“The world calls them music icons, they call them mom or dad.”
In Family Legacy, MTV’s latest original unscripted series, the children of musical icons revisit the highlight of their parents’ careers and give us a look at what it was like to grow up behind-the-scenes.
Blavity U spoke with Notorious B.I.G.’s son C.J. Wallace, Brandy’s daughter Sy’Rai Smith and Tron Austin, the son of TLC’s Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas. They discussed what it was like looking back on their parents’ careers, misconceptions about growing up in the public eye and the pressure to succeed.
What were some of your first thoughts when you heard about this project?
C.J. Wallace: Since the beginning it’s been nothing short of awesome. I got to see a lot of footage of my dad performing and stuff that I’d never seen before – and just being able to show a lot of the stuff that I’ve been collecting over the past few years… It’s been awesome just to be able to share the story and talk about his impact on hip-hop and culture in general.
Sy’Rai Smith: I thought it was amazing. I thought it was dope. I thought it was a crazy opportunity to be on such a big platform like Paramount+. Streaming is really big. I was just so excited to be a part of it and represent my mom and my family. I was just excited to react to all the things that they brought to me. Seeing myself being born on TV or seeing my mom perform or her winning an award… all of it was just extremely fun. I don’t think I’ve ever been on a set and had that much fun. The energy was amazing. I just loved every minute of it.
Tron Austin: I know that the majority of the world doesn’t get to see that kind of stuff. They see the superstars, they don’t usually get to see the families and the in-depth stuff and what maybe their children are doing and stuff. I think it’s important to draw that kind of attention too, because it also motivates us. This kind of thing is just more fuel to our fire to keep doing what we’re doing because a platform like this doesn’t come all the time. You can do all the social media promotion that you want to on YouTube and TikTok or whatever, but you’ll never get TV. It’s a blessing.
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What was it like revisiting all that footage? Did you learn anything new about your parents?
C.J.: I’ve heard so many stories about unseen footage of my dad that I’m literally hunting down to this day. It’s always cool when you get to see some of those things. I don’t have a lot of family video of him, obviously this is before iPhones and s**t, so there’s no footage of him anywhere really – unless the iconic photos of him. Being able to see any type of old school footage of him outside of performances, outside of interviews, even stuff in the studio – I’ve never seen a lot of footage of him in the studio being in the creative process – those are always really cool moments for me.
Sy’Rai: Everything I kind of knew about but to revisit it is just crazy – seeing her pregnant, seeing her perform when she was 15… It is a different era than what we live in now. So I’ve always said, ‘mom, you had me at the wrong time. I should have grown up in the early 2000s and the ’90s. Seeing it through her eyes and just reacting to it was crazy. I loved every moment of it.
Tron: It was dope. I got to see my mom and my dad young. They showed me clips of both of them because I see more young clips of my mom – so I kind of paused for a second. I was like, ‘yo, man, this man got braces and everything.’ [laughs]. My mom kept her actual pregnancy kind of hidden. I’ve only seen photos like Polaroids and stuff, but to see her talk about it and as an aspiring father myself … It was surreal.
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Your parents being icons – has it put a certain pressure on you to succeed? How has it shaped who you are today?
Sy’Rai: We are upcoming artists but we have some type of something to our name so it can be a little bit easier – but also if we don’t make it, it’s like crash and burn. It’s a lot of pressure because we have their fans on us. A lot of the people that follow me are also mom’s fans. Sometimes it’s really annoying to have people be like ‘Where Brandy at? What’s she doing right now?’ I’m like, ‘girl, go on her page.’ … I think we’re blessed in the sense that we do get platforms and we get all the resources from our parents but it is a lot more pressure to make it because we don’t really have another option. We gotta do it and we gotta do it right. And people will always have an opinion about what we are doing.
