Sister 2 Sister Magazine Tribute (Shawn Newman Interview) (2002)

Model Newman Shawn met LeftEye right before "Ain't Too Proud to Beg," hit the radio, but he didn't hook up with her then. Instead, he hooked up with her later through her Uncle Kyle. Uncle Kyle said that Shawn is probably the one boyfriend who treated Lisa right. Shawn told what it was like having Lisa as a girlfriend. He described what a special woman she was. Shawn said that Lisa would do for her man what most women of her age today wouldn't even think about. He misses her terribly, as we all do.

Jamie: I don't mean to be harassing everybody at this time, but I was trying to get everything

together for my baby, Lisa, to be remembered

Shawn: Oh no, you're not harassing me.

Jamie: Were you at the repast for her?

Shawn: I was at everything

Jamie: Did she see you before she went to Honduras?

Shawn: In Miami, yeah. When I was staying in Miami she came down for a weekend.

Jamie: Okay, you all weren't trying to get back together. But you all were still friends then?

Shawn: Yeah, we were always more friends than anything. Just that little media thing.

Jamie: When we first heard that Lisa had died, a lot of us didn't think that it was true because Lisa was known for pulling tricks. Supposedly she was kidnapped one time, remember? But she was really with you, right?

Shawn: Right. Nah, she wasn't kidnapped. That was a crazy story. It was funny because Lisa had to do an interview in Vegas and I had to come back from Fashion Week in New York. We were both in Atlanta and she didn't want to go to Vegas to do the interview and I didn't want to go to New York. I mean, I wanted to come to New York to make some money, but she was braiding my hair and her Uncle Tony called and said that he was driving to Honduras

Jamie: You can drive to Honduras?

Shawn: Yeah, you go through Mexico and then South America

Jamie: Now who's Uncle Tony?

Shawn: Uncle Tony is her father's brother.

Jamie: He must've had a lot of brothers. So Uncle Tony was driving to..

Shawn: ...Honduras. I was getting ready for a flight in the morning then she just said, "You wanna go to Honduras? Let's not tell nobody, let's drive to Honduras." I thought about it for a while, then finally I was like, " Alright." We just jumped up and ain't tell nobody and just rolled out and met up with Uncle Tony.

Jamie: Why was he going down there? She had gotten him interested in it, too?

Shawn: Yeah, he was buying a house or something down there. He was trying to lose a little bit of weight and get healthy, too.

Jamie: How long did it take to drive there?

Shawn: Well, we never made it. Lisa's car was leased at the time and you can't drive through Mexico unless you own the car because they're afraid that you might sell it and get a whole lot of money for it outside of the country. So what we did was we got to Mexico and we couldn't drive through, so we drove back to San Antonio and caught a plane to Honduras.

Jamie: You know what amazes me? Everybody tells me that it's reckless and lawless down there. But some people tell me it's nothing like that.

Shawn: It is coming through there, but once you're there and at the village, it's the most peaceful place you can be.

Jamie: You liked it down there, too?

Shawn: Yeah, it was real nice. It's a place to get your mind right, focused learn some stuff and just grow. There are other things in the world besides where you come from.

Jamie: So what happened? You and Lisa went down there and then what happened? You all stayed there for how long? 

Shawn: This was the the whole whole missing thing. We stayed there a little while and then we went to London where she was hosting the awards and I was presenting an award. I presented an award to Mary Mary. It was the MOBO Awards. Lisa hosted the whole thing-the MOBO Awards 2000.

Jamie: Then what happened? How'd this rumor get out about her being kidnapped?

Shawn: It wasn't a kidnapping. I don't know how that got out. It must've just been people talking. We just left and then whatever rumors got out saying we were missing...we weren't calling anybody. We just wanted it to be just me and her chillin', relaxing. Then the whole thing about the missing thing came up on the TV and stuff.

Jamie: So what did you all say when they said she was supposed to be missing?

Shawn: We started playing with it. We started dressing up in costumes. We were just having fun.

Jamie: How long did you all do that?

Shawn: For a couple of days. Then they kinda found us, because they were camped out at our hotel in New Orleans.

Jamie: This was before you went to Honduras?

Shawn: Yeah. We were just having fun with it. Once we found out what was going on, we were having fun with it.

Jamie: So how did they find out that you all were in a hotel in New Orleans? You all were driving, right?

Shawn: Word of mouth, I guess because we wasn't hiding. We were just rolling

out.

Jamie: Now there was another rumor that Lisa had died in the Honduras a year before. Had you heard about that?

Shawn: Nah, I never heard about that.

Jamie: Listen, how did you and Lisa meet? And what was your relationship like?

