Gangstresses (2000) - full transcript

[Man 1] Right there.

[CARS HONKING]

[Man 2] Come on! Get out of here!

- Come outside and...

[PEOPLE YELLING]

- Chill!

- Come on..

- Chill the fight! Chill the fight!

[Woman] Fight me now!

[People Yelling Over Each Other]

[Woman 2] Come on stop it, break it up.



- I ain't breaking it up!

- [man] Hey, hey, hey, hey.

- [Woman 3] Are you video taping that?

- [Woman 4] Oh shit!

[people yelling over radio announcement.]

- [CAR RADIO] Call now for your risk free 60 day trial.

Call 1800-554-3015.

[RADIO] It's safe, it's clinically proven, and it works.

- Be a minute

- 1800-554-3015.

[MAN YELLING]

(radio commercial in background)

That's 1800-554-3015.

[Man 3] Dislocated her fuckin' shoulder son.



[Radio Commercial Still playing]

- Because girls been victims for years

If you think about it, men get stressed,

they don't have money, who they rob?

Women

They'll robbed me quicker than they'll rob you

So it's like we victims

And nowadays it's like, you know, a lot of women,

you know, just don't think twice on doing things.

[Woman] Now, the girls are getting involved

The girls are doing the carjackings and stuff

and bringing it to their boyfriend

They're not sitting on the sidelines anymore.

- Straight up, the most scandalous gangster bitch

either of you heard of?

- Dewanna!, Dewanno from 87th

She'd knock a nigga out..

(people clamoring)

[Kanye] Tell the story G, tell the story..

[Man] This is how it is G..this is how it is G..

[Woman] See, to me a gangstress...

is a female who's about her cake,

about that scrilla.

Don't matter how she get down,

when it comes to that money, she don't play.

She don't give a fuck

She set a nigga up

She write an ill-ass check,

scam a motherfucking credit-card,

boost the outfit, you know what I'm saying?

Get a trick

She don't give a fuck, bust ill-ass lyrics.

That's a gangstress to me.

Just a vicious bout about it!

Whether it's legal or illegal.

You know what I mean?

- Gangstress is just something

that is used as like gangsters.

I mean, just hard and from the streets

and telling my story like it is

from a woman's perspective.

I mean, you know

- A survivor...

Somebody that knows how to survive,

and knows how to hustle,

that knows how to, you know, just how to live

You know what I'm saying?

It doesn't matter where if you livin..

Whatever you're doing or whatever your hustle is..

You just know how to survive

- You know, like Gangsta Boo or Mia X,

or, you know, to some a little gangstress...

like Foxy can get crazy.

I got that kind of energy too once, you know..

I seen her at work,

when she'd get really upset about shit

And then there's also, you know,

there's Naomi, there's my wife there Kimora,

You know she can get damn near anything she want too,

but she ain't really got no pistol tonight

- What?

- But she got the same shit--look at her

She livin' the same way as Foxy and all of them do..

Only there's clarity in those diamonds too

- Foxy is my friend!

- Gangstress.

Kinda gives it a real nice, sexy tone..

(people speaking indistinctly in the background)

You know, sounds like a real rebel.

A real now woman..

A woman of the new millennium!

Foxy brown is a gangstress, I guess.

I don't know.

Hillary Clinton might be one.

- The gangstress runs it, you understand?

She sit back, she the one who give the orders.

She's the one that say you do this, you do that.

Niggas say...

I say jump, basically they supposed to say "how high?"

Straight like that.

All that other shit is for the birds.

Because I had a rough life and, you know,

just to know where I'm coming from and where I'm going,

you have to know where I've been.

(funky music)

- NARRATOR: For 30 years, women were hurt most

by the breakdown of the American family,

but many of these women gave birth to daughters.

And these daughters are determined

not to repeat the pain their mothers experienced.

- It's either you have money or you don't.

And that's the difference

when you look at people who are on the lower level,

they're so judgemental about what you do.

But when you really get with the people

who really have something,

they don't give a fuck what you do

as long as you got it.

[MOVING BUS]

- I hustle anywhere.

I'll go in a club and shake my ass to make my money.

I'll go outside in the street

and walk around and get my money.

I'll go to a club and meet a nigga and get my money.

I'm going to get money however I can.

If I gotta be up in a nigga's shit,

I'm going to get my money.

- Hustling is my department.

You want some iceberg,

you want some for Versace,

you want some Dolce & Gabbana?

You come see me.

You want some DMX before it hit the stores?

You come see me.

You understand what I'm saying?

I'm the gangstress that comes around

the gangstresses that's out there

making the money, selling the crack, doing whatever.

And I sell em' my shit.

You understand what I'm saying?

We all eating but the only difference is

is that they can go to jail and I'm not going to jail

'cause I'm not doing nothing stupid to jeopardize myself.

You understand?

- I'm independent!

[BACKGROUND CHATTER]

I do what a nigga would do to live and survive

and make money out here on the streets.

That's me!

I don't depend on no man.

I don't depend on nobody.

I don't ask nobody to do nothing for me.

I do what I gotta do for myself

and I will continue to do that

so I get where I want to be in life.

I got the rollie on..a little ice, little ice.

I got a little eight-carat ring on.

It was a gift to myself!

I got the little ring on with the baguettes...

little somethin-somethin'.

princess cut diamond is on the pinky.

And my wrist is a little icy enough.

[LADIES LAUGHING]

- [Man] What's that in your hand, though?

- Hmmmm, mah Blicky!

[LADIES LAUGHING]

For all those motherfuckers that be frontin' on the Don..

Keep the Blicky.

- [Interviewer] And can you tell some of our viewers

the names of the movies, in case they don't know,

that you've been in?

CHAMPAGNE: Let me see.

The one that put me on a map was Bump and Glide.

- Uh-huh.

- Um...

That put you on the map?

- Yeah, I believe it was....

No, Rump Shaker, Rump Shaker.

(people clamoring)

- So you got 2PAC, Shill, Teddy Boy, and Champagne.

That represents millions, platinum, and pussy.

So let's get to party.

You feel me?

- I was a very smart teenager

because what I wrote in my yearbook

is that my goals in life was to be successful.

Nothing more, nothing less.

- It's real hard being a woman

because you got to go through so much.

I mean, you can go through taking ass kickings,

you can go through, you know, being robbed, being raped,

all type of shit.

But you only let that happen to yourself if you let it.

- I think a woman is someone, a person that does,

she does everything.

She bare the children,

feed the children, take care of the children.

She's there whether the man is there or not.

And people fail to realize that women have to do

what women have to do to survive.

Because if we don't, it ain't nobody else here

to help us to do anything

plus we on our own.

So it's our fight.

It's us against the world.

- If you don't work, the systems are so fucked up.

If you don't work,

if you don't have the type of support that you need,

most women now they just do whatever they gotta do,

you know?

