Lisa Lisa lay down in the work to make her own biopik

On February 1, 2025By Littum

Photo: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images

When Can you feel the beat: Lisa Lisa story Premieres February 1, Pop Star and Latin-Freestyle legend Lisa Lisa (born Lisa Velez) will attend them like Whitney Houston, Mahalia Jackson, Aaliyah and Salt-N-Pepa by artists who have been immortalized in life films. Feel the beat Track Lisa Lisa’s beginning as the youngest of ten children in Hell’s Kitchen to her rise to fame. Her Breakout -Single from 1984, “I wonder if I take you home,” was one of the earliest smashes to combine soulful vocals with electro -—s in a genre that would be known as freestyle, named after it Dancing, the inspired. But it was the ballad “All Cry” 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-to-two-punch of Motown-inspired No. 1 Hits, “Food to Toe” and “Lost in Emotion.”

Can you feel the beatAs Lisa Lisa Executive-produced, along with her manager, Toni Menage, touches on the music industry’s prisons, who were particularly treacherous for a child whose dream was so great, she sought DJ and producer John “Jelliebean” Benitez at Funhouse, where he spun. Effective audition for him. Prior to the film’s premiere, Lisa Lisa expanded on the long path to get the biopic made and revealed her hope for the future. “I ask that I am a Puerto Rica Lena Horne, 99, 100 years old, on stage with a wiped microphone,” she told us.

It’s great to see you be appreciated in your own biopic. How did it all come?
Tracy “Twinkie” Byrd, the producer of the movie, had been in my DMS for years and said, “I know you, my dad used to be your teacher in high school.” Of course, I had to examine her and she was definitely right. But I was still not ready to make the movie. I think it was about five years after my manager, Toni menage, answered to me and said, “Let’s do this.”

How did it work in terms of telling the story? Have you sat down with Rebecca Murga, who wrote the manuscript?
Yes, we did. Toni and I both. Rebecca just wanted to know everything about me and how my career started. It was therapeutic.

In past tales of your story – on USUNGFor example – I’ve never seen so much emphasis on your friendship with Toni. It seemed like a conscious choice to put it ahead in this movie.
Absolutely. Where I am today, I owe 100 percent to Toni menage. She pulled me out of a really dark place and filled me a lot on the business I didn’t know. She had to be in this to let people know it’s not easy. It’s still not easy. And it’s always good to have people who got your back.

According to the film, 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 by power – the fictional producer/manager -character Rocco and Record Exec Barry – who put movements on you. They touch you suggestive. They are forcing. Was it so bad it got in real life, or did you go worse?
It was an 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 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 called Lisa Lisa with reference to your two breasts. What was it like to endure it? Did it strike you at the time it was messed up?
The truth must be said, I didn’t understand any of it. I was a kid, right? I knew nothing about it. I came from church with my family, especially my mother. Hell’s Kitchen, you learn from the streets but you learn as you walk. And I thank Toni again for opening my eyes too much of it.

There is only so much that a movie can contain, so things that you sing in the church as a child is not here. How did you decide what you would include?
We decided that we should choose between 15 years when I first started in Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam until I decided I should take control.

Did you have creative control over this movie?
For the most part, yes. Toni and I, we sat in every day with movie shooting. We sat inside while it was written. Of course, Rebecca had to discuss it with me and we had a lot of intake on it. I say like 95 percent.

Full force is not mentioned in the film by name. Why is it?
It was always a problem with people who understood who the cult pole was. Full power was the producers and management, and I wanted to tell the story of Lisa Lisa and the cult flash, and who we were, how we started. That’s what the audience needed to know. It was the one I chose to represent.

Do you get in touch with the guys from Cult Jam, Alex “Spanador” Moseley and Mike Hughes?
I know they are out there and do their own things, which is wonderful. I wish them nothing but the best.

In one Spin profile Of you from 1988 there is a quote from the FULL FORCE’S BOWLEGGED LOU, who gave me a break: “We signed her to the label itself, but it is a provision in there where only we can produce her, no one else can do it, but us. ” When he was part of your leadership at the time, it sounds like a potential conflict of interest.
Absolutely, and a little I knew it was a conflict of interest. They were double dip. I had to fight for the last album that I did with them, Right out of Hell’s Kitchento get other manufacturers in there. I had to go back in the record label and talk and discuss, and we had several meetings. It threw me out too.

Weighed fame ever on you? Was there anything to work through there in therapy?
I was never one to focus on any of it. I am a true belief that God is the one who puts you where you belong. However, I was very well taken off. My mother was very rooted, resting 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.

Your album Spanish fly Had two Billboard Hot 100 No. 1S. A few years later, you released a solo album that didn’t work as well as you would probably have wished and the chart stopped coming. Is it a difficult thing to adapt?
To me, the difficulties were not able to make a lot of performances. But it comes and goes and I kept busy. I really didn’t understand what it is for everyone else that they need to be on top all the time. You never get on top all the time. It’s a coming and going kind of business.

Something that I think is interesting is that freestyle was largely a study genre, but today it lives in Live Arena via 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. All we did was to music: 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 on stage. It wasn’t until years later that we started tracking, and still today it’s not my favorite thing to do. I love being on stage live. So when we appear, you will always get live vocals.

You play your mother in this movie. How was it? It seems surreal.
Surrealistic, yes, perfect word. Seeing my life through her eyes was kind of bugged out because I remember I put her through everything. However, we were all good children and she traveled all ten of us by herself. It was therapeutic to remember to have to go into this whole past. You know I did it for her.

There are so many stories about people who signed record deals, especially in the 80s and 90s, and just didn’t pay what they should have. Were you ever turned out of money?
Oh, yes, still. I was a kid, I didn’t know what the hell I signed when I first signed it. I just wanted to sing and they really convinced me that everything would be okay. And my mother, business, she did everything freelance. When she came to New York, she was only 17, 18 years old and she already had children. She didn’t know any of that. She tried to learn 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 until I did my first concert.

So that’s how you made money, basically? It wasn’t through the recordings?
Yes. I’m in the process of writing my memoirs so all this will be told.

Have you lived comfortably as a result of your career?
Yes, I’m a working woman. I love to work and I have a good time. I’m in order. I should be better, but I get there.

Another thing from Spin Article I would ask you: Did you really try to buy the elephant’s bones?
(Laughing.? That’s true. I remember I was up at the record marks and I was told by one of the publicists there, that his bones were sold, that there was a bidding war and that Michael Jackson was one of the bidders. I was like, Wait a moment i will also get in on thisjust threw my name in the batch. You know it was fun. I wouldn’t get them, but if I did, I would find investors to help me get them because I definitely wanted them.

It says Spin That you offer a million dollars.
I did.

In addition to the book, you are working on new music?
Yes we released AA Salsa version of “All Creied Out.” It’s on all platforms now and we put it in our show and there’s more to come.