Photo: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images
When Can You Feel the Beat: The Lisa Lisa Story premieres February 1, pop star and Latin-freestyle legend Lisa Lisa (born Lisa Velez) will join the likes of Whitney Houston, Mahalia Jackson, Aaliyah, and Salt-N-Pepa of artists who have been immortalized in Lifetime movies. Feel the Beat traces Lisa Lisa’s beginnings as the youngest of ten children in Hell’s Kitchen to her rise to fame. Her 1984 breakout single, “I Wonder If I Take You Home,” was one of the earliest smashes to combine soulful vocals with electro beats in a genre that would come to be known as freestyle, named after the dancing it inspired. But it was the ballad “All Cried Out” that gave Lisa Lisa and her group, Cult Jam, their first Top 10 on Billboard’s Hot 100, A few years later, they hit pop gold with a one-two punch of Motown-inspired No. 1 hits, “Head to Toe” and “Lost in Emotion.”
Can You Feel the Beat, which Lisa Lisa executive-produced alongside her manager, Toni Menage, touches on the music-industry trappings that were particularly treacherous for a kid whose dream was so big, she sought out DJ and producer John “Jellybean” Benitez at the Funhouse where he spun to effectively audition for him. Ahead of the film’s premiere, Lisa Lisa expanded on the long path to get the biopic made and revealed her hopes for the future. “I pray that I’m a Puerto Rican Lena Horne, 99, 100 years old, on the stage with a blinged-out mic,” she told us.
It’s nice to see you being valorized in your own biopic. How did the whole thing come about?
Tracy “Twinkie” Byrd, the producer of the movie, had been in my DMs for years, saying, “I know you, my father used to be your teacher in high school.” Of course, I had to research her, and she absolutely was right. But I still wasn’t ready to make the film. I think it was about five years after that that my manager, Toni Menage, answered for me and said, “Let’s do this.”
How did it work in terms of telling the story? Did you sit down with Rebecca Murga, who wrote the screenplay?
Yes, we did. Toni and I both. Rebecca just wanted to know everything about me and how my career started. It was therapeutic.
In previous tellings of your story — on Unsung, for example — I’ve never seen as much emphasis put on your friendship with Toni. It seemed like a conscious choice to put that up front in this film.
Absolutely. Where I am today, I owe 100 percent to Toni Menage. She pulled me out of a really dark place and filled me in on a lot about the business that I didn’t know. She needed to be in this to let people know that it’s not easy. It’s still not easy. And it’s always good to have people that got your back.
Per the movie, there were times when she was the only other woman in the room with you.
Absolutely. From the beginning, it was a room full of nothing but hungry men.
The film shows two men in power — the fictionalized producer/manager character Rocco and the record exec Barry — putting moves on you. They touch you suggestively. They’re coercive. Was that as bad is it got in real life, or did you go through worse?
Well, it was one incident. And it was the ’80s, and, again, the music industry was 100 percent nothing but male. I was the only female in that group. It’s something that I went through and something that I overcame. Went to therapy and everything. I’m a survivor.
It’s shocking that at 15 years old, you were being called Lisa Lisa in reference to your two breasts. What was it like to endure that? Did it strike you at the time that it was messed up?
Truth be told, I didn’t understand any of that. I was a kid, right? I knew nothing about that. I came from the church with my family, my mom, especially. Hell’s Kitchen, you learn from the streets, but you learn as you go. And I thank Toni again for opening my eyes to a lot of that.
There’s only so much a movie can contain, so things like you singing in church as a kid are not here. How did you determine what you wanted to include?
We decided that we were going to choose from the age of 15, when I first started in Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, up until when I decided that I was going to take control.
Did you have creative control of this movie?
Mostly, yeah. Toni and I, we sat in during every day of filming. We sat in while it was being written. Of course, Rebecca had to discuss it with me, and we had a lot of intake on it. I’m gonna say like 95 percent.
Full Force aren’t mentioned in the movie by name. Why is that?
It was always an issue with people understanding who Cult Jam was. Full Force were the producers and management and I wanted to tell the story of Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam and who we were, how we started. That’s what the audience needed to know. That’s who I chose to represent.
Do you remain in contact with the guys from Cult Jam, Alex “Spanador” Moseley and Mike Hughes?
I know that they’re out there doing their own thing, which is wonderful. I wish them nothing but the best.
In a Spin profile of you from 1988, there’s a quote from Full Force’s Bowlegged Lou that gave me pause: “We signed her to the label itself, but it’s a stipulation in there where only we can produce her, nobody else can do it but us.” Since he was part of your management at the time, that sounds like a potential conflict of interest.
