Still Spittin’: Rah Digga Interview

In an environment where image and visibility are as vital as an artist’s output, allowing ten years to pass before delivering new material to a fickle audience can be considered assisted suicide. A fan’s deaf ears and blind eyes amass dust as swiftly as a shelved album and undoubtedly ensure label limbo in the afterlife.

On the other hand, an emcee with the ability to “spit a million rhymes in 240 seconds” can remain relevant when everyone else has long been forgotten. Rah Digga is that class of emcee and Soul Culture recently spoke with her about her Classic album, giving back to the community and why loving your craft is ultimately more important than sales. Read more

Kelly Price Returns: Letting Go Of Failure, Fear and Depression | Interview

R&B music in the mid-to-late ’90s was heavily dominated by make-up to break-up songs with soft beats and smooth melodies by the likes of Babyface, Aaron Hall, Blackstreet and Dru Hill, with Keith Sweat, R. Kelly and Mariah Carey dominating the airwaves. Mention the name Kelly Price and expect to recall a string of hits and chart-topping singles.

“Friend Of Mine” (ft. Ronald Isley and R. Kelly), “You Should Have Told Me” and of course the R&B classic “Heartbreak Hotel,” with singing legend Whitney Houston and Faith Evans, are to name only a few of the great work done by the multi-talented mother.

With a new self-titled album on the way in 2010, Soul Culture recently spoke with Kelly on her four-year break from the charts, weight loss, her new album and her admiration for Diddy. Read more

Mystro: Comedic Spurts, Thesaurus Flow | Interview

As much as the no-nonsense, super lyrical rappers are applauded, what most Hip Hoppers love is someone who isn’t afraid to tickle one’s funny bones; someone who can also give us a good laugh amidst the breathless flows and Thesaurus referenced wordplay.

It’s these attributes which have indefinitely made Mystro one of the most admired UK spitters of today. With a career spanning over ten years, the microphone assassin has enough lyrical capabilities to wow all – yet it is his charismatic approach and effortless flow which distances him from the chasing pack.

As the release of his Digmund Freud EP approaches, Mystro sat down with SoulCulture to discuss the growth of UK Hip Hop and its general shift towards a more commercial sound, his views on the listeners’ individual roles in influencing which music becomes popular and flexing his presenting skills away from music on Spine TV.

SoulCulture: Can you identify one difference between UK Hip Hop now and when you first came out some years ago?

Mystro: When I first came out, I’d say there wasn’t very much of it [Hip Hop] as there is now. I really remember London Posse, Cookie Crew, Silver Bullet - all those kind of artists at the time were Read more

Filling A Void In The Industry: Arrested Development Interview

Since the group’s founding in 1988, Arrested Development has been blessing the world with their infectious melodies and grooves. Their first album, 3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days…in the Life was released in 1992. The album’s title was a reflection on how long it took them to establish a record deal.  During the same year, they became one of the major success stories in the music industry.

Founded in Atlanta by rapper Speech and DJ Headliner, the group were described by Rolling Stone as a “progressive rap collective fusing soul, blues, Hip Hop, and Sly & the Family Stone-influenced funk with political, socially conscious lyrics.” At that time, they mutually agreed to make the transition to a more positive, Afrocentric theme after hearing the legendary Public Enemy.

This album went onto spawn the hit single “Tennessee,” a strongly spiritual track that hit #7 on the US pop charts and #3 on the R&B charts and sparked the album to sell over four million copies. The two follow-up singles, “People Everyday” (a rewrite of Sly and the Family Stone’s “Everyday People”) and “Mr. Wendal” performed extraordinarily well. With accolades pouring in from all sides, Arrested Development ended up winning Grammys for Best Rap Album and Best New Artist, going on to be named Rolling Stone’s Band of the Year. After breaking up in 1996, the group reunited in 2000 and since then they’ve been releasing music internationally.

