Ananda Lewis And Free Marie’s Full Circle Moment
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Ananda Lewis ran up to Free Marie like her kindergarten best friend who hadn’t seen her in what must have felt like forever. The former 106 & Park host tightly embraced the former MTV veejay backstage at Mary J. Blige’s second annual Strength Of A Woman Summit on Saturday (May 13). The two women bounced around, singing, “We did it! We talked about it! We did it!” gleefully captivating the room.
Unbeknownst to us, Lewis, 50, and Free, 55, had been trying to make this moment happen for a long time. Each of them pursued multiple passions before garnering household names in late ‘90s and early 2000s entertainment. Lewis, now a carpenter, was at the Summit in partnership with Gilead Sciences to discuss health equity as an active breast cancer survivor. Free was moderating a panel in conjunction with Amazon Music’s 50 & Forever programming as their new host of Rap Rotation Rewind in DJ Mode.
Free gushed about her old friend after Lewis retreated back to the main area. “[Back then,] I saw her on TV and she was Black and so smart. Her smart is another level. I love her. Her energy is crazy,” she detailed.
Since leaving her career in broadcasting, Lewis has merged her television and carpentry worlds as host of TLC’s While You Were Out. Following Free’s tenure on 106 & Park, she turned to entrepreneurship before returning to her media roots with Amazon Music.
With the heart of journalism being threatened by new-age technology, Hip-Hop turning 50 and VIBE turning 30, this reunion felt divinely orchestrated. We spoke with the women about their thoughts on the current state of the culture, Hip-Hop, pivoting, and how they would define the strength of a woman.
VIBE: With this being the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop and you being one of the OGs of Black women in media, how do you feel about how media has changed since your ascent?
Ananda Lewis: Wow, good question. Hip-Hop is 50 and so am I. So, I can tell you that 50 doesn’t feel like 50 and I’m sure it doesn’t to Hip-Hop either, because Hip-Hop is still the force for changing and moving the culture that it’s always been. I was a little girl getting influenced by Hip-Hop. Music, and especially Hip-Hop, shifts mindsets, and I think that’s why it’s important for us to remember the power that it has. Now, I’m not on MTV anymore. I’m not as drenched in music as I used to be [but] I think it’s important not to silence people. That’s one of the things that hip-hop came through and broke the mold for, because we were much more edited prior to that. So I think it’s important to keep that for artists. And when we see our culture itself shifting into different ways, remember that we can impact that through our music. You have to respect the growth and also remember the power that we have and especially now that our people are really getting a lot of shine, right now, by everybody and rightfully so. We finally are out of the darkness we were forced into for so long in this country, and I think we have to respect that and be responsible for that.
Free Marie: It’s so crazy, even with the writer’s strike, there’s so much going on. Journalism has just changed so much. It used to be straight stories, and now it can be a little salacious, involved, and not too much facts. I also feel like some journalists just put the wrong facts [for] clickbait.
Ananda: Now [with] social media, any and everybody can report on any and everything. And so it’s hard to find the best sources anymore. I just heard that MTV is ending the MTV News department. And that’s really sad, because that’s a pillar of creativity and a great outlet for artists. I think now the market is really saturated. There’s an upside to that and a downside to that. We throw around these words like icon and legend really loosely now, and sometimes those things haven’t been earned. What have they done for the people? What have they done for the culture? What are they doing for themselves? Are they really living the life that they’re showing you they’re living on Instagram. There’s so many questions. And so I think it’s even more important now for people to have their own discernment and their own taste. You [just] got to find the balance and right combination of it.
Free: I am [grateful to be] in a position to share the music that I love, highlight people and artists that I love. And I think that there’s something new coming where we will be highlighting new artists. Sometimes it’s overwhelming, there’s so much to consume that it’s hard for me to choose or pick, so I listen to music every day, new music every day. But I think I want to be able to be the conduit. There’s new music coming [and] let it come through me, let me show, let me learn.
For someone who was in the thick of it as VIBE was coming up, what does that legacy of hip-hop media mean to you?
Ananda: Well, first of all, I am so grateful to VIBE, because they’ve always given me so much love. I think I came on right after they did. Printed magazines don’t have the traction they used to have, but back then VIBE was like it. Everybody copied VIBE. Every magazine that came after VIBE was a version of VIBE, because they set the precedent; they set the bar. And so now we’re saturated with digital magazines and it’s hard to really find the goodness, but you can always trust VIBE to be the goodness, because your digital magazine is as powerful and beautiful as the physical magazine has always been.
So what I love about VIBE is the history. No other magazine that’s new, you can’t go back and get the history. That’s just irreplaceable. You might get the interviews, you might get the shots, but you can’t get the history. The history is built, the history is earned and VIBE has the history. So I think it’s interesting that the competition is greater, but y’all still shine the brightest.
Free: Shout out to VIBE Magazine. I want you to know, VIBE Magazine’s been such a part of my life. [It] is always going to be a vibe and a part of our culture that it better never go nowhere. I’m going to protest. If something ever happened to VIBE, all these other magazines knocking off, we’re knocking them off. VIBE better stay. We need it. We need it to stay. It’s very important. Hip-Hop and media is great because just for reference point, reading for education purposes because we are quick to consume the music but not be educated about where it comes from or why we are consuming it. Long as we all work to keep the legacy going. When you look around and you go look online, you look on TV, you see the influence of hip hop everywhere. I am Hip-Hop; there’s nothing I could do about it. It’s inside of me.
What advice would you give to young Black women wanting to follow in your footsteps?
Ananda: Be yourself. One thing I look at the landscape and see is that there’s a lot of cloning. But that isn’t art and that’s not you. Your superpower is your uniqueness that God gave you.
Free: I don’t know if there’s a follow in mind. I didn’t go to school for it, it happened. I would say figure out what type of journalist you want to be. Do you want [it] to be music? Law? You can be a journalist on anything. Figure out what you want to write about and begin.
With where we are, what does it mean to have the strength of a woman personally and professionally?
Ananda: I’m surviving, because I’m still actively in the breast cancer window. But I am surviving, because of the strength of my womanhood. I was raised by strong women and so women’s strength is just automatic. I think we are just born a stronger sex. But for me, strength has also been knowing when to stop, knowing when to rest, how to rest, knowing how to recharge myself, because any battery that runs out needs to be recharged and we run out every day. Strength is also stillness. And we don’t talk about that a lot.
Free: It’s your disposition [beyond beauty] and how you talk to people, how you treat people. I think that’s the difference that we are all here trying to say like, ‘Oh, we’re grown now.’
And there’s some young ones that we need to help out too, because they were us. So let’s walk them through it. So they don’t got to make the same mistakes. I think that’s what this whole weekend is about. Your strengths, your weaknesses, identifying them, learning discipline, and loving yourself.
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