Sister 2 Sister Magazine Tribute (Phobia Interview) (2002)

Alicia "Phobia" Cherry, produced music for LeftEye's camp. She, like everybody who knew LeftEye up close, radiated lots of love and admiration for Lisa as she spoke to S2S. She was one of the passengers in the truck when the fatal accident occurred. In fact, Lisa landed near her when both were thrown from the vehicle.

Carl: Hey, how are you?

Phobia: I'm doing better. You know, day by day. I just finished talking to the members of Egypt and we were all reminiscing.

Carl: How are they doing?

Phobia: They are doing good

Carl: How did you know Lisa?

Phobia: I came into the picture about two years ago with Lisa. She brought me in as a producer. On the demo that was submitted to Dreamworks, I did a song off of the album. It was called "Longing Over You." It is written by Keisha Spivey from Total. I brought that all together.

Carl: Was this your first production job or had you worked with other artists?

Phobia: I have been working with Total and a lot of local artists that are trying to make it. I have some songs coming out on Total's album this year. I brought Lisa and Keisha Spivey together. There is a song on Egypt's CD called "He Loves Me" that is Lisa's favorite song and Keisha wrote that, This project brought everybody together like sisters. It wasn't like, oh let me do this and go home. It was more like we love being around each other.

Carl: Now what was the day of the accident like?

Phobia: Thursday was very strange for me and the girls. Everything went off schedule. That morning, it was dry, the sun wasn't out and it just looked gloomy. I kept saying, "Do y'all feel that? It's like a negative energy. What's wrong, what's going on?" Lisa left a note under Stephanie's door to let everybody sleep in. Usually, we have yoga every morning, breakfast, etc., etc. She said to let everybody sleep in. We thought that was kinda strange and she didn't come out of her room until around noon. Usually, we are up at like 5:30 and at it. None of that took place. When Lisa finally did come out of her room, she looked like an angel. She was beautiful. She had a glow and an aura about her. Lisa and I had a long conversation that day and she just seemed like she was ready to float off. That's how her energy was.

Carl: She started the day off with a white dress on, right?

Phobia: Yeah. She had on a white sheer gown, like a sleeping gown. When we left, she changed into all black.

Carl: Did she say why?

Phobia: Nope. It was just strange. She changed to all black and her thing was ""Everybody get cute. We are about to do this photo shoot at Sambo Creek." We would give each other interviews.

Carl: Now originally, you all were going to the mall. Can you give me some insight about that?

Phobia: Kurtis Toliver had went to the mall one day by himself. Some people approached him because we always go there, like every other day. Kurtis is the studio manager for Lisa's company Creative Castle. He went to the mall and he was approached. They said, "We like the girls, Egypt, that come in the mall all the time. Can they sing here?" He said, "Yeah, let me go see." So he was setting that up since that Tuesday. Wednesday, it didn't happen. Thursday, they said it could happen. Lisa and the girls were ready to do whatever. Lisa switched the plan

and said, "No, we are just going to go to Sambo Creek." So she was adamant about going to Sambo Creek. Everybody just rolled with her and said, "Let's go." She was very adamant about everybody getting in the car quickly. It's almost like she had an appointment to go to.

Carl: But nothing was planned? She just wanted to go out there?

Phobia: It wasn't planned. Everything was on her agenda. It went off the original agenda to her agenda instantly.

Carl: And Ronald stayed behind?

Phobia: Let me tell you: I want this magazine to be truthful. The other magazines have it messed up. In the car was the four girls of Egypt, Raina, me, three cameramen (Bryan, Marty and Nas) and Lisa was driving. That makes 10. [Lisa's brother] Ronald stayed back and was going to meet us there. [Lisa's assistant] Stephanie and Kurt had already left. We all piled in the car with Lisa. The rest is history from that point. We didn't even make it five minutes from the village before the accident happened.

Carl: Can you tell me what happened then, in your words?

Phobia: We left and it was a two-lane road. You are either going forward or someone is coming toward you on the left side. As soon as we got on the road everybody was kinda quiet and Lisa was just driving along. Her last words to us was, "Yeah, and we can play cards.' Lisa handed her sister, Raina, a Coca-Cola card set. After she passed it back, you probably had 30 seconds to think of what game you wanted to play or if you wanted to play or not. We were just thinking subconsciously. Then, all you heard was the car swerving, When the swerve took place, you felt a lot of energy just being drifted off, like you were about to lose control. The first swerve was Lisa trying to get around a truck. Then another truck was coming toward us. And to avoid us getting hit, she just swerved all the way to the left and that took us to the ditch. She hit two trees, which allowed the car to flip over. I was ejected from the car, so after the first flip, I kinda lost consciousness. I woke back up when I hit the ground. That's how I knew I was alive when I hit the ground. I opened my eyes and saw that the car had already landed and smashed. The girls were stuck in the car. Me, Lisa, Bryan and Nas had been ejected from the car. Everybody else had to be pulled out or were crawling out.

