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Faith Evans Interview
RnB/Hip Hop | Friday 16th December 2011 | Osh
She was the first female to be signed to P Diddy’s label Bad Boy Entertainment and has now been in the game for 15 years. We caught up with the grammy winning artist to chat about her new reality show, film and being a smart business woman!
So you were the first female artist to be signed to Diddy’s label of course, but since then you’ve gone on to win Grammies and make movies – does anything really compare to that first moment you signed with Diddy?
Oh boy. Absolutely not! Haha. I mean it’s different of course as over time I’ve grown quite a bit – but nothing could ever compare because that was just such a random act of God. I mean I didn’t audition, I wasn’t trying to be a recording artist, and the way I met him, he asked me to sign immediately after only hearing me do a background part – and that was just like wow, I mean I didn’t even go there to do that, but I’ll take it.
So that was a crazy moment, but since then, you’ve had a very turbulent, eventful life – is it still like that now, is it still going a hundred miles an hour?
Well life itself is certainly always full of ups and downs, but for me I think that the more you go through, it all just makes me able to deal with the next issue (whenever that may come) and deal with it in the right frame of mind. What doesn’t kill you can only make you stronger.
That’s right, and you seem to always take on big broad projects, putting those obstacles in front of you that you overcome. And you recently won the African American literary award for the best biography memoir, is that right?
Yeah. I mean I didn’t heavily promote my memoir so it was a pleasant surprise, I didn’t even know about it! Then I got word that I won, and I would’ve liked to have been there, but I was glad and very thankful for the people that did support it, considering I didn’t really do a lot of heavy promotion for it. So yeah that was a great thing. I mean I got pursued for a few years before I did it – people were like, “We wanna hear your story!”
And was that part of the motivation for you to pursue this reality show you’re currently working on?
I wrote a sitcom a couple years back and I received some offers for development deals, but a couple of years ago when I finally finished the sitcom, people were kind of straying from sitcoms on TV, so I decided to wait on it, because it was a great show. In that time I met someone who’d actually read my memoir and wanted to do a reality show with me, and I was like, well that’s cool! I wanted to be in control of and able to be able to control the content of it. So I decided to do a show with my good friend Misa Hylton the mother of puffy´s child. It’s sort of a guideline, not only about time in this industry but also the relationship that we’ve maintained over the years (since back in the Bad Boy days.) Both being parents and having kids who are about to go to college, and still being relevant in the music business today. We’ve both branched out into our own entrepreneurial ventures. So we’re maintaining our relevance in music but also being smart businesswomen.
You’ve done this reality show-is there anything big on the horizon in terms of movies? Are you gonna be working on an Oscar?
Actually I was chosen to star in the biopic on Florence Ballard’s life-she was the founder of The Supremes.
Are you gonna be playing the lead?
Yes!
So you’re going all Ice Cube on us, all Hollywood?
In the script I do see a lot of similarities in our characters, in terms of her sense of humour, and her being no-nonsense and telling it like it is. Probably different from me-I try not to offend people but sometimes you have to throw that out of the window! I’m really excited!
I think you should be measuring your success by how busy you’re keeping yourself! What do you reckon?
Yeah,exactly! Or how busy I’m able to be! Some of these things have come as a surprise,and I just look at it as ‘Thank you God’ and let me try and do my best at carrying them out.
Cool. Now it does sound like you get just about everything you want and I heard that you were interested in getting a boob job done...
No,I never said that. (Laughs). I don’t purposely want to go under the knife!
You’ve had four children now-any plans for any more?
No, no, no! (Laughs) My three year old constantly reminds me that “OK you’re having another one? Here you go!”
So what do you think of London?
Yeah, I always have a great time and great shows. That’s the greatest thing. The first time I came to London I accepted a MOBO Award, back when I was still in Bad Boy Every time I go back, it gets better and better. Oh and I love the shopping! (Laughs) I can’t wait!
You have to bring your reality show over here and we have to film you shopping in Bond St.
I’m so glad you mentioned that. Maybe I can get them to put in some extra production dollars and bring the show out there with me. That’s a great idea!
I’m going to bring my crew along too, because I’ve decided that I need to get into Faith Evans’ reality right now!
(Laughs) You’re there already believe it or not! It is what it is, what you see is what you get. It definitely has its crazy moments but my goal is to keep things as even-keeled as I can, despite whatever craziness might be going on. I’m usually the centre of calm, when everybody else is panicking, I’m like “OK, relax!”
It seems like you’re quite balanced.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have it all together by any means, but I think that the first step is to think from that perspective and pray to God to help figure out the best way to approach and attack whatever it is that comes throughout my day. There’s never a dull moment that’s for sure!
You do all your own music too, right?
I do and I’ve acquired some knowledge, whether it’s through trial and error or just the time that I’ve been in the business, but sometimes you don’t know every aspect. You may not have the people around you who are well-versed in those areas, but I like to help people I know by allowing them to write on my project and getting their names out there. Also we talk about where all these different revenue streams are, because sometimes they don’t know the difference between a mechanical royalty and a performance rights royalty.
If you just assume it, you might discover years later that you never got paid.
If you could be in a pool with anything, what would it be?
Kindness!
If you were to have a super-group, and you could choose anyone to be in it with you, who would would it be?
You know what? It’s funny- I was going to say someone else because I had an idea to do an album with me revisiting some of Biggie’s stuff, whether it would just be me doing the hook; I had an idea to do a record like that, so I would say either Biggie or Mary J Blige.
Those are two albums I can hear already. You’re giving us something massive to look forward to there!
Why thank you! That would be great if that could happen. I’m still working on that, I’m not going to rule it out. I’m working on the ideas.
