Before INYIM, I Was Sneaking Into The Tonight Show At Fourteen
Fun fact chapter: Long before It’s Not You It’s Me Media existed, I was already operating like a tiny entertainment reporter with a backpack, a binder and absolutely no intention of letting an age requirement end the assignment.
Coming of age, I certainly marched to the beat of my own drum. The ideas that innately popped into my brain rarely stayed ideas for long. My journalistic desires did not begin and end with school, my family’s celebrity-filled restaurant, co-editing the yearbook or serving as photographer, music and art curator for an event.
One day, I found myself strolling directly into the Los Angeles talk-show circuit. L.A. County was our playground, and being born precocious—with a little too much awareness and a whimsical curiosity—meant every studio audience suddenly looked like a classroom I needed to enter.
music
Take It Back To 702’s Breakthrough Summer
Revisit the group’s self-titled 1999 album, the era’s defining R&B sound and the anthem I witnessed live from The Tonight Show audience.
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The NBC studios in Burbank were roughly 20 minutes away when traffic behaved. Tickets were free. The only problem was that the audience entrance age was 16. This whole bright idea first sparked when I was around 12 or 13, and I was 14 years old by the night I saw 702 perform.
So what did I do? I put on my Go-Go Gadget and X-Men gear.
I would stay in line until staff appeared with clipboards to check identification. Then I would pop up, quickly sprint out of line and hide behind the nearest patch of greenery. Once the inspection ended, I would scoot right back into place and continue toward the studio as though absolutely nothing suspicious had occurred.
Never once did the adventure become an issue. In fact, the adults around me often found the entire notion intriguing and amusing. Those strange little encounters became rare teaching moments, sharpening the communication skills I would eventually need to navigate entertainment, media and the personalities living inside both.
The self-imposed field assignment continued for years. I saw artists and performers arrive in dazzling interview outfits and watched fashion, art, movies, television, books and music unfold in real time—from Stone Temple Pilots and Christina Aguilera to the Las Vegas R&B trio 702.
The Night 702 Brought “Where My Girls At?” To Jay Leno
On August 20, 1999—when I was 14 years old—Kameelah Williams, Irish Grinstead and LeMisha Grinstead stepped onto The Tonight Show with Jay Leno stage to perform “Where My Girls At?” during the group’s biggest commercial moment.
That night was nearly 27 years ago. On August 20, 2026, the performance officially reaches its 27th anniversary—a full-circle milestone that makes finding the footage again feel even more surreal.
The episode also featured Sarah Jessica Parker and comedian Harland Williams, but for me, the main event was 702. The Missy Elliott-penned anthem had become one of the defining R&B records of that summer, reaching No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and powering the trio’s self-titled Motown album.
Watching the clip now feels like opening a time capsule. The styling, choreography, live vocals and late-night studio energy are pure 1999, while the footage preserves the classic lineup during a peak moment in the group’s story. It carries even more emotional weight following Irish Grinstead’s death in 2023.
Ironically, by the time I finally reached the legal audience age, I had already turned the chapter and begun growing out of the phase. But the instinct never disappeared.
I spent hours, days and years on location—grassroots style—with a backpack and binder, highlighters and sticky notes in tow, ready to observe and report from behind the scenes. I did not know it yet, but those studio lines, strange conversations and live performances were early rehearsals for the independent media world I would eventually help build.
Before there was an INYIM press pass, there was a kid behind a bush waiting for the clipboard to pass. Original. Independent. Unapologetic—apparently from the very beginning.
See My Full Founder Fun Fact Reel
I revisit the childhood studio-audience adventures that quietly helped shape INYIM’s future editorial curiosity and entertainment instincts.
Watch 702 Perform “Where My Girls At?” On The Tonight Show
As the performance approaches its 27th anniversary, INYIM’s archival clip captures 702 performing their 1999 anthem live for Jay Leno on August 20, 1999—the same performance I witnessed from the studio audience at 14 years old.
Source: My firsthand recollection, personal archive, Getty Images and NBC archival records. The 702 performance date was confirmed as August 20, 1999.
