Big Lez was the beloved host of BET's Rap City for 7 years. Big Lez held down interviews with top artists in the R&B and hip-hop world. She has worked in radio in numerous markets and was a part of the Hot Jamz crew on Sirius radio for 7 years. Big Lez, also known as Leslie Segar, is the current voice of the Fall 2005 installment of the Urban Beauty Collective Radio Program. When Lez hit the red carpet at the recent 25 Strong: BET Silver Anniversary Celebration I was flooded with e-mail's about what Big Lez was up to. Then an interview opportunity arose, and here it is, Big Lez and Thabiz.com one on one.

So what have you been up to lately?
Big Lez - What haven't I been up to. I got like a hundred jobs. One thing I have been really focusing on is this Urban Beauty Collective. It's an amazing, amazing concept. I have to really say congratulations to Andrea, and Ellen and Ava I mean these ladies put it down with a concept that is just ingenious. They have really tapped into a place where not only our culture is but really where people have the time to listen and pay attention at the hair salon or beauty shop where they are most relaxed, ready to absorb, ready to gossip, ready to make things happen. When they extended the invitation to me to be a part of it, I was like, "Of course are you kidding!" They let me hear Monique's version and I tried to put my spin on it. I hope I get the chance to do a lot more.

With the Urban Beauty Collective do you ever make in store appearances?
Big Lez -I haven't just yet but I hope that's something that will be coming up in the future. There are major, major markets Houston, Dallas, Chicago, New York City, and Boston and it will be a beautiful thing not only just to solicit sales for the beauty salons but we can make it this huge thing and I can invite some of my celebrity friends who are in the music that we are premiering, if it's Floetry, "Let me bring these girls down." We can do health and fitness seminars, that's something I'm involved in, or dance and choreography and have dance workshops or really get on a panel and have them ask questions about the business. Or people who are trying to get signed and inviting A&R people to come down and I believe that's something the girls are working on. I hope they extend that portion of the invitation to me.

It's a great idea. When I heard about it I was like, "Why didn't I think of this?"
Big Lez - It's a beautiful thing. Just like the mom and pop radio stores that are the first to really get music and tapes for the black community for so many years without having to compete with Tower Records that's how the hair salons and the barber shops are. You have to get to the heart of the community where the major marketers are afraid to come to and get in there and kick the door in.

How long have you been with Sirius radio?
Big Lez - I've been with Sirius for about 7 ½ years on a show called Hot Jamz. It's been a little hard for me because I left New York City and that is where they are stationed at. I was working out of my home studio for a long time but they changed their format up a little bit making it more difficult for a lot of us out of town to do the show. So I do a lot of interviews and stuff with them.

I think to myself...satellite radio? When I got asked to be a part of it, I was like, "Ain't nobody paying for what's free." Then again, we all said that about cable television, "Who wants to pay for that?" You don't get commercials and they have in live studio conferences and stuff. It becomes a blessing. You get comfortable not having to get commercials. It's been a really good experience and now that all the cars are really originally putting Sirius in the car when you buy it makes it a whole lot easier.

I read in the bio that you have a home studio. How long have you had that?
Big Lez - Oh gosh, for the last five years or so. It helps to have a boyfriend who is a producer and who knows Pro-Tools and all that other stuff. If something goes wrong I'm like, "Baby can you fix this?" You know so it also helps financially too. There's nothing better than being in bunny slippers and eating a bowl of cereal and you are working and getting a paycheck for it in the comfort of your home.

So you've been able to do a lot of work out of the house?
Big Lez - Oh yeah. I do voice over work, I will do interviews when I go to press junkets and I can edit them and chop them up and MP3 them or send them to a site. There are 50 different states and how ever many different cities and different formats, yeah it's a blessing it's a one stop shop.

Now you've always been so respected in the industry and you have worked in hip-hop on the video journalism side before a lot of women were doing that and you've always been respected. How did you demand and earn and maintain the respect that you got in the industry?
Big Lez - Well I always had that fear of being a casting couch nightmare so I came in with my guard up, with my Oprah Winfrey fists like in the Color Purple if somebody came at me wrong. The problem with that is people start to call you a bitch or they call you a lesbian because you aren't fucking Bobby Brown or not sleeping with Jay-Z even though you might have been close by them so you have to take those hits in order for them to respect you and they do. They end up having more respect for you than the girls they sleep with.

I hang out with a lot of guys and I hear them talking about other girls. Five other girls in the room that they slept with and who gave them head. Excuse me for being derogatory but that's how they talk and I never wanted to be one of those girls. So no, if you write a check for me, I'm not sleeping with you. I may be sleeping with the keyboard player or the drummer, but that's nobody's business but if I work for you it's not going down like that. I guess because I was one who was always professional. I show up on time, I'm a woman of my word. If I say I'm going to do something it's going to get done and it becomes undeniable at that point. What a blessing is is when you do good work you can get what it is you want and you have to know that these labels can give you a check if you handle their business and do what you need to do and you make their artists happy and sell them records they will get you whatever it is you need.

Listen to Big Lez

You were at BET a long time. You've done a ton of interviews, probably hundreds. Which interviews are the most memorable?
Big Lez - Girl there are so many. I love, love love and I say this all the time, my favorite interviews are always the old school hip-hop artists. When it comes to doing Nice n' Smooth or Big Daddy Kane, Gang Starr those cats really have something to say when they do interviews you don't get, "You know what I'm sayin' we keep it real," and all that other stuff which I've had a gazillion of artists like that whether they've had media training or not they don't know how to speak and conceptualize. Also, doing Biggie and Tupac those interviews on BET were amazing to me because I became friends with them. I was able to interview Oprah Winfrey and be on her show as a dancer and choreographer and Denzel and Iman and I stepped into a world of sports where I had to interview the NBA All Stars and Superbowl year after year after year and sports is a whole different thing it was a blessing and it helped me when the radio thing came along that I had all this access and could get 90% of the interviews I needed to get.

