If you woke up this morning needing a deep, emotional exploration of Black relationships and self love, look no further than the fascinating conversation between rapper Jeezy and actress Nia Long. Both stars have recently been involved in very public splits and they spent around an hour discussing how they’ve dealt with their breakups, as well as how past trauma has informed their current lives.
The “My President” rapper revealed that he and Jeannie Mai tried therapy to save their marriage, telling the Love Jones star, “This has not been an easy journey. I can tell you that I’m saddened. I can tell you that I’m disappointed. I can tell you that I’m uneasy. God has put me in a different path and that path is going to entail for me to take care of myself and love myself.”
Meanwhile, Long explained that her own relationship with ex-fiance Ime Udoka was “rocky for a very long time.”
“My older son saw me trying to keep the family together,” the missing star said. “But I had to come to a place where loving myself was bigger and more important than saving anybody.”
The Best Man actress shouted out how truly amazing Black people are, reminding everyone, “We are the greatness in every room…We are the voices that lead the masses.” However, she also wondered “Why is there this dismantlement of the Black family?”
“Why is it that Black men and Black women can’t sit…in a space and have really open dialogues about things and work through the trauma?” Long said. “That’s the only way we can really be productive.”
At one point, as they discussed how you balance the reality of a relationship with the expectations, Long explains that eventually, “You gotta know when it’s time to be done.” Whew, that one hit hard. We all need that on a t-shirt because that gem doesn’t just apply to romantic relationships. Sometimes you’ve done all the work you can and things just can’t be fixed.
As the actress seemingly references her own experience, saying it’s “usually not about another person, an affair or some chick that’s willing to make you feel like a king,” The Recession artist responds by declaring, “Real niggas don’t cheat.”
Toward the end of the conversation, Jeezy explains that the reason he wanted to have this moment with “America’s Sweetheart” is because he felt like it would be a safe space where he could really be honest about everything.
“At times, when we at our lowest, we need our sisters, just like you need your brothers,” he said. “That’s why this conversation was so real, because I hope and I pray that this conversation can open up different conversations in our culture about being there for one another, and not being at odds, no matter what we’ve been through.”