Neffe and Soullow Compare Themselves to the Obamas, Say the Chris Brown-Rihanna Situation ‘Not Unfortunate’
Frankie’s and Neffe’s irresistibility stem mostly from the fact that you never know what verbal missiles may be launched off their tongues and into the airwaves — and you can never predict the trajectory, ferocity and ultimate impact of those linguistic heat-seakers. That’s why viewers will not be able to tear their eyes away from Frankie’s and Neffe’s upcoming reality series, much the way drivers crane their necks to gawk at a 10-car pileup. Barely two weeks into shooting for their BET “Frankie and Neffe” reality show, drama is popping all over the set like holiday fireworks. Neffe and her fiancé, Soullow, spent time with rolling out recently and touched upon multiple hot-button topics, such as how their situation is like the Obamas; taking aim at the legion of critics who call Neffe the Octomom; why she wrote her book; and how Neffe says the Chris Brown-Rihanna altercation was “not unfortunate.” ~terry shropshire
You were drenched by a thunderstorm of criticism when it was reported that you were pregnant with your fifth child, which you have since denied. What do you want to say to your critics?
Neffe: Ricky Smiley, Frank Ski and Wanda, Ryan Cameron. Whoever that they may be. They may be Media Takeout, Necole Bitchie, whoever. It doesn’t matter. Honestly, I really don’t care. I can be Octa-mom, Toctomom. I can be laying on my back with my legs wide open all day, however they want to put it. Because them same people that have something to say are the same people going home and [lying] on their backs and having kids. So I’m not even tripping. At the end of the day, we’re all human. They are going to talk about you whether you are doing good or bad.
Why did you write your book and what did you want people to know about you that they couldn’t ascertain from the show with your sister, Keyshia Cole, on ‘The Way it Is’?
Neffe: My Happiness is My Sanity is based on what Neffe has truly, truly been through. And I know for a fact that this book is going to touch a lot of lives. I truly believe that God put me in this position to touch lives. My Happiness is My Sanity and I mean that literally. Like … in 2009, nobody is going to take away my happiness from me.
How do you feel about the first black family to reside in the White House in American history?
Neffe: The best thing that I love about the first man and the first lady is that they are actually show[ing] that you can stand by your family — not stand by your man. Not stand by your wife. But you can stand by your family. She supported her husband all the way to up where he is now.
Soullow: “[Barack Obama] started in the basement. Didn’t nobody stand behind him. Didn’t nobody believe him. Nobody believed he was going to be president. This campaign started in the basement in Chicago. And to see him overcome with his family was huge. And me and Neffe got some similarities to that. We started at my apartment, … talking about things like this as friends. And what has developed is … we have grown together. A lot of people might want to criticize us and go after us, but we’re black and we’re the same color as the people who are criticizing us and Obama gets the same thing.
You guys started families at a very young age, and now you have nine kids between the two of you. What have you learned from the first child to the last one?
Soullow: My first son I had when I was 12. And I had my second son at 14. … [I’m] not putting nothing out there bad about my parents. They did what they could. We are from the ghetto. We all did our thing. Luckily, we were big enough to come out of it. … It’s almost like the Cosbys, in the way that the kids interact with us. … We are like the black Brady Bunch. It’s amazing to watch the kids and the way they play on us.
It was unfortunate what happened to Chris Brown and Rihanna.
Neffe: No, it’s fortunate. Listen, I don’t know why people keep saying it’s unfortunate. It’s not unfortunate. Because no mater how much money you make, where you are going, who you with, where you been, you’re still human. Guess what? They’re still together. So what’s so unfortunate about that? Because they had a fight that people have everyday behind closed doors – it’s just that theirs was in the open? I don’t knock him or her, because they had a couple of spats and punch-outs. You have to remember, they did that to each other. He didn’t do that to her; she did that to him. They did that to each other. So at the end of the day, they had a fight, they both went to jail. They both ended up back together anyway. So what was unfortunate about that?
