Brandy

So in the mid 1990s, I did a lot of celebrity fan websites or celebrity fan sites as caused them in the day by them well enough that they made money and they got recognized. So I had a website called BrandyLand for r&b singer Brandy. And one day you know, I was I was contacted for a show, MTV was doing called the search for Brandy’s number one fan and I was interviewed for that.

And I think through that, Sonja Norwood reached out , Brandy’s mom. And she started you know, dialoguing with me learning what I did, learning where I was at in life. She started sharing her faith with me from the Church of Christ. We would be online it would be about 11 o’clock my time which I guess was about seven o’clock, her time in Los Angeles. And we were talking about faith. And she talks about her kids and how her day went.

And then together we did the Norwood Kids Foundation website. It was my first paying client, I got $75 which it was very, it was great. It was symbolic. It was it was the first time someone was paying me to do that stuff. I mean, doing like the actual website stuff. I was making money from ad revenue prior to that.

You know, she would talk to us about different things like brand needs appearance on Oprah. You know, when she was on we pregnant and what the public perception was on that among other things, she invited me to attribute for Rod Stewart which had Darius Rucker, Mark McGrath and brandy.

And then I remember just something snapped. I don’t remember exactly what but she said that she was through with me, and that was the end of that relationship. I wish I had managed to save that. Years later, I was with a friend of hers named DeWayne Winrow Los Angeles. And we were I think we were literally in front of her home. Trying to get buzzed in sitting in Windrow’s car. And then later she she forgave me I think is the way it worked out. There was never really a dialogue after that. I wish there was it is one of my regrets but it is one of the things that got me started and working with her definitely opened up doors that I don’t think would have opened up any other way for me.

In the music industry, doing those websites, getting interviews getting ad revenues you know, all of that. I remember selling Damon Dash Rocco were more or less on websites that was a little cash cow might have posters. Affiliate ads for posters that made money too. So that was a big deal.

I also remember I was managing a website for r&b singer Aaliyah and then it was the largest Aaliyah site on the web. And then when she died, everything changed. I ended up my name ended up in the New York Post. We did a visual for Aaliyah in Times Square, which got some decent press. I remember ending up on a TV show on VH one called graveside groupies I’m glad that footage does not exist.

I mean, I’m sure it lives somewhere on the internet. I think everything does. But you know that her passing catapulted me in a way. I had a chance to work on a memorial service for her. A year after she died. So working with a guy named Freddy Mattia, who worked with little eight a Leah’s mom and you know, we managed to have a gathering, church service and then a gathering at Ferncliff I used to make runs to Ferncliff up the metro north to visit her grave.

I felt it wasn’t in an obsessive kind of way, but I felt that it was important to pay respect. Because like you’re not her passing did. Did you know it changed how people saw me how people worked with me, because I had all those eyeballs through that website. The the guy that actually ran the site itself V chat Tran. Unfortunately he passed away a few years later used to work as a buffet. He lived in Pflugerville, Texas. Great kids, I know a computer used to share as much as I could with him. He was very good to work with.

But yeah, when Aaliyahpassed that was definitely I can’t deny there were opportunities that came about that I don’t think would have come about otherwise. Through my time I got to interview in person, Ray J. I got to do phone honors. My final PHONER was with Monica my favorite artist of all time. will always be my favorite my top three are Monica Aaliyah and Brandy and Mariah Carey like we’re all curious like way up there right but you know, some people I pulled some strings it was I was going out.

I think everybody knew that I was done with it. But I went to go out and on a good note and I still have the audio files from the interview. It was great. It was great to be able to talk to her. I had met her in person a few times. But at the end of the day, being able to do that PHONER and finish my r&b music thing with the interview that I had always wanted hands down was great.

That was arranged by a woman known as Tynicka Battle. She was really great but she didn’t approve of me taking my daughter in and she did not want to dialogue with me or have anything to do with me after that. And I was I was really sad and saddened. About that.

I mean, that’s just an area where there were people that just were uncomfortable with me taking in my daughter when she wasn’t related to me before the adoption, you know, that’s in the losing friends category. And that happened and I couldn’t fix that. There was a price to pay for doing that and losing Nikki was losing Nikki was a blow. I mean, I was already on my way out. I would have liked to preserve that relationship.

Larry Tomczak’s daugther Melanie never approved of it either. She always saw something wrong even after the adoption. She just didn’t think it was right. I think that may have had to do with abuse accusations against her father Larry Tomczak. That’s just that is unfortunate. That is unfortunate.