Shawn: Me and Lisa met in Philadelphia right before the TLC Tip came out whatever year that was. I remember vividly driving down the street, me and my cousin, my cousin looking at Lisa pushing a baby stroller, which I think was one of her cousins. We pulled over and my cousin tried to talk to her. He talked to her, got her number. Later on that night we came to pick her up. I had a girlfriend at the time and we went over to my friend's house. We was just in the basement chillin', talking. Lisa came out and said that she was a rapper and we were doubting her, doubting her, doubting her.

Jamie: Oh, you didn't know she was a performer?

Shawn: No, she wasn't a performer at that time. She was, but we didn't know.

Jamie: What attracted your cousin to her? What was it about her that you all stopped to say

something to her?

Shawn: 'Cause she looked good. You know how you're driving down the street and you see a girl and you're feeling her, you pull over. She ended up rapping for us and we were like, "Oh, you sound cool.' Two weeks later On the TLC Tip came out and I would see her on and off in the malls or at places and I'd say, "You said you were a rapper, you made it." Then I would start seeing her through modeling with [LeftEye's uncle] Kyle Young.

Jamie: You were modeling for Kyle?

Shawn: Yeah, I was doing stuff at like MAGIC out in Vegas and she was coming signing autographs and stuff for it.

Jamie: When you saw her originally, was Lisa wearing them big pants and stuff?

Shawn: She had on tight white pants and a nice little shirt when I saw her. She was showing off a little bit. 

Jamie: So when did you all start hooking up then? That was a couple of years later right, because she fell in love with Andre Rison? How did things work?

Shawn: When she was with Andre, when she was with Lorenzo and after that it was just ironic. Kyle used to tell me, "She's feeling you, she's feeling you, I used to be like, Whatever." But I wasn't the type of dude to step to her. I wouldn't even pursue it. Then out of the blue she called me one day and she was like, "You wanna go to London?" And I was like, "Yeah."

Jamie: That was a couple of years ago?

Shawn: Yeah, '99, 2000. And I jumped up and went. We kicked off from there and that was the basis for everything that was in the papers. People would see us out being lovey dovey and stuff

like that.

Jamie: Out of your girlfriends, how was Lisa different? Tell me some stories or things that she would say that would give us some insight to who she was as you saw her.

Shawn: It was funny, when I first got out to London I couldn't really see myself being with her.

Jamie: Why not?

Shawn: I don't know. She was real little. Real little girl. And I was used to bigger girls, but after a while after being around her and seeing how she was, she was just like a regular girl. She was beautiful. She had a lot of motherly instincts. She could cook her ass off and she did that. That was one thing that was different – she was old school. She was a woman. She wasn't no girl, she was a woman. Breakfast, lunch and dinner was cooked for you, sitting on the table waiting for you. Your bath water was running. She took care of her men. That's one thing I can really say that was different with her than a lot of these girls out here. She took care of her men. She cooked, made sure their stomach was fed and just all the little things that these new age girls look over. She wasn't with her hand out like, you need to be doing this for me.' She was doing it for you and that was real special about her.

Jamie: The thing that gets me about that is that she did that for you and she must've done it for the other guys too. That is what I'm hearing, but yet nobody really appreciated it. I was told that you're the only guy that didn't take advantage of her.

Shawn: I had a special love for her. I treated her good 'cause she treated me good.

Jamie: How long were you together?

Shawn: I guess about a year and a half.

Jamie: Why'd you break up?

Shawn: I think we stopped messing with each other because we started believing the hype and our relationship changed. The little things that didn't get us jealous before, got us jealous because we started believing the hype. We started believing the hype about us getting married and us being together forever when we started out just being friends like whatever happens, happens. It was like, if she needed to do something, she needed to do it. Like I remember one time she was sitting in the room like, "I gotta call Andre." I was like, "Alright, well handle your business." But as the relationship went on that would become a jealousy thing on both sides. Like if I had to do something with an old girlfriend or happened to have a relationship with an old girlfriend maybe modeling or something like that she would get jealous. So the relationship turned. She was a free spirit so anything I did was cool to her and that's how it was for me with her. Everything she did was cool with me at first. We were both being free spirits, letting people live. Live your life. You know what I'm saving?

Jamie: Well, let me ask you something. Even though she was a free spirit, when she was with one guy was she just with one guy as far as you know? Or were you all free spirits in terms of like if you want to be with another guy, that's cool. Was she like a one-man woman?

Shawn: Yeah, she was a one-man woman. When she was with somebody, that's who she was with. If she wanted to be with somebody else, she would've let you know. That's the beauty of her honesty and her realness. If she liked somebody else she would tell you.

