Night Live? So I sat and thought about it and decided that it would look great on my resume so I said, as more of a business move. I know that the percentage of shows that actually air are so small and back then it was REALLY hard! Back then we didn’t have streaming services. We didn’t have Netflix and Hulu and Amazon. We didn’t have any of this stuff. It was just regular TV, HBO and Showtime. We had the premium channels but those opportunities, we didn’t have as big of a chance to get someone to air. I had to sit there and say, “ok. If I put this to the side and do this, how can I make this work for me?” I said, I will do this and then figure it out later. But this is going to look great on my resume – SNL.

So I came to SNL and when I got here, I ended up doing sketches, I ended up being a writer on the show, I ended up doing monologues on the show and ended up doing all these amazing things for the show and doing warmups for my 3 seasons. So I ended up doing a lot of stuff and that was 4 different checks – that’s a NY hustle right there! But that’s also being someone who has different skills – who can be a utility person – 4 things at the same time. That helps me and shows how I can be versatile. I can do 4 jobs at once.

For me, it worked out perfect. I had the chance to be JB, I had a chance to be someone who's able to do all of these amazing things and at the same time, it allowed me to work and build my resume and network with these amazing guest stars of the show. So it was definitely a process. I can’t say that it was easy – it was hard work because you’re talking about someone going from being a standup comedian to being a writer. I wasn’t a traditional writer. I improvise a lot in my standup so for me it made more sense to take it, do all of my skills under one roof. I did 3 seasons over there and it looks great on my resume, so it served its purpose doing it that way.

None of those other opportunities went away, the opportunities for TV shows were still there, the opportunities for movies were still there and I was still able to leave there and do a bunch of movies – The Sitter, Hall Pass, Date Night all in a row. I got a chance to do all of that stuff and when I was working over at SNL, I did Conan O’Brien. Conan O’Brien’s show, he was still at NBC at that time and I did his show as a sketch artist 10 times. So I had a chance to get from behind the desk typing jokes, go downstairs on the elevator and do a sketch with Conan and then get back in the elevator upstairs to finish working. I got a chance to do so many things while I was over there. Again, it wasn’t easy and it was humbling in some sense. You’re in control on stage but you’re not in control on this show which is live TV. Everything is just fast. You have to sit there and write all night long for these sketches and it’s humbling because it’s like your trying out for the cheerleading team or the football team and you go in the hallway and they put the list up of who made the team. There was a piece of paper in the hallway that said whose sketch made it and you had to read that list on the wall and you’d say, "damn, I didn’t get it."

AM: Oh wow that happened every week!

JBS: It was an amazing experience and I wouldn't change that for anything in the world. I would have rather taken this process that I have already completed rather than this fast and quick process that these young people are doing now. I had more time to smell the roses.

AM: I’m a huge fan of Curb Your Enthusiasm, you joined it in the 6th season and I know that the 12th season is coming back, how did you get attached to the show and how involved are you in creating and evolving the character of Leon Black?

JBS: Oh man! My wife told me that I was going to be on the show. We would watch the show, we loved the show and even when I was on SNL, we would talk about the show on our writing days. One day I said, that I would love to be on the show and man I got the opportunity. I always say that one thing has to step out of the way in order for something else to come through. I didn’t get renewed for my 4th season of SNL and I literally went from coming to LA for a friend’s memorial – my friend Oji Pierce who composed and produced This is How We Do It and I was there for his memorial service. I make moves because I trust my process and I trust my talent. I know I always bounce back from things. I had actually fired my agent – I fired every damn body! I knew that once I fired them, I wasn’t going back to SNL.

The agents are the ones that fight for you and keep you hired. They are the ones that call and make it go. I said, well if I fire my agent who I am not happy with, I know for a fact, that I will not get spoken about and they’re not going to push to keep me on the show if they’re not getting paid to do what they do. So I said, “well, I’m going to see what happens.” I fired them and I knew I wasn’t going back and for a fact that with no one there to speak for me, there was no way that I was going to be able to stay at SNL.

So I took that chance, I rolled the dice and I took that chance. Low and behold, I didn’t get renewed. I was out on the road for a month doing standup. Oji passed away, my wife already told me that I was going to be on Curb Your Enthusiasm and I got a phone call of my friend passing and I went to LA for one day. I signed with a new agent before I went to LA, went to meet them when I got to LA and one of the agents said, “man, I have an audition for you – how long are you in town?” I told them that I had come into town for 1 day to pay respects to my buddy and I was going back tomorrow.

He said he had an audition for me and I asked him what it was for and he said, Curb Your Enthusiasm. I said, “get out of here, you have to be kidding me!” I went on the audition and you know, I did what I did well which is improvise which takes these scenes and make them my own. Let me do what I do because I’m going to do what I do! Me and Larry hit it off in the audition. We hit it off to the point where we were in there laughing our butts off and having a good time. We became friends that day. I left there and said to myself, if someone gets that job, God bless them, but me and that man had a great time! That leads to me being on the greatest improvised show to me in TV history.

So, my process is, I’m an improv guy. I have been improvising my entire life and I think that that’s a life choice too. Improvising gives you the ability to change your mind in the moment where no one will ever know that you changed your mind! Improvising will give you the ability to sway someone in a different direction. Improvising gives you a way of reading energy and reading their body language – all of these great things that you can do by knowing the process and being able to improvise. It pays off in life, it pays off in acting, it pays off in real estate sales if you’re a realtor. You can be anyone you want, but if you improvise just a little bit, it allows you to pick up little nuances about people that you can use to your advantage.

I think that that’s what helps me so much having to improvise in my standup career so much. It really allowed me to take that skill and to use that 1 little improv class that I took that summer before I started doing standup. I would tell anyone that they should take improv – I don’t care what you do. That allowed me to really hone in on my acting skills and to get in the moment which makes my standup shows so different. I’m literally listening to what this particular audience is laughing at which is what I apply to Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Whatever is working for my character and sometimes, I don’t know what I will do with my character. Sometimes I don’t know. Sometimes I just go with what the scene is and I take that. Sometimes what I do is, I will decide in the moment if I want to have Larry’s back or if I want to go against Larry. I decide right there, do I want to be on Larry’s side or will I go against him – what is the better argument here? I really decide in the moment and it gives me the upper hand and let’s me drive that. It also lets me give him something new that he doesn’t know about the character every time I work with him. That way, I create these forks in the road – these branches to the character. My character has never been defined. We still don’t know where the hell he came from – so for me to be able to make that up over the 6 seasons that I have been there is great! I can still tell people a little more that they need to know about Leon which makes it fun!

AM: You have been in so many series and films from Spider-Man movies, co-hosting – what do you look for when you’re sent projects and what goes into your decision on whether you’re going to participate in something?

JBS: I go by this, which works for me: I read the script of course. If they specifically call for me, I’m kind of past the audition process at this point because I am established all these years. I get offers for things and I can say yay or nay to the offer. Once in a while, I have to read for something – once in a while. It could be something very specific or something that is outside of my lane and it’s to show that I can do something if it’s a drama or something like that. If I meet a director or a producer and they ask for me specifically and they say that they want me to make my character my own, that is the most precious words that I can hear for an improv guy or a guy that they can trust to do that character. When they say, “make the character your own JB. We love your voice and your sensibilities and we love what you do and we want you to be that character and vice versa.” So I’m like cool, let me make it my own and I take that character and I make them my own. This happens in movies, in TV, in commercials, in animations – it doesn’t matter. They let me do me and if it’s animations, I say let me see the character so I can see who it is and then I can take that character and then I can make that character my own.

AM: You also have Four Courses with JB Smoove, why did you want to do this?

JBS: You know what. I love talk shows and I love talking to friends and I’m good at it. I love to sit there and kick it and have a convo with people and that is what makes interviewing people so fun. I’m curious of the process. I’m curious about your path and I’m really engaged. I love to laugh and I love the stories. I love to tell stories and I love to be interviewed while I’m interviewing – you know what I’m saying? I think that’s fun. I love to be interviewed while I’m interviewing.

AM: Last year when May I Elaborate? first came out, I knew I would be obsessed with it. I love hearing you and Miles Grose talking back and forth about various topics and it was a great way to start my day. Why did you want to create this podcast show?

JBS: You know what? It was one of those things where everybody was doing podcasts. I knew that if everyone was doing podcasts, I had to do something that was funny, insightful and I like to give what I call, broken wisdom sometimes! I feel like there’s more than 1 way for you to be able to get it. For some people, you have to shake it out of their ass and then you have to shake it into them and then shake whatever the issue is out of them at the same time. I think of that tough hard love in a funny way and in a way that makes sense to people. I’m giving it to you in a way that is like a friend. I’m not a doctor, I don’t know it all, I know a lot about everything and a little bit about nothing. You need that balance! You have to tell people sometimes that, “I’m not sure but God damn, I know you got to give it to them like that and here’s what I would do.” I can’t say it’s going to work, but this is what I would do and this is how to get the process started. You sometimes have to get out of your own fucking head. If I can get you out of your own head, I’m halfway there! That’s the block right there. You’re like a controlled schizophrenic – you are battling yourself in your own head. Different versions of you don’t know how to handle certain things. So you’re stuck in a certain place and you just need to find some kind of way to talk to the right person in your head to get it moving in the right direction.

AM: With the 2nd season dropping last month, what can we expect for the season going forward? Last season was really long as it was everyday which was great. This season, the format is a little different with it being on Mon and you guys have more personalities that are joining you each week like Tiffany Haddish, Kevin Nealon and Randall Park. What can we look forward to?

JBS: In the 1st season, we did almost 190 episodes! Which is crazy! So, we will more than likely maybe transition this amazing podcast into possibly an animated version – we’re not sure yet. We think that the wisdom is funny enough and the visuals that I give Miles and that Miles gives me, you always want to see it and I think that there is a funny way to present this show.

It’s so funny, we got nominated for a podcast award but guess what? We didn’t get nominated in the comedy category. We got nominated in the inspirational and religious category which is crazy! We got nominated with all the gurus and people who are speaking real shit. We’re taking real things and just elaborating on them in a funny way and we get put in that category instead of a comedy one which is nutso! It’s a little bit flattering in some ways to be nominated with all of these amazing people who are really speaking truth to the world. But it’s also like, damn, is what we’re saying not funny or are we ambidextrous - we’re left and right-handed? Can we do both? We have found a way to do both!

Without Miles, Miles is the glue. He is the voice of reason. He is the funniest dude ever. He does the research, I elaborate and he pulls me back. So, we have something that works well and yes, we’re not sure what we’re going to do with the show yet. We have so many ideas on our slate that it’s unlimited amount of ideas that we have that we can do and we haven't locked in what we’re going to do with May I Elaborate?, but we’re not locked out of it either. So, we’ve done a lot of episodes. For this type of show, we’re not just turning it on and talking. You have to do a little research and it takes a lot of time and looking at the perfect quote and affirmation and using it to our advantage.

AM: For last season, it was just the perfect show especially in the midst of the pandemic. To be able to have those lighter moments that would come in and to start the day off with that, it allowed us to have some laughs before we delved into the work here at Athleisure Mag whether it was booking, virtual shoots, meetings etc and it created a part of the day that we looked forward to. That was definitely special but in general. I’m always excited to hear what you will elaborate on?