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of speaking to Speech, co-founding member of Arrested Development about what the group has been up to recently and to speak on their brand new album, Strong. Read more

Neo Soul Pigeon-holes, Online Connections & Dirty Laundry: SoulCulture Interviews Dwele

Four albums deep and on the promo run for his latest LP, W.ants W.orld W.omen, this week SoulCulture caught up with a certain Mr Andwele “Dwele” Gardner.

He needs little introduction; something of a figurehead for today’s Soul music – “neo” or otherwise – the Detroit-based singer, songwriter and producer became a staple voice in the next soul wave ever since his first single “Find A Way” dropped in 2003 from his debut release on Virgin Records, Subject.

Today’s subjects are the pros and cons of being accessible online – namely, how the singer reacts to blunt fan feedback on Twitter and how social networking sites present useful opportunities for him to connect with those who’d like to work with him, with no other means of contacting him.

He also talks about his feelings on watching the current sagas among his friends and several time collaborators Slum Village unfold publicly online.

But first, we start with the new album…. Read more

“America is beat up, confused”: Antoine Fuqua Interview

On the eve of the worldwide release of Brooklyn’s Finest, SoulCulture’s Hugo Salvaterra delved into the cinematic motivations of director Antoine Fuqua – exploring why he wants to tell us another Street story and its contrast with other projects, his choice of actors and his perspective on America. From Hollywood L.A. to London, let’s gets into Antoine Fuqua’s mind…

Hugo Salvaterra: First of all, after the success of Training Day why another movie in the same genre, why would you want to explore that again after all the accolades that you got?

Antoine Fuqua: Read more

Stir It Up: Rohan Marley fulfills his father’s farming dream with Marley Coffee enterprise

Ten years ago, Rohan Marley, Co-Founder and CEO of Marley Coffee, set out to fulfill one of the visions left by his late father to establish a business centered on giving back to the underprivileged and voiceless. Bob Marley always said he wanted to return to farming one day after his music career was completed, but he never had the opportunity after his passing in early 1981. Here is where the story of Marley Coffee begins. Read more

Keith Sweat On Staying Relevant & The Decline Of Soulful R&B

You’d be hard pressed to find anybody that didn’t know Keith Sweat – if not the man, then definitely the music. Play “Nobody” or “Twisted” to an unassuming ear and it will no doubt be followed by cries of, “I used to LOVE this song!” or “That was my jam!” Well, the Sweat is back and he had a chinwag with Soul Culture’s Amber Yeshpaul about the new music, a new era and new horizons.

It’s a sunny day here in the London, putting me in a good mood to have a chat with Mr R&B himself, Keith Sweat. As the phone rings, the voice that answers is baritone drenched with an easy American lilt – the perfect compliment to this hazy summer day.  Mr Sweat sounds relaxed. He’s in the middle of a tour of the States and the Harlem native is in Atlanta, Georgia as we speak. He says the tour is going well and he’s been enjoying making new music.

Ridin’ Solo is Keith’s tenth studio album, his first release since being signed to former Motown president Kedar Massenburg’s label, Kedar Records. The album was released on 22^nd June 2010 (Sweat’s birthday) and debuted at number 13 on the Billboard 200.

“With this new album I’m ready to come out there now and do different songs other than my catalogue that people have known me for like ‘Nobody’ and “’Twisted’,” he said, adding that he wants people to listen and say, “I’m happy he’s back, he was one of my favourites and I’m happy he’s doing his thing.”

Sweat is well aware of his existing fanbase and of what people expect from him, especially as he is known by many as the ‘begging R&B crooner’. The new single, “Test Drive” produced by The Platinum Brothers and featuring labelmate Joe, is no exception and it sticks to Sweat’s well-tested formula.

Strongly reminiscent of his older material, “Test Drive” is essentially the sound of a grown up Keith Sweat. When I tell him this, he says, “Well, that’s what I’ve been doing [growing up] That’s the kind of music I’ve always written – grown up music, grown and sexy music.“

According to Sweat the new album will have a lot of different sounds on it; some up-tempo, some slow but at the end of the day he’s sticking to what he knows.

