Exclusive: Kelly Price Speaks to UrbanBridgez.com [Part I]

1998 Kelly’s released her now double platinum plus debut CD “Soul of A Woman” which propelled her to the forefront of the music industry. This process was started with a clever marketing scheme to release the 1st single “Friend of Mine” without a video, limit her personal appearances and not have Kelly do any televised performances so the public would be forced to “hear her” first and love the music solely based on what they heard… the voice and the song. With a hit song and audiences growing bigger daily, what many thought was sure career suicide for a new artist resulted in a nationwide frenzy to find out who was Kelly Price? The result of this campaign was a victory for Kelly Price and would be for every truly talented plus sized female artist to follow her. Kelly made history by reaching the number 1 spot on the Billboard Charts and hold it for 5 weeks consecutively with no video, a feat never before accomplished by any artist since MTV and video play became instrumental in the way songs obtained chart position.

After completing the video for “Friend of Mine” and releasing it to television the world had its first real view of the 250 plus pound diva and the song climbed back to Billboard’s number one spot after having fallen in the ranks to another song. This was also a history-making feat and became the true victory of Kelly’s story after having been seen by the world AND accepted in spite of her very full frame. The nation had spoken. Size did not matter!

In recent years Kelly has become a self-published author and also added motivational speaking to the already long list of offerings she has for her public.

Now living in Los Angeles with her husband and 2 children Kelly Price is expanding her view again and is currently pursuing, screenwriting and acting. She continues to write, record and wow crowds all over the world by giving live performances with the ability to successfully transition between both the gospel and R&B genres of music. With a new R&B offering due in 2010 there is more great music and show stopping performances just around the corner for her eagerly awaiting fans.

In this exclusive UrbanBridgez.com part I interview, Kelly Price talks to Aries about her brand new album ‘Kelly‘ being released this Winter, what the songs mean to her & who she worked with to complete this album. Learn all about Kelly’s new release in the first part of our two part interview with Kelly Price!

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UrbanBridgez.com: ‘So Tired’ is one of my favorite songs right now, really loving that record.
Kelly Price: Thank you!

UrbanBridgez.com: No problem, when can fans expect a video for it soon?
Kelly Price: We’re going to shoot a video for it. We have received different video treatments from video directors. Alot of new guys are actually sending me stuff. I’m also suppose to get together with Bille Woodruff who I’ve worked with in the past and absolutely love & he loves the song. So if we go that direction it will be a no brainier. I also created a treatment for the video myself. Which would not be the first time that I’ve done so, but this time if we go with mine I would like to participate in the co-directing or assistant directing of the video as well. You know I’m just trying to grow up (laughs)!

UrbanBridgez.com: Exactly, nothing wrong with that. Tell me about the new album what direction did you go in this time around?
Kelly Price: Oh God, you know what. I think the best way to describe this album is everything that everyone loved about ‘Soul of A Woman.’ I think this record is going to be a classic, I think that it’s so grown! And when I say grown, to the people that loved me when they first heard me. There is an apparent journey that has been made between the first album and this album. It’s been 12 years and it almost seems impossible that it’s been that long since ‘Soul of A Woman’ has come out. So with this album there has been some incredible growth, with the writing, the style of the writing, even the way the songs are song. I think when you sing & you’re really a singer. The songs are translated I think from your soul first and then your voice! And I hear things in the way I sing today, that I didn’t hear 12 years ago, interesting enough. I’m very proud of this album and I’m so hard on myself. I can be very hard on myself and just anal, for a lack of a better word (laughs). But I listen to this album and I know that I put my best foot forward. I’m also proud I let down some of my own guards and decided that even with some of the stories I’ve told before, I’m going to be more candid and raw with just some of the things I’m saying. I think after 12 years, the best thing was to make the decision that it’s okay to be Kelly even if it ain’t the cute stuff! Even if it’s not the right stuff or the she reminds me of my sister, cousin stuff. Interesting enough when I just let it all down and out, I become more of that sister (laughs). That was a plus!

