This Is Mom

Rosie Watson introduces herself by saying her son inherited “the gift of the gab” from her. And she comes correct; within moments, a stream of stories, pearls of wisdom, life lessons, and mottos flow freely, with a cadence and rhythm that’s almost song-like. Born in Louisiana, raised in LA, she’s the devoted mother of Frank’s good friend Jonathan. Rosie refers to Frank (aka “Lonny”) as her nephew, and is also called “Auntie” by the likes of Syd the Kid and Tyler the Creator.

“With Lonny,” Rosie recalls, “he had that drive towards being successful. And certainly, they spent enough time in Sydney’s studio to make a lot good music together, and they did. I was a lot more worried about Tyler. I remember chasing him around the house saying ‘Tyler, I think you’re crazy, I think there’s something seriously wrong with you.’ And I remember Lonny was there and said, ‘Auntie Rosie, let me get this clip!’ I said, ‘You better not!’” She laughs. “I had curlers all in my hair. And he wanted to get this on film!”

With a big heart and warm personality, Rosie’s quick to take others on as her own, and give Frank the same maternal care and advice that Jonathan reaps, as heard on “Not Just Money,” an interlude on channel ORANGE. She also has a particular flair for voicemails: She makes another guest appearance on the new album, with a voicemail that warns of flesh-eating bacteria that’s roaming rampant on college campuses.

Sat in an IHOP where the waitress knows how she takes her coffee (extra hot for the first cup), Rosie comes here often to study, currently in graduate school for Psychology and Therapy. Though she can chat for days, she’s an equally good listener, and an acute observer, the result of 27 years working as a probation/parole officer in Los Angeles. Dressed superfly, with a sharp sense of style (due to her daily routine she calls “prep before you primp”) Rosie brings us into her world and tells it how it is.

Interviewer: How did Frank and Jonathan meet?

Rosie: They met through Eddie and Raymond, they are also my nephews. And then Jonathan introduced Lonny to Sydney. That’s how they came together, musically and creatively. They would meet at Sydney’s house in high school, and they would compose music. And they just loved it; they just had a wonderful time. And I stayed on Lonny: “Lonny, get my son home by curfew!” I made him give me his cell phone number, and I would fuss at him. I kept him running for sure.

Interviewer: Your voicemails are stuff of legends. What do you love about leaving people messages?

Rosie: I think when you call someone, you should leave a voicemail for them. But with my son, I do leave voicemails for him, I’ll often leave inspirational voicemails. Sometimes I leave nasty voicemails too! And I’ll leave nasty voicemails for Lonny too, when the timing is right! I want them to always remember to just be themselves, they don’t have to be the type of man described in a rap song. They don’t have to be balling, they don’t have to be ballers, they don’t have to be shot callers. I leave voicemails for my son in particular because I want my son to remain optimistic. I want him to know that his mother has his back, no matter what. I want Lonny to also know that Auntie Rosie is here for him.

Interviewer: What’s the last advice you gave to Frank?

Rosie: When I last saw him, he came by the house, and he was in this beautiful… Porsche I think it was? Sedan? It was gorgeous. And I said, ‘Remember in life, you have to have both swagger and sway. With swagger alone, you’re convincing yourself that you have something that you really may not have, and that others don’t see in you. sway is knowing what to do with that swagger. Sway is influence. It’s persuasion, and I shortened it to sway. You have to believe in yourself, but you also have to impart that confidence in such a way that you convince other people to believe in you, and take a chance on you. In life, you’ve got to have both swagger and sway. Remember that.’ He laughed and said, ‘Okay Auntie, I’ll remember that.’ And I said, ‘By the way I am going to trademark that statement! It’s a Rosie original.’

Interviewer: Are you into cars as well?

Rosie: I really do love cars. I drive a 2006 Chevy HHR, and I love that little care. That’s the longest I’ve ever kept a car. Normally I would keep a car for only two years, because I love different cars. Although now I have a KIA Optima, which I’d bought for my son to drive when he was in college. KIA and Hyundai are sister companies, and I find they make very good vehicles. As a matter of fact, the car that Rodney King, black in 1992, outran the police in was a Hyundai. Imagine—this funny-looking black man, in this this funny sounding car, outruns the police. You know that made them angry! So even then in 92, the Hyundai was a very good car. It was very fast. I love cars. I have to wash and vacuum my car every week, because somehow I see the car as an extension of me. They seem to drive better when they’re clean! There was a commercial—I believe it was for Cadillac—and it said “when you turn your car on it should do the same for you.” I also owned a Cadillac, an Escalade, several years ago. And my motto was: “When you in a Cadillac, you know where you in a Cadillac, you know where you’re at.” They’re wonderful cars.