JBS: Yes and we’re looking forward to doing in some capacity – anything that we can do to help people and to keep things fresh and fun. As little work as possible, but as much of a reward as possible.

AM: You have also had amazing partnerships whether it’s with Crown Royale, Caesars or JUST Egg to name a few. What do you look for when it comes to brand alignment that wants to connect with you? How do you decide what you want to lend your brand to?

JBS: I kind of go with the notion of to talk about what I know about – that way I’m not ever in a weird position. I’m a vegan so I love the JUST Egg relationship that we have. I entertain a lot so I did love my Crown Royale campaign. Every campaign I have ever done, I have always found a way to make it something that I love and that I can put a lot of energy into it and I use it. We were doing this branded entertainment with these companies for years before anybody was really doing it. I did a Mountain Dew campaign years ago – Mountain Dew White Out campaign – you name it. This Caesars one is just another one that I love. I love taking on characters. I like characters. I grew up in the age where commercials were about the characters – the “Where’s the Beef” lady, I love commercials man –

AM: The “Time to Make the Donuts” man.

JBS: Oh yes – time to make the donuts! I love that stuff! I always loved characters and reoccurring cool characters.

AM: We love your Caesars Sportsbook one. Like you said the fact that it’s characters, but also – we love football. We’re in NY, but also – I love football. We’re in NY, but I’m originally from Indiana so when you had the Mannings – that was exciting and then of course, Halle Berry in the commercial! How did this come back with you partnering with them and what will you do with them in terms of ongoing work?

JBS: Well, I actually did a commercial years ago a with a director. The commercial never made it to air, but what happened was, the director remembered me and he loved the commercial even though it never aired and he reached out. He said he was doing a campaign with Caesars and he didn’t see anyone else being Caesar but me! He liked my voice, my delivery and he knew it would be fun. He said he couldn’t imagine anyone else embodying this emperor than me. He said that he thought that it would be amazing and wanted to know if I wanted to do it and I thought it sounded hilarious. He said if we were going to do it, we were going to start the campaign and he had already sold me to Caesars and let them know that they would be blown away by me and that I was his guy. He told them that no one would be able to do this better than JB.

Now that goes back to what we were talking about – coming early, staying late, being courteous, not being a diva – all those things. I’m a seed planter. This is another version of planting seeds for later. I’m the squirrel who has those acorns and buries them for winter. That’s why my phone rings constantly. I’m always planting seeds and I have tons of seeds still planted. My phone rings and it keeps going and that’s why it keeps ringing because I have already planted these seeds and relationships that I have built already. That’s how I keep busy. People say all the time, “man, you’re everywhere – but you don't see everything at one time.” Everything is spread out over time because I have planted seeds and projects and it’s going to come out at this time and then this project over here will come out after this project at this time. My visibility is always up there and that’s the fun part.

AM: You’re an Emmy award winner, author, comedian, actor, producer, podcast host - you do so many things. What else do you want to add to your portfolio that you have yet to do?

JBS: I know at some point, I will get behind the camera and direct something. We started a brand new company called Alternate Side Productions, we’re going to build an amazing brand, an amazing company which will be off the hook. We’re going to do some amazing projects under the JB Smoove banner with brand and style and the things that we love to do. We’re going to build that and I’m going to put a lot of people to work. I think that that’s what needs to be done to build a production company. I want to drop some amazing products in the vegan lane. I’m a vegan. That’s going to be another thing. I have been doing the vegan thing for a long time. A lot of people are just jumping on the bandwagon, but you know, I let them do what they do. I’ve been vegan for awhile and I have been harping on this for awhile now and linking myself with other vegan products. A lot of people are just getting onto it and you know, it’s all good. I’m already established in this lane so it’s another thing and extension of what I do. It’s also another extension of caring about people’s health and my own health.

AM: What led you to want to become a vegan?

JBS: Well my wife has been a vegan for forever. My wife is a musical artist and has been a vegan forever and hasn’t had meat in something like 27 years. So, she was a vegetarian for awhile, then a vegan and now she is a raw vegan which is a whole other level. She’s doing that now, but I’m a straight vegan. I’ve been part-time/full-time for a long time. I was part-time vegan and full-time carnivore for awhile. Now, for the past 4 years, I have been a straight vegan and it’s been great.

AM: As you say, you’re always planting seeds. Do you have upcoming projects that you are able to share that we should keep an eye out for?

JBS: Not right now. The main thing I’m working on right now is of course, you know that Curbed got greenlit for season 12, I have a bunch of animated shows coming out, I have the new season of Woke out right now and I’m recording something right now for a video game. I’m also recording 2 other animated shows at the same time. I’m also building this company. I’m resuming my standup tour and I’m also doing a special and hoping that I can get it done by the top of the year. There’s a bunch of cool things that I am working on and I’m very happy with my process. I like to be the steady tortoise sometimes – I don’t need everything at one time, I still love my private time so that I can RV. I still love to do all the fun things that I love to do. As I said, my wife is also out there doing her thing with her new studio. We’re doing so many cool things and also we’re building some companies outside of entertainment. Yeah we’re just doing cool stuff and things that are off our interest list.

AM: You have great style that's well accessorized. As a stylist in addition to my role as a Co-Founder and Style Director at Athleisure Mag, how do you define your style and would you ever create your own clothing/accessory line?

JBS: I love style! I grew up in an era where you build your outfits from the shoes up. You get a nice pair of reliable comfortable shoes because the first thing people do is look down at your feet and then they work their way up to your eyes.

I do have some amazing things coming out. I’m working on a watch, I’m working on a hat line and some amazing bracelets. I’m working on a few amazing things. Yes, all of these things I plan on dropping before the new year and this is going to be some amazing accessories. Apparel is a little hard, but accessories are something that I love and I love things that I consider conversation pieces. A conversation piece will get you in the door and you can meet your new boss. It just takes the interview and this changes the meeting and the relationship and takes it to something different. It gets you in differently.

I tell young people all the time, create a conversation piece whether it's a rose or a flower in your lapel – something that people look at and think, “wow, I like his style. I like what he represents.” That is the #1 thing – a shiny pair of shoes, a pocket square – something amazing on you to create and allow people to keep their eyes on you. It creates that question of, what kind of rose is that, what kind of pocket square – who made that tie? All these things are things that people look at and allows them to reaffirm who you are!

AM: I couldn’t agree more – statement pieces are so essential!

With everything that you have done, what do you want your legacy to be?

JBS: I just want to be known as a chance taker. I believe in getting as many at bats as possible. Get as many swings at the ball as possible. I have always been one where I have had some stumbles, but I have a bad memory of those stumbles. I tell people all the time that life keeps going – it keeps moving. To be free of mind and to be free to take as many swings as possible and to know that you can change your mind. Take as many swings of the things that you want to do in this life as possible. The more swings you get, the more hits you get. If you’re sitting on your hands, you can’t get the swings! I always say, get those swings in, figure out your progress, figure out what you want to do and keep swinging at it. I want to be known as chance taker, a guy that always walks on a tightrope with no net. I always feel like I got good balance. With good balance, you never worry about falling - you know what I mean? If you worry about falling, you worry about standing up.

IG @ohsnapjbsmoove

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | PG 30 - 31 Harrison O'Brien | PG 33 + 43 Noemad | PG 34, 50 + PG 73 - 75 9DRIP Storm Santo | PG 36 - 40 Curb Your Enthusiasm HBO/John P Johnson | PG 44 - 47 Luis Ruiz | PG 49 The Last O.G. TBS/Cara Howe |

Read the MAY ISSUE #77 of Athleisure Mag and see STORING SEEDS | JB Smoove in mag.

Featured
AM  MAY ISSUE #113 RENO TIME (1).png
AM, Decor, May 2025, TV Show
RENO TIME | KEITH BYNUM
AM, Decor, May 2025, TV Show
AM, Decor, May 2025, TV Show
AM  MAY ISSUE #113 ZURI HALL (1).png
AM, Celebrity, Athletes, Fitness, May 2025, Sports, TV Show
STARCHAT WITH ZURI HALL
AM, Celebrity, Athletes, Fitness, May 2025, Sports, TV Show
AM, Celebrity, Athletes, Fitness, May 2025, Sports, TV Show
63MR JJF MAY 25.png
63MIX ROUTIN3S, AM, Celebrity, Food, May 2025, TV Show
63MIX ROUTIN3S | JOJO FLETCHER
63MIX ROUTIN3S, AM, Celebrity, Food, May 2025, TV Show
63MIX ROUTIN3S, AM, Celebrity, Food, May 2025, TV Show
In AM, May 2022, Celebrity, TV Show, Editor Picks Tags JB Smoove, Larry David, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Pootie Tang, Barbershop: The Next Cut, Spider-Man, The Last OG, Woke, SNL, Saturday Night Live, May I Elaborate?, BET, Lyricists Lounge Show, Cedric the Entertainer Presents, CBS, Netflix, Hulu, AMazon, Showtime, vegan, HBO, The Sitter, Hall Pass, Date Night, Conan O'Brien, NBC, This is How We Do It, Oji Pierce, Larry, Leon Black, podcast, Four Courses with JB Smoove, Miles Grose, Tiffany Haddish, Kevin Nealon, Randall Park, Caesars, Crown Royale, JUST Egg, Mountain Dew, Mountain Dew White Out Campaign, Caesars Sportsbook, Halle Berry, Emmy
Comment

MANIFESTING THIS LIFE | CANDIACE DILLARD-BASSETT

April 20, 2022

One of our favorite reality franchises is BRAVO's The Real Housewives. It gives you a glimpse of a city with a group of women that are friends who open up their lives. You find that they are ambitious driven women who navigate their communities. The Real Housewives of Potomac is one of our favorites in this city specific series and when Candiace Dillard-Bassett arrived starting in the 3rd season, we met a woman on a mission who had an array of accolades under her belt while being focused on building her legacy. We talk with her about pageantry, her career prior to being on RHOP, the show, what the platform has provided, her music career and how she continues to give back to others!

ATHLEISURE MAG: In prep for this inter-view, I really liked learning about your background. You grew up with parents who both worked in the Air Force as physicians, graduated from Howard University and you worked in public service at the White House Offices of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs for President Barack Obama as well as serving as a staffer during his 2012 reelection campaign. Why was it important for you to begin your career in this way in public service?

CANDIACE DILLARD-BASSETT: I know that I grew up in a household that de- manded excellence. I grew up in a household where everyone was a professional. My parents were physicans, they have a military background and they raised me as well as my siblings to model that. They taught us the truth of being people of color in this country, how the world might not always see us in the way that we see ourselves when we’re surrounded by like-minded people who look like us and think like us.

I always tell this story, it’s funny. I wanted to be a doctor, I wanted to be a physician, I started out wanting to be a dermatologist, and I wanted to be an OBGYN. I think I must have gotten to the 9th grade and chemistry, algebra and calculus were kind of kicking my butt and I discovered that these were not my friends, so it let me pivot to something else that I am really good at which is communications. I love publc speaking – I love writing and I love aspects of journalism. I ended up being co-editor of my yearbook and co-editor of my newspaper in high school. I love to read. So, thank God, that I found something else because that math got me!

I want to encourage women who are going out in those fields for STEM because it’s so important and it’s something that we need to have more faces there that look like us there and showcase that representation. I’m a cheerleader and I’m in the back in the hallways saying, “go my STEM sisters!” But it’s just not my ministry. You have to know your strengths.