I mean, rather if it's selling drugs,

if it's selling your ass.

I mean, just..you going to do whatever.

- It's all about the hustle.

You just got to know how to hustle.

You gotta have game,

you gotta know how to, you know, talk to people.

I'm a people person.

I talk to people, you know what I'm saying?

I don't always gotta fuck 'em

or give 'em a blowjob, you know.

It's not all about that.

It's about selling pleasure.

And that's what I do.

And people come and buy it.

- I used to be a secretary for a detective agency.

And I went through a lot of different changes.

I winded up not working that job.

And I had my own place and I needed to make money.

And someone introduced me to the world of go-go.

So, um, it paid very well.

I enjoyed myself while doing it.

And the more I danced,

the more that I got into doing different things

and meeting different people,

the more open-minded I became.

After a while, it got to the point

where, okay, what's the next step?

And the next step was pornography.

Always I was put aside,

so always was told how ugly I was,

how I wasn't going to be nothing.

I was never going to amount to nothing, you know?

And I just wanted more out of life when I grew up.

- You should know how to hustle, how to get down for yours.

It's a thing called survival.

I've been told if your momma a hustle

and yo daddy a hustle, hustler you're born to be a hustler.

So everybody from the hood,

should know how to get money

'cause everybody mama and daddy hustle.

- I'm working with my daughter,

'cause I want her to know how to get money.

If she got to get money, she got to get money.

It's life.

Everybody gotta face reality, this shit is life.

- My mother dance in the clubs.

- [Interviewer] How you feel about saying that?

- How I feel about saying that?

- [Interviewer] Yeah.

- I'm feeling like nothing.

- [Interviewer] Do you feel that's any reflection on you?

- No.

I just want to just shine all over the world.

I want to be a model,

I want to be...

I want to be all I can be.

That's what I wanna be, all I can be.

I want my face everywhere,

posing, shining with me.

I wanna rule the world, that's what I want.

(slow guitar strumming)

- You go out and and sleep

with these little guys,

they ain't doing better than me.

There ain't no way you doing better than me.

- [Interviewer] Why?

- Why?

'Cause mom is used to gettin' money for hers.

You ain't get no money once you get older.

Today Tamieka is 21 years old having sex with a nigga.

Ain't even got the money for kotex.

How's she going to explain that?

- Everybody going to fuck.

No matter what, she going to fuck anyway.

But that's why I be straight-up forward to her.

And tell her, when a motherfucker asks you for some pussy,

you ask him for some money.

- It's funny, you know what I'm saying?

'Cause a lot of squares don't understand the real deal.

They don't...

Squares meaning people that's

outside of pimpin' and hoeing

don't understand the real deal

and understand what this is all for.

This is all to come up.

This is all to stack your money

to own your own businesses after everything is over,

you know what I'm saying?

I don't plan on being a hoe all my life.

But as soon as I stack all my money,

best believe I'm investing it in something

that's gonna, you know what I'm saying?

Help me out and my kids for when they are born.

And once they get older,

by that time I have everything situated.

They won't have to look for, for no job.

You know, they can just go to school, get that education.

Soon as they get out, damn

they got them a business sitting right here.

'Cause momma owned it.

I sell my pussy.

Sorry to say that if any young viewers or whatever,

I would sell my pussy and get out on the block

before I become homeless.

(rap music playing)

- I don't want my kids out there wanting

and asking nobody for nothing.

Anytime they want then you

come and see mom Dukes, okay?

I will get it for you.

Fuck that nigga on the street.

Fuck that pimp on street,

Fuck that crack little on the street.

Mommy got you, straight like that.

- She want to lay down and get fucked for free,

that's on them, but it ain't on me.

Shit, 'cause I'm getting mine.

I'm getting paid for mine.

And I ain't talking about no $50, no $75.

I'm talking to some bread.

I'm talking about Gs,

I'm talking about a grand to 1500.

I do this shit every night,

sometimes twice out of the night.

(man speaking indistinctly)

- All of that other stuff that they'd be saying,

that shit is full gazing to me.

I don't want to hear nothing about that.

But if you coming at me with some straight, legit way

that we could make some money

and we don't have to shake our asses

and I don't have to give up no cunt,

then I'm rolling with you all day and all fucking night.

Whatever you need to be done, we going to do it.

And I'm going to roll with you and see that it gets done

so that we can make this dough straight like that,

'cause I love money.

And I know that money loves me.

'Cause when I got it, I shows that love also,

you understand?

I split it with everybody.

When I eat, everybody around me eat.

You understand what I'm saying?

That's what being a gangstress is all about.

(lively upbeat music)

- Let's have y'all toast to me.

That's what I'm talking about.

- [Narrator] Women are always the victims

always being disrespected by men.

But now women are turning the tables,

not taking all that abuse.

Take my girlfriend, Shekira.

Growing up, she saw all the women around her

being disrespected.

(people yelling)

She wasn't having it.

So when her drug dealer boyfriend

went too far, too many times...

- Stop this stupid shit.

- Get the fuck out.

- Fuck you.

I got something for you motherfucker.

(upbeat music)

Motherfucker.

- She set him up and he got killed.

(people clamoring)

[Male] Yo where the fuck the money at son?

[Male 2] Come on man, you got the money, dog.

- Hold on, hold on, hold up, hold up!

- Shut the fuck up!

- I got no money, man!

- You aint' got no line of credit?

- What the fuck man!

Come on dog! I'll get you more money!

I'll get you more money!

- Fuck that! Fuck that!

- Go ahead! Go ahead!

- Scratch that nigga!

[Narrator] Niggas better watch it now

when they is dealing with women

because we know the game just as well,

sometimes better than they do.

(gunshots)

(man screams in pain)

[Woman] Motherfucker you ain't calling the cops!

I'll fuck your ass up,

and I'm getting out of town.

[Woman] This Dominican girl he started messing with.

Shit, she had him killed.

She set him up.

She was going with the other guy before...

- [Woman] Oh yeah, you hear about all these other females

that set a nigga up for his money and have (indistinct).

- [Woman] A girl can trick with the niggas,

put them niggas to sleep after fucking 'em.

- [Woman] Guys came in, they don't know what's wrong

until the girl's gone, so...

- [Woman] This nigga, he be having these dollars

just laying around his house.

And then another nigga hears you talking about that,

be like, what, do we got guns?

Or, you know, where is this place?

Well we can ran up in there.

You go in there

and you say y'all are going to the movies,

come back out and we rush y'all back in.

You hear about it all the time

how the guys they getting killed,

and he was with a girl but they never know who the girl was

or what happened to the girl

but he was on a date or something.

- I would get cocaine.

It wasn't no certain amount.

It will be enough so I can cook it up,

cut it down and give it to the little people.

- I went from just, you know, going to the stores,

just shoplifting, you know, with my friends.

Then I quit hanging out with my friends.

