>> You feel the feels.

Oftentimes, I'm very known for brushing things off so I can just get things done or acting like I don't care, so I can just get to the next moment.

And that has not worked, even in my creation.

Like, just trying to scratch the surface to get the -- get the song done.

It just never gets the job done.

Even cleaning my room and just making my bed and throwing stuff under the bed.

Like you got to just get through the surface of it.

Yeah, it's just being in tune with your feelings.

And once you are okay with being vulnerable and you're able to sit in your vulnerability, you actually develop a new power.

♪♪ >> Welcome to "DMV: The Beat."

Hailing from Prince George's County, Maryland, she has emerged as one of R&B's voices on the rise.

This is the story of Alex Vaughan.

>> Alex was an easy child to raise.

She had the natural gifts, so you had to kind of balance how to train both sides of her brain.

Like, I'm a business guy, and she's art.

So that connection of how to balance the both was a challenge, but we didn't have any issues with her growing up as a teenager.

She wanted to do things that we wouldn't let her, but we knew she was musically talented beyond just normal.

So, again, it's like the discipline and the push and pull was always real delicate because she was, you know, not fragile, but you had to balance the two.

So, all in all, she was easy -- she was easy to raise.

>> So, when I was really young, I used to always get dropped off at my grandmother's house to get babysat.

And she had this brown, wooden, upright piano right against the kitchen.

And I would always find myself running out of the bathtub and crawling onto the seat and just banging on the keys and just pressing notes and just humming and just making whatever noises I could with my hands and with my mouth.

And it just always opened up a curiosity of what else I can do with my hands, with these keys, and with my voice.

And, you know, from being in the back seat of the car with my parents and just listening to the music on the radio, whether it be Stevie Wonder or Jill Scott or India.Arie, Mary J. Blige, it was just always something soulful.

And I always found myself wanting to mock it or hum it.

And whether I knew the words or what they were talking about or not, like, I always felt it in my spirit, and I just wanted to be able to emulate that in my own way.

So, I mean, I was in, like, some talent shows when I was younger, but I always still wanted to be a kid and enjoy my life and ride my bike.

And of course, nothing really got into the way of music.

You know, I thought that things were getting in the way, but nothing ever got in the way of it.

And so elementary school, I was involved in choirs.

I used to get solos.

I was, like, "writing songs," like, just scribbling little words and making up things on the keys, but not really sure, like, where it would lead me.

But it's always been just a growing passion of mine.

[ Vocalizing ] ♪♪ ♪♪ I have always wanted to be a singer.

I used to take piano lessons when I was younger, and I used to dread them even though I loved piano.

But then I saw Alicia Keys, and she was someone who had braids, and I had braids, and she just made fun of the keys and had soul and it was still rhythm and motion.

And I was like, "I want to do that exact same thing."

I mean, I used to want to be a train conductor, because I liked the overalls.

I used to want to be in the military like my dad, because, again, I liked the outfit, but it's always been music for me.

I've always wanted to be a singer.

So, this song I'm about to play for you is called "So Be It."

It's about a best-friend breakup and just making peace with letting go.

I didn't want to end the relationship in shambles, even though I felt like I was in shambles.

I wanted to end it in a place of peace for the sake of myself, for the sake of the other person, for the sake of our futures, and the sake of maybe us rekindling and being cool again.

So, yeah, this is "So Be It."

[ Piano plays ] ♪♪ [ Vocalizing ] ♪ Yeah ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Say that I don't miss you, but I do ♪ ♪ Say that I don't care, that's not the truth ♪ ♪ Ignore my intuition once again ♪ ♪ All for me to say you're still my friend ♪ ♪ Seems like everybody knows but me ♪ ♪ Didn't even know you moved right up the street ♪ ♪ All the things you said we wouldn't be ♪ ♪ So be it ♪ ♪ It's been a hard time adjusting ♪ ♪ Instead of lettin' me know, you kept secrets ♪ ♪ But if I cut you this deep, you'd be in pieces ♪ ♪ If that's how you really feel, then so be it ♪ ♪ So be it ♪ ♪ If that's who you are, then so be it ♪ ♪ So be it, so be it ♪ ♪ So be it ♪ I went to Gwynn Park Middle School here in Brandywine, and I was involved in choir there.