AM: That’s totally true. I thought about med school and then law school, but then you think about those years and the kinds of studies involved and I just kept continuing to code and work in fashion. But I love seeing those who are deeply involved in STEM and STEAM – all of that! So, you were Miss United States 2013. I never did pageants personally, but I have styled projects with Virginia Limongi Miss Ecuador 2018 ahead of her competing for Miss Universe as well as Nia Franklin Miss America 2019. I love this element of the pageant world as it’s more than looking beautiful as there are these other facets to it. Why was it so important to you that you wanted to do that and how important is that for character building?

CDB: I’m a pageant girl for life. I started competing since I was 5 years old and it was just ingrained in me. I will always speak up and speak about that part of my life because I always want to serve as an example of what it truly looks like to be a product of the pageant industry and of the pageant world as a whole, because there is this stigma – this neg- ative idea attached to women who compete in pageants that we’re dumb, we’re self-absorbed that we are mean – cutting each other’s dresses backstage, cutting lipsticks -

AM: Breaking zippers!

CDB: Yeah all of that stuff!

AM: I was a cheerleader – so yup!

CDB: Same! So you understand! So there’s that Toddlers and Tiaras sort of trope that people always ask me when I say that I have competed in pageants, “oh is it like Toddlers and Tiaras?” I mean, yes there are some aspects of the pageant world that can be superficial and that can be seen in a negative light, but my experience in all my years competing and I have competed a lot, I have always felt uplifted and empowered, seen and heard and loved. It’s where I learned to identify who I was. Where I learned how to brand myself, where I learned how to speak up for my- self and be an advocate – not just for me, but for causes that I believe in. I learned how to communicate those things in a way that was palatable and respectful and made sense to different audiences. I credit my mom and pageantry for all of those things. Some of the most brilliant women that I know – doctors, lawyers, scientists, inventors, dancers – you could not imagine the pedigree that you find in pageantry, and it goes far beyond just smiling, waving and being a robot. That’s only one aspect of the game of the sport because I do feel that it is one. I’m so proud to be part of it!

AM: You also have an agency where you help other people in the pageant system. Can you talk more about that?

CDB: I founded my consulting firm Candiace Dillard Pageant Consulting for the very reasons that I explained. After I won Miss United States, I found myself being a coach on accident – being someone that is empowering women around their pageant journey. It was my director at the time, Laura Clark who is now the director of The Miss Earth United States Organization – she’s a bad B! She’s a bad woman, I love her! My makeup artist at the time, Melissa, we were sitting in the hotel room and I was helping to co-produce a pageant for them one weekend. We were talking about me helping the girls and we were talking and they said, “this is a business – why don’t you start a business?” I was like, “no, why would I do that? I could just help them.” They explained that I could do it for free but when it could be framed as a structured enterprise that has tiers and everything that these women need to truly get the most of this experience by someone that has been through it.

I was like, ok and it was born! I have coached over 500 women to different titles and different places. Obviously have not been as active lately because I can barely keep an eyebrow on!

AM: You’re just a bit busy!

CDB: It’s always something that I go back to. My girls – they’re my friends, my sisters – I call them my pageant sisters. They’ll call me and let me know what’s happening. Even the little girls that I have coached, I have watched them grow up and compete as junior teens and now they’re in the Miss category. They’re like my little babies and they have just flourished. It’s rewarding to see and it’s work that I would do for free.

AM: I think that that’s amazing when you’re able to give back and infuse peo- ple in that way. You’re always going to remember who shined a light on you and to do that across all the people that you have mentored – it’s phenomenal.

CDB: Of yeah, it’s so rewarding and I would do it for nothing – just for fun. You get to play dress up, help women decide who they want to be and you’re doing it with them! It’s like having your own children helping them out and I love opening doors or women who are al- ready so special, intelligent and wise. It’s just giving them that polish and tweak that they need to accomplish their goals in the same way that I was fable to use pageantry to accomplish mine.

AM: I don’t know how you sleep because you also have a successful hairline, Prima Hair Collection by Candiace Dillard. Why did you want to be involved in the hair industry and why are you so passionate about it?

CDB: Prima Hair Collection was really a spin-off of pageantry so I love that you put those questions together. When I was competing coming up in the 90s, it was hard to find hair extensions that worked, were human hair, that came in different lengths, different textures and different colors that worked for me and worked with women that looked like me. We were stuck with synthetic hair or bad weaves or very expensive extensions because there was a monopoly on the market. There are a lot of different hair extension companies that you can choose from now, but I still had a passion for sector of the beauty history. It was my mom who said, “this should be a business.” There’s that theme where it’s always a woman empowering me to see something great for myself. It was my mom this time and she said that we were going to do it. I was like, “really we are, yay!” She helped me do the re-search and she gave me the investment. She purchased my first large order of hair. My sister got involved and 7+ years later, we are a full-service company that does business across the world. We have international clients that will clamor to get Prima hair. We are looking to move into other products soon. I have always seen myself move into other hair care products. I see myself at some point moving into skincare – I love it so much!

AM: I could see that!

CDB: Yes, but that’s really something that I would want to take my time with and find the right people, the right chemist that will ensure I’m putting out the products that I would use myself. But that’s down the road. Right now, Prima Hair is still kicking and we’re moving into other hair products.

AM: I think it’s amazing to hear this. I graduated from college in 2001 and the first 6 to 7 years, I was modeling and what it was like then to model as a Black woman – some people didn’t know how to do my makeup, you brought your own items! When we launched this magazine, 6 years ago I said that it was unacceptable for a hair or makeup person to come to set saying that they couldn’t work with various skin tones and poking around.

CDB: Yeah! We have had to learn to bring our own makeup for ourselves and to do our own hair. Right now, if it’s not one of my own makeup artists, I’m like, “I’m ok, I can do it myself.” You just come conditioned not to feel seen and not to be represented in those spaces.

AM: It’s so sad. We had someone come to set, is super accomplished and she brought 3 bags of her own makeup and it broke my heart. To know that she was known and she still felt the need to do that, I told her that she didn’t have to do that and we had great talent on set. Of course, our MUA killed it but seeing that the feeling still exists even after all of this time – it broke my heart. I always enjoy hearing that people like you and others are doing the good work!

You joined the cast of RHOP in the 3rd season. I already loved it when it first came out and then you stepped on the stage and I was excited as your personality is like my own. What made you see this and want to be part of it?

CDB: So, I can remember – I’m originally from Georgia – when The Real Housewives of Atlanta started, I thought, “oh my God, a show about Atlanta.” I watched with my mom and we were all engrossed in the show and then of course, I went off to college in Howard and then I was living in the DMV which we call the DC, Maryland, Virginia area and my best friend called me and asked I had heard about this new Black Housewives show. I hadn’t, but then I started watching. It was exciting that on a network like BRAVO that is very popular and well known and very much engrossed in pop culture – Atlanta was the premier show for women of color and here we are now with the second iteration of women of color in this franchise. This was exciting. I wanted to know who the girls were and at that time, I had been here for 14 years – a long time. I came to Howard in 2005 and I never left. I wanted to know who was on the show, what they were wearing and where they were going. I was interested and I was watching it with my boyfriend at the time, Chris and I thought, why am I not on the show? I knew I should be on this show and I remember praying about an opportunity to be on the show. I said, “listen God, if You give me the opportunity to be on this show, I promise that I will glorify You and I will use it as a vehicle to be a catalyst to accomplish all the things that You said that I would have.” Literally, the next year I was getting a call from the casting director – the Power of the Tongue. I live by it – I manifest with the Power of the Tongue. Speak what you want – that’s the message of today.

AM: Are there things that you had to consider when you knew that you would be putting your life out there and did you think about aspects involving bringing friends, family and your relationship on there?

CDB: Yes, so obviously, I had to talk to Chris. At the time, we were not engaged. We had talked about it and he had explicit instructions on what that ring would be.

AM: Check!

CDB: My mom – I didn’t worry about her because if you watch the show, you know that that woman was made for TV! She created me – my mom named me after Candice Bergen from Murphy Brown and Dominique Deveraux played by Diahann Carroll from Dynasty. So she knew what she was doing. So that lady knew what she was doing. That lady was ready! I didn't have to tell her anything except what time and where she had to be!

AM: She might have outrun you to get there!

CDB: EXACTLY! She was getting in there. Chris and I sat down and we said that we wanted to do it and we wanted to use the show, like I said, as a catalyst and a vehicle to accomplish our goals. We agreed upfront that it would be us against everybody and that we would never allow anything to infiltrate our relationship and that we would do it until it wasn’t fun anymore. Those were solid conversations that we had. So far, we have stuck to that and we have been able to use the platform in a way that has been beneficial in our careers. I’m so grateful to BRAVO and to our production company because they have allowed me to get married on the show, truly start my music journey on the show, my acting on the show and my hair business on the show. You should come in and want to use this platform to advance yourself. Being a career housewife is wonderful, but I know that there is more to do beyond the platform and so I’m here as long as it serves me and then it’s on to the next.

AM: So, how long do you guys film for?

CDB: We shoot for about 4 months.

AM: That’s a chunk of time.

CDB: Yes and it’s a stressful chunk of time because it’s a job. You are with the pro- duction company for that entire period of time and you have to tailor your life to that time. Luckily, the show is a docuseries so they’re following our lives. Most of what we’re doing, they’re following. The more you have going on the better and I have too much going on this year! It’s making my edges fall out! The plus and the minus is that having a lot going on is great, but it is an ensemble cast, so a lot of things that are happening in your life, may not make it and may stay on the cutting room floor. They have to get equal amounts of everyone's story. So they pick and choose what makes it and we have no control over what makes it. So that’s always an interesting journey to go on to find out that right before it airs, they cut that whole story out and it’s like they shot 5 scenes for that and it won’t air.

AM: My favorite scenes are the confessionals because you’re glammed up and you’re talking about what you thought about something that is taking place on the episode. How do you come up with the outfits that you’re going to wear?

CDB: That’s always really fun! Shout out to my style team - my hair and my make-up glam team and my stylist. We come together and we decide together what we are going to do. So, one of them – sometimes it won’t be my hairstylist, my wardrobe stylist will send a hair look that she thinks would be amazing. My hairstylist, Stephanie will say that she loves it and my makeup artist Kendell will say that this is a great look to go with it. We then piece it together. One thing that people may not know is that we shoot the same look, multiple times. It’s always a challenge to find a look that is intricate and unique, but can be recreated. I’ve had braids twice now and braids are tricky because you shoot with them when they’re new and then you come back and shoot with you again in the same look in a month or month and a half and you’ve been running around in the world living with those braids and you need a touchup. But what I do, is that I have a headwrap when I have braids and you can’t tell when my roots start to show. I love confessionals, it’s like playing dress-up and you’re talking and chatting with your producer, saying what’s happening, being funny and being shady while having some champagne.

AM: It’s safe to assume that you will be back for the 7th season?

CDB: Well I think I saw somewhere that someone at BRAVO had to make an announcement that everyone was asked back because I made a little bit of a cryptic tweet and it had the Internet in an uproar.

There are just days where trolling is my ministry!

AM: It is what it is!

CDB: So yes, that was a funny day because my publicist told me that everyone was calling and E! wanted a statement and I said that they would be fine! So, I think that everybody is coming back.