Then by the time I was 18,

I tried to sell dope, you know?

Now the little people,

like the little boys that was 15 and 16.

They would come to me and they would want a dub.

I'd give them that dub.

But if I fatten them up,

then they would have to bring me a certain amount of money

that I fatten them up off of.

And if I was helping you out, you know what I'm saying?

If I was bussin' you down,

that means I'm helping you come up.

I'm starting you with this game.

I'll give you a little dope, you go sell it,

you get to keep some,

and then you can start on your own.

But you got to bring me mines back.

[Clyde Rapping..]

- Name another female that can rhyme this well

- Fuck this well plus spend time in jail..

- See simply, if any bitch try to hit me

- Don't tempt me especially when I'm high of the henny

- May the Lord forgive me, may God be willing

- But the last bitch died when she tried to get me

[Woman] Women want to be equal no matter what cost.

No matter what the cost.

Before the girls were just the girls everybody fucked with.

The girls were the ones that sat on the side

and all the guys, when they finish out doing they stuff,

they come party with the girls.

- [Woman] You got niggas out here putting guns

up the girls' heads to fuck them.

Playing Russian roulette with them,

slamming they fucking feet in the door,

hands and windows and shit.

Just scandalous shit.

Just so they can feel like they in control.

- This nigga cleaned the whole apartment.

(phone ringing)

He cleaned the whole apartment,

he took the furniture,

all my clothes, he cleaned everything.

Them niggas ain't shit.

- This is the fucking deal.

This is how motherfuckers take advantage of bitches

and they don't even know it.

My friend right here Keisha just got wham bammed

from a motherfucker and she ain't even know about it.

And she ain't even see it coming at her.

Tell her how it happened Keisha.

(train moving) (ambulance sirens wailing)

[Keisha] It was real dark in the room

'cause he turned the lights out.

All of a sudden somebody jumped at me with a hammer

and started bashing me in my head.

(suspenseful music)

And while he was choking me,

I kept saying, "I can't swallow, let me swallow."

And he kept telling me,

"this is what you get for calling the police on me."

And I said, "I can't swallow."

I didn't feel no love.

I couldn't feel nothing but pain 'cause he was choking me.

He was hurting me.

And in my mind when he was choking me,

my mind was shattered

'cause he had hit me in my head so hard.

And then in my mind when he was beating me,

all I could say to myself was, why?

Why did you do this to me?

I got 50 stitches in the back of my head.

50 stitches and 20 and two in the top of my head.

- [Woman] And the motherfucker done beat you down

like that with a fucking hammer.

That's what make you want to go the fuck off.

- When I almost lost my life,

and I'm afraid of him.

And I'm afraid he's going to come back

and he will come back.

Next time he comes back for me,

I'ma be ready for him with a gun.

And I'ma kill him.

And that's coming from the heart.

I'ma take his life away

'cause he tried to take my life away.

(suspenseful music)

[Woman] When you're in that type of situation it's so scary.

Like, I don't know how other motherfuckers say..

They probably be like they don't be scared or whatever,

but that's a fucking lie

because in my case, you have such a fear.

It be so much fear in your heart

where you just be so scared.

That's why you just do what you gotta do.

- It was in August, one of 'em summer nights.

My day went regular, came across the bridge.

I was living in Jersey,

came across the bridge in New York,

did my regular go on the block, make my money

and catch my ride home.

And at that point in time, when I got home,

it was a regular thing.

I went in the crib.

As I was going in the crib,

(sighs) I had a surprise.

I was kicked in the back

and was asked to laid down on the floor.

And they asked if anybody else in the house.

Nobody else was there.

They asked me where's the money, where was the drugs.

There was no money, there wasn't no drugs there.

They said they wanted some money.

And they knew who to call

because it was an inside job, like I said.

it was somebody that was real close to the family

and they made they phone call.

They took me with them, tied me up,

put the gun in my ear, to my head.

It was eight of them.

It was just one little me.

And they asked for 50,000.

Thought I was going to die.

I thought it was over for me.

I didn't know why, first of all.

I didn't know why and what was going on.

I didn't know who it was at first.

So I mean, all I know I seen it was guns to my head

as I'm laying on the floor,

I just thought it was going to be over for me.

[Interviewer] How'd you feel about that?

- I mean, in this game you live or die

So, if it was my time to go, I was going to go, I mean.

I didn't really look at it as,

you know what I'm saying,

no major point of living

because I was living the street life, so.

You live or die.

- You see that?

80 stitches in my face.

We had to look for $80 million

for each fucking stitch I got in my face

for a fan beating my ass, saying I'm a fucking man.

I'm not taking no more ass whooping from nobody.

You coming up on me to hurt me, my family loves me

and you are a stranger that must fucking die.

I'm going to kill your ass,

come down to Houston, Texas,

we do it like the wild West.

I got a permit to fucking carry.

If you come up on me and whoop my ass,

I'm gonna kill you bitch.

I'm gonna kill you down.

I shot the fucking sheriff.

Bitch, you going to be dead.

You homosexual motherfucking transsexuals,

stop writing me.

I cannot help you, I'm a girl.

Lady Perri can not help yo nasty ass.

Get your dick cut out 'cause I got a pussy,

a fucking clit, a clit motherfucker.

You see that bitch, a clit!

What is that?

(hip hop music playing)

[Interviewer] What do you think about

that kidnapping today when you look back on it?

- What I think about it?

If I see that motherfucker right now,

I'll blow his fucking head off.

That's what I think about it.

- Do you really know what it feels like?

- [Interviewer] Yeah.

- That's the question.

[Interviewer] That's the question.

- Do really know how this thing is?

- That's something that's going to separate me from the rest

because I'm never gonna speak on nothing I don't know about,

nothing.

You know, trips to the Philippines.

When you get caught, they shooting you dead in your head.

You know what I'm saying?

No sending you back to your country or seeing a judge.

None of that.

Do you really know how it feels?

[Interviewer] I'm feeling that.

(funky music)

[Narrator] It's not easy for a woman to hustle

because as soon as a man finds out you got money,

they try to take it from you.

My girl Serina, her boyfriend got locked up by the Feds.

So, she started running his drug hustle.

She got with a girlfriend

and they set up to sell a few keys

to some guys from the neighborhood.

So she thought it was all good.

- 'Cause you know what?

I be coming already.

I'ma melt you quicker than snow girl.

Where the rest of the shit at?

- [Woman] Fuck this shit!

(gunshot)

- That's what I'm talking about, baby.

That's what I'm talking about.

(men clamoring)

- [Narrator] But when they found out

she was holding the drugs,

they killed her and walked with the two keys.

- Fuck off!

I should check you boots to see

if you got any money in there.

- You don't see me, bitch.

You hear me?

You know how I like doing.

- [Man] That's right. - You know how I do.

[Narrator] They let her girlfriend live

because they know she ain't going to do shit about it.