Jamie: Did she ever discuss her fears or her problems or anything with you? You were with her during the times when she said she was going to do her own CD and that she was the creative person and all that, weren't you?

Shawn: To me, Lisa didn't have too many fears. And whatever came her way, she took it on. The solo album, she was really excited about doing that. She wanted to teach people.Teach

people how to live. Teach people about things that they don't really look into. She had a lot of energy surrounded by her. She was eating right. It's funny, after I stopped messing with Lisa or stopped seeing her as much, it was hard for me to eat because when I was with her I was eating real natural stuff. Then trying to come back and eat how I used to eat like fast food and different types of stuff it wasn't agreeing with me

Jamie: Shawn, what kind of food would she cook for you? How would she fix the food?

Shawn: Any type of natural, organic food.

Jamie: Cause people try to say she was drinking and I said this girl stopped drinking a long time ago, right?

Shawn: Yeah, she stopped drinking a long time ago. When we first got together we were drinking a lot, having fun, and going out, you know, doing crazy stuff. She would go through cycles. Like maybe she would drink with me for like a week and then for like a month she would refrain from everything. Sometimes she would refrain from sex for like a week or two. She didn't want to let no energy out of herself. That's when she was concentrating on making her album.

Jamie: And you would understand that?

Shawn: Yeah, We was cool like that. We were more friends than anything. We were having sex.

Jamie: Was she a good lover?

Shawn: Yeah, she was a good lover. It's funny like, 'cause when I first saw her naked I was like, "Oh, she's not gonna be a good lover." I'mma keep it real with you. She was so small, so tiny. But after being with her she was a good lover. She was good at everything she did.

Jamie: That's interesting that she would refrain from sex because that's like they tell boxers not to have sex. I think of her as a little lionhearted lamb.

Shawn: I was surprised that her little self could hold... I mean, she was the mother of a whole lot of people. She took care of a lot of people. People that didn't even deserve her to care for them. People who took advantage of her. She took care of a lot of people. As small as she is I don't know how she held all those people on her shoulders. A lot of people were relying on Lisa and she helped out everybody. That was one thing, you see Lisa and you see through the media that she's this hard, hard girl. That girl couldn't tell nobody no, If a person off the street came and asked her for $1,000 she'd probably give it to them.

Jamie: But how come she was in so much pain? She had so much pain around her career

Shawn: She was kind of misunderstood. The whole pride thing set her back. I remember she used to tell me that the reason why she used to play with the media was because of how they

messed her life up through that whole fire thing. They portrayed her as somebody she wasn't. That was a mistake.

Jamie: Some say people at the label were so mean to her. See, I remember that. People said, "Ain't no more TLC." And "You just messed us up." People were so mean and I'm like, how did she bear all that?

Shawn: And they were putting her in the crazy house and everything. She wasn't the superstar that had to ride around in a Bentley and ride in limos. She didn't have to ride around like that. Me and her would go to the club in a hoop-tie, pull right in the front and get out. It wasn't about no image for her or materialistic things. It wasn't about that for her. She was one of the most real girls I ever met.

Jamie: So when you all broke up you all just decided well, we're not going to be together anymore? Did any one thing happen?

Shawn: When we went to London we were together for like a month straight. All day, everyday. We got kind of tired of each other. Always doing a lot of arguing and that put a lot of strain on the relationship. So we started taking little breaks and stuff like that. I think we just both took a break. We just stopped calling each other at one point After the London trip...

Jamie: That was the second trip then. What trip was that?

Shawn: That was the second trip.

Jamie: You all went to Honduras first?

Shawn: Yeah, that was the second trip.

Jamie: Do you have a girlfriend now?

Shawn: Friend, I've got a couple friends.

Jamie: But how do you compare them to her? Is there anything you would've done differently during the time you were with Lisa? Is there anything that you didn't understand then that you understand now? Or do you just look at it as that was a good time for what it was at that time?

Shawn: I mean, it was a good time for what it was. I try not to compare other girls to Lisa. I think I would be shortchanging the girls. It ain't too many girls like her. I mean, if I could find another one like her I would grab onto her. I see why she went through a lot of stuff in her relationships `cause she was such a good girl.

Jamie: So they could not appreciate her. Is that what you're saying?

Shawn: Obviously, they didn't know how to appreciate her. The only thing they could try to do is control her. They didn't know how to appreciate her.

Jamie: That's interesting that you said that, That they just tried to control her.

Shawn: Yeah, because they wanted her to be around and do all this stuff. It was so beautiful, the stuff that she was doing that sometimes people can't take that It's like they don`t know how to handle that.