AM: Like you said, you’re always using the platform to share your body of work and interests. We have seen your music career on the show and now DEEP SPACE, your debut album is out! How was that, you released it fall of last year – you’ve had over 2M streams – it’s amazing!

CDB: It’s crazy! It’s surreal because I had always seen something with music happening in my head and it really started when Chris and I got married and I knew I wanted to perform a song for him at our wedding.

AM: It was a beautiful song.

CDB: Thank you. I See You was my first recorded song. Originally I wasn’t going to do an original piece. I wanted to do a Toni Braxton song – she’s perfect at love songs. My wedding was being filmed for the show and my producer said, if you want us to capture you singing, you can’t do someone else’s song. For those that may not know about television is that there are so many rules and one of them is that you have to keep in mind the licensing. Toni Braxton is gong to demand the fees of herself, the producers, the writers and her label. That could be $40K or $100K for the show to play her song on the show and they said they weren’t going to pay that.

So I thought I would write the song and I worked with Veda Whisnant and my good friend Cliff as well as the gentleman who is now my music director, Aaron Hardin. They created I See You and that was the snowball effect and people were looking to work with me including Chucky Thompson, may he rest in peace. He did a disgustingly amazing job on the I See You the Go-go Remix – Go-go music has been a huge part of my life since I have lived in DC. It kind of snowballed from there and got bigger than what I thought it would. I knew I would put out a few songs, but then as I continued to move through the music industry, it went to doing an EP, to doing an album to performing live – it just materialized before my eyes. It’s still going!

AM: What’s it like to have Anita Baker, Nicki Minaj and Toni Braxton to bless your work? I’ve been a huge fan of Anita Baker’s work and have such a respect for her and obviously, Toni Braxton and Nicki Minaj are amazing as well. What has that been like?

CDB: I don’t even know! I have no words. When you grow up listening to these voices. For me who has a lower register, I never felt confident about my voice. Every- one celebrates Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston that has these soaring Soprano voices and I never felt like I heard anything like my voice until I heard Anita Baker, Toni Braxton and Brandy who I love. They liberated me and helped me to be proud of my voice and showed me what I could do with my voice and I studied their voices to really feel like I could sing and that I could use my voice to emote and be an artist. I owe them everything. What do you mean that Anita Baker knows who I am?

AM: I read that twice and was like, oh – Anita.

CDB: It’s still crazy to me. It’s like shut up, I can’t believe that.

AM: And yet, it happened!

You came off the Femme it Forward Tour – how was that? SWV, Faith Evans and Mya? That’s some legit superstar magic right there!

CDB: Not me – them! I’m still processing.

It's just unbelievable because again, these are Black women in R&B that wrote the soundtrack to so much of my life in the 90s and on. They wanted me to be with them on their stages, on their platforms and they respect me and they see me. That is heavy, but it’s also light in a way because I’m doing all day – that’s where I am with it. I wouldn’t be there if I wasn’t worthy and I’m just trying to live in the worthiness of it if that makes sense.

AM: It totally does! Once again, you’re manifesting up a storm. You’ve been on Netflix’s Family Reunion and being on BET’s The Christmas Lottery. The level of creativity that you have embraced and do, what does it feel like to know that it’s ok to embrace on all of these activities and to nibble on them, try them and to make it their own way. There are so many people that shy away from taking on so many things especially when they are not in the same area and I always encourage people to lean into it.

CDB: I feel like if I didn’t do all of the things that are inside of me, I would explode. It just has to come out. Some- times it doesn’t make sense and some- times I’m exhausted and sometimes I don’t know what I’m doing and I feel that sometimes.

AM: And that’s ok.

CDB: Yes, it’s ok to not know what you’re doing. If you’re following your heart, you’re following your dream, just follow it. You don’t have to ask questions – you just need to follow it and be led by it. That’s what’s calling you and you have to trust that if you’re spiritual or not but that which is leading you is coming from a higher place. That’s literally it. Some- times I’m like, “girl what are you doing and I’m like I don’t know.” But I trust and I continue and then I see the fruits and then I know why it makes sense. That’s why there is a DEEP SPACE, that’s why there is a Family Reunion, that’s why there is a Water in a Broken Glass – whatever projects I’ve worked on and there's more - so much more that I want to do in the acting realm episodically and on the big screen. I want to continue to tour and collaborate musically with new people.

AM: You’re just flowing. I always say that – I say it, I pray it, I step out on it and I just pray that God catches me.

CDB: Yasss! That’s all you can do.

AM: The rest will be figured out and if it gets messy, we’ll figure it out and make it to something else.

CDB: Exactly.

AM: Tell me about My Sister’s Keeper and why you wanted to create this organization?

CDB: So this goes back to pageantry. It was competing in pageants that led me to feel like I could create an organization that truly empowered women that were not in a position to receive resources in the same way that I was. I was a student at Howard University and it’s located in NW Washington DC. There are no gates, you are in the city. You are a part of the fabric in DC and that’s not always attractive. There’s homelessness, there’s crime – it’s a lot of pieces to that puzzle. The school directly across the street from Howard was Banneker Senior High School. I used to tudor there and I noticed that there was a lack of guidance for a lot of the young women who attended school there and just in general as I maneuvered through DC, I experienced the youth in the area – particularly in lower income areas in SE DC. I felt like I could help and part of it was ignorance. I grew up in a way that I hadn’t seen that with my own two eyes. So when I’m out in the world and I’m now doing my own thing, I realized that I had all these resources and I had someone who reared me, taught me and showed me – I said I could do that and help with that. That’s how we started. We go into schools that are mostly in the DC area and just have conversations with these young women.

We do these things called a Girl Talk Circle where we sit in a circle and put questions and thoughts into a bowl and pull them out and talk about what they’re feeling or thinking. Sometimes a girl will own it and sometimes she won’t but that’s the point. You can have an issue and not be judged. I have integrated My Sister’s Keeper into Candiace Pageant Consulting because everyone is not cut out for pageants, but you can tell when a young woman has that spark or that je ne sai quoi piece that she could rock a stage or that she could be good in this space. It’s a great way again to iron you out and give a woman poise and purpose. You have to know who you are in order to compete and it forces you to figure out who you are and I want it for all women but especially Black women because we’re not first. No one is giving us the right – it’s not a privilege – the right to feel empowered and to feel that we can have whatever we what.

AM: And to understand what the game- board is and to navigate that! And to do it one way versus the other way. Although, you might have to dig in that bag every now and then again too.

CDB: That’s part of it too. It’s knowing how and when to code switch and when to use what resources where and how – yeah!

AM: Are there any other up and coming projects that we should keep an eye out for because I feel like you’re this till that keeps on springing forth.

CDB: YES! Part of the reason why I am so tired is because I was finishing up one of my final classes for my MBA program at Howard. You’ll be seeing graduation very soon and at the same time, I made this 14 slide pitch deck that I had to do for this class, I was in the studio recording new music. I am really excited because we are going to be doing a deluxe version of the DEEP SPACE album and that will be set to come out some- time this summer! I haven’t talked about that, that’s an exclusive to you guys!

AM: I mean, you just dropped your album - last fall!

CDB: It hasn’t even been a year – I know we dropped it in Sept. But you know, I didn’t want to get stale and there’s so much left to sing about and there are so many good tracks, such good music and so much to write and I have such a cool writing team. I’m newer to writing music. My team is really patient with me and lets me make changes whether I don’t like something or I want it to feel more like this or that. We make it work. So I have been in the studio for the last 3 days so I’m finishing that. That’s done and I’ll be listening to the songs ad nauseum so I’ll be sick of that ha! But we’ll be piecing them together. It’s in the works – but a TV series that I can’t say a lot about but it’s in the works. I would be playing someone that is not a whole lot like me which is exciting and it will be shooting right here, so I wouldn’t have to leave the area which I’m excited about that! So look out for that coming out soon! I think that’s it – music, TV, the show – you’ll get all the entertainment from RHOP.

AM: Every time you hit the screen on RHOP, I’m like ok, what’s happening now ha!

CDB: It’s a mess, my God. Me enjoying life, married life and I’m still decorating my house – just living!

IG @candeegal09

PHOTOS COURTESY | PG 34 - 38 Paul Morigi | PG 41 -49 +9LIST STORI3S PG 154 Candiace Dillard-Bassett |

Read the MAR ISSUE #75 of Athleisure Mag and see MANIFESTING THIS LIFE | Candiace Dillard-Bassett in mag.

Featured
AM  MAY ISSUE #113 RENO TIME (1).png
AM, Decor, May 2025, TV Show
RENO TIME | KEITH BYNUM
AM, Decor, May 2025, TV Show
AM, Decor, May 2025, TV Show
AM  MAY ISSUE #113 ZURI HALL (1).png
AM, Celebrity, Athletes, Fitness, May 2025, Sports, TV Show
STARCHAT WITH ZURI HALL
AM, Celebrity, Athletes, Fitness, May 2025, Sports, TV Show
AM, Celebrity, Athletes, Fitness, May 2025, Sports, TV Show
63MR JJF MAY 25.png
63MIX ROUTIN3S, AM, Celebrity, Food, May 2025, TV Show
63MIX ROUTIN3S | JOJO FLETCHER
63MIX ROUTIN3S, AM, Celebrity, Food, May 2025, TV Show
63MIX ROUTIN3S, AM, Celebrity, Food, May 2025, TV Show
In AM, Mar 2022, Music, TV Show, Celebrity Tags Candiace Dillard-Bassett, The Real Housewives of Potomac, The Real Housewives of Atlanta, DEEP SPACE, Toni Braxton, Anita Baker, Nicki Minaj, BRAVO, Chris Bassett, Chucky Thompson, Music, Howard University, Air Force, President Barack Obama, White House, Pageant, Miss United States, Virginia Limongi, Miss Ecuador 2018, Miss Universe, Nia Franklin Miss America 2019, Toddlers and Tiara, Candiace Dillard Pageant Consulting, Laura Clark, The Miss Earth United States Organization, Prima Hair Collection by Candiace Dillard, Candice Bergen, Murphy Brown, Dominique Deveraux, Diahann Carroll, Dynasty, MBA, E!, I See You, Go-go, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Brandy, Femme It Forward Tour, SWV, Faith Evans, Mya, Netflix, Family Reunion, BET, The Christmas Lottery, Water in a Broken Glass
Comment

I CAN RELATE | JASMINE LUV

March 19, 2022

We continue chatting with CIROC's Love Squad to find out more about them and what they're working on. We have spent countless days scrolling through our feeds to watch creator, Jasmine Luv's skits on IG that focuses on situational comedic experiences that we have with our friends, families, colleagues and those we interact with randomly. She has grown this brand to a number of acting roles, hosting and more. We wanted to find out how she got here, navigating her brand and her partnership with CIROC.

ATHLEISURE MAG: We've enjoyed seeing your sketches on your IG. We didn’t know that you have an MA in accounting – what was the moment that you realized that you wanted to work in entertainment?

JASMINE LUV: I realized I wanted to work in entertainment when I noticed I was writing scripts at work instead of actually working. The majority of my day was consumed with thinking of sketches and then work came last. That’s when I realized I found my passion and it was time to pursue it.

AM: What led you to creating your brand with relatable comedic videos about day-to-day life?

JL: I just saw a niche and pursued it. When Vine was out, I would scroll and never see Black women doing sketches. Once I realized there was an area that lacked what I had to offer, I stayed consistent and was able to build a brand from it.

