There is one thing that KeKe Wyatt knows for sure. She wants to bring back R&B and hopes her new CD "Who Knew?” will go a long way toward doing just that.
After nearly a decade of highs and lows for Wyatt, “Who Knew?,” which drops Tuesday, represents a new lease on life for Wyatt. The songs reflect where the singer wants to go rather than where she’s been.
In 2001, Wyatt made headlines for her hit song with Avant, “My First Love,” and a Christmas Day arrest in the stabbing of her husband, Rahmat Morton. He dropped the charges, but Wyatt has been vocal about the domestic violence that she says she experienced in the relationship. The couple is in the midst of a divorce.
Since then, Wyatt, who lives in Atlanta and turns 28 next month, has had bad breaks with record labels. One label declared bankruptcy, and another shelved her album.
After a Fashion Week appearance in designer Stephen Burrow’s show in New York, Wyatt talked to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution by phone about her new beginning.
Q: What do you want the message to be on this album?
A: That everybody goes through the same things. It doesn't matter whether you are a celebrity or not. You have your down times. You have your breakups. We fall in love, and things don't always happen the way you expect them to.
Q: What do you realize now about your tumultuous marriage that you didn't know when you were in it?
A: It never gets better. When you love a person, you kind of get caught up and confused thinking, "He's such a good person. He's such a good dad. But then he just choked me and slammed me on the ground." And two or three years go by and nothing happens. But then he gets [angry] and does it all over again. Healing is a slow process, but I'm healing with my family's support.
Q: Are there any songs on this album that reflect those experiences?
A: A while back, I had this song, "Don't Put Your Hands on Me." But I want to move on from that, so I'm singing about happy times and good times on this album.
Q: These days, the lines can be blurred between R&B, pop and hip-hop. Have you noticed a change in the landscape with the release of this new album?
A: Yes, I feel like it has changed dramatically. R&B is not R&B anymore, and I'm trying to bring back what real music is about. But this stuff, "pat your weave" ladies, that's not R&B. That's not even pop.
Q: Has your audience changed; is there a large audience for R&B now?
A: There is definitely a longing for it. R&B is rhythm and blues, and it's for lovers. When you are with your lover sitting on the couch, you want to listen to something that is going to make you fall in love; not [deep voice] "Drop it, drop it low, girl." Those are good songs, but there is a time and place for everything.
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