Rasheeda looks like she’s been drinking from the fountain of youth.
As a matter of act, the first question on our phone interview with her was what the magic tonic tastes like? “It’s really good. You can get it in strawberry, grape form, whatever you like,” she jokingly told ESSENCE.
Ahead of Love & Hip Hop Atlanta‘s seventh season and her second Pressed boutique opening in Houston, the reality star and entrepreneur chatted with us about her many professional endeavors, using reality TV for good and the status of her —much talked about— marriage.
ESSENCE: How did you move past postpartum depression?
It was difficult for a while and it does take help from other people. At the end of the day, coming and finding out what was wrong [was important]. I think with every woman, you deal with post-partum depression differently. I tried to empower myself by saying, ‘Okay. Find yourself. Find your workout time. Find that place to help you get back to being the normal you.
ESSENCE: What will your workout app offer?
There are going to be really cool, short workouts that target core areas and help you lose weight. It’s not long and drawn out. A lot of people don’t like to work out. And most don’t want to be working out for an hour or two. You want to try to get in, get the most you can get in a limited amount of time, and most of anything, see results. We’ll have some nice cardio stuff and light weight lifting exercises.”
ESSENCE: How is your cosmetics line doing and what’s a favorite product?
We’ve been growing every single year. I’m actually in the process of doing some new campaigns and just stepping everything up. Now that everybody is in the beauty lane and I’m a little bit of an OG with it, from an independent aspect of it, I was like, ‘Okay, let me step everything up and really just take it to the next level.’ You’ll be seeing more promotion from Poiz and a lot more great products. They love my matte glosses. I get a lot of the makeup artists who work at like Nordstrom’s and the malls that our stores are in and they refer people to us, to Poiz, and say, ‘This is one of the best mattes you can buy.’
ESSENCE: You have so many businesses! Talk to us about the importance of multiple streams of income.
I think it’s important. What people have to understand is that a lot of things that you do have expiration dates and/or, things change. I started in the music industry very, very young and it was actually really beneficial to be an independent artist, own my own music, and allow music to use that platform for me that allowed me to spread my wings to television and helping me become an entrepreneur. At the same time, I think it’s important for people to understand and set goals and say, ‘Don’t be afraid to step out there onstage and step out there and start a business.’ But you’ve got to be committed to it and you’ve got to execute it fully and I think that’s where a lot of people might slack off at. It’s important if you’re doing music. You can’t just do music and that be your only stream of income. Over time, that’s going to dwindle. Set yourself up for something else.
ESSENCE: With that said, why have you chosen to be on reality TV? How does it benefit your businesses?
Coming into reality TV I said, ‘Okay, I’m going to use this platform to allow me to spread my wings to do other things.’ Because when that TV light turns off, I want to make sure I’ve established a lot of businesses. When I started my online store, I actually had that before I was on Love and Hip Hop, but I used that platform to expand it and to grow it. That allowed me to turn around and open up physical locations, start a cosmetic line and use that platform to constantly grow. That’s what I’m doing.
ESSENCE: Have you given Cardi B any advice about transitioning out of reality TV to the rap world? What are thoughts on her and Remy Ma’s glow-up?
Cardi, it’s just her time. Let that girl shine and do what she does. The only thing I told her was, ‘Keep on doing what you’re doing and keep on working hard because you’re just getting started.’ Other than that, I think she’s doing an amazing job. With Remy, I think to continue to go hard and keep doing what you’re doing. It’s a good look and I hope that other people who are on shows can take a piece of that and look at it and learn from it —because a lot of great things can come out of situations if you know how to do it the right way.
ESSENCE: After last season’s emotional storyline, finding out your husband cheated and possibly had a child with someone else, how is your marriage?
At the end of the day whatever the cards the Lord deals you, you’ve got to learn how to play them and figure it out. That’s what it is. At this point, Kirk and I work well together, so we’re co-parenting. My main thing, and actually our main thing, is making sure our kids are good and we’re taking care of them and they’re not missing out on anything. We’ve been doing a really, really good job.