That just shows you how bad things have become

with woman getting cut down so easy.

- All right then, plain ass bitch.

I told you, I told you them bitches wasn't no ballers.

Y'all bitches ain't no ballers?

Bitch was supposed to be selling their drugs.

Your motherfucking girl would be alive right now

if you selling pussy,

but you had to go and sell drugs.

And I told you, the hood ain't no good to bitches like you.

The hood ain't no good bitch.

Hasta la vista, baby.

Fuck outta here.

[Woman] It's not that, you know, not that easy at all.

It's just a lot of problems.

I mean, you out in the street,

but you don't want to be there

whether it's something that you doing.

You know, this is your way of making money.

You got people close that's jealous.

You got men that are jealous

If you make it just as much as they are,

they'll be ready to kill you, you know, quick.

So it's not that easy at all not being in a drug gang.

(suspenseful music)

[Woman] Are you all going down there?

[Girl] Okay, come on. (laughing)

(car engine roars)

(man shouting indistinctly)

[Man] What you all doing with that camera?

[Girl] We taping a video, bye.

(distant gunshots)

- [Girl] We taking a video.

- [Man] This is my motherfucking project.

- [Girl] This is my project, we taking our video.

- [Man] What?

I got some motherfucking 380s and some motherfucking 9mms.

Y'all want to see some violence?

(people laughing)

Do y'all want to see some motherfucking violence?

- Yeah.

- I do.

Do y'all want to see some violence in this motherfucker?

I didn't think so.

Some real shit.

Y'all out there playin'..(indistinct)

or y'all want to see some real shit?

I didn't think so. Hey, let's go.

- And that's the problem with a lot of these young girls

on the streets now.

They're falling into the wrong hands of these guys

and they're just taking control of them.

And they don't know it.

If some of them that they get stressed

and they break down and they, you know, be like,

well, I don't want to do this, you know,

but I know he cares about me.

He don't care about you.

You know, truthfully, truthfully, they don't.

They just care about you 'cause of the money.

- Women in general, you know,

they think they got the own game plan.

You know what I'm saying?

Because a lot of women come from backgrounds

that was so fucked up

where they learned a little game,

they managed to, you know what I'm saying,

get game and chop it up.

But when niggas been had game

and niggas tend to use women as,

you know what I'm saying, carry whole ones.

You know what I'm saying, carry half ones,

do whatever the fuck they need to do.

- [Animal] Ain't no niggas gonna be able

to get in certain spots with no banger.

Can't no nigga put a fucking bag in his purse, you know.

They going to search up a nigga ass, you know what I mean?

I mean, it's the type of shit

that you gotta really deal with and look at.

You know, a female get in places where a nigga can get.

And she ain't never gone cross you,

you know what I'm saying?

You gotta look at like that from a distance

and realize that shit.

You know, niggas going to be plotting and scheming.

- And women fuck around

and get the roller for they man,

you know what I'm saying?

Or whatever, whatever the case may be,

they get to get down with a man

but start taking over the game.

'Cause get locked every day in Detroit.

So then it's up to the woman

to make sure this ticket is getting paid on Connie God.

It's up to the woman to make sure that this nigga over here,

you know what I'm saying?

On the west side Joy Road area paid at 35,000,

you know what I'm saying?

Or the nigga in Davidson, the motherfucker owe him 25

and the girl is coming over there.

So it's like the woman,

they put a lot of pressure on the women in Detroit,

far as in doing a man's job down there.

But then, you know, some win, some lose.

You know what I'm saying?

Hey, you know what the fuck.

They want to live like niggas, so.

(both singing hip hop music)

- You gotta be down with your nigga.

This is my nigga.

You know what I'm saying?

So I'm down with him.

I'm doing anything I got to do.

I'm backing him down lyrically

as well as physically, mentally, all that.

He can look to me.

That's why this is my nigga.

That's what it's all about, right now.

This is my nigga.

You know what I'm saying?

Is if he come to me, he got a problem,

we got to handle it.

If we got to pick up the gun, we got to sling some drugs.

If we got a rap, if he got to do whatever,

you know what I'm saying?

This is what it is.

It's everyday bumping growing our hustle.

- And all the time you gotta be thinking,

is it worth it to go all out for this nigga?

Is he really, you know, would he do it for me?

'Cause a lot of the time a nigga will be like,

oh, I love you, I'm down for you,

I'd do anything for you, you know what I'm saying?

Those words that you want to hear,

making you laugh, making you feel like,

you know, you're that special one.

And you'd be like, fuck that.

I'll do anything for this nigga, go all out for him.

While we blazing, we going to be bounded together.

And when it come to a nigga having to go out for you,

then go out for you the way you would go out for them.

And that'd be fucking you up, you know what I'm saying?

And a lot of time niggas be like that.

They be having that bitch up in them that

that you got to find out about.

You know what I'm saying?

They be playing all hard,

yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm all about this.

I'll do this, I'll do that.

Then when it come down to it,

you'll be seeing a bitch come out of him

and you'd be like, what the fuck?

- Niggas ain't like that used to be.

And the niggas that you thought was somebody,

if they ain't dead,

and them niggas is in jail

and they got football numbers.

They all good, them are the real niggas.

But them niggas that went to prison

and you see them out here saying this, that, and that,

they know who they are, they are homothug.

I call them fucking homothug.

They're not down.

I don't have no respect for them,

'cause you don't tell, the game is not to be told.

That's a no no.

That's what fucked up the game on the street,

niggas start going in and start talking.

The fucked up the whole street game.

There's no trust out there, so it's definitely no money.

- [Interviewer] What's going to have to happen

to change things?

- Hmm.

A whole lot going to have to happen to change things.

Lot of motherfucking heads going to start having to pop off.

(suspenseful music)

(moving train)

- [Narrator] Niggas get women in the hustle game

because they know the cops won't be expecting

a woman to be involved in that stuff.

Half the time the women don't even know the danger she's in,

when she's carrying weight out of town for these niggas.

(both yelling)

- [Man] You ain't doing this shit for nothing.

This ain't no game.

- I should never have fucked with this shit.

- [Narrator] My girlfriend,

she took two keys to Maryland for her man.

But before she got to the train,

the feds took the drugs from her

but didn't arrest her.

When she got home her man didn't believe it.

- (clapping) I got a motherfucking bill to pay, you heard?

Bitch, if you ain't got my motherfucking money,

I'm gonna fucking kill you.

The fuck is the matter with you?

Coming with some...

- I can't believe that.

All the shit I did,

all the money I brought you, - Yeah, fuck that!

- And you don't trust me?

You don't trust me?

Yeah, fuck that!

Hey yo, shut the fuck up, man.

Yo, shorty.

Yo, short.

Get my fucking money, yo.

I push you right out this fucking window.

Don't fucking play with me.

Get mine.

Get mine.

- [Narrator] So he put a hit on her.