UrbanBridgez.com: Let’s talk about the music this time around.
Kelly Price: This album is just incredible to me. The song titles are very revealing I think that they engage you and make you want to hear what the song is about. Like you’ve heard ‘So Tired,’ there’s a song called ‘I’m Sorry,’ the other title for it is ‘My Apology.’ Pretty much the song talks about being sorry, but not for being sorry for what you’ve done to anybody else. Because we do that all of our life, we’re taught as children to say please and thank you and I’m sorry, that’s good manners. We’re very often not taught, the way we’re taught to be kind to other people, to be kind to yourself. Most of the time when you look too much into what you can do for yourself it’s looked upon as being vain or conceited. What usually happens is we take that and decide that it’s more important when it comes to things like that, than we learn how to forgive other people. Even if it’s hard, what I’ve found with even different people that I feel like I don’t want to be bothered with anymore. If just for the sake of wanting to cleanse my own soul, that it’s necessary to forgive other people even if I don’t want to be bothered with them anymore. What’s been harder for me is to learn to forgive myself for the things that I’ve done. But I’ve learned that as long as somebody else does something wrong to me, I can always blame them for whatever happened. If I did something, I myself made the wrong decision, if I pick the wrong person to be with, if I do it, Kelly does it…there’s nobody to blame but me! So when forgiveness has to be had, it’s so much harder when I gotta say I’m sorry to me, we usually don’t do that anyway. And then say, ok I forgive me. We really don’t realize the same grace that we would give another person just a simple apology and I forgive you. So that’s what the song is about, at the end of the song I actually say. “I wrote this song to forgive me, I wrote this song to say that I love me!” And I deserve that, because I would give it to somebody else!

UrbanBridgez.com: Sounds like a winner!
Kelly Price: Lots of songs, lots of great songs! We got fun songs, there’s one called ‘And You Don’t Stop!’ Straight up party record, which I love. I have another mid-tempo called ‘Feels So Good,’ very infectious. It’s just really a great, great album, there is another song called ‘Himoholic’ which compares a toxic relationship to an addiction. And literally walks you through the steps of a 12 step program. With words that the substance is replaced with him. There’s a song called ‘Get Right or Get Lost,’ I love it! Written on the order from an old Gladys Knight song. I can literally hear her singing this song. When I spoke to Warren (Campbell) he said you gotta do something old school. The way music is going in the next few years it’s going to get back to that old school feel and we want people to hear you do what they did in the 60’s. So we did it and that song takes you straight to a ‘Natural Woman’ or a ‘Midnight Train to Georgia.’ So of course we couldn’t let that be the only song on the album with that feel, it needed a partner so we did ‘Lil Somethin’ Somethin’ it talks about being in a relationship and being hurt in a relationship by not leaving the relationship. Like I’m gonna give you your space to do what you doing, but while you’re doing what you’re doing but until you ready to do what you have to do and be inside this relationship, I’m gonna keep me a lil somethin somethin on the side (laughs). So when you’re ready, I’ll be ready but for now you do you and I’m gonna do me!

UrbanBridgez.com: (laughs) Definitely looking forward to that one, who are some of the people you worked with?
Kelly Price: I have a duet with Stokley from Mint Condition. He actually produced the song and I wanted that very strong band feel and I was gonna do it from the studio. Warren said well you have Stokley, why don’t you just ask him for the whole band? I did and he said yes so we sent him the music & he ended up producing the song and put the band on it and it’s incredible. The song is called ‘Not My Daddy,’ and it’s an incredible, incredible duet. I also worked with Warren Campbell of course who we partnered to do this. We’re friends who really love what the other has to offer. Creatively, when I decided what it was I wanted to do for the next album we were talking and this was when he was just producing for the record. And he asked me, would you consider doing it with me with My Block? And I looked at him and said I think that could work! So we made the decision to partner and I took my production company Sang It Girl Productions and teamed with My Block. So we’ve established a home where we can make the kind of music we’ve always wanted to make! Where we have the final say-so and that’s interesting because as a producer he’s subject to what the labels hire him for. As an artist I’ve had alot of creative freedom, but I was always still subjected to the suits. The suits who sit behind the desks although most of them are not music inclined what so ever (laughs). This is an incredible experience to build with someone even if we didn’t agree on something. He could meet me at a piano and we could either figure it out who’s right or whether we need to just find something that works better. I actually like that process, so it was great! I also worked with Shep Crawford who produced ‘So Tired.’ We’ve worked together several times in the past so here I am again with someone who I love very much as a friend. Who I’m compatible with in music and we’ve had the opportunity to write the kind of music that we want. And then Jack Nickson who is a dear friend who I’ve not worked with on a project before. But I have worked with before and have known for many years through Shep Crawford. So yeah I think that’s it, we have around 12 songs and the name of the album is called ‘Kelly!’

UrbanBridgez.com: When can we expect to see it on shelves?
Kelly Price: I hope we can have it in stores in the 4th quarter. I literally do not have a date, we’re waiting & of course we haven’t shot the video yet, everything is timing. I’m sticking with we have a 4th quarter release coming (laughs)!

Stay Tuned for Part 2 of Our Exclusive Interview w/ Kelly Price Friday!
Kelly breaks news on The Queen Project, explains why you should never let your feelings get caught up in business, plans with Faith Evans and much more!

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Also Check Out: 2005 UrbanBridgez.com Kelly Price Interview!