Dionne Warwick, Teyana Taylor, and Jai’Len Josey Want You to Feel Every Note

2 min read

Before Dionne Warwick posted her first tweet, she thought the site was called “Twatter.” “I wanted to know why [Chance the Rapper] had to put that he was a rapper, when we all knew he was a rapper,” Warwick says. “He responded to me…one thing led to another, as a matter of fact, we wound up recording together. He’s a wonderful friend, but you know, that’s how I got involved with ‘Twatter.’”

Warwick has since become a Twitter (now known as X) juggernaut, with countless viral missives and more than 500,000 followers on the platform. Her internet clout doesn’t even come close, however, to her music career. The legend has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and had 56 singles enter the Billboard Hot 100 between 1962 and 1998. In 2019, Warwick was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Beyond her personal accolades, Warwick has also taken a specific interest in mentoring young singers. That’s why she’s joining Teyana Taylor and Jai’Len Josey for Three Generations of R&B at The Maybourne Hotel Beverly Hills, where we brought the powerhouse trio together to discuss the music industry in depth. Together, they talk mentorship, their shared love of Cynthia Erivo, and what they hope their legacies will be.

The group of women has more in common than you might think. In fact, Taylor is set to play Warwick in an upcoming biopic and has her own impressive list of accolades as well, earning an Academy Award nomination for her standout performance in One Battle After Another, a Grammy nod for her album Escape Room, and multiple entries on the Billboard 200. “Speaking to other women, especially women that are younger than me…I feel like a lot of times, we didn’t necessarily have the outlet for people to come in and tell you how wicked things can be,” Taylor says. “When you’ve got great energy and family and people that you love in your corner, listen. Trust your people. Trust your mama, because you only get one.”

Josey, who has starred on Broadway in SpongeBob SquarePants, The Broadway Musical, is fresh off the release of her debut album Serial Romantic. “Years from now, I really hope that people have the knowledge of my music enough to have lived to it,” Josey says. “Just in the same way that I’ve lived to your work and your work. I really want them to feel like they have a song for every situation.”

“They already live it, baby,” Taylor says. “You’re just going to add more and more. It’s going to keep multiplying.”