- Yo, yo, what's up baby?

You all right?

Yeah, I just got that 411.

Yeah, about to go down.

Shit, I'm gonna take care of that.

Shit, I know I get a bonus tip just going around.

Shit, it's like five in a row, baby.

All right, bet.

I ain't gonna kick it on the phone, but...

- [Narrator] She got scared and decided to jet out of town.

But before she can get away,

the hit man spotted her and her girlfriend.

He chased both of them and killed 'em.

- What did you think of them hoes right there?

(indistinct)

(car engine roaring)

- By the time he find out

we going to be in motherfucking Mexico on some damn bed,

sipping on fucking gelatos out of coconuts and some shit.

- That's what the plan is,

but we can't be getting comfortable like that,

you know what I'm saying?

- Nah, it's cool, we straight.

(indistinct)

- Yo, who the fuck is this behind us?

- Oh my fucking God.

- All right.

- Stupid ass bitch.

That's right, that's right.

No, it's all good, you know, that's tight.

The only thing you gotta do is lay back,

and follow they bitch ass.

I mean, it's all good.

Nigga, we got them right now.

(moving cars)

(car engine roaring)

- Keep your fucking right.

- More like a, fucking ass.

- Just drive, drive!

(car engines roaring)

(tires screeching)

(tires screeching)

(gunshots)

- Ain't no promise in tomorrow.

So if I go out, I just know it was my time,

you know what I'm saying?

Regardless of what I'm doing at anytime,

anybody can die anywhere.

So if I die by getting killed by a trick

or out on the street, you know what I'm saying?

Everything happens for a reason.

(slow music)

My father was a pimp.

And went to the army after he started pimping

because he got tired of that.

When he went to the army, he got killed.

So, you know what I'm saying,

I knew him and everything he had

and basically that's when my mom stopped hoeing

when he died 'cause, you know,

she was pregnant with me, everything.

And she just went on about her business.

My dad had five boys and four girls.

Now it was four boys and four girls.

And my mom had one, we're all together three from him.

So he had no other kids.

(bright upbeat music)

- It looks different.

I lived in the hood in

with mom, my stepfather.

My family was all hustlers

and my mom used to drink and shit.

It used to be me and my sister.

Just me and my little sister.

Yeah, she worse than me.

- So many things happened in our life that took away

wanting to just be everything we could be at first

because she, okay, she was in school,

then my family had a little downfall

and my stepfather went on a rape page, as you would say,

he started raping everybody in the household.

And that takes away from her too, you know what I'm saying?

From her being raped

and trying to tell people,

and nobody wanted to believe her.

This is the part of life you gotta deal with.

I tried to reach out to people

and nobody want to believe me.

What am I supposed to do?

And I got to live in this man house everyday with him.

You know what I'm saying?

You don't know what to do.

He telling you, if you say anything,

this is what's going to happen.

That's what's going to happen to your family.

You don't want these people taken away from you

'cause this is how you feel, this is all you got.

You feel like if they leave me, that's it, it's over.

When you're just tired of everybody telling you,

they going to be there and they going to do this

and then they don't,

it just, you just, all your feelings just go away.

Like I don't give a fuck no more.

Fuck that.

I'm going to do what I gotta do.

It don't matter.

Like she said, out there doing whatever she got to do.

It doesn't matter.

This won't always be our way,

but it's just messed up how the way is.

- My moms had kids basically.

My grandma raised me.

And it's like a rough life for me

because unfortunately we lived in the ghetto.

And we wasn't fortunate to have other things

that other little kids was growing up to have.

So, I went about it a different way.

I took it the street way to live

in order to get what I wanted.

(hip hop music)

- I had a lot of anger still left in me about my mother.

You know, I had a lot of anger with her.

You know?

And it was like, it doesn't matter what you think.

This is what I'm doing now, now what?

- She was angry, you know,

about things that were happening with me, I suppose,

or you know, our lifestyle or whatever.

- I went out of town, I went to see my dad.

And I came back, my mother was gone.

She had stolen my clothes, my shoes.

You know, and she couldn't fit in none of that stuff.

So, I know she took it and she sold it.

So she could get high.

That's why when I told her I was dancing,

it was like, yeah, this is what I'm doing.

You know, because thanks to you,

I really got set back again, you know, and...

(upbeat music)

- I cried every day when it happened.

I cried constantly.

I used to be like, why is they always fighting?

But it taught me to be strong.

It taught me to know that

you don't have to settle for less.

You don't have to go through anything.

'Cause it's up to you.

You will only go through it if you put yourself through it.

You know, you can get out of any situation.

- She left, she didn't say boo.

She didn't say, oh, I'm going for a few days,

or I'm going for two hours.

Somebody in the street told us that she left, you know?

That hurt more than anything else.

It hurt more than what she did,

for somebody else to tell me that my child left town.

And he told me, and he told, said

she ain't telling her mother nothing.

And she ain't never coming back, you know.

That hurts.

- You don't have to sit there

and take no type of abuse from nobody.

Whether it was a man, woman, whoever it is,

you don't have to do it.

- I mean, you got these girls growing up in broken homes.

They suffering from all this abuse,

whether they seeing drug abuse or they molested or whatever.

You know, this the hand they dealt.

What society expects?

What'd you expect?

You know, you head back is against the wall.

You're going to do whatever you got to do,

not to live like that when you grow up, you know?

Not to give that same life to your kids, you know?

So everybody want to judge and you know,

say they do that, point fingers, you know what I mean?

You gotta do what you gotta do.

I mean, come on, what'd you expect?

The money is here we gone get it one way or another,

you know what I mean?

And it's just like, you know?

(Uneek singing hip hop)

- It's going to take a lot but I'm going to get there,

you know?

With my determination and my faith, I think I'll get there.

Yeah, I think so.

- I will consider myself a gangstress

because they are survivors.

That's my definition of survival.

You do whatever it is that you need to do

to get through, to make sure you live to the next day,

or to makes sure you can take care of your children

or take care of your family.

(bright upbeat music)

- [Blige] I'm not ashamed of not finishing high school.

I'm not ashamed of the little, you know,

the little bit of drugs that I did in my life.

I'm not ashamed of that.

And I'm not ashamed of who I am.

And the first thing I'll let people know

is that everybody out there now in their world

is having a hard time trying to figure out

from day to day sometimes where they next meal

was coming from.

I went through that.

I couldn't pay my bills.

I couldn't pay for nothing.

And I was broke,

and I was in this music business broke,

with a bunch of people swimming around me

with millions of dollars and they wouldn't give me a dime.

My drive was my mother.

I just didn't want her in the ghetto more.

I didn't want it.

I constantly have men competing with me constantly

in the business.

I mean,

constantly maybe because, you know,

I look like I can't break.

Yeah I can break, I can cry and I will cry.

But after I cry, you know what I'm saying?

That doesn't mean that I'm a weak one.