Interviewer: What was your favorite ever car?

Rosie: I would say my Chevy Camero. I was younger of course, it was red, it was fast. Of course, I appreciate the Pinto that my mother made my sister hand down to me, I think it was a ‘74 Pinto. But the Camero was the car that I bought for myself; it was my first brand-new car. And it lasted: I had over 100,000 miles on that car.

Interviewer: What are your thoughts on social media and the younger generation?

Rosie: I do believe that they are, in many ways, in a good place. I believe that social media is a medium by which they do communicate with one another, and also become activists in many ways. It truly is an opportunity for activism. However, I also do believe that it can also be very destructive in the sense that it can derail their focus. Forms of social media are potentially very addictive. And they can consume too much of your time to the point that you are too concerned with what other people think about you. I do believe that people that use it have to know how to use it, and hot to limit its use.
Sometimes I’d hear my son laughing in his room, so I’d walk in his room and say, “What’s so funny? What are you laughing about?” And he would say, “Mom, I’m talking to my friends.” And I’d say, “You’re not talking to your friends, you are typing to them.” I would go and get the house phone and bring it to him and say, “Here. Call them. Hear their voices.” I also told him this: “Do not ever ask a girl for a date through text.” If a guy ever asked me for a date on a text, I would probably text back something very unkind, with an exclamation point!

Interviewer: Do you use social media yourself?

Rosie: I don’t know how to Tweet. No, let me say this—I sent a tweet a couple of years ago, maybe a year and a half ago, to MC Hammer. Somehow I got a tweet from MC Hammer, and I tweeted back to him somehow in my reply! That was my one and only time. He had been arrested by the police—it was profiling. I said to MC Hammer, “Remember this. The lesson that’s to be learned is the police officer’s lesson to learn. It is his lesson to learn that not all black men are thugs, and that you can’t judge a book by its cover.” Actually there’s one thing I’d like to be able to use social media for! With Micheal Brown having been killed in Ferguson Missouri, there’s one tweet I would love to send out. I believe that this jury is not going to come back with an indictment of Darren Wilson. I believe that so much time is elapsing now over this entire case, I believe there’s a lot of corruption going on in the investigation of this case. One Tweet I would like to hear the crowd shout out is: “We know about the wait, they’re getting their lives straight!” I would love to have someone tweet it for me and say, “Auntie Rosie said that you all need to shout this out!” I believe that they are delaying the investigation of this case because they’re getting the stories straight. So—we know about the wait, they’re getting their lies straight. Although I’m a peace officer myself, I believe that we have to respect people, we have to be respectful to their rights, we cannot become so intoxicated with our own power that we in fact think that we own the world and we run it, and everyone else is just a guest. We have to stay in our place too; we have to stay in our lane.

Interviewer: What’s some advice you’d give someone reading this magazine>

Rosie: Don’t confuse stability with stagnation. In life, you want to move towards stability. The stability is what you want in your family life, it’s what you want in your job and career. Don’t look for excitement in everything you do; we have to be able to live and contend with boredom. But that doesn’t mean that you’re stagnated. Remain inspired throughout life, curious, moving forward. We should not be afraid to risk, to take a risk. We should have courage.

Interviewer: What’s the best advice someone gave you?

Rosie: I remember the encouraging words of my mother, who would always say—the sky is the limit. Her life was certainly not an easy life, being a black woman coming from the south. She raised five children on her own because my father also passed away, when I was a little girl. So my mother raised five children on her own, cooking and cleaning houses for other people. She did not have a formal education but she was one of the smartest people I knew. She was very bright, very intelligent, and she always imparted optimism in us to do our very best.

Interviewer: What’s important to you, in becoming a therapist/psychologist?

Rosie: As a therapist, and as a clinical psychologist, we are the agents of change. I believe that we should never give up on life. We certainly are all interconnected in life, and we all need each other, regardless of our race, creed, color, regardless of our nationality. My life—and how I interact with people—is not a zero-sum game, in the sense that my gains are not your losses, my losses are not your gains. I feel that my gains can help you win, and your gains can help me win. And so we all need help from one another.