QUEENS (L-R) Brandy, Nadine Valazquez, Naturi Naughton, Elyse Bell
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'Queens' S1E11 "I'm A Slave 4 U" Recap

'Queens' S1E11 "I'm A Slave 4 U" Recap

Published Wed, January 19, 2022 at 9:00 AM EST

The ladies are trying to figure out how to follow up their Nasty Girl Records debut and it seems like they’re in a bit of a standstill. Naomi wanted to launch Valeria’s solo album as the first move, while Muffin and Zadie worked on theirs, but Valeria was hesitant about the idea. Eric mentioned that one of her favorite Latin artists wanted to work with her on a song, and she immediately changed her tune and was on board for it all. Jill’s idea was to work on signing a star to Nasty Girl Records, but the group as whole said they want to focus on someone who’s talented yet up-and-coming, and they can make them a star. 

Meanwhile, Jill has another job as an actress now, and her first gig is a teacher on a high school-based show. While filming, she noticed that the star of the show, Madison Pierce, reminded her a lot of her old self, as far as being controlled by her mom. Every time Madison messed up her lines, her mom chimed in, even stopping filming to give her Adderall. 

During a break, Jill knocked on Madison’s trailer door to see if she wanted to take a walk after the blow up on set, and learned that Madison was in a conservatorship so she technically had to listen to her mom and get her permission at all times, even though she was 21 years old. 

Valeria went to meet up with the Latin artist, Residence, who wanted to work with her, and when she expressed how excited she was to get on a track with him and spit a verse in spanish, he laughed in her face. He said he wanted her to rap in english like she normally does, because he didn’t look at her as a Puerto Rican artist, and referred to her as a “gringa.” He told her to do the song how he wants it, or she could leave. She was offended by what he said, and asked for a chance to prove herself, but ended up leaving when he wasn’t into hearing her out. 

Naomi approached Valeria about walking out on Residence’s studio session and told her it was a bad look for the record label. Valeria rebutted that she wanted to be who she was, and try something different musically. Naomi let her know that the record label could fail before it even got a chance to begin if Valeria doesn’t do the song and pushes back her album date. Valeria finally agreed to putting her spanish bars on hold, but shaded Naomi’s “leadership” skills in the process. 

Then, Naomi got a call from the Dean of Jojo’s school telling her that Jojo hasn’t been to any classes in over 2 months. So Naomi and Eric sat Jojo down to get to the bottom of whatever she was doing. She told them she wasn’t into classical music anymore, and she’d been working on being a hip hop artist with some friends that she met in LA. 

Jojo added that she was discovering herself and didn’t want to go back to school at all. But Naomi wasn’t having it. Eric was open to hearing her out but Naomi told him to stay out of it. But things got worse the more Naomi kept talking. She told Jojo she had to go back to school as long as she lived under her roof and Jojo stormed out. 

Jojo later met Eric in the studio to talk to him separate from Naomi, and explained how much she loved hip hop, and how good of a rapper she was. He told her she needed to keep going to school, but she doubled down on her original statement saying she was dropping out with or without their permission. She pleaded for him to let her hop in the booth and prove herself, and when she did, he was more than impressed!

Jill pitched Madison to Naomi and Valeria as a potential new artist for their label, but they both thought it was a horrible idea, considering she wasn’t a hip hop artist and her image was corny. Jill further explained why she thought it could work, but while Valeria looked her up, she found that Madison had just got arrested for shoplifting. 

Jill bailed Madison out of jail and talked to her about why she shoplifted. Madison said she did it on purpose to get away from her mom, and get a break from all the stress of the show. Jill told her she would help her get financially freed and ultimately get her out of the conservatorship. She called Naomi and Valeria to pitch Madison again, and had her audition in front of them. They surprisingly loved her vibe and praised her performance! 

But Madison’s mom arrived at the studio shortly after her audition with the police. She had been looking for her daughter and said she was worried. But Jill came to her defense saying, “not worried enough to bail her out of jail.”

Madison’s mom explained that she could have Jill arrested for kidnapping her child and warned her to stay out of their business. Before leaving, Madison asked her mom if she could thank Jill and give her a hug, and her mom said it was okay and walked out. 

Madison explained to Jill that she needed a new lawyer if she was going to get out of the conservatorship and Jill offered to pay for it out of her own pocket. 

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Back at the house, Eric and Jojo listened to her track on the computer and he made a deal with her that if she goes to school, he’ll talk to her mom about working something out as far as her hip hop career. She agreed to go, but then he got a call and stepped outside for a moment. While he was outside, she created a SoundCloud account and uploaded the track under her rap name, J Coda. 

Valeria went back to Residence’s studio and apologized for walking out. He accepted her apology and she got in the booth. But she ended up rapping her verse in Spanish anyway to try to prove her point and everyone was shocked. But it wasn’t shocking in a good way for Residence, he ended up taking her verse off the song altogether. 

They still needed a new artist to bring on to the label, so Naomi, Eric and Valeria scrolled through SoundCloud to find a diamond in the rough. After a couple of terrible options, Naomi came across a female rapper that she liked a lot, but to her obvious surprise, it was Jojo.

Jill finally got a new lawyer for Madison and she said she was ready to go head-to-head against her mom. During a hearing in front of the judge, Madison spoke on her own behalf arguing against her mom’s statement that she was unfit to not be in a conservatorship. When it looked like the judge was siding with Madison, her mom started to tear up and told the judge why she was so worried about her daughter. She claimed she caught Madison in her room with a gun in her mouth a couple of years ago. Madison started crying and walked out of the room. Jill walked out behind her to console her and vowed to stay by her side through the process. 

Jill went back inside the courtroom to talk to Madison’s mom, but her mother expressed that she was doing what was best for her daughter. Jill told her she should re-evaluate the way she treats her daughter because she’s still miserable.  

The next day Madison popped up on Jill, Naomi, Valeria and Eric and told them she spoke to her mom, and she was letting her out of the conservatorship. She asked if they were still interested in having her on Nasty Girl Records, and they all said yes! 

However, when Madison met up with the group for her first meeting to sign paperwork, she had bad news. She said she couldn’t sign to Nasty Girl Records because when other labels found out she was out of her conservatorship, the deals started pouring in and she signed a $5 million deal instead. Jill was pissed off, but kept her cool. And Naomi escorted Madison out. 

Valeria went back to Residence and explained to him that she wanted to show a more authentic version of herself through her music, and although he wouldn’t put her back on his song, he agreed to produce a Latin song for her and it came out fire! She had the rest of the group listen to it and everyone loved it. Valeria said she believed her album was ready now, and she wanted the Latin song to be her first single. 

Naomi was excited for Valeria’s release and told the group she knew who else they could sign to the label as well. They offered Jojo a deal with Nasty Girl Records, and while she was ecstatic, she wanted to know what the catch was. Naomi confirmed there was no catch, they wanted her to be a rapper on their label but proposed she stay in school too. After some back and forth, Jojo agreed to pursue both a rap career and a collegiate education. 

So now Nasty Girl Records has an album ready for release, and 3 female rapper’s on the roster working on their solo albums. It’s looking like they’re on their way to the top after this episode, but like Biggie said, “Mo’ money, mo’ problems,” so it’ll be interesting to see what happens moving forward!

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