That means I'm stronger after those tears are shed.

And you better get, now you gotta figure out another plan.

How can we break Mary?

How can we tear her down?

You can't, you can't.

And that's what man has been trying to women for long,

and to me in this business for the longest.

Like a man could do whatever he wants to do and be king,

you know what I mean?

But a woman, she dates more than one man,

and then she's a slut or she's this or that.

Or woman she does construction worse and she's a dike,

you know what I'm saying?

Or a woman is just, we just so stereotyped.

(car hooting)

We just so labeled.

They're so, whatever, this is what y'all going to be.

And it's like when people want to be where you are,

they don't care about your health

because they want their story to be,

they want your story to be their story

so they can have something to sing about.

And so people can love them for whatever it is.

But my story is real.

I lived this, I mean, I went through every inch of it.

- [Champagne] I'm building new money for it to eventually

be old money for my children and their children

and their children to come

because this is going to work for me

the same way it would work if I was a man.

This is going to work for me because when my child grow up,

she's going to have a corporation to run.

Say, when she graduate from college,

she has the choice of whether to say, mom,

I really don't want to run the corporation.

I prefer to be, you know, an astronaut.

I prefer get into science.

I prefer to be whatever.

- Happy birthday, mom.

- Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday.

Happy birthday to you.

Champagne, whatever though.

(2PAC performing hiphop music)

(people cheering)

- I came to Champagne's birthday party

to represent the role of my record company.

And that's why I'm here.

- [Champagne] I was dancing for Luke down in Florida.

A girl like me had a (indistinct)

Yeah, that was not nice, you know?

I had made a big reputation for myself as a dancer,

you name it I was there, you know.

I was making my money.

I mean six, sometimes seven days a week.

(people cheering)

- Happy birthday, baby.

I hope you get many more, many, many, many more.

May everything you wish for become a reality.

And I just wish you lots of love and God bless you.

- Now I feel as if everybody get 15 minutes fame,

but God has 45 minutes of fame in store for me.

I already took the first 15

and God is about to present me with the next 15

come September, when I go back to doing these movies.

And by then I should have a nice little following, you know?

And a nice little, what's the right word to use.

Um.

Hmm.

I can't think of the word,

but you know, everybody will know about the shows,

you know, be it whether they was there,

whether they heard it on the radio,

whether they read it about it in the magazine.

And I should basically be well on my way.

The end of this year, '97 is the year for me

to redo all the things that I did wrong in the past

and make them correct.

And to financially set myself up for life.

- Selling pussy they make a lot of money, hoes.

That's I mean, that's the game now?

You know what I'm saying?

- [Woman] Selling pussy is selling pussy because...

- Yeah.

You can always sell pussy and make money.

You can't always sell drugs and make money

'cause you're going to wind up two places,

like I said, dead or in jail.

- I think bitches are more smarter than some ass

that's going out there to sell drugs.

Women want to choose a hustle

that's going to get them a less time in jail.

That's the number one game right here.

If you want to go out there and say, hey,

I'm going to go do this

and make it big selling some drugs.

But you got to think about how much time

you're going to get when you sell those drugs.

When you're going on out there to shake your ass,

you get about five, six days in jail the most.

But that ain't not compared to 10 or 20 years in jail

for selling drugs or doing whatever you gotta do

to get money out there.

(loud hiphop music playing)

- Come on.

I can't even enjoy my goddamn self in here

for having to do shit.

Okay, Danny, you got one of these green one side?

We got vendors in here fucking selling shit

and making money.

Where the fuck is my cut?

(indistinct)

I'm thinking about it,

I'm like, okay boss why the fuck am I a (indistinct).

If it's like that,

the fuck she gone come down here

and just say some shit like that.

Tell her, in fact, get the brothers or whatever,

the soldiers and escort her out the door now.

She got four minutes to get out.

- [Man] Champagne! Champagne! Champagne!

Champagne! Champagne!

- [Narrator] Meanwhile, Champagne is attempting

to take her show on the road

to see if she can be one of the nation's top promoters

in the male dominated sex industry.

(crowd applauding)

- [Champagne] You don't have to envy me

'cause I'm not doing nothing that nobody else can't do.

- [Woman] Just don't know how.

- You know.

- [Woman] Just not willing to try it.

- [Champagne] They not willing to try it.

Shit, it don't even take the brains to do some of this shit.

All the take is motivation.

- [Man] So, where does your motivation come from?

- [Champagne] I want more out of life.

That's where to come from.

I know where I want to go.

You know, and shit I know what it's gonna take to get there.

You know, I like five things in life.

They can't necessarily always

be four to five nigga to a woman.

They need something that's 'cause you know,

some shit that represent.

Let the females know how they need to be represented.

- [Man] Right.

- Okay, you a female.

You a diva.

Sex sells.

Don't be afraid, you know, to be the bomb-ass bitch,

you know?

(hiphop music playing) (crowd cheering)

- [Man] Be good, be good, be good!

I want to see that money.

I want to see that money.

I want to see that money.

I want to see that money.

I want to see that money.

I want to see that money.

I want to see that money.

I want to see that money.

Come on, come on, come on.

I wanna see that money.

I want to see that money.

I want to see that money.

I want to see that money.

I want to see that money.

Argh, get out of here.

Get out of here.

I want to see that money.

Come on, come on.

I want to see that money.

(crowd cheering)

(crowd chanting)

(crowd applauding)

- But you know what?

After, let me see,

one, two, three, four, five, six, seven hours later,

I got it for seven hours later.

- [Man] Okay.

(Champagne laughing)

- [Man] All right.

- Okay. - Okay.

- All right.

- [Narrator] But as she rises

in the male dominated sex industry,

Champagne has to wonder how long can a woman stay on top.

- [Man on telephone] You have a major problem.

- You mean you have a major problem?

- [Man on telephone] A major problem.

Yes, you have a problem (indistinct).

- Okay.

- [Man on telephone] A major problem at that.

- Okay.

- [Man on telephone] All right, I just want you

to think on that now, all right?

- Okay.

- [Man on telephone] All right then.

- [Champagne] We're looking at maybe 18, 19-year old boy

who's in this organization, okay?

Who'll not only put a complete halt

and stop to my radio promotion,

but the radio station is going as far as saying,

even if I became a nun,

I could never do promotion with them again

in my entire life.

My show goes on.

This is the first and it will definitely continue.

This show will go on the road.

This show will be in New York next, you know?

And it will go on to many other states afterwards.

You know, regardless of this organization,

and any other organization that might try to come

and step towards me, you know,

with their viewpoints and their morals.

I personally hope that, you know,

their church show was a flop.

Boy, that sounds pretty personal to me.

I mean, I don't know how anybody else views that,

but that sounds pretty personal, I mean.

Okay, I understand that you don't agree with my show.

I mean, but for you to be like, ooh, you know,

and you had a little fire in you.

