The UB Interview: Nicci Gilbert Talks New Brownstone, R&B Divas and Lawsuits

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Nicci Gilbert started in the industry as a very talented singer & songwriter. Nicci is a founding member of the Grammy nominated group Brownstone. They’ve had #1 hits in the mid 1990s. The group is best know for their 1995 hit hit single “If You Love Me”. In 2005 Nicci recorded her first solo album “Grown Up Folks.”

Gilbert’s mom did a lot to encourage her interest in music, and when she was in high school, Nicci performed Madonna’s “Crazy for You” in a talent show. After graduating from high school, she studied music and drama at Eastern Michigan University. But she ended up dropping out after two years so that she could move to L.A. with a friend and be closer to the music industry.

Nicci has worked with superstar legend Michael Jackson, super producer Tyler Perry, and Queen Latifah. Nicci’s business and philanthropic achievements have garnered recognition from a variety of awards including Billboard Music Award, Lincoln Shining Star, Influencer and most recently BET Her awarded her the 2018 “Woman Of Impact.” In 2018 Nicci completed her first documentary film Broken Things; which addresses child molestation and sexual misconduct and a short film Social Conflict that addressed gun violence.

She host the empowering late night series She Speaks Live. As the CEO of NoEgo Entertainment, Nicci created TV One’s most popular docu-franchise, R&B Divas that spawned two franchises and seven seasons, and the popular BET Her series, From the Bottom Up.

Nicci has a passion for community empowerment, she is actively involved in organizations that uplift and support women and girls such as The Center for Black Women’s Wellness, Sisters of Today and Tomorrow, Hip Hop Sisters, Beyond The Game, Enough Said and Nicci launched her non profit From The Bottom Up Foundation.

Recently Aries from UB spoke to Nicci Gilbert regarding Brownstone, her fondest memory of Maxee, the Coronavirus pandemic and her admiration for Oprah.

Nicci also gets candid while speaking on R&B Divas, the lawsuit and Syleena Johnson. Plus the biggest lessons shes learned in the industry and Nicci‘s secret to success.

—–

UrbanBridgez.com: You are truly a renascence woman of our time. I mean you sang, write, direct, produce television series, etc. What motivates you?
Nicci Gilbert: I would say, inspiring people through whatever content that I create. At the end of the day, I hope people can look back at “If You Love Me.” Say it, prove it, you know that song. Or a show like From The Bottom Up or any of the Podcasting shows that I do. Everything has an end game goal, of just really inspiring people. But let me say, my hope is that they’re entertained, uplifted and inspired.

UrbanBridgez.com: From The Bottom Up was a great docu-series, any plans to revisit that or are you preparing for a new series?
Nicci Gilbert: Actually, it’s real ironic that you should ask. I am working on a new series. I can’t really mention the working title. Because we’re going back and forth with that. It’s very similar to From The Bottom Up. But in this particular series it’s about women who are upwardly mobile, who are still climbing and reaching towards goals. I’m really excited about that. We were planning to shoot the pilot this week. But yeah COVID-19 happened. So Corona decided that she was going to slow things down (both laugh). So we’re still seeing how we can manage that.

UrbanBridgez.com: Where did the idea of Nicci Gilbert and the Soul Kittens come from and how did you get those lades involved for that project?
Nicci Gilbert: Oh god, first of all, that was just some old random thing that I did for a friend. I don’t even think I’ve watched it. Now Soul Kittens cabaret is a play I think I wrote the show to in 2004. Soul Kittens Cabaret is what R&B Divas was born from. I was on tour with Tyler Perry, doing Meet The Browns. I had got really inspired to do theater and plays. So I wrote Soul Kittens Cabaret. I’ve developed a script based on that for a weekly musical drama series. We were planning to do table reads for that next month (laughs). So that’s kind of on hold. But yeah I love Soul Kittens Cabaret brand. It was one of the first things that I wrote. Syleena Johnson, Monifah, Angie Stone were all apart of that. And that sort of morphed into R&B Divas.

UrbanBridgez.com: Brownstone was without a doubt one of my favorite groups in the 90s. The debut album is classic!
Nicci Gilbert: Thank you!

UrbanBridgez.com: You recently started doing shows again. Any chance of new music?
Nicci Gilbert: Absolutely! That is one thing that we are able to do during this quarantine. So we’ve been writing and I’m actually going to start recording in my home studio. Start getting it in. We’ve been on the road touring. We did Essence Fest last year. We’ve kind of been on the road every since. We were suppose to do the Tom Joyner Cruise, but we see where that ended (both laugh). We were also suppose to tour over the summer, so it’s kind of a bummer. But we’re going to continue to make music. So you should absolutely expect new music from Brownstone.