Jamie: You know a lot of times they say that in order to find a good person that's gonna do good and love you and do good by you, you have to be able to receive that person. You have to be able to recognize that and be able to receive that and reciprocate. Sometimes you're not ready for that kind of person.

Shawn: Yeah, and she was such a good person that I think a lot of people... The girl just took care of her men. It was unbelievable. All a man would want she was doing.

Jamie: I wonder where she learned that from. You know what I mean?

Shawn: I think her mother and her upbringing. The way her father brought her up because her father was so militant. He brought her up in a militant world where you can't drink before you eat, you have to hold your fork a certain way, you have to have your napkin on a certain side and you have to have your feet on the ground. You know, just little stuff.

Jamie: Did she talk about her father a lot?

Shawn: Oh yeah. She loved her father. She loved her father and she would often try to visit him.

Jamie: Visit his grave?

Shawn: No, visit him through spiritual [means]. She would just say, "I'm going to visit my father." Sometimes just lay down and let herself go. I mean, she was very spiritual.

Jamie: You know Uncle Kyle thinks she was ready to go see her father. That's what she was preparing for.

Shawn: Yeah, she wanted to see her father. I think she was happy with her life, she did everything that she wanted to do and she wanted to visit her father. And also, she wanted to visit Tupac. She had a real love for Tupac. She had a real love for that guy.I mean extreme love.

Jamie: How did you know that? She told you that?

Shawn: Yeah, we used to talk about it all the time.

Jamie: What would she tell you about that 'cause Tupac treated her pretty badly.

Shawn: She used to tell me about little incidents that they had.I don't know the situation, but she used to talk about him a lot. She had pictures all in her house of him. On her mousepad she had him. She had a deep love for his music and I guess with him as a person too. She used to talk about it a whole lot. She used to tell me how her ex-boyfriends didn't... If a Tupac song came on they would turn it off 'cause they didn't like that. But me, I was trying to be open with her. I was like, "If that's the way you feel, that's the way you feel. I can't stop that. So if you got a love for Tupac like that listen to his music. Have his pictures up." I got a love for Tupac as far as musically and all that. I wasn't hating on that.

Jamie: Why do you think she wanted to see you again?

Shawn: I think to make peace for everything that we went through. I mean, we talked on the phone and stuff, but when she called me and wanted to come see me it was something that she never did before. She always wanted to see me, but the way she called me, she called me two or three times and Lisa never did that. She would call you one time and she would tell you what she wanted.

Jamie: When was this that she called you?

Shawn: This was right before she went to Honduras. I don't know the exact date. She called me and said, "Call me back and I'll tell you when you call me back what's up." I didn't call her back because I didn't get the message. She called me back and said, "Call me back, I'm trying to get in touch with you." And she ain't never really act like that. Finally she got in touch with me and she said, "Me and my girlfriends are coming to Miami." And I said, "Come on." She came, we went out, we made peace, we talked, we sat, we laughed, we had fun and it was the best thing that could happen for me, you know, before she passed because I felt like we came back together, We were always talking on the phone. She came to Philly and I saw her before that Miami trip.

Jamie: You live in Philly Shawn?

Shawn: Yeah.

Jamie: Why were you all going to Miami?

Shawn: I was living in Miami for four months in the wintertime. In the winter time I usually go to Miami.

Jamie: Are you still modeling?

Shawn: I got Champs Sporting Goods. I was just in Vibe.

Jamie: Now who were her girlfriends?

Shawn: It was a girlfriend from high school and her cousin Jasmine. She hadn't seen [her girlfriend] in a while either and she brought her out there

Jamie: Did you ever meet up with

Andre Rison? Have you all ever talked?

Shawn: Nah. Never.

Jamie: Did you think that Lisa was going to leave this earth early? What was your reaction and where were you when you found out that she had Passed? And did you believe it at first?

Shawn: I didn't think that she was going to leave this world early because Lisa always said she was going to live to 200. All the herbs she was taking and how healthy she was... I was home when I heard it. A friend called me. I didn't believe it. I tried to call her assistant Stephanie. I called Kyle and nobody was answering their phones. So my friend called me back 'cause she was getting pages on the 2way and she said, "It's true." I still was leery, I didn't believe it. Then all of a sudden my phone started ringing off the hook. It was like 2:33 in the morning so I turned

it off. Then I woke up in the morning and I turned my phone and 1 had like 20 messages and Kyle had returned my phone. He was kind of groggy and said it was true. That's when I knew it was true. It was crazy.

Jamie: What are the last words you want to say to her?

Shawn: She's a very special and beautiful person and I love her - forever. And her spirit will live on and I know it will. She'll still be here helping out the people that she loved.