Will This Friendship Survive? | KARAMO

All right, friends, my next guest, Jayshonna, is at odds with an ex-best friend over a business deal gone bad. Lanay was supposed to be Jayshonna's manager, but Jayshonna recently fired her. Let's all listen to the voice memo that Jayshonna left Lanay 2 weeks ago.

I can't keep reminding you to do the shit that you're supposed to do. I need a manager Who is going to be like, okay, who's actually going to listen to me? Who's going to make a plan? Who is going to give me a plan? Because I need plans. If you cannot work with an artist who needs plans, then you cannot work with me. And that's what I'm trying to tell you. You cannot be my manager if you cannot handle plans. And you can also not be my manager if you ever, ever, ever fix your fucking lips to tell me that You have control over my fucking music. No, you don't. No, you don't, Laney.

Whew, Jayshonna, that was an intense voicemail. So please tell me from your point of view what happened.

So first of all, I said what I said and I regret nothing. The situation is basically, you know, me and Laney have been friends for a while and we started working together. She was supposed to be my manager, supposedly my manager, and it's not giving that. I'm not getting my content, I'm not getting paperwork signed, I'm not getting any of the things I feel like I need as a client.

Got it. So why do you need a manager?

First of all, Karamo, if nobody knows, I'm the last poet and it's not my fault I'm lyrical. I'm good with words and verbs and spinning up a parable. I probably personify the type of bars that's jelling you. So that's why, 'cause I'm— Work, it was cute.

That went right in.

That was cute.

Okay, I live.

But like, oh, and that's me. And the thing is really like, I'm invested in my craft now. I quit my job in February to do what I love full-time. I need a team behind me that's gonna support me, but only if they gonna do it right.

Got it. And so you said that Laney refused to sign a contract?

Karamo, I wish refused was the word I would use. I'm gonna go ahead and say disregarded completely. I sent it when we first started working together, maybe 3-ish months ago. Reminders, text messages, sent it again maybe about a month ago. And it's just not even getting acknowledged. Do I matter? Am I a client? I don't know.

So then why did you resend it if you already saw that she wasn't responding?

Because I just feel like, I feel like I really care about her, Karamo. I don't even deal with people. I don't like nobody, but I love her. So in my mind, seriously, in my mind, I'm feeling like, okay, I don't wanna just lash out. I don't wanna just be negative. Let me try and be solution-oriented, but I feel like that just doesn't work. It is tearing me apart to try and keep inside how I really feel about the situation just to protect her feelings. It's not fair to me.

So what caused you to leave that voice memo then?

I dropped a song called "No Features" maybe about 2-ish weeks ago. We recorded a video for that song 2 months ago. Haven't asked about it, assumed she was working on it, whatever. I asked her, I said, "Well, when do you think it's gonna be done?" And she said Sundays. Well, Sunday came and went, it was not done. When I sent that, it started out, it started out like—

You're at your wit's end by that point.

Right, and it started out again with the same question, when?

So how did you meet Lennay? Take me back.

So I met Lennay in, I wanna say maybe 2018, 2017, at a Rico Nasty concert. So she was there as I think a manager of some of the dancers and I was there, I had just gotten like a free, ticket because I know people. And we ended up outside together, just chilling, talking. And from there, we became friends.

So this is the timeline of how you met. 2018 Rico Nasty concert. Yes.

Oh, good. I'm glad you have this.

2019.

Oh. I'm glad you have this. OK. So boom. So boom. So.

OK.

So good. So 2018 was right. We met at the Rico Nasty concert, right? So in 2019, I start my company, Tune In, Space Out Media. Right? And we do a lot of stuff, but that's not relevant to the story. So I quit my job in February, in part with the understanding that Lanay would be my support.

Okay.

She wasn't. So in June, yes, receipts, I sent her the contract the first time, the first time, and it's the same contract for all her clients. September, I send it again with a little note in the text that's like, hey, top of your to-do list, sign the contract soon. Super simple, takes 2 seconds, nothing. So after I sent that voice note, I don't like to argue. So once I felt myself getting that mad, I just blocked her and I blocked her every account. I don't care.

The reason I asked for this timeline from talking to you and my producers is because it's important to know exactly when this started, how long this been going on and see what's happening. So what do you want Lanay to know?

Karamo, I need you to drop a truth bomb on her that she cannot and will not be my manager. It's not a good fit.