UrbanBridgez.com: Out of the Brownstone catalog, what would you say are your top 3 favorite songs and why? Mine are Half of You, Can’t Tell You Why and 5 Miles to Empty.
Nicci Gilbert: Alright, those are good ones! Half of You is definitely one of my favorites because it was like a one take, where we just went in the studio and knocked it out.

UrbanBridgez.com: Oh wow, really?
Nicci Gilbert: Oh yeah, it was literally like the last song on the album. We were playing around in the studio and sat at the piano, the mic was on. We just kind of like sang it all the way down, like straight through. No cuts, no do it agains…

UrbanBridgez.com: So it really was like it’s presented, like improv and not scripted (laughs)?
Nicci Gilbert: Oh yeah, nope not at all. Gordon (Chambers) came in and sat and played the piano. Wasn’t no doubling vocals and all of that. So yeah that is one of my favorites. Surprisingly one of my other favorites is one on the second album. It’s kind of a sleeper called All I Do.

UrbanBridgez.com: Alright, I love the beat on that one.
Nicci Gilbert: Yeah it feels good. You know what I’m saying. It feels so good today. Then of course I have to say by default If You Love Me. That was the song that introduced us to the whole world. Can’t leave that off there (laughs).

UrbanBridgez.com: What’s one of your fondest memories of Maxee?
Nicci Gilbert: Wow, so, so, so many. I think my fondest memory that covers the full gamut of our relationship. Is her laugh. Me, Maxee and Teisha would laugh until we literally were in tears. Especially Maxee and I thank god that I just hear and see her laughing. To the point of tears, I see her face, I hear her voice. God left me with that and I’m so grateful for it.

UrbanBridgez.com: It’s Women’s History Month, who’s a woman in the entertainment field that you admire and why?
Nicci Gilbert: I gotta go to the tip of the ice and say Oprah. The reason I say Oprah, because like everybody says Oprah for difference reasons. The reason I say Oprah is because she has managed to defy all kinds of odds. She was a plus-size, heavy set back woman. She is self-made in every sense of the word. She’s a talent that you see on camera and you see her off camera. She’s promoting ownership, which is the most important part that any artist can focus on. Especially in this day and age. And despite of all the ups and downs and hi’s and low’s and hate she receives…she still manages to be optimistic and positive. More importantly she has helped a lot of other people acquire wealth. All in a positive way. We all make mistakes, nobody is perfect. I don’t think any human on the face of this earth is perfect. But as it relates to my career path or model it after someone, it would be Oprah. Not because she’s one of the richest people in the world. But because she has honestly help other people built wealth and ownership. The fact that her network is OWN, which are her initials ironically. Ownership is so important.

UrbanBridgez.com: For you what was the best part of filming R&B Divas and what was the worst part?
Nicci Gilbert: (laughs) Let me answer this seriously. The best part of R&B Divas, was knowing that I could create a concept. Call my friend and shoot a pilot episode. Then we could get it picked up at a network and it becomes the most successful show on that network. It showed me that was possible. I loved the moments where we showed people our sisterhood. And that we loved and supported each other. Like early on like KeKe’s baby-shower was a fun moment and a lot of other fun moments in the show. Most important, just the fact that it was possible. The fact I could go from music, to like hey I have this idea. Come out here and let’s shoot this pilot, hey let’s get this sold. Then hey, it’s the #1 show on the network. So that is a great feeling. The thing that I am the most disappointed in as it relates to R&B Divas. Probably the obvious, the fact that it was short-lived. It was short-lived because people and when I say people I mean people with power. We all have power, but the people who have you on paperwork saying they have more power than you (laughs). They didn’t respect that sisterhood, they didn’t respect what we gave them the first season. They didn’t allow us to continue to grow and to become like a Housewives. That could of went into multiple seasons. They stunted our ability to continue and thrive with the franchise. I hate that I had to walk away from it, I hate I was in the middle of a lawsuit and I lost everything. I hate that people have this monolithic, one dimensional image of who I was. Who I am as a person, till this day there are still people who won’t work with me because of it. I hate all of those things.

UrbanBridgez.com: Wow.
Nicci Gilbert: But I’m grateful that I had that experience. Because it tought me the importance of ownership and controlling the narrative. Or at least having an equal amount of control over the narrative. So in the end, I hate the fact that people didn’t respect what the show could have become.

UrbanBridgez.com: You and Syleena Johnson bumped heads regarding a workout video that seemed like you two would never be on good terms again. However Syleena recently stated you two spoke at a BET event and there are no more bad vibes with each other. Which made me smile. What’s a misconception you feel there is about you by the editing of R&B Divas?
Nicci Gilbert: Well I think they, the wizards which I coined that phrase. And let me be clear, the wizard is not Phil Thornton. He didn’t have that kind of power.

