Yahoo Lifestyle These Celebs Gave Their Peers Some Life Advice And Honestly, This Is More Wholesome Than I Would've Thought
The entertainment industry can be difficult to navigate, especially without solid guidance or mentorship. However, those who've gone through the highs-and-lows of the business have imparted their own wisdom on the younger generations.
For example, Beyoncé told Halle & Chloe, the sisterly duo signed to Parkwood Entertainment, to refrain from scrolling through the timeline to thwart outside influences, whether positive or negative.
In other instances, the advice surrounds improving one's craft. For example, Michael Jordan had no issues dropping gems on a young Kobe Bryant as it related to sharpening his game on the court.
I've rounded up some surprising advice that celebrities, whether musicians, actors, or athletes, shared with others.
1.The advice Elton John gave to Young Thug not only stuck but shaped the future of hip-hop.
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The British icon and the influential Atlanta rapper struck an unlikely friendship after Sir Elton John professed his appreciation for Young Thug in 2015. The two later recorded music, with one of their songs appearing on The Lockdown Sessions. In a 2021 interview with Billboard, John recalled the advice he gave Young Thug. "He wanted to meet me…and we shot the breeze for 40 minutes," John said. "He said, 'What do you think? What advice would you give me?' I said, 'Did you sing in the choir?' And he said, 'Yeah, of course I sang in the choir. Gospel choir.' I said, 'Sing more. Don't just rap, sing more, because the mixture of rap and musicianship and melody is what really makes rap take off.' And he's doing that now.”
2.Denzel Washington to Will Smith: "In your highest moments, be careful; that's when the devil comes for you."
Perhaps it's not "shocking," but Denzel Washington swooped in during one of the lowest moments in Will Smith's career. After the actor slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars, he took the stage to accept the award for Best Actor in a Leading Role where he thanked Washington for the sage advice.
"Well, there’s a saying, ‘When the devil ignores you, then you know you’re doing something wrong.’ The devil goes, ‘Oh no, leave him alone, he’s my favorite.’ Conversely, when the devil comes at you, maybe it’s because he’s trying to do something right. And for whatever reason the devil got ahold of that circumstance that night," Washington told T.D. Jakes at an event following the incident. "Fortunately there were people there. Not just me, but others. Tyler Perry came immediately right over there with me. [Said] some prayers. I don’t wanna say what we talked about, but for the grace of God go any of us. Who are we to condemn? I don’t know all the ins and outs of the situation, but I know the only solution was prayer, the way I see it."
3.Maya Angelou shared excellent advice when Oprah Winfrey turned 50.
During an appearance on the 2020 Vision: Your Life in Focus Tour at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN, Oprah told Tina Fey that the late Maya Angelou shared some incredible advice as she reached her 50th birthday. "I’ll tell you, the only number that actually gave me pause was 60. But when I turned 50, my dear friend, Maya Angelou was still alive, and Maya said to me, ‘Babe, the fifties are everything you’ve been meaning to be. It’s everything you thought you might do. This is it. It’s coming in. You’re not even there yet.'" Oprah recalled.
4.Taylor Swift uplifts Ice Spice with sound career advice.
After the two linked up on "Karma (Remix)," Ice Spice revealed that Taylor Swift shared some direct advice. "When I was in the studio with Taylor, like, I’ll never forget that," Ice Spice recalled in an interview with Billboard. "She told me, 'No matter what, just keep making music and everything’s going to be fine.'” Considering that Taylor Swift has remained one of the most pivotal pop stars over the past two decades, the key to her success might lie within these words.
5.Sean Penn kept it 100 with Robert Downey Jr. in the midst of his struggles with dependency.
Amy Sussman / Variety via Getty Images, Michael Buckner / Variety via Getty Images
Speaking to Esquire, RDJ recalled when Sean Penn forced him to enter his rehab center. "Sean broke down my door and drove me to rehab. I remember him saying, ‘You have two reputations. I think you know what both of them are, and I think you’d do well to get rid of one of those reputations. If you don’t, it will get rid of the other one.’”