Mm-hmm.

Well, I think that's clear already.

That's what I'm saying, but she don't understand that.

I think it's time that we hear from Jayshonna's manager, Lanay.

Ex-manager. Ex-manager Lanay.

Everyone, please welcome Lanay to the show.

You know what I was dealing with. I lost, my kid's dad was murdered.

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that.

My husband walked out on me. I'm going through a divorce, same month. Every day I'm fighting for my— I almost lost it all. You know all that stuff that I'm dealing with. So to put that type of time pressure, different things on me, bro, you know you needed to gimme a second, a second.

Time pressure.

It's like, bro.

Time pressure?

Hold up, hold up, I'm still talking. I'm still talking. As a friend, as a sister, you already know what I deal with every day. And you know you gonna get your stuff.

You know what I deal with every day? You know you're gonna get your content. And to say that I took 2 months to get your content? I didn't say that. That's not what I said.

I just heard you say it took 2 months for you to get that video. We didn't even film that 2 months ago.

I wasn't waiting 2 months. I was worried about it, and when I was ready to drop it, I asked you, when are you gonna be done?

And I said Sunday.

No, you— and then did it get done on Sunday, Lynette?

What happened Sunday? I was at an artist showcase, and I said, hold on, I could have gotten home. You know I stay up all night to edit. I could have came home, finished the edit, and you would have had it what, 5 AM?

This is the same conversation we already had. But you got it when? And you were about to get—

you got it on Tuesday.

It takes time. But this is my thing. Deadlines for a video, come on now. It's not about the video. It looks like you even had a picture of it already.

Karamo, can you please describe Jayshawn as a client?

Yeah, I see her, right? I'm sorry, Jayshawn, you can be a little hard to work with at times. I'm here. A little selfish.

Yep.

I have 4 other clients besides you. And I mean, I try to be patient because I love you. I try to work with you, you know what I mean? Because I believe in your work. And that's what I'm saying. You know the core of me believes in what you're doing.

What was that all day and night helping you with your business though and your clients even when you weren't doing right by me? What? What?

All the, my videos, services.

I wanna bring my audience in this, get your comments on this really quickly 'cause I wanna talk to y'all and hear what y'all gotta think about this. 'Cause these are two friends. All right, so you are Jazz, right?

Yes, Jazzy.

Jazzy, excuse me, Jazzy. So you, how do you, are you involved in all this?

I'm involved in all of this because me and Linnae are friends and I'm also her senior assistant. So when Jayshawna came to me on Sunday night, like I need to give you the story. She came to me on Sunday night and she basically told me she didn't wanna work with Linnae no more. She felt like she wasn't the best fit. I said, maybe you should drop her. Relationships are just like management. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. I said, maybe you should drop it, don't be in that. But as far as you working with us, she said, yeah. We had a shoot, I had a client for my talk show, Red Carpet Lounge. Jayshonna was coming, Lennay was coming. So then after that, Jayshonna basically changed the passwords. Me and Lennay are on the phone, we're trying to get into it. We got clients, we got bookings, we got all this going on. We can't see it, 'cause we now have no access.

Why did you lock her out?

I'm sorry, you skipped some stuff, Jazzy. You skipped some stuff.

What was the stuff?

So first of all, Lennay wasn't supposed to come to the shoot. That was the only reason she was there. How is my shoot? You said, you said she was supposed to come. We changed the day because of, I was in Pennsylvania. That's not the same thing. Jazzy, I said to you, Jazzy, I said I'm not gonna leave you.

The biggest thing though is that I'm hearing outside of like who could be on schedule is that you locked them out of the account. Why did you think that was a problem?

I never locked you out of the account, Monae, because what'd you say to me? As your friend, you can have the footage, give me a call. And I said no because that's not what it is. It's not about friendship, it's about business. So I said since you wanna try and extort me, cool. Who's extorting you? That's extortion. I shot it with my camera.

All right, so listen, thank you so much for your perspective.

Perspective on this.

I really appreciate it.

And I gave the passwords back in literally less than 24 hours.

Watch her video.

Yes, and I didn't even get on Instagram. What you are already gonna do.

All right, what do you have to say about all this?

Lanay, if you was going through all this, Jayshonna is not your friend. You do editing, right? You need to edit her right out your life.

