rookieEpic pranks must be good for your creativity—or at least make being on a huge tour at 20 less boring!

T-BOZ: Everybody was either in on it, or would go to their rooms and lock their doors. I’m not lying! They wouldn’t even want to ride in the car with us because of the spitball fights! You know, as soon as you’d get your hair done we’d knock on the door and splash you with water! Our hairstylist roomed with us, and she woke up with ice in her face, popcorn in her bed…boy, we were bad! That was fun!

CHILLI: We were fearless. What I learned over the years is that as you become older, you get more cautious, and you’re not as willing to take those chances anymore. Whereas when you’re young—oh my god, you just have nothing to lose. You’d do almost anything! Which is good and bad. You know, it can work out for you sometimes, and sometimes it isn’t a good thing. So hopefully you have someone around you who’s older, who you can trust, who can help guide you. It takes a village to raise kids, and that’s true, because that frontal lobe is not fully developed. And you can make a lot of mistakes in your early twenties—you’re not a teenager anymore, you’re not an adult, and if you’re in school or decide to work or whatever it is, you’re not really under the supervision of your parents, and you think you’re grown. So you make all these crazy decisions and then you’re like, Oh my god. And it’s funny, because you can tell a 21-, 22-year-old these same things, and they’re like, “Mmmm, hmmm. I know, I know.” Sometimes you have to just experience things.

What do you tell your kids about, like, how to be a human in the world?

T-BOZ: I believe that no matter what age they are, all kids deserve a certain amount of respect. But most importantly, I tell my daughter to respect herself and stand up for herself. My thing is, a lot can happen, especially when you’re a young female, when you let people run over you, if you’re passive. Like, “If you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for anything”—well, not in my house. When you stand for something, you’re gonna take up for yourself and whatever it is, whatever she wants to do or be, I support it, as long as she has her own morals intact, her character intact, her integrity, and her self-respect.

How can a teenager find the courage to stand up for herself?

T-BOZ: It’s a process at any age! I talk to myself all the time. I think that’s a lifetime thing. Everybody feels down. It’s emotional, and it’s a part of life. And you have to talk to somebody or get it out in some way because if you bottle things up, it’s just not good or healthy for anyone!

CHILLI: It’s just stress, but [when] it turns into poison, it can kill you. I think it’s good and healthy to allow yourself to have those moments when, like, you just don’t feel like being bothered! You don’t have to always be happy-go-lucky, like, “Oh, everything is great,” because everything is not always great! And you have your little moment, and then you shake it off and figure out how to change things. Because like [T-Boz] said, it’s a lifetime thing that you work on, but that comes in time. Because people are who they are. You have to look at people’s characters. That right there is who they really are. If you care enough about yourself to evolve as a person, you have to put yourself in check, like, “OK, I won’t do that.” But sometimes when you’re young you’re like, “AAAHHH!” You just go crazy! You don’t have to depend on anybody for happiness—you have to make yourself happy. You need to be around likeminded people when it comes to positive things. Not just somebody just like you, but a good-hearted person. That’s what you want.

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T-BOZ: I wanna say this to the young girls, and to the youth, period. Adults should go by this, too: Stop listening to people! Actions show everything! Do not just listen to people. They will show you who they are. They could say all kinds of crap, but what’s the truth? How are they really acting? How do they treat you?

CHILLI: How do they treat the people around them that they care about, you know? You have to look at everything.

T-BOZ: You have to watch people.

CHILLI: And when you see it, even if you have that infatuation and little butterflies going on in your stomach, you have got to pay attention to what you’re seeing, because those little things that you sweep under the carpet because you’re so excited right now? Trust me, it comes back out—and then you really can’t stand it. Get out before a feeling starts to kick in and it’s harder to leave!

T-BOZ: And you know what? Sometimes when people break up with you, actually, they’re doing you a favor. Trust me! If you can get over somebody passing away, and death, you can get over [love].

CHILLI: Yep. There are worse things than getting over a breakup. You’ll be so OK.

Thank you so much, Chilli and T-Boz.

CHILLI: Thank you so much, and thank you to our fans for being so loyal and dedicated to us for so many years, and introducing us to their kids, cousins—all that stuff. We’re so fortunate and blessed to have longevity in such a fickle business. It just means a lot, and we mean what we say.

I love you. Thank you so much. I have to admit, I was losing my shit coming here. Also, Belly is my favorite movie!

T-BOZ: [Laughs] Someone said that to me last night. I was like, “Africa’s faaar!” ♦