6.Big Sean receives sage words about change from Will Smith.
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As he was readying the release of his latest album, Rather Me Than You, Big Sean shared a video where Will Smith provided him with some solid guidance on moving through the entertainment industry and embracing change. "When you hit the edge of the material world and… you know, I call it cliff top," Smith said in the video. "Cliff top is the opposing aspect of rock bottom. When somebody hits rock bottom and can go no lower, you need to get your sh*t together or you die." He added, "Cliff top is either you find God. Or you die 'cause there’s nothing else here for you."
7.Lupita N'yongo reveals that Danai Gurira gave her some of the best advice she had ever received.
Speaking to Oprah.com, N'yongo said Gurira once told her: "Go where you are loved." "It's a valuable thought that's really stuck," N'yongo said. That's especially the case as a creative. "When you're trying to find collaborators, you need to go where you are loved–because that's the place where your dreams and goals will be nurtured," she said.
8.Prince's advice to Nas came in the form of rejection.
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The legendary Nas once crossed paths with Prince, who came to his release party for the album, I Am.... However, in Nas's attempt to try and pitch a collaboration, Prince succinctly turned him down. "I said, ‘Yo, look, manl. Let’s do this. Let’s do this song.’ And he was like, ‘Do you own your masters?’ Nas recalled on Drink Champs. “But he blew my sh*t, because I was like, ‘I don’t. And I’m far from it, ’cause I owe this label like four, five albums.’ So I was like, ‘Damn.'” He added, "[Prince] dropped a jewel, he kind of helped me see the future and he was like, ‘When you own your masters, give me a ring.'"
9.If it were not for J. Cole, Dr. Dre may have never discovered Kendrick Lamar.
Leave it to Nardwuar to find some obscure and untold tidbit of information. The Canadian journalist asked J. Cole whether he urged Dr. Dre to check out Kendrick Lamar. Cole was obviously startled that Nardwuar uncovered this but he confirmed that it was true. He said that he mentioned Kendrick Lamar during the infamous Detox sessions in the late 2000s in an attempt to help Kendrick Lamar land a record deal.
10.And the advice that Dr. Dre then shared with Kendrick Lamar.
Kendrick Lamar appeared at the 2017 Forbes’ Under 30 Summit, where he revealed some of the guidance that Dr. Dre provided him. At the time, Kendrick was already a revered MC with a number of accolades to his name, though he admitted he was still fresh to the business world. "You gotta continue to work, you’re gonna make mistakes along the way, but you have to ask questions,” Kendrick said, per REVOLT. “That’s something I’m learning now. I don’t know it all. I have to ask questions. I’m still fairly a new cat, as far as being a businessman
11.Michelle Obama left Meghan Markle "somewhat speechless"
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When Markle asked Obama about motherhood for the back page of British Vogue‘s September issue in 2019, Michelle shared a thoughtful response. "Motherhood has taught me that, most of the time, my job is to give them the space to explore and develop into the people they want to be. Not who I want them to be or who I wish I was at that age, but who they are, deep inside,” she said. “Motherhood has also taught me that my job is not to bulldoze a path for them in an effort to eliminate all possible adversity. But instead, I need to be a safe and consistent place for them to land when they inevitably fail; and to show them, again and again, how to get up on their own," Obama wrote.
Per People, Markle described the words "as a thoughtful, reflective and beautifully curated narrative – a gentle reminder not of how but of why she has become such a globally respected public figure.”
12.When Jay-Z tried to warn Drake...
With 2024 marking Drake's demise from the top of the charts, it feels appropriate that we include some solid words of advice the Canadian rapper received from Jay-Z in 2010. On "Light Up," appearing on Drake's debut album, Thank Me Later, Hov details the obstacles that someone of Drake's stature will face in his journey through the hip-hop industry. "Drake, here's how they gon' come at you/ With silly rap feuds, tryin' to distract you/ In disguise, in the form of a favor/ The Barzini meeting, watch for the traitors, uhh/ I done seen it all, done it all/ That's why none of these dum-dums could done him off," Jay raps on the song, per Genius. While we've seen this scenario play out throughout the course of Drake and Jay-Z's careers, we can't say that Hov ever faced such a devastating blow the way that Drake did.