It was a little bit more classically driven, but still a regular choir program.

But we would be traveling, and we would still learn how to read music and singing in different languages.

And that was always just an interest to be able to do different things with my voice.

And just -- it just raised even more of a curiosity.

My director, he had advised that I audition for a performing arts school, Suitland High School, and I ended up getting in, and that program was totally classically driven.

We took private voice lessons all four years.

We had to take music theory.

We had private performances and music programs and just all sorts of opportunities for us to just expand and -- and -- and just tap into this world of classical music.

And although I thought it was very cool to be able to sing in different languages and do arias and operas, my heart still lied with R&B music.

So when it came time to audition for colleges, I ended up getting into a lot of schools, and one -- not one.

But I got a full scholarship to University of Hartford for classical voice and music education.

But, again, I just realized that's just not where I wanted it to be.

It's not where my heart lied.

It still belonged to R&B music.

So I went for about a year and some change, and had to make the adult decision to leave and take this R&B thing a little bit more seriously.

>> The hopes and dreams was that she could, you know, find that career or that thing that, like any parent, makes them happy doing it.

And that dream started to evolve as she started to kind of get older.

We started getting more affirmation from different people that she has a different gift in singing.

She has perfect pitch.

We didn't know what that was, but she continuously showed that she had the chops for something bigger, and we were just going to put all the resources that we had at our disposal in front of her and let her keep choosing her path.

And she just kept moving in that space.

So that's -- that's -- that's it.

So we just kind of hoped that it would just take off.

And through a bunch of trial and error, she found pathways on her own to start making her dream come true, and then we had to support it even more so from the back seat, which was interesting.

>> I've always been a singer.

I've always been performing at the baby showers, the weddings, the family reunions.

Like, I was that, like, "Alex sing 'Happy Birthday.'"

So it was always known that I was going to be an artist.

Now, figuring out what my artist name was going to be, I wasn't too sure.

I knew that I wanted it to be a name that could last forever, that I wouldn't have to feel like I'm in costume or that it was a different person or persona.

And then it was like, "Alex, why don't you just use your real name?"

And it's funny because, my whole life, I was made fun of for being named Alex, because it's a boy's name and everybody was named Britney or Brianna or Nicole.

No shade to any Britneys, Briannas, or Nicoles.

I have lots of friends.

Um, but yeah, I just ended up making it my first name and my middle name, which is Vaughn.

I just changed the spelling to the way my dad's name is spelled, so it looked more like a last name.

And just a fun fact.

I'm named after my dad.

They said the firstborn was going to be named after my father.

They didn't know what they were having.

And he's Vaughn Alexander, and I'm Alexandria Vaughn.

So I figured Alex Vaughn had a nice little -- little ring to it.

And I feel like, as soon as I figured out what my artist name was, things just started to become more cohesive, just from how I created to just how I presented myself.

And I'm still figuring out, like, who Alex Vaughn is, in totality, but it just kind of helped create a direction that people were able to point me out and say, "That's Alex Vaughn right there."

>> Alex' transformation -- [Laughs] if I'm honest, it's clumsy but artful at the same time.

I'm blessed to be able to be so close to an artful experience.

Like, it has been a learning experience, even for myself as a deejay and a personality, to be able to be, like, I don't want to say fortunate enough, but fortunate enough to have a close relationship with an artist, because it helps me then grow as a talent and better understand how to better serve an artist, but in all industries.

Like, I think one hand washes the other.

I think, in her case, you know, when we're finding inspiration in our work and writing about boys and navigating our relationships and find an even warmer beefing with one another, and she makes a song.

Yes, Alex has a beef song about me.

Tell her about it.

Ask her about it.

Yes, but, you know, working through those things, those are so productive because you could, again, be using these times to, like, argue, be bad or be sad to each other.

But you were really friends at the -- at the root of this.

That's why it's beautiful.