AM: Do you remember creating your first video? How did you get started?

JL: Yes, I remember being at work and writing every line to the script and thinking to myself, “I’m going to film this when I get home.” I already knew how to edit using iMovie so that was one less thing to teach myself. I was so excited that I got off work early just to shoot it. I went home, shot it, edited it and it actually went viral.

AM: Although you’re playing the characters, it’s easy to watch and imagine yourself and someone you know (friends, family, coworkers, or person on the street) as the other person(s) in the video. There’s something transformative about the way that you present the situations – did you always intend that people would see themselves or their world through your work?

JL: Yes, thats always been the goal when I made a videos. I want people to see themselves within my videos and be able to relate. I just never thought I would have “millions” of people being able to relate to my work.

AM: Where do you get inspiration from your videos and as a creator, do you find that you have to step back to assess new directions that you want to incorporate into the brand and how you can do this in a way that your audience can still embrace it?

JL: I got a lot of my inspiration just from my everyday experiences. A lot of my videos were real life situations whether it was real in my life or a friends. I notice I get a lot of my inspiration just going along my day. I can be in a grocery store and see something that I think would be funny and relatable. I then go home, shoot it, edit it and post it.

AM: We enjoyed seeing you in Starter Pack and BET Her’s The Waiting Room. What are some upcoming projects that you’re working on that we should keep an eye out for?

JL: I’m currently doing a lot of things from writing scripts, hosting, auditions, and constantly perfecting my craft. 2022 is going to be a great year, just wait and see.

AM: You’re an actress, content creator and host. Are there other areas that you also want to take on?

JL: Now that I’m married, I’m excited to take on motherhood. That’s the next area that I excited to eventually explore.

AM: It's great to see those who focus on a specific passion and end up navigating other opportunities that become part of their brand. You have increased the scope of being an influencer in not only comedy, but in the areas of skincare as well as fashion – what’s your process in terms of deciding what brands you want to align with to ensure that it synergistic with you.

JL: I love to work with brands that I either personally use/like or want to try. When aligning with a brand, it has to do just that, align. If not, it won’t be authentic.

AM: You recently joined CIROC’s Love Squad – tell us about your partnership with the brand and this specific initiative that you were part of.

JL: I recently partnered with CIROC as a part of the Love Squad for their Valentine’s Day Sweepstakes where a lucky winner will receive a one-of-a-kind experience for a loved one and them to be brought to life by some of our favorite voices in food, style, and entertainment including myself.

AM: Do you have a favorite CIROC recipe that you enjoy drinking?

JL: I love the limited-edition flavor CIROC Pomegranate, and the Sweetheart Cocktail is my favorite to enjoy.

1.5 oz CÎROC Pomegranate

1.5 oz Hibiscus tea

1.5 oz Concentrate coffee brew

0.5 oz Grenadine

Glass: Coupe

Garnish: Red currant/grated chocolate

Method: Add all ingredients into a shaker filled with ice. Shake for 6 to 8 seconds. Strain into a coupe glass and garnish.

AM: Your wedding was stunning. It was great to see you partnered with The Knot as well as being on the covers of Black Bride. What were 3 must-haves that were essential to your wedding day?

JL: My 3 must-haves were pretty simple. My family, dream location, and my husband.

AM: Now that you’re married, will your brand include your husband as well?

JL: When we met, we both had our own individual brands and identity and we always wanted to keep that. Therefore, we created a brand named Luv N Slim, which is the brand we built together where we create beautiful content outside of our individual brand.

AM: As someone who is running their own brand and as someone who trained to be an accountant, do you work with brands or participate in initiatives to provide information about the importance of financial literacy and if so, what are those projects like?

JL: Yes, I actually recently partnered with Chime to give more insight on the importance of financial literacy especially in the Black community. I love these projects because it represents something I’m passionate about which is the importance of education, knowing how to save, and handle finances.

AM: How do you take time for yourself to ensure that you’re having the proper self-care and/or mental health that you need?

JL: My husband and I always set days and time based on our week to have time for each other as well as individually. I ensure I have self-care time by properly managing my weeks and making plans in between working.

IG @luv_jjp

PHOTOS COURTESY | CIROC

Read the FEB ISSUE #74 of Athleisure Mag and see I CAN RELATE | Jasmine Luv in mag

Featured
AM  MAY ISSUE #113 BAR CONVENT BROOKLYN (2).png
AM, Food, May 2025
BAR CONVENT BROOKLYN
AM, Food, May 2025
AM, Food, May 2025
AM  MAY ISSUE #113 IT'S ALL IN THE SIP (1).png
AM, Food, May 2025
IN THE SIP
AM, Food, May 2025
AM, Food, May 2025
AM MAY ISSUE #113 TAOTS 1.png
AM, Food, May 2025, The Art of the Snack, Editor Picks
THE ART OF THE SNACK | A.KITCHEN + BAR D.C.
AM, Food, May 2025, The Art of the Snack, Editor Picks
AM, Food, May 2025, The Art of the Snack, Editor Picks
In AM, Food, Feb 2022, Lifestyle Tags CIROC, Jasmine Luv, LOve Squad, Starter Pack, BET, Host, The Knot, Black Bride, Luv N Slim, Chime
Comment

COMMUNITY IS THE VIBE WITH D-NICE

November 19, 2021

As we embrace the reopenings that have taken place all over the world, we remember those days when we were in the thick of lockdown and we all found ways to maintain a sense of community and connection with others as we did it apart. For us and millions around the world, we found dance and music through a global couch party that had the biggest celebrities from Madonna, Michelle Obama, Nile Rodgers and more that popped in every night. We were all brought together by DJ D-Nice who created a daily (sometimes marathon sessions) IG Live event known as Club Quarantine!

Even though we're past those dark days of 2020, he continues to lead his virtual parties while also bringing the next phase with his Club Quarantine Live tour that took place to much success and we can't wait to see his Club Quarantine festival that will take place in LA in 2022! Before he brought us Club Quarantine, being a major event DJ for brands such as Hennessey, he is also an artist who has released solo projects and was a founding member of Boogie Down Productions with the legendary KRS-One and the late Scott La Rock.

We're pleased to have D-Nice as this month's cover and with a schedule that is constantly on the go, as we talked with him between soundchecks for his performance at YouTube's Advertising Week Show with Mary J. Blige at The Apollo Theater, he talks music; the creation of Club Quarantine and its continued evolution; the importance of musical accessibility; campaigns and how he continues to push his brand while being mindful of the community.

ATHLEISURE MAG: When did you fall in love with music?

D-NICE: I fell in love with music when I was around 6 or 7 years old. I remember where I grew up in the Bronx, my aunts – both of them used to collect a lot of records. It’s so crazy because the artists that they would collect would be Melba Moore and Diana Ross and like Earth, Wind and Fire and obviously, you know, that I'm not lying because that was the thing in like the 70’s.

So when you fast forward to like, Club Quarantine and I’m like hanging out in there in this virtual space with Earth, Wind and Fire and Melba Moore is in there, everyday – it’s kind of full circle to me from my childhood which makes this experience for me so incredible.

AM: For those who may not be familiar with your music career prior to Club Quarantine, can you tell us a bit about your background? You were one of the founding members of the Boogie Down Productions with KRS-One and the late Scott La Rock.

D: I grew up in the Bronx. One of my cousins worked as a security guard at a men’s shelter in the Bronx. He asked me to bring him some food and one night, I walked over to where he was working and he decided to introduce me to his friend that worked there as a social worker, which was DJ Scott La Rock. Scott La Rock introduced me to a homeless guy, which is the legendary KRS-One. From the first meeting, I was 15 and Scott looked at me and he must have felt this energy where he immediately said, “you’re going to be in this group.” That’s how I became part of the Boogie Down Productions crew.

AM: Think back to last year, which in many ways feels like 7 years ago, we were all in this gut-check moment. From a magazine perspective, we shot our last in-person cover 2 days prior to when NY went into lockdown. It was that moment of trying to figure out how we would still do what we do and to still produce everything – in a new way virtually; which we did and it was intensely challenging, but fun and full of artistic growth. So, to do Club Quarantine, how did this come about? It was like the musical and mental health that we so needed to get us through what we didn't even know how much time we'd be going through!

D: The thing about Club Quarantine that’s special is that it was birthed out of the same fear that everyone was experiencing! I was quarantined alone at home in Los Angeles. I was gearing up for a tour with Jill Scott. I was locked in for 10 dates on her tour and when we were forced to quarantine, what was difficult about it, which other people experienced as well, was that none of us were prepared for this – including myself! So, when the quarantine hit, I had to send back deposits because they were cancelling the festivals – they were cancelling Essence Fest, Miami Music Week where I had gigs there, I had SXSW gigs. So all of those gigs, I had to send the money back. I was sitting at home, stressed out, like everyone!

Because I had friends that worked with the former administration, they kept saying, this thing will go on for longer than 2 weeks, man. They said that I should prepare myself. I didn’t even understand how to prepare to not work for a year/year and a half. So that was difficult. CQ was birthed out of the sadness and having a desire to still be connected to people. When I started playing music, I wasn’t even DJing initially. I was just playing music and sharing stories and I started noticing the numbers that were rising on my account from one day being 240 people in there to the next day having 800 people in there. Then, the 3rd day, I did a marathon set with like 2,000 people. Initially, it was a very selfish thing, finding ways to stay connected, but by the 2nd day when I was reading the comments, I knew that it was actually helping people feel connected. I just wanted to continue to do it to keep people inspired.

AM: Speaking back to what we were talking about before with the music, I was born in 1979 and grew up with this music. When I listen to a lot of the songs, it reminds me of cleaning the house with my mom and sister before Soul Train came on. How is it to run the hottest global couch party that has ever existed?

D: Wow yeah, that’s literally it – the hot test global couch party! I mean there were times when I literally didn’t look at it that way. It was one of my buddies, Donnie Wahlberg, every day he would say to me, “dude, I don’t think you understand what’s happening.” I didn’t, because remember, I was home alone! I was playing music, I was at home. I wasn’t dancing with other family members, wasn’t dancing with my mom or kids and I wasn’t having parties on the other end. All I could do was just read comments. I would see hearts and that kept me going. But the other thing that kept me inspired was music! It was the love of music where I felt that I finally had the chance to play music the way that I wanted to hear it anyway from my club days. As a DJ, you kind of lean towards what the promoters wanted, what the fans wanted, but when the world stopped, the fans wanted and needed music that kept them inspired. It just so happened to be the music that I love. To have a chance to play David Bowie and mix David Bowie in with Madonna and all of a sudden, Madonna is in my IG Live. Then I could play a Stevie Wonder record and then throw in a JAY-Z and rock Rihanna and then all of a sudden, Rihanna is in there! There’s no better party then that! Everyone had a chance to feel the music and still be inspired and it was awesome. And it continues to be awesome!

AM: Which I think is awesome and I love the versatility of the music. I mean, I love all kinds of genres, my great uncle was the late tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson so I have my jazz elements that I love and I love EDM. I remember when you had David Bowie to Madonna and then you had Nile Rodgers that popped in which I had styled him a few years ago for a project which was awesome to see him come through.

D: I mean, Nile Rodgers, when he came in it was beautiful!