Absolutely, and little did I know that it was a conflict of interest. They were double-dipping. I had to fight for the last album that I did with them, Straight Out of Hell’s Kitchen, to get other producers in there. I had to go back into the record label and talk and discuss, and we had several meetings. That threw me off too.
Did fame ever weigh on you? Was there anything to work through there in therapy?
I was never one to focus on any of that. I am a true believer that God is the one that puts you where you belong. I was very well taken care of, though. My mom was very grounding, rest her soul. If she wasn’t, I wouldn’t be here today. I was able to be me when I got home. She made sure of that.
Your album Spanish Fly had two Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s. A few years later, you released a solo album that didn’t perform as well as you probably would have liked and the chart hits stopped coming. Is that a hard thing to adjust to?
For me, the hardship was not being able to do a lot of performances. But it comes and goes, and I kept myself busy. I truly didn’t understand what it is for everybody else that they need to be on top all the time. You’re never going to be on top all the time. It’s a come and go kind of business.
Something that I find interesting is that freestyle was largely a studio genre, but it lives on today in the live arena via the retro concert circuit.
It doesn’t bother me. I was raised on live music. My parents were in a band when they were in Puerto Rico. They did parrandas all the time. Everything that we did was to music: the Fania All-Stars, Tito Puente, Jimmy Sabater, Joe Cuba. When we first started as Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, Full Force was our live band. We were always onstage. It wasn’t till years later that we started doing track, and still to this day, it’s not my favorite thing to do. I love to be on stage live. So when we perform, you’re always going to get live vocals.
You play your mother in this movie. What was that like? It seems surreal.
Surreal, yeah, perfect word. To see my life through her eyes was kind of bugged out, because I remember putting her through everything. We were all good kids, though, and she raised all ten of us by herself. It was therapeutic to remember, to have to go into all of that past. You know, I did it for her.
There are so many stories of people who signed record deals, especially in the ’80s and ’90s, and just did not get paid what they should have. Were you ever screwed out of money?
Oh, yeah, still. I was a kid, I didn’t know what the hell I was signing when I first signed it. I just wanted to sing, and they truly convinced me that everything was going to be okay. And my mother, business-wise, she did everything freelance. Coming to New York, she was only 17, 18 years old, and she had kids already. She didn’t know any of that. She tried to learn how to speak English. So I just went ahead and signed.
Do you remember what they paid you for “I Wonder If I Take You Home”?
I didn’t get money till I did my first gig.
So that’s how you were making money, basically? It wasn’t through the recordings?
Yeah. I’m in the process of writing my memoirs, so all of that will be told.
Have you lived comfortably as a result of your career?
Yeah, I’m a working woman. I love to work, and I’m okay. I’m all right. I should be better, but I’ll get there.
Another thing from the Spin article I wanted to ask you about: Did you really try to buy the Elephant Man’s bones?
[Laughs.] That’s true. I remember I was up at the record-label offices and I was told by one of the publicists there that his bones were being sold, that there was a bidding war, and that Michael Jackson was one of the bidders. I was like, Wait a minute, I want to get in on this too, just threw my name in the batch. You know, it was fun. I wasn’t gonna get them, but if I did, I was gonna find investors to help me get them, because I definitely wanted them.
It says in Spin that you bid a million dollars.
I did.
In addition to the book, are you working on new music?
Yeah, we released a a salsa version of “All Cried Out.” It’s on all platforms now, and we are putting it into our show, and there’s more to come.
Unsung is the long-running TV One series that profiles R&B, hip-hop, and other adjacent artists via interviews and clips, in a format similar to Behind the Music.
The biopic will chronicle Lisa Lisa’s rise to fame, from her humble beginnings in New York City to becoming a chart-topping sensation. The film will delve into the highs and lows of her career, her personal struggles, and the impact she has had on the music industry.
Lisa Lisa is not only starring in the biopic, but she is also heavily involved in the production process. She is working closely with a team of writers, directors, and producers to ensure that her story is told authentically and accurately.
In a recent interview, Lisa Lisa expressed her excitement for the project, stating, “This biopic is a passion project for me. I want to share my journey with the world and inspire others to never give up on their dreams. I am putting in the work to make sure that this film is a true reflection of who I am and the legacy I want to leave behind.”
Fans of Lisa Lisa can expect a raw and honest portrayal of the singer’s life, with plenty of music and nostalgia sprinkled throughout. Stay tuned for more updates on Lisa Lisa’s biopic as it continues to take shape.
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