Musiq Soulchild’s personal twerking of Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie and the Native Tongue influences inside his Philly home has made him neo-soul’s most beloved male singer since D’Angelo. It was 6 years ago that he debuted with his first album Ajuswannasing which earned a platinum sales status at a time when most R and B fans were used to an urban formula of chintzy pop hooks and bland guest rapper appearances. Musiq’s mining of unaffected soul singers within the landscape of hip-hop and a syntactical allegiance to the funk has produced some of the best songs to enter the pop lexicon. For the fourth outing named Luvanmusiq the singer returns with more of what his fans have come to expect without any of the contrivances associated with the average successful singer. No five to ten-year lapses between recording, criminal conduct or substance abuse has Musiq sounding clear and returning to the public in a timely fashion after consistently touring at home and abroad. And yes he is reclaiming the Soulchild moniker reminiscent of a certain artist who trashed the symbol to began using his royal-sounding birth name again.
“Buddy” is the first single from Luvanmusiq and it takes a Golden Age hip-hop sample of De La Soul’s “Buddy” as a backing track for a song about the prospects of a definition-free relationship. His fans know him to be a unpretentious thoughtful kind of romantic in the studio and the headnodding qualities of the song summarizes his pressure-free approach to dating with a dance. On his press junket of numerous interviews and appearances Musiq manages his weariness with the routine by digging into his cache of honesty and giving unscripted answers about his appeal and the possibilities of life beyond neo-soul.
How does Luvanmusiq compare to your past albums?
I actually really wouldn’t I don’t know I just I like to think I’ve done the best work that I can do and I let the people decide to say how it compares I don’t think I’m in the position to say.
Fans have noticed your emphasis on friendship in a lot of your songs, for this new single why a buddy and not a girlfriend or a wife?
Because girlfriends and wives have attachments and implications and I just wanted to approach it from a different angle and use something that was a little more something that doesn’t that much of an expectation. I think that’s one of the downfalls of relationships nowadays you say ‘that’s your girl that’s your girlfriend or that’s your whatever people tend to have these expectations and I just wanted to say buddy is because that’s just a title that I used it could be anything I just wanted to pick something that was familiar but the point is to imply that a buddy is anything that you want it to be it’s not limited to or excluding anything you want it to be a physical thing cool if you don’t want it to be a physical thing cool. I think that’s only fair to both people involved it’s up to them to decide what they would like that relationship to be rather than coming into it with all these expectations.
People comment a lot on how well-written your songs are. Who are your favorite songwriters?
To name a few people like Stevie Wonder I really like the songs Donny Hathaway wrote they were just of a lot of substance and I never wanted to be the type of artist sing a song put together an album and get on stage and sing about stuff I didn’t really believe in it just helps to be a little more coherent.
Your first singles are always strong but the second one not as strong, how hard is it to pick a second single?
I pretty much let the label do all of that because they want to promote what they want to promote anyway. Everybody has the right to like what they like and you can’t please everybody.
Is there anything about Philly that has made you the musician you are?
I think just the history and the rich culture of music that Philadelphia has. it kind of lead to me having a jaded sensibility almost because I just assumed before I got into the business that every city had their own version of that but when I started travelling abroad I noticed not all cities had that same history and music which lead me to appreciate the legacy that Philadelphia contributed to the tradition of soul music R and B music and just popular music. But that’s pretty much all I can say as far as that is concerned. is the history that Philadelphia has in music.
Has it been a smooth transition from Def Soul to Atlantic?
A really slow one been a smooth one but it just takes time to make that transition because there’s a lot of factors involved lot of paperwork lot of legalities lot of politics. I’ve really been dealing with Kevin Liles who’ s the executive vice president of The Warner Music Group and um I’ve just basically been dealing with him. But the label have been involved because I’m on the label but like you said I haven’t necessarily settled in just yet I guess it’s just going to take time.
Do you have a favorite song from the new album?
No not really I recorded up to 80 records and picked the best 12 out of them. They’re all going to be pretty much you know pretty significant.
Many times artists compromise their sound to gain a larger audience. I read somewhere that you have made compromises but it doesn’t sound that way because your music has none of the obvious chart-aspiring ploys, it’s undeniably Black and you’ve gone platinum twice why do you think that is?
People apparently appreciate what I do I’m very grateful for that. There’s so much music I would like to do and present to people who appreciate what I do but just in the state the way the industry is set-up when you come out the way that I did R and B music or what people call neo-soul music it gets to a point that’s all people are willing to accept from you but there’s more to music than just R and B and neo-soul. But it’s a challenging thing to enter those genres to an audience who’s been so used to accepting things one way. If you’re doing R and B music that’s all they expect. If you do hip-hop music that’s all they expect from you. When you start juggling genres then all of sudden you’re just left-of-center you’re going off the deep end you done lost your mind or something or whatever the case may be. But that’s why i say I’ve done a lot of compromising and i had to fit inside of a box in order to be appreciated.
It sounds like your voice is a lot larger and more varied than what we’ve heard so far.
Yeah but when you’re supported by a label who’s accustomed to doing things a certain way they’re only willing to support what they’re willing to support.
If you didn’t have those restrictions on you and you could create the ultimate band of your choosing who would be in that band and what would it sound like?
I really don’t how to answer that question because I just love music and it depends on I guess what style of music I’m doing what genre I’m contributing to that will determine the musicians or the lack of musicians that will determine maybe just using a producer or just singing acapella I don’t know I don’t know.
There was a time period between the last album and the new one what were you doing?
Through 2004 I worked the album Soulstar. Beginning of 2005 I started working on the new album but I made the transition towards late 2005 to the other label and then I took another stab at working on the album all through 2006. But in between all that I also had to support myself so I’ve done shows a couple of tours domestically and internationally basically just kept myself busy.
I saw somewhere that you were raised Christian, Muslim and Hebrew, do you identify with any one religion as an adult?
Not just one i feel as though they all have very important and significant information that a person can stand to use to better themselves as a person. But no I don’t claim not one.
What’s next for music? I know the album is coming out March 13 and I know you are touring it but any other stuff, collaborations etc.? I know you said you wanted to work with Prince things like that..
Right now I’m just reintroducing myself I haven’t really tapped into working with a lot of different people I wanted to but I think I should just reintroduce myself and try to you know get myself together once I do that I’m definitely going to reach out to a lot of different people. What’s next for me I want to eventually have my own situation my own label so i can help other people achieve their goals in music and hopefully be able to branch off into other forms of creativity like film, and fashion and even food have my own restaurant or whatever the case may be.