AM: I’ll never forget when I was in his apartment on the UWS and he was showing me his music sheets of his work with Madonna and he was like, "I did this and I did that." I just remember feeling that I was standing in the room of greatness at that moment.

D: Yes absolutely.

AM: The fact that we have actually been able to see how you have evolved CQ from the at home sessions to performing to major moments that you were part of from encouraging people to register to vote, having people vote, social justice movements and then moving that into bringing it live in person such as launching at the Hollywood Bowl and being on the tour for that too, what’s it like to evolve the brand?

D: I felt that it was my job to protect the brand. Protecting the brand meant not keeping the platform to myself and to include other people. It was about authenticity and making sure that what I did online translated well into the live space. My desire to play the Hollywood Bowl was birthed out of seeing so many people in there. Early on in the pandemic, I was trying to figure out what place that this would feel like and would make sense. I wanted to give everyone something to imagine and look forward to when the world opened up again. I just threw it out there and said, “one day, I’m going to play the Hollywood Bowl and be the first show!”

A year and a half later when I received the offer to play the Hollywood Bowl, I was excited! But it didn’t really hit me until the morning that I announced that the tickets were on sale on IG Live and I said, “I have something to share with everyone. My gosh, we got the Hollywood Bowl, tickets are on sale in one hour.” Within that first hour, we sold 10,000 tickets. It was very emotional. To know that something that I did just out of the love of music that started in my kitchen – literally in the kitchen, went on to become something where we sold out 15,000 people in the Hollywood Bowl in 3 days! It's a very humbling feeling and it's beautiful to know that people want to listen to music the way that I do. You have to want to be there to hear the music, the fans want to be there, the art ists want to be there – there were fans that bought tickets to all of the CQ Live shows and we kept it limited. Obviously, we’re still dealing with this pandemic so we didn’t want to be reckless by doing a full on tour. But for all of the shows, there are people like hundreds of people that attended all 3 of them. It’s something special that’s happening right now. The music is secondary when it comes to Club Quarantine. It wasn’t just about the music, it was about community. To me, that’s number one – about people staying connected. By the way, there’s some cool music being played right now and we’re going to dance together as well!

AM: It’s undeniable that live shows have an amazing vibe to them. What are your plans on the virtual side of things as we continue over the next few months, will this still be part of your portfolio or are you looking to segue completely to back where we were prior to 2020 where we could comfortably be together in person?

D: I want to continue to have the virtual space to be part of it. It’s an important element because not everyone can afford to travel to these cities, not everyone can afford to buy tickets. Let’s be realistic. People lost jobs and people are still trying to recover from that. To me, it would be a little bit unfair to just pull that away from everyone and I want to continue to share my love of music with people and to inspire community, so it’s important for me to do this for at least another 6 months or as long as social media will allow me to play. You know, things change, people are outside now so it may not be as exciting, but for me, it’s always important that whenever I return to Los Angeles, I need to play 1 or 2 sets to at least get it in. By the way, I’m not just doing it for the people, I happen to like playing music!

AM: You can tell!

D: Yes! I love playing music, so if I can share music when I log on and there are 30,000 - 50,000 people at the end of the set, that means there is still a need and desire to hear music that way. I just want to be able to fill that need and to continue to keep people inspired.

AM: I love music festivals and it was great to see that here in NY, Governors Ball and Electric Zoo came back. Do you envision CQ having a physical festival?

D: Oh no – it’s not even about envisioning it, it’s actually happening! It’s happening Aug of 2022. We’re literally in the planning stages right now, planning the artists that I want to perform with. That’s happening. August of 2022, the festival happens in Los Angeles.

AM: Earlier this year, you dropped “No Plans For Love” with Ne-Yo and Kent Jones. How was that working on this single and are you working on an album?

D: Releasing the single was fun. It was a different process because we were doing everything remotely with Kent and Ne-Yo was interesting. I wasn’t in the studio with Ne-Yo when he recorded his vocals. It was almost like, when he finished the demo of the song, by the time I heard it, they said Ne-Yo had cut the song. I listened to it and I was excited about it. That song did well, top 5 for R&B for the single. I’m deep on working on the album right now. It was important to me that when we put the record out, we had something to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of Club Quarantine and that’s why we didn’t have an album to follow it up. It was just about putting that single out for people to have a song that they would remember during the quarantine. I’m really happy that the single did well and I am looking forward to completing this project.

AM: You’ve amassed an amazing platform and I’m sure that you are constantly wading through offers of things that you want to do. What's your process in terms of thinking about brand synergies. I loved the Band-Aid campaign that you were part of. What are you thinking of when you know that the brands are interested in D-Nice?

D: Everything that I have done has been important for the synergy to be there. I have to be mindful of a couple of things right? 1. I’m not just a DJ that’s happening right now. I do have history and I have to be respectful of my history. Everything that I participate in, you want it to resonate with the younger generation, but I am respectful of the legacy that was already built and the people that listened to my music back in the day who are still jamming to my music right now. The first project that I worked on during the quarantine was the Apple commercial and that was great because it had Oprah and all of these celebrities in there.

The 2nd campaign I worked on was for Budweiser which was based on the old commercial of “What’s Up” and people checking in on each other. So it was me, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Candace Parker. That was great!

Then I did the Ford Commercial and what made that so authentically me was that, not only was I DJing in the commercial, did the voiceover for it, I was in it – but my record from back in the day was also a tie in. I thought it was an awesome thing for people to see the evolution of me being a recording artist in 1990 and here we are in 2021 with a commercial that’s updated but still using the essence of who I am which was great.

With Band-Aid, I thought it was awesome to be a person of color and never having Band-Aids that could match our skin tone! It was great to be part of that campaign and to be able to show! But on the other side for me, to see that Corporate America and these big brands actually trust me to be part of what they’re doing and I didn’t take that lightly either.

Throughout my career, what I did was to be able to sustain in terms of how dedicated I have been to do the right thing with people. To work with Michelle Obama and to raise awareness with voter rights and voter registration. Raising money for the Apollo Theater, Breast Cancer Awareness, raising 100s of thousands for HBCUs – it’s important to always use that platform to do some good. Even with those campaigns, I always have to be part of something that wouldn’t just be a good look for me, but to be a good look for people in general.

AM: What is the best piece of business advice that you have received?

D: Honestly, it wasn’t based on any advice that one person gave me, it was based on what I felt in my heart. In the beginning of quarantine, people were offering me millions of dollars and I didn’t accept any of it and it’s because it didn’t feel good to me. It's not that I didn't want to make money, let’s be honest, I am a business man and this is my business, I am an artist. But in that moment, in those very early weeks of the quarantine, to all of a sudden monetize something right before everyone’s eyes when it was something that people needed – it didn’t feel right to me and it didn’t sit well with me. I didn’t want that on my conscious. I wanted to do something that was truly about keeping people inspired and I remember that one of my DJ friends called and he’s a huge DJ, he’s globally known. He called me and said, “hey man, this is the first time that I could actually dance with my family and I appreciate you!” I’ll never forget conversations like that and there were multiple ones like that. I knew that this was something special and all I wanted to do was to play music.

Now, it did become a business months later. We can’t deny that! But even in terms of it being a business, it was important to do things that didn’t push success into anyone’s face. It wasn’t about the money. It wasn’t about diamonds and cars – it wasn't about buying things. It was about keeping people inspired.

AM: You recently became an investor at Maison Marcel. Why did you want to enter this space and will you do anything that is outfaced with the brand?

D: I invested in it because obviously, I’m a wine drinker and I have been looking to get into the space for years. Even before working with Maison Marcel, I was a brand ambassador for Hennessey for nearly a decade of being involved with them. The natural progression would be to own your spirits company or to one day own your wine company. When the opportunity presented itself to be a part of it, I jumped on it. I was first introduced to the brand by my buddy Hassan Smith, who works with John Legend. It wasn’t even about investing, it was, “hey, would you like a glass of wine.” I enjoyed it and he was like, “I invested in this.” Then 2 years later, I became an investor. I’m not sure what we will do in terms of forward facing involvement. I didn’t want to be a spokesperson because I didn’t want the brand to be about me. I enjoy my wine, so I am always going to talk about it. I enjoy the product – so we’ll see.

AM: How do you take time for yourself when you’re not in the midst of playing music, creating music building your brand and all of the things that you do?

D: Honestly, I have to figure that out! The one thing that I am doing is spending more time with my kids. Especially now that school is back. I have 2 daughters. One graduated from law school and I have a younger daughter she’s in the 4th grade so that’s important. Other than that, I enjoy – I mean people think that I’m exhausted. There are times that I am, but I don’t feel burnt out because I truly love what I do!

AM: Your impact on this global pandemic that you gave to people and the impact on the culture throughout your career has been immense! Over the past few months, you have received a number of accolades from Webby Artist of the Year, Shine A Light Award from BET Awards, NAACP Image Awards for Entertainer of the Year and an ASCAP Voice of the Culture Award – what do you want your legacy to be?

D: That’s a tough one. You know, when I think about it, I just want people to know that it’s ok to be a nice guy, no pun attended. It’s ok to be a good guy. What’s happened my entire life over my career was not solely based on talent. It was based on being kind to people and being there for people. So when you think about Club Quarantine, none of this happens overnight. You’re talking about 35 years of relationships in the music industry. Michelle Obama wasn’t on my IG because she heard that I was DJing. That was because I made a phone call and the only reason why I could make that phone call is because I have worked with them and I have been kind to people. In that moment, that was the first time that I recognized that

people came to something because I was doing it. For decades, I was always there doing things for them. To me, it was important that I make sure that I put kindness into everything that I am doing and with one another. Hopefully, that will be part of my legacy.

AM: For #TRIBEGOALS, we talk to trailblazers in the industry and ask them who are 3 people that have influenced you to be where you are today.

D: The 1st person would be Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for obvious reasons. Obviously, he was Black and dealt with the plight of Black people, but it was also important for him to represent human beings period and that has always been an important part of growing up for me.

The 2nd person would be Stevie Wonder. His music, the storytelling in his music and the feeling in his music has always been an important part of my growing up and even including him in my sets now. Even knowing Stevie and having dinner with him, it's been one of the highlights of my career.

The third person would be, Barack Obama. From the moment that I met him, I'll share a story. One day I was DJing an event that he was hosting, he was still President at the time and we were on Martha's Vineyard. We were in a small tent, maybe 50 people people in total were attending. I was a guest and also DJing and there was this one moment, which was in his last year of his presidency, where I saw him sitting in a corner by himself, people were dancing and I looked over at him. I remember thinking that to see someone who probably had the weight of the world on his shoulders in that very moment, but he was still able to be present with his family and friends was inspiring to see that no matter how much work you have going on in your life, it’s still important to maintain that love and respect for your family and friends. I never forgot that moment and I’m truly inspired by Barack Obama!

IG @dnice

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY | D-Nice

Read the OCT ISSUE #71 of Athleisure Mag and see Community is the Vibe with D-Nice in mag.

Hear DJ/Producer D-Nice on our show, #TRIBEGOALS - which is a part of Athleisure Studio, our multimedia companion podcast network! Subscribe to be notified when the episode drops. Listen on iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or wherever you enjoy your podcasts.