A little fire?

It hurts when you said that.

Mm.

Right now, I'm giving a show of Frank

where I'm featuring the one and only (indistinct).

(hiphop music playing)

- Big releases, they the ones that you see,

football players, basketball players, movie stars.

People be out here,

they be in these places and they want us.

So all of you, people who look at us, go-go dancers, hoes,

whatever y'all want to call us

and y'all sit there and judge us,

judge us not 'cause y'all men are the same ones

that's buying our pussy.

(Toi laughs)

And not even half of the time,

they don't get no pussy

and they still spending all of your money

and giving us all of theirs.

So, hey, understand it.

(chuckles)

That's it.

- [Narrator] But this time Champagne's show

is shut down by authorities for violating indecency laws.

All her savings invested in the show are now lost.

And her dream of quitting dancing

or doing movies is now in jeopardy.

- Please babe, I never worked for you before.

(women sobbing)

(jumpy music)

- Too disappointing that's the ending.

(indistinct)

- No, this the situation

- [Man] Tell us what happened.

- Well, it ain't nothing I really wanted and shit.

It didn't turn out the way I wanted it to.

(upbeat music)

- [Narrator] Champagne returns to California

and her daughter, Ashley.

Her options are limited.

She doesn't know whether to start over again,

making adult movies or give up her dream.

- I don't want to be an old person doing movies.

I don't want to be an old lady dancing.

You know, I want to take it from the corporate position,

you know, rather than then being the artists

or the actress or the talent.

I want to be the person that makes things happen.

I want to be the one who hires the girls.

I want to be the one who's in charge of the movies

that's being shot.

- Yeah, there we go, damn!

- If you get this message page me.

(camera shutters)

- [Cameraman] Hold it still.

- Come on, guys.

Let's get the boner.

I want to suck on on you tits and all

just say something

when you're sucking titties.

- [Man] All right.

(loud moans)

(indistinct chatter)

- [Man] That's it, way to go.

- [Man] Thank you very much.

Good night.

- [Narrator] On this day,

Champagne will drop Ashley off at school

and then do two to four porn scenes

each with different partners.

When she is finished,

she will pick Ashley up from school and return home.

- You know, do not walk up the out the building

I am up the street.

(indistinct chatter in the background)

- Do not walk out the building, okay?

(dramatic music)

Hey y'all see what we got to go through, huh?

Well, it ain't easy.

We got in at 9.30.

It's 11.13, I'm just now getting out of there.

It ain't good.

Every month, somebody is testing positive.

But other than that, it's not really affecting me

because it's basically,

you know, the people that's really out there,

I mean, they don't have no regards for their lives

or the people that they work with.

- [Narrator] Doing more porn movies

is the last thing Champagne wants.

But it is the only way she knows

to keep her head above water

since returning home from the road.

(camera shutters)

(soft moans)

(soft piano music)

(Champagne moans)

- You know, the struggle and the things

that I'm really, really having to do

to just even make this possible, you know?

That people still don't understand, you know, so...

But you should have let me in the shower first.

That in itself, you know, enough to make anybody sit down

and cry when they by theyself.

Oh, I messed up my hair.

I still need it to look good,

I got another scene.

In fact, it's two more.

I ask God, why?

Oh, why?

Oh, why do it have to be so hard

when so many people was born into having it so well,

you know, and don't even appreciate it, you know?

Yeah, I sit down and wish sometimes

maybe I'd been that person, you know?

But, hey, so be it, it's life.

- [Interviewer] Okay, um...

(jazz music playing in the background)

- [Tamieka] I wanna be all I can be.

That's what, I wanna be all I can be.

I want my face everywhere, posts be shining with me.

I wanna rule the world, that's what I want.

- You know, after you've had to make all these choices,

you left all these scars and you know, all this bitterness.

You know, at the end of the day,

you got to look within yourself, your soul.

You know, you got to ask yourself, was it all worth it?

You know, was it all worth it?

(hiphop music playing)

- [Pamela] I think about it all the time,

whether I had something to do about,

do with Tamieka.

But then again, I have to catch myself.

'Cause then that make me go more down,

that make my own self feel more down then I feel already.

I'm already feeling down 'cause of my living circumstances.

I want that to be better.

So I can't go on feeling down.

But Tamieka keep making her mistakes.

She got to fix her own mistakes.

I wouldn't want her to dance.

I would just want Tamieka to make it to stay in school

and just keep going to school.

That's why I really want Tamieka to be like,

to be somebody.

I wouldn't want her to dance.

I don't know.

That will hurt my feelings.

I think deep down inside that will hurt my feelings.

- Just because you a dancer,

that don't mean you a hoe, slut, all that

'cause in the movie that girl made it.

She was a dancer, she was going to school.

She ain't make that as living,

it's just like the part-time job.

(indistinct chatter)

I'm saying if I don't make it in school whatever,

and things don't work out, I will become a dancer.

But that's not what I really want to do.

But that's on my list.

- Tamieka really got out of hand one time.

She called me a bitch.

And I think she called me a hoe.

How could your own kid think of you as being a hoe?

And she supposed to think of you

as being mommy, number one, the greatest.

They ain't even had poles have been on her mind.

Even calling me a hoe,

or a bitch.

Let those people out on the street

to call me a hoe or a bitch.

But they don't know me, my daughter know me.

That's why that hurt me.

'Cause she know me, I feed her, she sleep with me,

sleep in the same household.

She know me.

- She's the one who put me to sleep at night.

I used to get up.

I used to get up, she never was there.

I used to go get her (indistinct)

sleep with it,

crying, head hurting.

She don't come back till the next day.

But I always forgave her.

I always forgave her.

And she always forgave me,

but she don't forgive me for a long time.

She goes, oh, I ain't buy you this.

I'm not buying you that.

Why you can't buy me things?

'Cause I'm out here?

I'm out here?

But did I stop loving you by you not come home?

Did I stop loving you while you was making me cry,

giving me headaches?

- When I used to come off on the joints at night,

I used to bring the money home,

I had to give it to Tamieka to put in the bank,

from the little job we had.

She used to be so excited.

Maybe that day.

I don't know what triggered it

'cause I told her the mistakes that I made on it.

She know the mistakes that I made on it.

And it's not a mistake.

I never make mistakes.

I just make choices.

People don't make mistakes, they make choices.

Whether you going to do it or you're not.

And I choose to do it.

I try to give her things I never had.

Like I tried to send her to Catholic school.

I tried to be there for her.

I mean, I don't got anything to give her

like money, I'm not rich.

But I try to give her what I could give her.

I think that's enough.

I gave her love.

I always wanted her to be my daughter and my friend.

But I guess I don't know.

(soft music)

- It's changing, you know, the world around me is changing.

And I'm feeling it's changing

but I know that I have change with it

before I get lost in it, you know.