This is a big fight about nothing.

Yeah, it's a big fight about nothing.

I'm kind of confused. It's a whole bunch of this, that, this, that, this, that, this, that. This is a whole, like, I don't understand here. And this is the truth of it. Y'all are fighting about nothing. The truth bomb in this situation, y'all are fighting about nothing.

This happened, Karamo, second time.

Yes, and the first time, but what happened the first time? I fired you and then I didn't fire you.

But here we go, here we go. This is the thing. At the end of the day, you have blocked her when it comes to business. You are done with business.

So I unblocked her. I've tagged her on the video.

You're done with business.

Yes.

So if you're done with business, why are you still rehashing it?

Because she—

How is this serving you? Because when I— To rehash this business?

When I said to her very explicitly, we can be friends.

I just wanna know how is this serving you to rehash this?

It's literally not. I literally don't wanna rehash it.

Stop right there. Stop right there. 'Cause that's the truth.

Yeah.

It's not serving your spirit. It is not serving your soul and it's not serving your artistry in any way. But y'all are friends. Why are you getting emotional right now? And let me just hear her out. Why are you getting emotional right now?

Every time.

Well, hold on. It's because you make a choice as well. But let me go talk to her really quickly. Hold on. I got you, your time. What's going on?

It's just a lot.

Yeah.

Because I already dealt with a lot. I'm like, I'm still trying to heal myself and also trying to be there for her. And it's like, she really did stop like being my friend, everything. And it's like, because so much happened to me this year, it's like I attached that stuff with her as well. So the friendship really meant something to me because she was there for like the hardest time of my life.

Do you want a friendship?

I do. That's my sister. Like, I'm not, this stuff is petty stuff to me. It's petty. It's like, it's taking up time.

So what would it take for you right now? 'Cause I can be here to support the communication. What do you need right now to feel like you can mend this and turn into a friendship?

I just want like a clear understanding of who, you know, what she wants, who, I want her to really understand who I am.

Can you establish a move? Can you agree that y'all shouldn't be working together?

Yeah, we shouldn't.

Are you willing to come back out and let me try to work this out for y'all?

All right.

All right, so you already heard me say the business relationship needs to be dead. I'm gonna ask you, you heard what we were talking about backstage. Do you want a friendship?

Yes.

Okay, let's leave it right there. What do you need to have a friendship continue?

All I needed was for you to keep it real that we are not a good business match. What you just said. If you listened to those voice notes, you would've heard in the last two, I started saying that. Sobbing and saying, "Linnea, I don't want us to be like this." And you know that if I'm blocking you, it's not permanent.

Well, that's in your mind. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Stick with me real quick. Stick with me real quick. Because in your mind it's not permanent. But somebody who's grieving a lot of loss, because she experienced a lot of loss, and it doesn't take away from anything that you experienced because I know this could seem one-sided and I don't want that to feel one-sided because I know what it is to be I know what it's like to feel like as I'm trying to hustle, I'm quitting my job. I know that feeling and y'all both experiencing that. So I don't wanna minimize what you're going through, but I also wanna acknowledge from the facts that I do have that she has experienced a lot of abandonment and tragedy. For someone to die and then for someone to walk outta your life, you have to grieve those things. And you blocking her is just a third thing that she has to grieve of where she feels abandoned.

So Karamo, you know what? I didn't actually think about that. So I'm gonna be real. I apologize. You're right. Before even hitting the block button, 'cause normally I do this, I'd be like, I'm blocking you for a minute and I need a couple days. But I didn't do that this time because I assumed you would know my thoughts. And I always say nobody in here is a mind reader. You don't know my thoughts. So I do apologize about not communicating with you about that.

Thank you. Thank you. That's big of you. The boundaries got mixed up.

Mixed up in this.

And unfortunately when you do business with friends, sometimes if the boundaries aren't clear from the beginning, things get mixed up. I think y'all was a valuable lesson here. You can't let the business come between the friendship. You know to cut the friend, the business now, cut the business. But now it's about you two setting new boundaries as friends. Are you ready to rebuild this friendship?

Yeah. Do you want a hug? Look at her, she like, I'm gonna hug you.

You want a hug?

Oh my God, I am a hugger, y'all.

Yeah, give her a hug. Hold on, where you going? I'll tell you where you're going. Right here to subscribe and right here to watch more, period.