Featured
AM  MAY ISSUE #113 GOVERNORS BALL (1).png
AM, Festival, May 2025, Music
GOV BALL 2025
AM, Festival, May 2025, Music
AM, Festival, May 2025, Music
9PL SC AM MAY 25 X.png
AM, Celebrity, May 2025, Music
9PLAYLIST | SABRINA CARPENTER
AM, Celebrity, May 2025, Music
AM, Celebrity, May 2025, Music
91bGLMEyixL._UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg
AM, Bingely Books, Mar 2025, Food, Music
BINGELY BOOKS
AM, Bingely Books, Mar 2025, Food, Music
AM, Bingely Books, Mar 2025, Food, Music
9PL MULTI SS - MAR 25 ZX.png
9PLAYLIST MULTI, AM, Mar 2025, Music, Athletes, Sports, Streaming, Olympian, Olympics
9PLAYLIST MULTI | SLOANE STEPHENS
9PLAYLIST MULTI, AM, Mar 2025, Music, Athletes, Sports, Streaming, Olympian, Olympics
9PLAYLIST MULTI, AM, Mar 2025, Music, Athletes, Sports, Streaming, Olympian, Olympics
9PL K - MAR 25 Z.png
9PLAYLIST, AM, Mar 2025, Music
9PLAYLIST | KAAZE
9PLAYLIST, AM, Mar 2025, Music
9PLAYLIST, AM, Mar 2025, Music
9PL RR - MAR 25 ZGD XZ.png
9PLAYLIST, AM, Music, Sports, Social Distancing, Athletes
9PLAYLIST | RASHEE RICE
9PLAYLIST, AM, Music, Sports, Social Distancing, Athletes
9PLAYLIST, AM, Music, Sports, Social Distancing, Athletes
9PL JH - FEB 25 Z.png
9PLAYLIST, AM, Athletes, Feb 2025, Sports, Music
9PLAYLIST | JALEN HURTS
9PLAYLIST, AM, Athletes, Feb 2025, Sports, Music
9PLAYLIST, AM, Athletes, Feb 2025, Sports, Music
COVER CARISSA MOORE II (1).png
AM, Jan 2025, Style, Celebrity, Music
BLESSED ICE | SIMONE I SMITH
AM, Jan 2025, Style, Celebrity, Music
AM, Jan 2025, Style, Celebrity, Music
9PL KLSZA - JAN 25.png
9PLAYLIST, AM, Music
9PLAYLIST | KENDRICK LAMAR + SZA
9PLAYLIST, AM, Music
9PLAYLIST, AM, Music
2025_grammys_nominations_show_air_date_announcement_67_grammy_awards_1644x925_updated4.jpg
Awards Season 2024-2025, Awards Season, Music, Celebrity
AWARDS SEASON | GRAMMYS WINNERS
Awards Season 2024-2025, Awards Season, Music, Celebrity
Awards Season 2024-2025, Awards Season, Music, Celebrity
In AM, Oct 2021, Music, Celebrity Tags Music, DJ, D-Nice, Band-Aid, Ford Trucks, Budweiser, Club Quarantine, CQ, COVID, Maison Marcel, John Legend, Apple Commercial, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Candace Parker, No Plans for Love, Ne-Yo, Kent Jones, Hollywood Bowl, Boogie Down Productions, Donnie Wahlberg, David Bowie, Madonna, Jay-Z, Joe Henderson, Rihanna, SXSW, Essence Fest, BET, ASCAP, Miami Music Week, Mary J Blige, AdWeek, Melba Moore, Diana Ross, Earth Wind and Fire, KRS-One, Scott La Rock, Nile Rodgers, Michelle Obama, Stevie Wonder, Barack Obama, Martin Luther King Jr
Comment
2020-09-06.png

THE TRANSFORMATION WITH KIM KIMBLE

September 7, 2020

When it comes to creating dynamic hair in film, TV, photoshoots, videos, red carpets (Met Gala, Oscars, etc.), Coachella and cover editorials (Vogue, Vanity Fair, etc.), Kim Kimble is a known name in the industry. Her level of creativity and transforming her clients to another level has been seen on Beyoncé, Shakira, Mary J. Blige, Zendaya and Kelly Rowland to name a few. This 3rd generation hair stylist has grown her brand to include a full line of products from wigs, extensions and hair care. For 5 seasons, she shared the business of hair from her salon, team and her celeb clients on WE TV's L.A. Hair. In addition, she continues to challenge herself as she takes on projects that showcase that her there are no bounds to her vision of dominating the industry that she loves so much.

ATHLEISURE MAG: What was the moment that you realized that you wanted to be a hairstylist?

KIM KIMBLE: Well in all honesty, I’m a 3rd generation hairstylist so my mother and my grandmother also did hair. I was around it all my life; however, I wasn’t convinced that I would do it forever. I would do hair, work my way – after I got my license, I worked on hair as I made my way through fashion school as I wanted to be a fashion designer. That was my dream at the time. In all honesty, once I started doing hair, one day I realized that I love the challenge of it. I saw you could do more than just stand behind a chair. Early on – they called it Platform Artists Hair Stylists, there were hair shows and I could see that there was more then just doing this. Once I saw the transformation of my clients in my chair, when they would get out of my chair – that’s where my slogan, ‘Great Hair Equals Confidence,” came from as I saw the change in my clients when they would get out of the chair and how they would transform. I would see it later when I would work my celebrity clients and they would get on stage and how they would become a whole other person.

That gave me a lot of purpose and even with creating products and things like that, seeing the change and how it could make a difference in a person’s life – there is something about that that fulfills me. So I was like, I’m sticking with hair and gave up fashion.

AM: What was the project that made you realize that you had made it?

KK: Oh wow. I mean when I did BAPS, that was my first movie and that was pretty great for me. I had so many milestones in my career. But I think that once I started working with Beyoncé and I saw respect. I started getting so many different people reaching out to work with me. I started seeing the change of being accepted for different magazines and being able to do different covers. Then I knew that the career was really taking off and was onto something special. You know, I was able to transform my career and I saw a change. One day, you’re doing your thing and then the next day you’re like the most sought after hairstylist in the world because of one client. I got to experience that. I was doing celebrities before I met her and I was doing film before I met her. How I met her was through film, but in all honesty, I really took off and everything changed. When her career started taking off as a solo artist as her career was huge with Destiny’s Child, it was her solo career when I started working with her and everything changed.

AM: What does it mean to be Kimbleized?

KK: Well Kimbleized, the phrase came from one day when I was on WE TV’s L.A. Hair, my reality show. I mentioned it in a confessional that she has now been Kimbleized. It means that she has been touched by the Kimble, her hair has been certified by Kim Kimble and transformed by Kim Kimble in the Kim Kimble style and in the Kim Kimble way. I said it one day in an interview and then they put these chimes behind it and I was like, “yes” and I had an epiphany and I said, “everyone is going to be Kimbleized.” When I have finished someone’s hair I will tell them, “you have just been Kimbleized.” It’s also because when I’m with my clients, I spoil them so well when they get their hair done that they don’t want to go to anybody else. Your life has been changed and you want Kim Kimble to do your hair. It’s a whole thing.

AM: In talking about your show, it was one of the first ones that I knew of that incorporated your whole team, having the nail artists that was there and showing the culture of getting your look put together. What was the confluence that happened that made you think that you wanted to do a show?

KK: In all honesty, I’m a creative person. I used to produce hair shows and events like that. So I had the producer/creative bug in me. I had been trying to create these shows for a minute but I hadn’t been successful. I wasn’t really trying to do one surrounding me and my squad. That’s not what I was pitching. Then I gave up because I hadn’t had any luck doing that and I didn’t get picked up. It happens a lot. You go out there, you pitch, sometimes you’re hot and sometimes you’re not. I stopped pitching, gave up, said forget it and then a producer reached out to me and asked if I would be interested in coming in and having a show that was about me and my team. They knew there was someone who was looking for something like that. I said, “yeah ok, whatever.” I didn’t think that it would happen. At first I was a little nervous about doing something like that because I know how dramatic the salon, stylists and artists are. But you know that that’s what the shows look for, but I didn’t know if I wanted to put my business or brand in a situation that would affect me. I know that I had seen some of the shows and there was a little negativity there and I’m a control freak. I wanted to be in control of my brand and what I did. I didn’t want to put my brand in the hands of just anybody.

With the shows, those contracts are real serious. I didn’t even get to go on the pitches, I didn’t know who they pitched or what they did. All I know is that I was on a show called Let’s Stay Together on BET in Atlanta and I get a call and they say, “guess what? Your show has been picked up by WE TV.” I was like, “what?” It happened so fast that I didn’t even get a chance to think about it. I’m like that, I will just jump in feet first and just see what happens. I jumped into it. Was I nervous? Yes. I worked on TV and films, but I hadn’t worked on any reality shows. I didn’t know what that was like. I did a lot of television in terms of makeovers and interviews so I had done some things – it helped break me in, but it was a completely different thing.

The day the cameras came into the salon, I was like, “oh my God, what have I just done?” I didn’t know anything about this and it ended up working out just fine. I would do it again. It was dramatic, 5 seasons, but I was very proud of what we did. It was dramatic in front of and behind the camera, but I would do it again in a heartbeat. A lot of people really admired and loved the show. Every time I’m on my social media, I’m asked if L.A. Hair is coming back, what am I doing, will there be another show etc. They don’t realize that I’m a hair stylist first and not a television personality first. My day job is always working with clients. So when you saw that on the show, a lot of that stuff was real jobs that I had done and they allowed us to bring a camera. Sometimes it would be stuff that we would create for opportunities, but a lot of them were people that I had worked with. Some of them were people that I had not worked with and it was my first time working with them. It was important for me to show what we really do. The realness, running a business and a lot of people underestimate entrepreneurship which is interesting for women and especially women of color. There are a lot of women entrepreneurs and a lot of times in shows they may think that people want to see the drama, but they also want to know about running a business. It was important for me to share a lot of the things that were going on in the business, things that I did on set and that’s why people liked it – it was the real deal.

Kinky-Hair-Prescription-new_1024x.jpg
IMG_8569 (1).jpeg

There was a little drama here and there and I would have people call me and say that they were going through the same thing at their salon. People can relate because everyone knows this is what salons bring and that’s why I was nervous because I knew that we were about to look real crazy on there. I’ll be honest with you, I’m not ashamed of any of it. I think it was a great opportunity and I know a lot of people have a lot of bad things to say about reality TV, but I will be honest with you. I don’t put anything out there that I don’t want out there! If I don’t want it out there, I don’t do it. What TV does is bring out who you are. It really brings it out whether you want it to or not. I will put that out there that if you want to do reality TV, then be careful because who you are will come out. A couple of times I got heated, but that’s real though. You can’t blame anybody who is focused on their business or their brand. I’m not afraid to let people know that I am territorial when it comes to taking care of my clients and I don’t want people taking advantage of me. I’m a business woman and I enjoyed it. I hope to get another chance as we’re looking at other opportunities which will be a little different. I don’t know if we’ll do L.A. Hair again because the times have changed and that’s been done – so I don’t know if we will do that again.

AM: You have created iconic looks and just recently with Beyoncé’s Black is King video with the 30ft braids. How do you come up with your concepts and what is that process like?