Carl: When did you notice Lisa?

Phobia: Oh, man. As soon, I became conscious, I jumped up on my feet. I noticed my left leg was sliced almost to the bone by my kneecap. I kinda ignored it because I knew that I was okay because I was breathing. I am hurting, but I run to the driver's seat instantly and look inside and I don't see a driver. I am like, "Where in the world is Lisa?" I turn around and I see everybody else. Everybody else is moving or talking. I see Bryan and he said, "Oh Lord.' She was on the ground right by his feet. Where we were thrown at, she happened to be right next to me, but I didn't notice it because I went instantly to the driver's seat. I see Bryan and Lisa is on the ground, I instantly ran to her and kneeled down by her side. I tried to check her pulse, but she was already gone, I didn't want to accept that, so I am screaming for ambulances. Nobody is coming and there are like 60 Spanish-speaking Honduran people standing around talking, but we don't know what they are saying. We were just screaming for ambulances hoping that they could understand us. Raina jumped in the truck to go get Ronald from the village. By Lisa's side,

it was me and Bryan. The girls were on the street standing and crying. Basically, I just stayed there and held her hand. I noticed that she had a bracelet on that I had given her that

day. That day, Lisa was so beautiful that she was radiating. We would always go to souvenir shops and I had gotten a bracelet I was going to give it to my mom or something. Something told me in my head to give it to Lisa because she was doing so much for us and she was always giving and no one was giving back to her. I gave her the bracelet and she wore it before we left to go to Sambo Creek. That really touched me more because when I was on the ground, I was just like, "Oh, she has it on." I was just bugging out. She was not moving. It was really believable when I touched her heart and it was beating real slowly. We were all screaming for an ambulance. We were thinking that she had a chance, but the eyes don't lie. Her eyes were already rolled back. That moment, when me and Bryan saw her on the ground, she was still bleeding heavily. The autopsy shows that she had a cranium fracture because her head was split open. I know it's kinda graphic for you, but I am just trying to give you the real.

Carl: I understand.

Phobia: She was bleeding heavy and she has this face that was just not moving. There was no movement, no gasp for air. It was like her spirit was transferring out of that body right then and

there.

Carl: How did you guys finally get some help?

Phobia: Oh my goodness. We had to jump in people's trucks. There was no ambulance at all. We ended up in trucks and there was about a 15 to 20 minute drive to the nearest hospital.

Carl: Did the cars stay that caused the accident?

Phobia: Well, there was so many people out there, it was hard to see who was the cause and who wasn't. Everybody was just trying to stop and help. By the time we realized there was no ambulance coming, the whole scene was just filled with people. We jumped in the cars of the people that were helping the most. We jumped in a pickup truck and went to the hospital. That's when everybody lost it because the doctor verified everything. We thought there was at least some hope for Lisa...knowing it wasn't. We were just trying to have that extra faith for a miracle. It was just hell. That's my word; it was just absolute hell.

Carl: How was it that cameramen were able to take pictures of Lisa's body in the morgue?

Phobia: Out there, they view death very differently than we do here. Death is common. They do their funeral services differently, They put pictures of dead people on magazine covers all the time. If you go to the grocery store, they will have a casket lineup. Funeral homes have their business inside of normal businesses. You know how in America, you may see a liquor store on

every corner? There are funeral homes and casket places where you can buy caskets on every corner. They had one block with like 15 businesses and they were all funeral homes.

Carl: And some of them were 24 hours, right?

Phobia: Twenty-four hours. FuneralComa National, that's the one that Lisa was in. Man, it was amazing out there. Lisa was from Honduras and they wouldn't even give her an autopsy. They were just throwing her in the casket and let the family do whatever they want to do to her. It's that terrible And they will let you in there! You can go in there, look at the body, and do whatever you got to do. You can take the camcorder in the room, in the hospital, wherever you want to and tape whatever you want. If we wanted to tape the whole experience, we could. A lot of it

was filmed. What I found strange was, Lisa's words to me was, "If anything happens to me, I want it on film." I want to say that I think she almost knew what was gonna happen. It's like her premonitions were on point.