Before I get lost

and there's no way you can possibly fathom

what I mean when I say lost,

because it's a lot deeper than anybody will ever know.

♪ Come and lay down by my side

- [Champagne] We do more.

What's that?

- Flowers.

- For what?

- You, mother.

Ooh.

- Are you proud to be my daughter?

- Yes. - Ooh.

- [Woman] No you should be proud to be my mama.

- Thank you honey.

Oh, you wrote that all by yourself?

- Yes.

- Oh, give me a hug.

Thank you.

I love my Ashley...

(smooching sounds)

You're the prettiest little girl in the whole wide world.

And who's the prettiest mommy in the whole wide world?

- You.

- Oh-hoo, I love it, I love it.

(soft music continues)

That's something I'll just have to pray about.

That God will give her the understanding

and give me the power to be able to relate to her,

you know, in the right type of way,

and she understands what I've done,

and the reason why I've done it.

When she get 13, 14, 15, yeah,

I probably will have to sit down and say, listen,

this is what mommy had to do

to get us where we at and what's gonna,

you know, take you to Oxford

(chuckles)

you know, or Yale or whatever.

Don't think I'm putting myself down,

but we're gonna make sure you're a better person

than mommy was.

♪ I sacrifice myself for acceptance of the leather ♪

♪ 50 different stages each will whack it in the other ♪

♪ I did a lot of bad things so I never mentioned ♪

♪ I forced to find myself a rock in weaves and extensions ♪

♪ I never had to go, truth it never who was my style ♪

♪ I never had a need for life until I had a child ♪

♪ So when this world of vanity, ego way confusion ♪

♪ In 1999, I still seek a resolution ♪

- [Woman] I think our next business

is gonna be that of money.

(indistinct)

♪ Resolution

♪ Pri the Honey Dark is what they call me now with love ♪

♪ They used to call me holy ghost ♪

♪ 'Cause that's just what I was ♪

♪ Transparent to the universe, left to live in sorrow ♪

♪ Wishing for a brighter day which never saw tomorrow ♪

♪ Lord have mercy on my soul

♪ Pri the Honey Dark....

("The Little Drummer Boy" playing)

- What am I scared of?

Ooh.

Not going where I want to go in life.

Not becoming that multi-millionaire I deserve to be

and my, you know, generations after me deserve to be.

I want to make a difference for myself and my family.

I want the poverty level to stop with me.

- Somebody told me they kid was a good kid at the age seven.

- I goes, God bless you,

but I hope they'd be the same way after 13,

that's the way I see it.

You can judge no kid.

There's no way you can judge a kid.

You just got to wait to see how they going to be?

("The Little Drummer Boy" continues playing)

- And you got a lot of fathers don't never be around

to take this shit.

Why always got to be the mothers for it?

Why won't Tamieka ain't going to school?

Why they ain't question her father or someone else?

That's why I think a woman is god.

Because who's the first motherfucker here?

Who brought who here?

She's the person that gonna bring you people here?

The woman got to bring you here.

That's why I think women are god.

We god.

- Regardless of all the shit I've been through in my life,

I'm still a woman and I'm a mother of a child.

I have a son and believe it or not,

I try to bring him up the right way.

I mean, he grew up seeing me not around,

his paps not around and all that.

'Cause I was in a penitentiary.

His paps was in the penitentiary.

But in all reality, after being back with my child,

I still try to teach him the right way to go

and keep him focused.

And I gotta be here, I ain't going over there.

'Cause I gotta be here for Myles.

(hiphop music)

- [Mary J. Blige] Mary's not flat.

You know, Mary's not on a record talking about

her Rolex and her glasses and how fly her houses.

Mary's elaborate in how to get out of a broken home.

Mary's singing about how material things don't mean nothing

when there's no love involved.

- Mary's singing things that, what God love,

and that's the truth.

(hiphop music continues)

The beloved don't have a price on it.

It's not about money.

And that's what men and women need to learn.

It's not about how I can help you get a record deal.

It not about how I can help you get on

as whatever it is you want to be.

It's about what can we do for each other right now?

What can we do for each other inside?

And it's just that,

it's about time that I learned who I am.

And I learned as far as business goals,

what my spot is in this music business

and my spot in life is Mary Jane Blige,

the regular person.

I turned around and I found God.

I found that he was always there for me.

And that he loved me more than any of these men

could ever love me.

And He let me know you don't need nothing

that man can give you.

Right now, you need what I'm giving you.

And I'm giving you a lesson on how to live.

- I'm a gangstress, yeah,

but I'm a real religious person also.

I believe in God.

And I believe that you can't change your life around.

'Cause I'm one of them that done it.

Definitely one of them that done it.

- So, you know, the worst thing to me is for people

that are constantly judging you.

And they judging you, and that is an evil thing.

Judgment is evil.

(upbeat music)

- [Narrator] Champagne has had continuous success

with her lingerie apparel store in Chicago.

And now recently Champagne has opened

another intimate secret shop in Los Angeles.

Carmella is back home in Ohio taking care

of her two children and working a full-time job.

She also has plans in dedicating herself

to helping young teen girls in her spare time.

Toi is now helping other young teens

through a non-profit organization

called Sisters for Sisters.

As owner, Toi is making it a responsibility for her

to help other girls in similar situations.

Pam left the game to set a better example

for her daughter Tamieka.

Tamieka responded by attending school every day

and beginning her lifelong dream to become a supermodel.

Now with Tamieka's success,

Pam has started the Pamela Blake Modeling Agency.

- This makes it all seem worthwhile to me, just to be here.

(indistinct)

Once she started to do good things.

Some nights you only start the good ones

I started to do good things.

Oh God, baby.

(smooching)

- She like, sit down and talk to me now.

We spent more time with each other.

I feel so great, I feel famous.

I mean, I am famous.

I feel so famous, important.

That's what I was asked about, remember?

So now we be together and we be talking.

I share my secrets with her.

She shares her secrets with me.

So, we have a better understanding.

So, now it feels like everything is off my chest.

So, I'm doing what I have to do now.

I'm being me and look where I'm at,

at a Pelle Pelle fashion show.

So I guess I'ma do what my mother wants me to do,

'cause mothers always know best.

'Cause she been there before.

Excuse me.

She'd been through a lot.

So I'm just learning from my mother's mistakes.

I feel people make mistakes

and they learn from their mistakes.

That's how I feel.

She feel like they choices,

I feel like is mistakes.

That's how I feel.

- What's the difference between a choice and mistake.

- The choice is you could either do it or don't do it.

A mistake is you did it already.

That's my mother, I'ma love of who she is

regardless and whatever.

I'ma take whatever she do, that's her.

I'ma still love her but she won't have to do it for so long

'cause I'ma help her out.

I'ma fix all that.

She won't have to do nothing.

- All my ladies out there love yourself,

keep your head up.

Keep it up and stay up because it's crowded at the bottom.

(hiphop music playing)