Who knew that Musiq would be the dude to submit the most polarizing album to date, this year. He’s always been the People’s Champ, the artist that never disappoints or loses his loyal following and, in many ways, he’s still that dude. Yet, Luvanmusiq has thrown a good sector of the Musiq Faithful for a puzzling loop, even as the chart-topping album attracts a whole new audience. T.I.R.M. Managing Editor Vincent Thomas talked to Musiq to get his thoughts on Luvanmusiq’s surprise success, his new collaborators, the trials of collaboration and his future hopes of autonomy.
T.I.R.M.: I’m interested to know if the first couple of weeks for Luvanmusiq have been distinctly different than first couple weeks after the releases of Soulstar, Juslisen and Aijuswannasing – publicity wise?
MUSIQ: If anything there's a difference in that's it's been as successful as it has, ya know, being No. 1 in the country. That definitely contributes to a difference. But, there's pretty much always been a wave when a new album comes out, which is a good thing, because people generally don't care.
T.I.R.M.: So there has been a noticeable uptick with Luvanmusiq?
MUSIQ: Definitely. Especially because I didn’t expect for it to be as intense as it was. You can’t take things for granted because you never know what the current climate of the industry is until you put something out and see how people respond to it. I figured that, as far as the public is concerned, I’ve been away for a long time. Three years in this industry (to not be immediately in people faces) is kind of a long time in the sense that, you might leave too much room for other things to catch people’s attention. For me to come back from being away, essentially for a long time, and for people to respond and take to my records as quickly as they have has definitely been a surprise.
T.I.R.M.: So what was going on? What were u doing for the three years between Soulstar and Luvamusiq?
MUSIQ: A lot of grindin'. It was a transitional thing...a lot of transition. I changed management, labels, producers. I made a lot of transitions over the past three years. And the series of events that transpired during those transitions kinda led to it taking as long as it has. It wasn’t an intentional thing like, "OK I'm gonna just fall back for three years." It just happened that all the moves I had to make in the interest of the security of my career took about three years.
T.I.R.M.: Was the change of labels from Def Jam to Atlantic something you proactively sought?
MUSIQ: That was all really instigated by Kevin Liles, moving over to Warner Music Group. He was the one that actually signed me to Def Jam and he's been really instrumental in my career. In passing, when I was working on Luvanmusiq, he asked if I'd mind coming over to Warner with him. I thought it was a good idea. Having the position that he has at Warner, I knew I could stand to benefit from it. It took him sometime to find where to place me, since Warner is an umbrella company with a bunch of labels under it and we wanted to find the place that would best serve my career.
T.I.R.M.: Has it been noticeably different at Atlantic? For instance, in comparison with your previous joints, do you think Luvanmusiq received more promotion from the label side?
MUSIQ: Well, essentially all labels are the same, because they’re ultimately going for the same goal. But the biggest change I can think of is that Def Jam has such a big roster of artists and there's so much going on. It’s a very aggressive environment. Atlantic is very laid back and my status is pretty high up here, so I get a lot more attention than I used to get at Def Jam.
T.I.R.M.: Do you think the success of Luvanmusiq can be attributed to the increased promotion or stature you have within the Atlantic hierarchy? Is the change quantifiable?
MUSIQ: Definitely. That makes sense. I believe the label change has a lot to do with it.
T.I.R.M.: You mentioned that you changed producers and this was something you initiated. This change from the Karma production team to the current slate of writers and producers – what was behind that? Did you feel like you needed a different sound?
MUSIQ: Well, like I was saying, I was making a lot of transitions and certain relationships started going in different directions. So, I just sought business elsewhere. The idea was instigated by me. But, the record label also had ideas of who they thought I should be working with and I'm a team player so I went along with it. And ya know, I think a lot of good things came out of it.
T.I.R.M.: I gotta ask you about "B.U.D.D.Y." There are like six different remixes on the radio (Fat Joe, Ja Rule, Lupe) and that usually only happens with the hottest of hot songs. Did you expect that?
MUSIQ: Not at all...and I didn’t have to holler at not one of them. They just did it themselves.