Tron: Whatever you wanna do and experience that’s in your hands and your parents aren’t gonna tell you that. They’re not gonna teach that for you because they don’t want to see you fall. They don’t wanna see you fail because they know what that’s like. You have to have your own path and that’s the only way people will respect you, the only way they’re gonna wanna stay on your Instagrams. It’s a double edged sword. It could come out magnificent or if you don’t have the mentality, it could be the worst thing ever. It is one or the other. There is no in between.
C.J.: The pressure, it’s always been there. It’s something that I’ve struggled to deal with as a young teenager, especially after filming Notorious, which was the first time I really got to have that deep dive of understanding who my dad was. I really had to start asking a lot of questions and doing my own research. Until that point, the pressure didn’t really exist. And then the pressure started weighing a little bit heavier. It’s something I really have grown to care less about as I’ve gotten older because at the end of the day that pressure is from within and no one other than my sister knows what I’m going through.
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How has your family impacted your work and who you are today?
Sy’Rai: It’s impacted a lot about how I see the world and how I’m gonna move in the world. A lot of people would befriend me because we had money or they thought that we had some type of connect to all the people and all this other stuff. It was hard to trust people. My family and I are very tight-knit. We don’t let a lot of people in so when we do and they mess up, it hurts a lot more. … In high school I met three girls that already knew me off the bat and just tried to become my friends to go meet her. It’s hard to trust people, it’s hard to work with people that aren’t like Tron or aren’t people that are already a little bit established because you feel like they’re gonna take advantage of you for real.
Tron: That one really hits home because I remember I was in kindergarten and there was a guy, I thought was super cool and stuff. And I remember one time my mom picked me up, she goes, ‘you can’t be friends with that guy’. I was like, ‘why?’ Some people are not really gonna be friends with you just because you’re cool. There’s a lot of things that you carry. … It made me a lot more cold because if you work with people who are not on yet, you might be the one that they’re depending on to put them on. … My wife had no idea at all who my parents were and when we met, I was like, ‘yes!’, because that means I’m getting dealt with in my purest form every day.
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There’s been a lot of criticism about “nepo babies,” what are some of your thoughts on this?
C.J.: Everybody’s going through something and everybody has their own struggles. It’s one of those things where I really do wish people could be in my shoes sometimes because it’s not as easy as people may think it is. But at the end of the day, I know it could always be worse. I think about that all the time, which is why I try to do as much as I can when it comes to giving back or giving my time to those less fortunate than me.
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Sy’Rai: It just blows my mind when people say that we have it easier. Yes, great, we get into concerts for free. We have connections to this person. We have all that stuff but at the same time it’s like – your mom, growing up, washed your clothes, right? She cooked you dinner, she cooked you breakfast. She was there when you graduated. She was there for every milestone in your life. If it’s not your mom then it’s your dad. The one that children reach for is their mom. my mom had to go and work. … I didn’t understand why my mom was not there until I turned 15. … Don’t get me wrong, my mom was there as much as she could. But at the same time, some nights I didn’t get to sleep for six, seven hours. I had to be on set until 3:00 AM. I didn’t make a lot of friends. … It’s very hard to not have a lot of friends, to not be a regular teenager where I can go out drinking and partying and all this other stuff. I can’t do that because somebody’s gonna say, ‘Brandy, your daughter did this’ because everyone knows me everywhere. I couldn’t listen to rap music with my windows down when I was a teenager because everybody knew who I was when I was driving. … Everyone becomes your parent. … I was bigger as a kid and that was a big thing. It was 45-year-old people talking about me, a 14-year-old overweight. It hurts and it’s hard. Yes, we grew up with money. A lot of kids grew up with money.
Tron: You could really do nothing and just be yourself and it’s already a problem. Once I knew that, I just started kind of having to move smart. … My mom tried to be there as much as she could too but there’s only so much they can do. They gotta go make money too. … I think that it pushed me to be more extreme and I got a bunch of tattoos out of college and all that stuff. I was just like, ‘I’m ready to just be me bro.’ … You do your own but you know, you wanna also represent your family well and not have people think, ‘That’s what Hollywood kids do. They all act like this.’
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