When did you leave BET?
Big Lez -It was like 2000.

Fans took it personal when you left BET but what were your feelings at the at the time?
Big Lez - I think nothing lasts forever. Did I take it personal? I would have probably taken it more personal if I didn't have to negotiate with somebody new. I had been negotiating all these years with people who had been there all these years with me. When it was the last year and time for contract negotiation I was dealing with Stephen Hill who I had never worked with before and never met. We were going back and forth with the numbers and I was still making more as a dancer and a choreographer than I was hosting a national show and there's something wrong with that. When you are hosting and when you are producing, I was producing the show and editing, and probably one of the few hosts that did that, and I didn't see why I couldn't be getting more money and it wasn't about ego. It was about,"Dammit I deserve it, I've been here for 7 years, I'm bringing a lot to the table, you're getting publicity because we were doing Rap City live from in studio on my radio show in Los Angeles so not only were they getting local press and worldwide exposure I was like, "Can I get paid for this?" That's when I took it personal. But then it was like how many more years of this abuse am I going to stand for and whose fault is it? Is it them because they are trying to protect their asset or is it me for accepting it? You just have to say, "Alright it's time to go," and there are no regrets behind that time.

Do you think you would consider being a television host again?
Big Lez - I would love to. Do you have a job for me? I would love it. BET online voted me one of their most, I guess VJ's that they would like to see on television again. We're trying to work that out. Never say no to anything. If the black and white contract is right and the 0's and the commas are in the right place at this point its going to be more than me standing their holding a mic. I want to have producer credits. I want an Ashton Kutcher set up. There is no reason why people walking away from MTV they have their own production deals and every VJ that left BET with the exception of Ananda and she still went through MTV has ever really been able to get a production deal or that kind of support out of the deal. So my next situation has to be more hands on and more involved for sure.

Do you enjoy working in radio? This is where this question is coming from. I'm an author and I have the websites so I get interviewed on the radio from time to time. And I see the DJ's and it looks so stressful to me because you have to punch the little things for the commercial and edit the phone calls in, do you enjoy working in a live radio setting?
Big Lez - Well yeah! Are you kidding it's like driving a stick or learning to type without looking at the keys. That's the least of your problems running your own board. It's unfortunate though because most of the high paid DJ's that do morning radio like a Steve Harvey or an Ed & Dre they don't work their own boards. I have a problem with why am I giving you millions of dollars and you don't even know how to run the boards? Yet the person who runs the boards or a DJ like myself , I did midday's or mornings, I run my own boards which means that I should get a million dollars and not you. The most conflict in radio comes from having to deal with programming. I got access to exclusives from Snoop and Mary J. Blige and you can't just throw stuff on the radio. You have to really go through all the red tape of actually getting it played. That's not cool because if they say no and you hear the other station down the block playing it, that messes you up. You got the joint first before Funkmaster Flex even got it or so and so. But Flex can put it on his show in New York and Big Boi can put it on his show in LA and I'm sitting here with the record looking at me in the face and I'm pissed off because somebody in the office doesn't like it or they don't think it's hot. Then it becomes a club banger and then they want to jump on the band wagon and in radio you really have to be first ya know? So that's the biggest frustration.

Here's a story that goes back to 1994. My friend said that she saw you in the mall and she told us she asked you for a picture and an autograph and you were nice. I remember thinking to myself, since my friend was about 23 years old, "Now why were you bothering that lady while she was trying to shop?" At this point in your career are you comfortable with celebrity?
Big Lez - Oh yeah, I'm cool. I am happy for anyone whose ever paid their cable bill and seen Rap City. The only time it ever becomes a bit unbearable or disrespectful is people just kinda invade your space. You seem like everyone's homegirl and I'm cool with that, you might know my name, but I might not know your name from Portland, Oregon and you come up and try to hug me and I back up off you like, "Whoa I'm from New York I will punch you." That kind of attention is…instead of saying "Hey Lez." Some people get real offended if you are like eating with your family and you got to be grateful that people recognize you and appreciate you, that's minimal that's a small price to pay. I'm not at that level at any means with paparazzi following so I couldn't tell you what that's like. Celebrity-ism is overrated, just give me a check.

Big Lez (Leslie Segar)

So where can fans find out more about your for now?
Big Lez - Well I am in the midst of finally…I was a part of Urban Box Office with George Jackson and he was the one that gave me all the House Party stuff and when his untimely death came we had an like an animation series, a fitness process, the whole website, everything so it's been in legal problems for a while. So if anything if anyone needs to contact me they can contact the Duvernay Agency and get a hold of me. I do a lot of speaking engagements on the weekends and teach classes and different seminars, so hopefully by the spring of 2006 my website both my fitness and personal entertainment websites will be up and running now that the legal stuff is out of the way so I'm going to get a hold of a lot of my properties because of that.

I wasn't even going to ask this question but this just came to mind. A young person that gets into the entertainment industry. How important is it to have a good lawyer?
Big Lez - Ohmigosh..you even need a lawyer for a lawyer. You need an accountant for your accountant and a lawyer for your lawyer. It's very important. There is no excuse with all the Behind the Music and E True Hollywood Stories from hearing all of these stories of talk about how broke they are or how they didn't know. There are too many books out there. Knowledge is power. Anybody that doesn't pick up a book and learn what the terminology means or what their benefits are or doesn't ask for a second or third opinion whether its medical or business, deserves to be taken for a ride. There is no excuse now. Knowledge is power and no one should ever have the authorization to sign a check for you or deposit a check for you that you don't see or anything like that. If you are not handling your business you are playing yourself.