“I’m accustomed to making a certain type of record, so when people buy Keith Sweat, they wanna hear Keith Sweat – ’cause I have my fanbase already. So if I do the songs that people have known me to do and are accustomed to me doing, then I add extra stuff, people will be happy about it,” he says before boldly stating, “I don’t feel like I have to change who I am in order to sell records, in order to be relevant, or for people to like me or like my music.”

He talks about current popular artists and says that he likes Trey Songz, Ne-Yo and Drake. He’s enjoying people like that, however he makes it clear that none of them are influencing him at this point in his career – “I set my own trend.”

Throughout his career, Sweat has been inspired by the likes of The Isley Brothers, Marvin Gaye, The O’Jays and Babyface. “Those people were inspirations to me growing up,” he acknowledges. “They were the people that I listened to that I got inspired by. People like New Edition, you know, those types of people.”

As we entered the subject of older performers I ask Sweat, who is of course one of the chat toppers from the New Jack Swing generation, how he feels the music market has changed since the peak of his career in the early ‘90s.

“It’s changed a lot because R&B is not the same kinda R&B that I’m used to… Music has changed a lot. To me, it’s not as soulful as it used to be, people have watered it down, trying to made it more mainstream so they can cross over a little more I think.

“I don’t think it’s like when the O’Jay’s were out or that type of stuff. I don’t really hear that real soulful sound anymore. What I knew was when people like Dru Hill was out, or Aaron Hall and Guy and Luther Vandross and those types of people. You don’t really hear that anymore.”

Keith’s plan is to be one of the people to bring that sound back, “Because I think it’s wanted and I think it’s needed.”

Part of his effort with this is demonstrated in his new reality show Keith Sweat’s Platinum House which airs on BET’s new channel, Centric. The series is based around Keith trying to rebuild ’90s R&B quartet Dru Hill by moving them all into a house for a kind of come back boot camp. They too were a sensation of the New Jack Swing era, and Sweat wants to “get them back to where they were musically and see if they have the same thing they had back in the day.”

As a former member of R&B group LSG, with Gerald Levert and Johnny Gill, Sweat’s knowledge of music groups coupled with his former business life as a stockbroker would make music management his forte. Reality shows, however, are not.

Being part of a show like this is quite a big thing for Sweat, since he expressed his unhappiness about his ex wife, Lisa Wu Hartwell appearing on Real Housewives of Atlanta and did not want his children to be part of the show.

Sweat has full custody of his and Wu Hartwell’s four children and, although he’s keen to keep them out of the public glare of reality shows, music is another thing; “A few of them are interested in music, but not in the level that I am. Maybe one is interested in being a producer”. He states that “They should be able to do whatever they wanna do, as long as it’s nothing criminal.”

I did ask if Mr Sweat had a special lady taking residence at the Sweat Hotel, to which he replied, “Not really. No one that I can really say I’m going to marry and I’m down with it and she’s down with it. Nah, I’m enjoying life, I’m just chilling, I’m being happy and I’m being blessed. I’m loving all the ladies that’s loving me.” Good news for all the ladies still nursing crushes for the crooner…

Getting back to the music, Sweat makes it clear that he is where he is because of all of you. “I just wanna thank all my fans, honestly, for supporting me all these years… ’cause I just feel like I’m at a certain place in my life and in my career because of the fans out there; whether it’s overseas or whether it’s in the States. I’ve had a lot of support from people in both places. They’ve kept me in the R&B game, they’ve kept me relevant.”

Keith currently hosts a radio show called ‘The Keith Sweat Hotel’ which broadcasts Monday-Thursday on over 30 radio stations around the states. His reality show Keith Sweat’s Platinum House currently airs on BET Centric.

Ridin’ Solo is out now on Kedar Records.

TheSweatHotel.com

- Amber Yeshpaul

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