Like, we use these things as artful -- artful inspirations for one another, so... >> ♪ You'd be in ♪ ♪ You'd be in pieces ♪ ♪ Even if I did ♪ ♪ You would be the last up on that list ♪ ♪ I still can't believe you did that ♪ ♪ But in my heart, I still want to forgive ♪ ♪ Came to terms that we may never get ♪ ♪ Back to what we used to be ♪ ♪ Everything's still new to me ♪ ♪ It won't be no love lost ♪ ♪ So be it ♪ ♪ It's been a hard time adjusting ♪ ♪ So be it ♪ ♪ Instead of lettin' me know, you kept secrets ♪ ♪ But if I cut you this deep, you'd be in pieces ♪ ♪ If that's how you really feel, then so be it ♪ ♪ So be it ♪ ♪ If that's who you are, then so be it ♪ ♪ So be it ♪ ♪ So be i-i-it ♪ During the pandemic, I worked on a live album, and it was a bunch of musicians that I had never met.

My manager and my publicist had set it up, and I would just create songs from scratch every day.

I didn't have my phone.

I didn't have anything.

And from that I created a song, one of many, called "Mirage," and that was the song that actually got my label's attention.

Fast-forward to May 2021.

I just get a phone call from my manager, like, "Get dressed.

We're about to meet some people.

Just look nice."

And stuff like that doesn't really do it for me.

So I just put on some clothes.

I'm like, "Look, I'm going to be myself because that's who I am and that's how I know -- that's who I know is going to show up regardless."

So I did that and I met Justice, who was the head of A&R for the label, and I didn't know the extent or the magnitude of what was happening, so I couldn't overthink or under-think the moment.

So it was just two people talking like, "Hey, what's your name?

I'm Alex.

What's your name?"

"I'm Justice."

And we're just like feeling each other out, playing a couple songs and, you know, it was cool.

It felt very regular, very human.

And then I left the lunch and -- I mean left the meeting, and my manager was like, "We should go to dinner and celebrate."

And I'm like, "Why?"

He's like, "Because I think they're going to sign you."

And, lo and behold, about a week or so later, they had sent an offer, official offer to sign me.

And like I said, they heard that song "Mirage" that I made during the pandemic.

And they were like, "Yeah, we want her."

And the rest is history.

>> I've always said that it is really easy to support a talented friend because you know you don't have to pick and pull that hard to get them to support it.

Since the time that I've met Alex in the time that I've known her, it's always been easy for me to be able to support her work, whether it's via my work or just showing up at a show, just to wave my hand and sing along with her.

I think that that's a really important and powerful thing.

But also Alex showing up for me simultaneously.

Like that has been a really powerful relationship.

But admittedly it's tough giving your friend up to the world.

Watching her come to stardom and do all of these things means that I've got to share what I've always known with the rest of the world, that that girl is a star.

And it's special.

>> Since signing, it's been like opening a door into an entirely new world, just from the pace of things to how the environment is to what it really is versus what you've seen on television and the Internet.

And I'm not saying that in a bad way.

It was just like a really good realization for me, because this is the world that I've always prayed to be a part of, and I don't want to be afraid of it.

Like I want to figure out what the system is so I can learn it and infiltrate it.

You know what I'm saying?

Because I want to be in this forever.

And I've just met so many amazing creatives, some people who I was listening to before I got to meet them and just to feel that they're also human beings, along with being super humans.

It was just very comforting and it kind of helped me to see the superhuman in myself because very often, you know, you feel like, "Oh, man, if only if I was just a little bit taller, if only I read a little bit more in the fifth grade, maybe I'd have a little bit more vocabulary for this moment."

But who you are is who you're supposed to be in this moment and you're only supposed to grow.

And I feel like being signed has only like been a reflection of who I am and where I'm supposed to be and where I'm going.

And the self-discovery process has been beautiful.

I've gone on tour with Ari Lennox, an amazing artist who I know y'all already know about, who's from the DMV.

I've gone on tour with Kali Uchis, which is another incredible artist from the DMV, just many performances, opening up for Summer Walker.

Just lots of traveling.

I recently just got back from Jamaica for a writers camp with my label.