T.I.R.M.: So this is obviously something you encourage.
MUSIQ: I definitely encourage that – especially when rappers cosign to what I'm doing, because I've always wanted to be viable contributor to hip hop. And throughout my career, people are always been pushing me off to R&B status. Which is cool, but I always wanted to contribute to other genres, especially hip hop. And for them to do the remixes on their own accord makes it an even more beautiful thing.
T.I.R.M.: I’ve read in several places where you’re asked about the different sound of Luvanmusiq in comparison to your three previous albums and, in so many words, you mentioned that you didn't really think Luvanmusiq sounded too different than Soulstar or Juslisen. To me, Luvanmusiq has a distinctly different sound, so I’m wondering if those stories were accurate representations of your conversations.
MUSIQ: Well first, when doing interviews, I find that reporters ask the same question and I don't know if they really want the answer or if they just want me to say what they think. So, when answering questions I just try to be realistic, because people will hear what they want to hear. So maybe you'll be the one who'll be willing to listen to what I have to say in answer to that question...The actual question was: "How do you feel this album is different from your last three projects?" And my reply was that I don't feel I've done anything different. I've pretty much stuck to the same approach. Aside from working with different producers, I still entertained the ideas of other people and not just my ideas.
T.I.R.M.: Well let me ask you this, then…In my opinion, I think Luvanmusiq, has a more accessible sound. You might differ in your opinion. And, not that the other albums weren’t accessible, but this was considerably more accessible. From what I'm getting from you, this seems to be the result of the songwriters and producers you worked with this time? Is this accurate?
MUSIQ: Basically, for every album I've worked on, most of the inspiration of those songs has been spawned from the ideas that others have brought to my attention. Even if there were ideas that I thought of or songs I came up with. For instance, "Love" is an idea I came up with, but at some point you're gonna have a whole lotta people saying, you should sing it like this or you should sing it like that. So most of my songs have been sort of like, too many chefs and not enough cooks, which led me to be a little standoffish and removed. And I take what I do very seriously, so I had to assume the position of keeping myself open and leaving room for compromise and sacrifice…creatively speaking.
So, you saying the album is more accessible are the result of me being a team player and rolling with things that I naturally wouldn’t have. But, I could recognize the validity of the ideas presented. Like, there's a song on the album, "Teachme", I didn’t write that song…You know, personally, I would love to have an album that I have written and produced myself, because then I would feel that I would have given people more of myself. The thing about this industry is that you have people that like to position other people so that they can have a way in....I'm not taking anything away from anybody, because there's a lot of good producers and writers out there, but when it comes to people critiquing and praising the album, its kinda weird accepting it, because its not all me.
T.I.R.M.: Well this album is almost gold and well on its way to platinum, you're star is continuing to rise…all this stuff tends to give you more leverage as an artist. Do you feel that at some point you will be able to take on a Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield type of role where you're singer-songwriter-producer of an album?
MUSIQ: That's all gonna depend on the people. Because, it’s not gonna matter what I do if there isn’t anyone out there who cares enough to support it. You got some people out here doing their own thing already, but they’re not as successful as the people that do the other kinda stuff that gets the shine and airplay. And people may say, “Well that’s watered-down, manufactured music,” but, people are supporting it, someone likes that music. So, on this album and pretty much since the beginning of my career, I've had to walk that fine-line of making music that is creatively substantial and also commercially viable.
There's a lot of compromising and a lot sacrificing. You gotta fall back on a lot of things that you wouldn’t naturally do, because I don’t wanna get in my own way of my own success. It’s a very subjective thing. And the climate of the industry right now is that they're just going off of anything that has the mark of immediate success. But everything doesn’t work that way, especially if you go back to the days of old. Back then things could grow on people. People had time to write songs. See, when writing songs, sometimes, if you’re lucky, it may be a hit automatically. Other times, listeners need time to apply it to their lives for it to matter to them. So hopefully, in the near future, to answer your question, I would hope that people would be willing to allow me to entertain the traditions of soul music like Stevie and Curtis. Because that's my initial intent, that's always been the music I've wanted to make: real soul music that is life-applicable and has substance.
