The uniquely stylish co-star of VH1’s hit series La La’s Full Court Life, Po Johnson is deviating from her reality TV persona with a budding music career.
Po Johnson first made her musical debut with her song “Super Kinda Psycho Sexy Love,” which was featured on the first season of La La’s Full Court Life.
NEW MUSIC: Po Johnson “Do It Again”
Earlier this week, GlobalGrind premiered Po’s latest single “Do It Again,” which is a catchy banger.
GlobalGrind sat down with Po to chit-chat about her forthcoming EP, growing up in a religious family, befriending La La Vazquez, and her raw super kinda psycho sexy love.
Check out our exclusive interview below!
When did you decide you wanted to do music?
I’ve always written. I don’t know what it was at the time when I started writing. Maybe like my sophomore year in college, I decided that I wanted to write music, and I wanted to write for other artists. I never wanted to be the artist, but who was I kidding? I was just lying to myself for so long. “I don’t want to be in the forefront,” that was a lie. Writing music for other people is very hard to be successful at. Not to say that being an artist is easier, but I think I’m such an individual, it’s hard for me to hide it, so maybe seven years ago, maybe six, I was like, I’ll do the artistry thing. I didn’t go hard at it until four years ago.
How would you describe your music?
My music is very true. If there were such a thing as “Urban Punk” or “Urban Rock,” which there is, so if you can just say “Urban Punk.” I think that would be me with some pop in there, because you have to sell records, but I like up tempo stuff, so if I could call it “Urban Punk” that’s what I would call it. It’s fun! It’s very Po music. Hopefully we could turn it into world music.
Who are some of your musical inspirations?
I grew up not being able to listen to music because my family is very religious.
Were they Pentecostal?
Christian, very devout. My mom was very not into secular music, and my stepfather is a preacher, but it’s all good! I grew up listening to Take 6. That was my first concert. What kind of punk singer am I? I used to sneak, and listen to my brother’s records, my oldest — I have a lot of brothers — I used to think he was Prince himself, so I used to listen to his Prince record all the time.
I would say, Prince. My mom used to love Tina Turner, so Prince, Tina Turner, David Bowie. You know that Glam Rock era! I’m also into M.I.A and Santigold.
If you could collaborate with anybody, a dream collaboration, who would you want to work with?
There’s two parts to it. If I was in the Glam Rock age I would want to do a song with Prince and David Bowie together on one song, and we would have matching outfits and everything.
Right now, I would love to do a song with M.I.A and/or Cee-Lo because Cee-Lo gives you, that I don’t give a f*ck…He doesn’t care!
If I sent you to a deserted island, and you could only bring three albums with you, what three albums would you bring?
I would bring the Ziggy Stardust album, Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall, and Jay-Z’s Reasonable Doubt. I’ll take Ziggy album off and put Deepak Chopra. Those are my three albums.
Who are artists that are hot on your radar right now, besides Santigold and M.I.A? Are there any rappers you’re feeling?
Oh my god! Ace Hood.
You love Ace Hood.
Girl! I absolutely love him. I love Machine Gun Kelly. I love Jeezy. Give him his respect. Are we talking about new or people that are already established?
It could be established or new artists.
There’s an artist out. His name is Spree Wilson. He’s a rapper/singer. He’s a musician, artist at heart. He’s brilliant. We decided the same time that we wanted to do music. He was born and bred in it. We both were working in Atlanta at Dallas Austin’s t-shirt shop because I was trying to get in. I have no idea how I hustled that gig. I think I met a producer, and I was like, I need a job, then Spree came. We were always cool, but we became really close. That whole summer we listened to Tool’s album. It’s weird!
What’s your story? I heard you mention Texas.
I was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I grew up there, and then Houston, Texas. I’m a southern girl.
How did you meet La La? You mentioned Atlanta and Dallas Austin.
Let summarize for you. I grew up in Baton Rouge and Houston, Texas running through swamps and bayous. I went to college at Clark, Atlanta University. There I met a friend of mine. Her name was Erica. Erica and La, they went to high school together, and they were like sisters. They were older than me, and La, she graduated high school in Atlanta, but at this time La was already doing whatever it was she was doing because she’s a couple years older than me too. Me and Erica became really tight. Erica graduated, a couple years later I graduated, and I decided I wanted to move to New York to pursue my dreams.
Fast forward a couple days later, I packed up my garbage bag, my boyfriend dropped me off in Jersey at Erica’s house. I get to Erica’s house, and I’m on her couch with my garbage bag, I realize that’s not Erica’s apartment, that’s La’s apartment. It was a two-bedroom, and Erica was like I pay rent … It was La’s apartment that I had bombarded, and La’s apartment already had three people staying in the living room. She came through the door and I remember her face being like, “Who are you?” I was like “Hey,” and I’m terrified!
How does La support your career?
She supports me wholeheartedly. I remember when I first told her because I kept a big secret that I wanted to do music. Erica was in the music industry. La hosted TRL.
What is your EP going to be called?
The Rise of Po Johnson.
If you could describe in ten words or less, how would you sum it all up?
Freedom to be yourself, freedom to be whoever you want to be, sex, partying, personality, hope, and I want to be a rock star.
What’s “super kind of psycho sexy love.” I don’t think I’ve ever had that kind of love.
It’s about being with somebody, being in a relationship you feel all those type of ways about. It’s raw love. Sometimes sh*t is good. It’s just love! What a relationship can do to you. A lot of people think you have to have this perfect relationship, but it’s not always perfect.