I feel like I've just been making a lot of relationships and just a lot of opportunities and experiences and just touching hands that I've never touched and touching crowds that I would never think I would be able to see and just really expanding my eyes and my horizon to what's possible.

Like sometimes I can find myself limiting myself and forgetting why I'm in this position.

And then I get those random bursts of confirmation that, Alex, those mistakes you're making are actually the mistakes you're supposed to be making.

And I think that this world of being a signed artist has just really helped me see myself not only as an artist, but just as a human and as a growing human and as a growing artist and just kind of bringing me solace.

Now, it's still a whirlwind, but it is definitely something that I know that I'm capable of.

And I'm excited for all the things that's to come.

>> At one point, I was a part of her management team, and it was stressful because we had to engage in verbal combat and I couldn't use the dad card at that point.

But then my wife said, one day she said, "Why don't you just exercise just being her dad and then let it just like happen?"

And it clicked that, allow her to just kind of like stumble through and come and ask the questions that she needed some consulting in.

And then I would just provide that from a business perspective.

So being in the back seat has been interesting because when she started reviewing contracts, I wanted to be in the room and I couldn't.

When she started talking to her legal team, I wanted to be a part of it and I couldn't.

So -- But the -- To watch the process mature kind of happened the way it was supposed to.

And I had my own check boxes and I found it to be interesting to -- She's doing it in her own way and her own style.

But what becomes interesting is when I see videos or I see images and I'm just like on her social media and I have to like it, but I'm like, "That's a little edgy."

Or if I see, you know, the the rolled cigarette in her hand, I'm like, "Do you have to?"

But again, I know it's part of marketing, it's part of the audiences that she's attracting.

So we kind of go with it.

But, again, she continues to like heat up.

So that backseat ride has been interesting, but we're starting to get used to it.

>> The sisterhood that I have discovered being in this music industry has been incredible and beautiful.

There's been so many women that I am inspired by that I would see on my timeline and, you know, subconsciously be slightly intimidated because it seems like they've got everything together and they just showed up perfectly and it just -- And meeting them in person is just like that quick and necessary reminder that we all had to start somewhere and there's so many things going on behind the scenes that no one knows.

And there's still a person off the clock that deserves protection, you know?

And I feel like the biggest connection I've had with my fellow sisters in this music industry is just like from human to human, the off the clock person.

You know, people always expect a lot out of you when you're on the clock as a machine.

And, you know, just checking on who you are just as a growing being.

And I feel like that's really strengthened our relationships, and it makes it not feel like a competition at all.

I've never felt like I was in competition with other humans at all.

I feel like we're all kind of like in our own race, trying to beat it for ourselves, But it makes it just ten times more pleasant to just be on this journey, this "race" amongst each other.

It makes it more fun to cheer for one another, to check on one another, to just be there.

I love being a part of this R&B community and part of the music community, and I love being there for anyone and I love when they're there for me, too.

>> You know if something has come and gone and there are people that have stood the test of time and Alex has now been in all rooms and all spaces.

And I believe that, you know, when you're crossing paths more than once, you usually kind of see where your personalities land.

In Alex's case, we've had a really, really organic relationship, and it's been easy finding like love for her because she's talented and serious about her work.

And I'm talented and I'm serious about my work.

And so as long as we're both serious about our work and we're also serious about the love that we have for one another, I mean, what could happen bad, right?

>> I'm about to perform a song called "Good Morning."

And this song was actually inspired by one of my best friends.

She was going through a really tough time where she was contemplating not being on Earth anymore, and it just affected me deeply because I love her and I wanted to make something to let her know that each day is a new opportunity to try again and you should celebrate that.

So, this is "Good Morning."