13.Method Man learned a lot from Maggie Gyllenhaal.
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The two worked together on The Deuce, which proved to be pivotal in Method Man's approach to acting. Detailing his experience with GQ, he revealed that Gyllenhaal's actions rather than words helped shape him into a better on-screen performer. "Accidents are good. Mistakes are good," he recalled of the lessons he learned on-set with her. "I would have little mild anxiety attacks just from missing a word during a scene, but you’ve got to stay in it and snap right out of that shit and keep going. Sometimes it happens every now and then, but I usually suppress it enough to remind myself what I’m doing, give myself a minute, then boom, it’s gone.
14.Kim Kardashian shared some plastic surgery advice to Cardi B.
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Though not necessarily "advice," Kim Kardashian apparently tried to help Cardi find the best surgeons possible when she thought about getting her nose done, according to PEOPLE. During an interview, Jason Lee asked Cardi, "I remember the time we were at Kris' [Jenner] house and Kim gave you a list of people you could call to get help," he recalled. "You didn't call none of those people?" Cardi responded, "No, I called a couple of people that she gave me."
15.A young Kobe Bryant got some game from Michael Jordan.
Even though he was a fierce competitor, Michael Jordan didn't withhold advice from Kobe Bryant. In a post-game interview in 1997, Jordan revealed that Bryant asked him about his jump shot and how to lock defense. "I told him, you should feel the defense with your legs. Once you feel the defense with your legs, you got to, more or less, feel where the defense is and take advantage of that," Jordan said. He admitted that he has no issues on giving away "trade secrets," especially since he saw a lot of himself in Kobe Bryant.
16.Tom Brady's succinct but affirming advice to Patrick Mahomes.
Speaking to Sports Illustrated, Mahomes said that Brady gave him the best advice of his career. "[He said] just to keep doing what I’m doing,” Mahomes said. "That first year, playing against Tom and losing that game, for him to say that—I’d never met him before—that was huge."
17.Ryan Murphy's "fatherly advice" to Travis Kelce.
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Following his Super Bowl win with the Kansas City Chiefs, Kelce embarked on a brief stint in Hollywood and appeared in Ryan Murphy's Grostesquerie. Per Variety, the two met for a general meeting when the NFL star mentioned his interest in dabbling with acting, which led to his role on the show. "We were talking about his future and what does he want to do after football season, and I was just kind of giving him some fatherly advice,” Murphy said during a press conference. “I always have a motto in my world and in my work, that a star is a star is a star. It doesn’t matter what field you’re a star in. If you have that charisma, you are going to bring it to whatever you do.”
18.Jensen Ackles told Meg Donnelly to "stand tall."
Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty Images, Momodu Mansaray / WireImage
During the filming of The Winchesters, a prequel to Supernatural, Jensen Ackles shared some sound advice on posture. "He gave me a note on never to sink into my heels when I'm standing, especially next to Drake [Rodger]," she said on the Inside Of You podcast. Ackles learned that lesson from standing next to Jared Padalecki, she explained. " "You have to stand tall so you look taller, because if you sink into your hip, you're like two inches shorter," she recalled him telling her. "'Learn from me, you gotta stay tall,'" he told her.
19.Beyoncé told Halle and Chloe Bailey to enforce the "no-scroll rule."
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After taking the sisterly duo under her wing, Queen B imparted some wisdom to the artists, which Chloe recalled during an interview with Vanity Fair. "The first thing she told us was the ‘no-scroll rule,’" Chloe said. “Whether it’s positive or negative comments, just don’t scroll. That one negative thing could affect you. The second was to never dumb ourselves down for the world. Just let them catch up to us and our sound.”
