Joe and Jada - Teyana Taylor

There are interviews, and then there are moments where an artist allows the world to see the intricate map of their journey—the peaks, the valleys, the scars, and the unfinished sketches of what’s still to come. On Joe and Jada, hip-hop heavyweights Fat Joe and Jadakiss welcome Teyana Taylor, the Harlem-born creative whose life has been a collision of art, resilience, and relentless reinvention. The conversation begins not with gossip or fluff but with the pulse of her new album, Escape Room, and its lead single “Bed of Roses.” An album title like that hints at confinement, struggle, and the yearning to break free, yet roses remind us that beauty often comes with thorns. Teyana has always been that paradox—soft and sharp, vulnerable and unbreakable. She speaks about Escape Room like a diary cracked open, pages that carry both the dust of yesterday and the hope of tomorrow.

But what makes this sit-down extraordinary is not just the new music—it’s the revisiting of the chapters that shaped her artistry. Joe and Jada remind us of the moment a 15-year-old Harlem teenager choreographed Beyoncé’s “Ring The Alarm.” Imagine being a teenager not just watching culture unfold, but steering it. That was Teyana’s reality. Before the fame, before the videos that would turn her into a pop culture moment, she was a girl with an eye for movement, rhythm, and story.

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From there, the path wasn’t smooth, but it was defined. Her years with Ye (formerly Kanye West) and GOOD Music were a double-edged sword—doors opened, but the shadow of being misunderstood as “just a dancer” lingered. She recounts the highs, like the unforgettable “Fade” video that became an MTV defining moment, where her body became both canvas and statement. But there were also lows—being shelved, being questioned, being told her artistry had to wait its turn. That push and pull shaped her hunger. What’s striking in this conversation is how much her artistry refuses to be confined to one box. She isn’t just a singer. She’s a director, a choreographer, a fashion icon, and an actress. With Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, where she stars alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, she once again proves that she doesn’t just pivot—she expands. Teyana talks about acting not as a new lane but as another language, another way to translate the emotions that music alone can’t hold.

And yet, behind the strength, there is fragility. Joe and Jada pause to acknowledge her upcoming vocal cord surgery—a reminder that even voices that move the world sometimes need healing. It’s a moment that strips away the glamour and reminds us of the humanity beneath the art. She laughs, she reflects, and she admits the fear that comes with being silenced, even temporarily, when your voice has been your compass. Her personal life, too, has entered a new chapter. Teyana speaks about her relationship with English actor Aaron Pierre with the kind of calm joy that contrasts with her earlier stormy narratives. Love, in her words, is no longer about proving something—it’s about peace, about presence. By the end of the conversation, Joe and Jada are not just interviewers—they’re brothers, hypemen, and witnesses to a life that continues to unfold. They salute her for the journey, for the scars turned into songs, for the battles fought in silence, and for the art that refuses to be ordinary. Teyana Taylor is not just surviving the industry—she is rewriting what survival looks like. From a Harlem teenager sketching dance moves in her notebook to a woman with an album, a film, and a legacy in motion, she reminds us that every escape room has a key. Sometimes, the key is simply refusing to stop creating.