♪♪ ♪ I'm not sure what you're feeling ♪ ♪ But I know what you're going through ♪ ♪ The things that have happened to you ♪ ♪ Ain't only happened to you ♪ ♪ And pain can have much power ♪ ♪ Or it can have none at all ♪ ♪ The time you find yourself here ♪ ♪ You find it after you fall ♪ ♪ So, so don't you ♪ ♪ Don't think about ♪ ♪ Don't think of ending ♪ ♪ 'Cause it just, just might be a new beginning ♪ ♪ Each day you wake up, you know there's tomorrow ♪ ♪ So won't you open your eyes, open your eyes ♪ ♪ Good morning ♪ ♪ Good morning ♪ ♪ Good morning ♪ ♪ Good morning ♪ ♪ Has anybody told you before maybe that one day ♪ ♪ You'll rule the world ♪ ♪ And all of that negativity that you're going through ♪ ♪ It can be the fuel so you can rule the world ♪ ♪ And nothing's out the blue ♪ ♪ And I'm being clear with you ♪ ♪ That this life's so colorful ♪ ♪ Yeah, it's colorful ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ >> What I see for Alex is really -- it's definitely going to be chart topping.

She has the range and abilities, personality wise, musically, to do most anything.

And where I get antsy is because I know the music that she has that's in her coffers that nobody has heard or the music that is yet to be pierced through the sound waves is going to just like hit somewhere big.

And the Super Bowl -- she's already put it in her forefront as far as what she's going to do.

We know that's coming.

But I can see her with classical crossovers and music.

I can see her fusing R&B and classical, things that haven't been done, and just kind of like creating her own path because she doesn't follow anybody's lead.

So we're just waiting for everybody to catch up.

And when she was younger, when we bought her a piano.

When she started showing us her chops, I kept saying R&B has a gap right now because it was really high in those who had paths already charted, like your Mary J. Bliges and those folks.

They kind of owned it.

So it was nothing new.

And then you had rap, but you had no new energy that could sing legitimately out there.

And I was like, "That's your gap."

And that's when she was in high school.

So now it's starting to come to fruition and we're excited about it.

And again, I want to be just as excited when I kind of meet people who like -- I'm like, "Yeah, we've been talking about this, that gap.

Alex Vaughn is going to fill it She's going to be the crossover."

So the future is is bright.

R&B, as she says, is good.

And I think there's a lot of talent out there that there's room for everybody at the top.

But it's competition at the end of the day.

And she's going to do music that hands down people are going to say, "Yeah, she's that one."

And so the future and what we see for Alex Vaughn is unlimited.

And just everybody stay tuned because it's going to be a ride.

>> Man, you are truly a friend, my friend.

You are.

You are just the right amount of adversity.

You are just the right amount of inspiration.

You are truly a piece in my storybook, and I'm just so excited to see you continue to grow, strive, be, cry, just inspire.

You're just gonna do it all, and I'm just excited to be along on the journey with you.

However I can support you, you know I got you.

>> Everything that you encounter is a journey, even the things that you feel you are the most advanced at.

It's all a journey.

It's all a learning process.

Just be prepared to unlearn and relearn and give yourself grace in the unlearning and relearning process because it can be tough and it can be hard.

But once you realize that you're uncomfortable and you share that you're uncomfortable, you realize that a lot of people are also uncomfortable.

And that might be the place that you need to be in to get you to the next space of comfort, which will then make you feel uncomfortable again.

And it'll keep, keep, keep, keep, keep on going.

But you'll get stronger in the process.

So to anybody watching this, I'd say to just give yourself grace, be patient with yourself.

Know when to push yourself.

Know when to talk to yourself.

Gentle-parent yourself through this process, through this journey, and you're gonna get everything that you're looking for.

♪ Each day you wake up, you know there's tomorrow ♪ ♪ So won't you open your eyes, open your eyes ♪ ♪ Good morning ♪ ♪ Good morning ♪ ♪ Good morning ♪ ♪ Good morning ♪ ♪ Has anybody told you before maybe that one day ♪ ♪ You'll rule the world ♪ ♪ And all of that negativity that you're going through ♪ ♪ It can be the fuel so you can rule the world ♪ ♪ And nothing's out the blue ♪ >> And the beat goes on.

Thank you for watching.

>> ♪ And I'm being clear ♪ With you that this life's so colorful ♪ ♪ Yeah, it's colorful ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ >> This program was produced by WHUT and made possible by contributions from viewers like you.

For more information on this program or any other program, please visit our website at whut.org.

Thank you.