A Jamie Foster Brown Interview
 
Vinny was always the wise head of the group Naughty By Nature. He’s still cute but not married. Yet! He said he messed up in that department, but he’s working on it. He’s the one who’s always held it together, not only for the group but also for his sister and her daughters, who he’s helped raise. Vinny created Naughty By Nature’s own phone app with an executive from Microsoft he met on a plane trip. I asked him how hard that was. He said, “You know hip-hop gets more respect than corporate America right now.” Hmm. 
Vinny is a grownie now, so he doesn’t wear his pants hanging down anymore. And when he hits home his nieces better be ready for him because he says he’s like a CNN reporter, making sure they understand all the social and political news. It’s a new day let’s visit with a new Vinny.
 
 
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Vinny: Hey, Jamie.

Jamie: Hey, baby. I thought you would be a mayor of some city in New Jersey by now, Vinny.

Vinny: I know. 


 
Jamie: I said, “Wait a minute, Vinny is back out on the road? He’s supposed to be having political rallies and stuff.” 

Vinny: Exactly.


 
Jamie: Last time I saw you, we were doing an event. You all had a store!

Vinny: Yeah.


 
Jamie: What happened to the store?

Vinny: I guess we was like one of the groundbreakers, you know? At the time we weren’t doing big licensing deals—


 
Jamie: What was the store called?

Vinny: Naughty Gear. We did it all out-of-pocket with a local sporting goods store. We basically ended up upsetting that guy’s whole business because we became his business. But we were one of the first ones to do it. But now, we still do it online. I just sell concert merchandise, T-shirts, hoodies, DVDs, boxers—that kind of stuff—online. All from NaughtyByNature.com


 
Jamie: That’s great. So, Vinny, you do that? You always were the businessman. 

Vinny: All of us were, but all of the fan relations stuff and just keeping a public presence out there, at least, that’s what basically I’m in charge of.


 
Jamie: Well, I didn’t know you and Treach were still performing out on the road. I thought you were just doing political stuff because that’s what you were doing last time I talked to you.

Vinny: Exactly. But Treach and I, we never stopped touring. You know, after Kay [Gee] took a break from the group around 2000, Treach and I kept going and we put out an album in 2002. We did the single “Feels Good” with 3LW.


 
Jamie: Oh, right. So, Vinny, did you get married? You have kids? 

Vinny: You know what, Jamie? I’m a mess in that department. I am not married, I don’t have kids, and I’m still here living with my sister. And we raised those three girls. So my twins—remember, I had twin nieces that my sister and I were raising.


 
Jamie: Right. 

Vinny: So now they’re in college. They got their first degree and now they’re going for their masters. So they can be in education. Then I got another 18-year-old niece. This is her first year in college.


 
Jamie: That is amazing, Vinny, that you didn’t get trapped in any of that stuff. You were always the cool, calm, collected one.

Vinny: No, that’s bad, though. I’m 40 years old; I should have my own family. But I’ll work on it. I have a couple of failed relationships, Jamie, but what can I say?


 
Jamie: But you’re such a sweetheart. And so cute. You know that Treach is talking about he’s a little sexual chocolate, but you are like, ooh, a teddy bear. Women like that too! Okay, so how did you all approach Kay Gee or did he approach you, about getting back in the group?

Vinny: Well, all of us live around each other, so we would see each other. All of our families hang out with each other. So when we had the separation, all of our people was still together. Then it was kind of like, eventually, we would get back together. I think Kay and I kind of hooked back up first. We started working on some film projects. This was probably around 2005. We started getting with writers and comedians developing scripts and stuff like that. 


 
Jamie: Did any of those projects get out? 

Vinny: No, no. But we definitely have them on the burner. We started just putting together films because we still had a relationship with Flavor Unit and stuff so, you know, we have family there. I thought eventually we would get back to music in some form, but it just kind of happened. Kay said one day, “Do you think Treach is ready to do another album?” At that point it was that Kay was just going to produce. 


 
Jamie: Is that why he decided he just wanted to produce? He didn’t want to travel anymore?

Vinny: I don’t think that. Kay always produced his other groups and stuff like that. But it was never implied that he would automatically tour with us when we first started working on music. 

 
 
 
Find out how Naughty by Nature got its own mobile phone application when you read the rest of the interview in the April 2010 issue of Sister 2 Sister. In the meantime you can check in on Treach and Kay Gee.