KK: This particular process was interesting. When we work together, we create boards and on this one, we started with Africa early on when she was doing Lemonade. I felt that natural hair was wear we wanted to go, her weave was more natural textures. We looked at the beauty of Africa and I was looking at women. I keep referring to Lemonade and going back there because that whole concept was about women early on before we had relaxers and that kind of stuff. We started with a lot of different African inspirations for hair. When she did Black is King, it was more about Africa and with The Lion King – what it would be like and discovering the beauty of Blackness. That’s what was amazing about that project. There were a couple of things that I had worked on for some of her videos. She has a creative director team and we were talking about a 30ft braid that needed to be long so that it could wrap around the body. Of course, that didn’t happen, but the wig was made and I have an amazing team of braiders that have worked with me on many projects. I dream up something and we get together and it’s like a lab. We test it out, do a couple of samples to see how it works and then it becomes something that we execute. When Beyoncé dreams something and says she wants this or that, we just create it – that’s what we do. That’s why I like working with her. It’s a lot of fun, it’s creative and I like to be challenged. Those challenges can be something crazy like a 30ft braid, Ivy Park beads in my braid – but you get with the team and we make it and we made history.

When I worked with Nicki Minaj, she had been wearing long hair and I wanted to do pink braids because she likes pink. I got together with the team and I said, “hey let’s do pink braids to the floor.” We broke the internet. I have been blessed to have great opportunities that are allowed by artists who create. I’m just an out there person when it comes to this and I like it!

AM: In addition to your great talent and custom work, you also have a line of products and hair as well. How important was it to you to bring this to market to round out your empire?

KK: This is the thing. With the celebrities that I work with, a lot of people want the same celebrity look and they want to know what you use and how to use it for that same look. A lot of the items were created to fit the needs of my clients. A lot of my clients are the inspiration behind these types of products. I started creating them to fit the mood of my customers.

In about a week or so, I am launching a line for Sally Beauty for natural hair. I’m excited about it, it’s an amazing line. I did it because on L.A. Hair people would message me on social and they would ask me what they could do to put on their natural hair. I have natural hair and creating great products, it’s so hard to find the right curl mixture. So we create those products because we need these items that work well in our hair. Sometimes they’re too greasy or they’re good with the hydration but they don’t quite get the style right. You have a lot of people that create lines, but they’re not hair stylists that have been doing hair for so many years. They don’t understand how hair works and what kinds of products are best suited for the hair. It’s another part of the creative process and it’s something that I like to be able to do.

AM: What are the other projects that you have on the horizon that we should know about as you’re always doing something.

KK: I’ve been doing a lot of consultations with clients online which has been a lot of fun actually! I can help them through this whole time to get their hair together for color, extensions and wigs. I’m creating a line of wigs which I am launching for HSN and I just told you about the products launching at Sally Beauty. A lot of people don’t know that we also do hair tools and there can be movie and TV shows that I’m working on coming up. I created a digital TV show on my own. You’ll be hearing about it soon. It’s not ready just yet we’re shooting it now but keep an eye out. It’s really great because it’s fun. You know Kim Kimble is always doing something even in the middle of a pandemic child!

AM: Honestly, if you’re able to do so. The pandemic has been a great time to launch, refine, pivot and deploy. People are a little more accessible at the moment.

KK: Exactly.

AM: We always like asking our changemakers as you are definitely one and you’re a trailblazer and being Ms Transformer, who are 3 people that inspire you to be where you are in your career?

KK: That’s easy. Madame CJ Walker, Jas On and my mom. Those are the people that inspire me.

IG @KimbleHairCare

PHOTOS COURTESY | Kim Kimble

Depositphotos_283279196_ds.jpg

Hear Celebrity Hair Stylist Kim Kimble on our show, #TRIBEGOALS - which is a part of Athleisure Studio, our multi-media podcast network! Make sure to subscribe to find out when the episode drops. You can hear it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and wherever you enjoy listening to your favorite podcast.

AS+Podcast.png
TRIBEGOALS S2 SLATE KK.jpg

Read the Aug Issue of Athleisure Mag #56 and see The Transformation with Kim Kimble in mag.

Featured Beauty
9LIST.png
Jun 7, 2025
THE 9LIST
Jun 7, 2025
Jun 7, 2025
THE PICK ME UP.png
Jun 6, 2025
THE PICK ME UP
Jun 6, 2025
Jun 6, 2025
ATHLEISURE BEAUTY.png
Jun 3, 2025
ATHLEISURE BEAUTY
Jun 3, 2025
Jun 3, 2025
CUCUMBER BEAUTY.png
Jun 1, 2025
CUCUMBER BEAUTY
Jun 1, 2025
Jun 1, 2025
ATHLEISURE BEAUTY.png
May 7, 2025
ATHLEISURE BEAUTY
May 7, 2025
May 7, 2025
GOJI BEAUTY.png
May 4, 2025
GOJI BERRY BEAUTY
May 4, 2025
May 4, 2025
AM MAR ISSUE #111 ARIA.png
Apr 18, 2025
ATHLEISURE LIST | ARIA RETREAT & SPA
Apr 18, 2025
Apr 18, 2025
ATHLEISURE BEAUTY.png
Apr 4, 2025
ATHLEISURE BEAUTY
Apr 4, 2025
Apr 4, 2025
CITRUS AURANTIUM BEAUTY.png
Apr 3, 2025
CITRUS AURANTIUM BEAUTY
Apr 3, 2025
Apr 3, 2025
KALE BEAUTY.png
Mar 1, 2025
KALE BEAUTY
Mar 1, 2025
Mar 1, 2025
In Aug 2020, Beauty, Celebrity, TV Show, Editor Picks Tags Beauty, Kim Kimble, TV Show, Hair, Hair Stylist, Beyonce, Shakira, HSN, Kimble Hair Care, Madame C. J. Walker, Jas On, Sally Beauty, Nicki Minaj, Ivy Park, The Lion King, Lemonade, Black is King, WE TV, L.A. Hair, BET, Let's Stay Together, Destiny's Child, BAPS, Mary J. Blige, Zendaya\, Kelly Rowland
4 Comments

GET ATH MAG

Read the MAY ISSUE #113.

GET YOUR COPY OF MAY ISSUE #113

Personal trainers
Personal Trainer Jobs

Sign up for our newsletter!

Sign up for our newsletter!


PODCAST NETWORK

ATHLEISURE STUDIO SLATE.jpg
LISTEN TO ALL OF #TRIBEGOALS’ EPISODES ON SPOTIFY, APPLE PODCAST, GOOGLE PODCAST AND MORE

LISTEN TO ALL OF #TRIBEGOALS’ EPISODES ON SPOTIFY, APPLE PODCAST, GOOGLE PODCAST AND MORE

LISTEN TO ALL OF ATHLEISURE KITCHEN’S EPISODES ON iHEARTRADIO, SPOTIFY, APPLE PODCAST, GOOGLE PODCAST AND MORE

LISTEN TO ALL OF ATHLEISURE KITCHEN’S EPISODES ON iHEARTRADIO, SPOTIFY, APPLE PODCAST, GOOGLE PODCAST AND MORE

LISTEN TO ALL OF BUNGALOW SK’S EPISODES ON iHEARTRADIO, SPOTIFY, APPLE PODCAST, GOOGLE PODCAST AND MORE

LISTEN TO ALL OF BUNGALOW SK’S EPISODES ON iHEARTRADIO, SPOTIFY, APPLE PODCAST, GOOGLE PODCAST AND MORE

LISTEN TO ALL OF THE 9LIST’S EPISODES ON iHEARTRADIO, SPOTIFY, APPLE PODCAST, GOOGLE PODCAST AND MORE

LISTEN TO ALL OF THE VOT3D IO’S EPISODES ON iHEARTRADIO, SPOTIFY, APPLE PODCAST, GOOGLE PODCAST AND MORE


TRENDING

Featured
AM MAY ISSUE #113 TAOTS 1.png
AM, Food, May 2025, The Art of the Snack, Editor Picks
THE ART OF THE SNACK | A.KITCHEN + BAR D.C.
AM, Food, May 2025, The Art of the Snack, Editor Picks
AM, Food, May 2025, The Art of the Snack, Editor Picks
AM MAY COVER CHEF EC I a.png
AM, May 2025, Ath Mag Issues, Editor Picks
ATHLEISURE MAG #113 | CHEF ESTHER CHOI
AM, May 2025, Ath Mag Issues, Editor Picks
AM, May 2025, Ath Mag Issues, Editor Picks
OS DILLON GABRIEL (1).png
AM, Apr 2025, Athletes, Editor Picks, Sports
IT'S ABOUT THE GAME | DILLON GABRIEL
AM, Apr 2025, Athletes, Editor Picks, Sports
AM, Apr 2025, Athletes, Editor Picks, Sports
OS GODFATHER OF HARLEM Elvis Nolasco_Erik LaRay Harvey (1).png
AM, Apr 2025, Editor Picks, TV Show
MGM+ GODFATHER OF HARLEM | RETURN TO HARLEM
AM, Apr 2025, Editor Picks, TV Show
AM, Apr 2025, Editor Picks, TV Show
ATHLEISURE MAG #112 | CHEF MASAHARU MORIMOTO
AM, Apr 2025, Ath Mag Issues, Editor Picks
ATHLEISURE MAG #112 | CHEF MASAHARU MORIMOTO
AM, Apr 2025, Ath Mag Issues, Editor Picks
AM, Apr 2025, Ath Mag Issues, Editor Picks
SPRINGING AHEAD | KELLY OLMSTEAD CMO ALLBIRDS
AM, Fashion, Lifestyle, Mar 2025, Editor Picks
SPRINGING AHEAD | KELLY OLMSTEAD CMO ALLBIRDS
AM, Fashion, Lifestyle, Mar 2025, Editor Picks
AM, Fashion, Lifestyle, Mar 2025, Editor Picks
THE SPICE OF LIFE | CHEF MANEET CHAUHAN
AM, Food, Mar 2025, TV Show, Editor Picks
THE SPICE OF LIFE | CHEF MANEET CHAUHAN
AM, Food, Mar 2025, TV Show, Editor Picks
AM, Food, Mar 2025, TV Show, Editor Picks
AM MAR COVER I p.png
AM, Ath Mag Issues, Editor Picks, Mar 2025
ATHLEISURE MAG #111 | RASHEE RICE
AM, Ath Mag Issues, Editor Picks, Mar 2025
AM, Ath Mag Issues, Editor Picks, Mar 2025
DIGGING INTO THE DYNASTY | HBO'S CELTICS CITY DIRECTOR LAUREN STOWELL + PRODUCER GABE HONIG
AM, Athletes, Feb 2025, Sports, Streaming, HBO, HBO Max, Max Original, Bingely Streaming, Bingely TV/Streaming, Editor Picks
DIGGING INTO THE DYNASTY | HBO'S CELTICS CITY DIRECTOR LAUREN STOWELL + PRODUCER GABE HONIG
AM, Athletes, Feb 2025, Sports, Streaming, HBO, HBO Max, Max Original, Bingely Streaming, Bingely TV/Streaming, Editor Picks
AM, Athletes, Feb 2025, Sports, Streaming, HBO, HBO Max, Max Original, Bingely Streaming, Bingely TV/Streaming, Editor Picks
ON THE COUNTRYSIDE | CHEF VINCENT CREPEL
AM, Feb 2025, Food, Editor Picks
ON THE COUNTRYSIDE | CHEF VINCENT CREPEL
AM, Feb 2025, Food, Editor Picks
AM, Feb 2025, Food, Editor Picks