Carl: Out of the two years that you have known Lisa, what is one of your fondest memories of Lisa?

Phobia: Lisa, Lisa, Lisa. There is so much to say about that girl. She was just so loving- and you know that's what everybody is saying. I would say that Lisa was a prophetess. Her philosophy and her premonitions attracted me the most...how much wit she had, how brilliant she was. And everyone thought that she was crazy. I found her to be very brilliant and just a philosopher. She was not your average human being. If you really got to know Lisa and get inside her mind, she would say stuff where a normal person would be like, "I don't know about this girl?" Her brilliance and her intelligence is what I loved the most about her.

Carl: What is the most generous act that you have witnessed Lisa do?

Phobia: If we all went to eat and we were all starving and the place didn't have enough food to serve everybody..let's say it's 10 people and they could only serve nine; she would be the one left out. She would let everyone eat before her. I would say her generosity to kids was wonderful. If you didn't have, she will let you have. Like the old saying, she would give you the

shirt off her back and that's true. Lisa would make sure that you were pleased before she would please herself. That's just how she was. We went to a carnival out there and she paid for like 10 kids. Lisa paid for all the kids to get on the rides and gave all the kids money. Even when we were leaving the carnival, she threw some extra money out and told me. "You only do this once

in a lifetime.'

Carl: That's really sweet. On the music side of things. what was Lisa's involvement with Suge Knight?

Phobia: She did not sign a contract. She was looking forward to Suge doing a marketing job for her because she said that he is so smart and he knows what he's doing. She loved him as a person and as she got with him, she said he opened up her eyes to a lot of things that she was blind to. Let's say that someone was trying to snake her. Lisa is the type of person that doesn't see that in people. She sees nothing but the best in you. She doesn't see that you are snaking her. Suge opened up her eyes and she said that after she left Suge, she was another

person and she loved what he did to her. He was able to open her eyes to see things that she didn't want to see in people. but it helped her out along the way. She said that she was converted after leaving him. That's just out of her own words.

Carl: Where is the music that they did together?

Phobia: He should have it. She told me that she recorded a verse. She did it in L.A. One day she was with Suge and he said, "Alright, get in the booth." She had a lot of his people writing for her. She wrote, but they wrote, too. She was just trying to find a verse that fit her. She was just doing a couple of songs.She didn't say that she did a lot of songs, she just did a couple, I have a song that I created for her and Lisa wanted to do it. Lisa did two verses before she passed. It was a song all about her life and the main theme was "through my eyes" and that was the way that we were going about it. We are still going to work on that.

Carl: What was the relationship between Lisa and the other members of TLC prior to the trip?

Phobia: Lisa loved both of them dearly. Her thing was she wanted to finish up the TLC project. She wasn't planning on going on tour, she just wanted the album to sell out of the stores. She wasn`t planning on going on a world tour or nothing. She wanted to tour with Egypt, her sister and I. We were all forming a rap group. Her sister, Raindrop, definitely played a major role. All of us were planning on going on tour. That's something that a lot of people don't know. We were going to take the N.I.N.A. project and blow that up. We were all going to rap together. That was her plan. She never said anything negative about the girls. She loved them dearly. She hadn't spoken to them the whole time that we were in Honduras. She saw T-Boz in the hospital and that's it. But, after that, no word from them.

Carl: Do you have any other memories of Lisa that you would like to share?

Phobia: Yes. One day, before the Honduras trip, myself and the members of Egypt were all in Lisa's kitchen. We were talking to her and she would gather the group up and have group therapy. She stated. "Isn't it funny how most singers die on the 25th?" That guy died on the 25th - I can't remember his name and Aaliyah. She mentioned Aaliyah and said, "I just think that's funny." We just remembered that when we were on the phone reminiscing. Her premonitions were on point.

Carl: Did T'Melle [of Egypt] make it back?

Phobia: T'Melle is back. She is doing excellent. She said, "God is good and everything does happen for a reason and she believes Lisa left all of us her energy and we are here to carry on." The girls are definitely positive right now.

Carl: I know. Just to have heard that they got up there and sang at the funeral showed me that they have energy and they are being strong.

Phobia: We are planning to go back in the studio and make everything 100% better. We are also planning on doing a tribute album very soon.

Carl: That should be great. Well, I thank you for your time.

Phobia: No, I thank you. I just want the truth to come out in this magazine and I know that Jamie will do that.

Carl: If you need anything else, give us a call,

Phobia: I will and you do the same. Take care.