UrbanBridgez.com: I’m happy you cleared that up.
Nicci Gilbert: He is not the wizard that I was referring to. He may be another wizard, I mean I coined the phrase (both laugh). I’m talking about the little white men behind the curtain…not the minion. That was mean I shouldn’t have said that. Well the world is in the middle of a pandemic, I don’t give a damn (both laugh). The thing is I didn’t see it then but I see it now. Syleena and I were actually hella cool. In the beginning like I literally was helping her find property when she first moved here. I felt like we had so much in common as far as our ambitions. Just both the type to go or it and get it done. And I love Syleena, I think she has a great sense of humor. She also made it very clear that she was battling certain things. I think people used that to try to have a way to have us at each others throats. I can say, I might have publicly before. The truth is I ended up getting an email by accident. I’m not going to say from who or what it exactly said. I don’t want to go back to court. But I will tell you for absolute certain and I have the receipts. The email stated that they didn’t want us to be friends. They didn’t want us to work things out. We had the opportunity to go on Iyanla Vanzant after season one and fix some things.

UrbanBridgez.com: Oh Wow, never would of known.
Nicci Gilbert: Oh yeah, and they were like nope absolutely not. That’s not what we want to do. Yeah it was bad, so we were doomed from the start. As it relates to our relationship. Because they saw two very strong, opinionated women. Who they felt they could get a lot of fire from. Unfortunately that’s what happened. So there was a conscience, calculated effort there. It’s sad because I love every single one of those women. I don’t wish anybody any ill will. The whole point was, we’re R&B Divas so you’re going to have a little drama here and there. We have enough drama in our own lives and the stuff we’re already dealing with. But to put us in a position where you actively seek out opportunities to destroy us and our sisterhood. Was just something that I know longer wanted to be apart of. I suffered as a result of that in a lot of ways. You learn from it.

UrbanBridgez.com: Which leads me to this question. What’s one of the biggest lessons you’ve learned being in this industry, in the 3 decades you’ve been apart of it?
Nicci Gilbert: Not to take it personally. Not to bring it home, which is difficult sometimes. It is one of the most…let me choose my words right. People are in this industry to make money, not friends.
Period! People don’t respect talent for any reason other than, if it’s at the level of having a tremendous amount of power. They have more respect for talent that is willing to bring in revenue, than they have respect for the artists. And the artists are sensitive about they shit. Right, your money can’t have feelings. Your business relationships are exactly that. Business relationships, if you want personal relationships. Those are ones that you should keep outside of business. It is cut throat, many of us signed our deals when we were in our 20s. Which means you’re 22 years old, signing a deal for the rest of your life. Or not even the rest of your life. A lot of those deals have perpetuity in them. So that means forever, forever and your kids forever. So to put something like that in front of a twenty something year old, from the hood. Who just wants to pursue their dreams, who just wants to buy their mama a house. If there’s an opportunity, they’re going to take advantage of that. So go figure. A lot of people make decisions at that age based on need and desperation and hope. The people who are doing those deals they don’t care at all. Read your contracts and find someone who is not recommended by someone who is giving you the contract. Many of us didn’t have that.

UrbanBridgez.com: With this Coronavirus that’s made all of us, change our daily routines. Do you have any thoughts on what’s going on, any encouraging words?
Nicci Gilbert: Absolutely! Nothing just happens randomly. I think this is all God bringing us all to our knees to pay attention. To what’s most important and that is our health. The health, mentally, physically and spiritually of people we love and care about. I think this is gods way of saying okay, we’ve become so desensitised. That I don’t know how many 100,000 of girls can be kidnapped in Nigeria, trafficking. And all of these horrible thing can happen in the world. And it’s like oh well, I’m doing me and doing it for the Gram. You know what I’m saying. And now we are all brought to our knees, no matter who you are. You can be a president or you can be a prisoner. You can be a prince or a starving kid in Ethiopia. You are still vulnerable to this crisis. I think it just teaches us that we have to lean on each other and take care of each other. The way we do that is to take care of ourselves. I think it’s a moment to slow down. We all need it. Now I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to pay these bills (both laugh). But so is everybody. So we just have to slow down and receive it and process it. Take it all end, I think it’s going to be around for a minute.

UrbanBridgez.com: Yeah I think we’ll be okay, and we’ll be better after it.
Nicci Gilbert: Yeah exactly, the world needs a break. It’s interesting in China was like a tremendous amount of smog. And it has cleared up. I think it terms of pollution over all, something positive may come out of it.

UrbanBridgez.com: What’s Nicci’s secret to success?
Nicci Gilbert: To keep going and to never give up. And not to define it based on money and popularity. When Tory Lanez redid our song If You Love Me. Going back a bit, Jerry Greenberg from Sony had a conversation with us about conducting ourselves as Coca Cola. This is the example he used. You wanna create products and content that are going to be around forever. You want people to be able to identify with your sound and say hey this is good. This was at the beginning of our career. So 25 years later and Tory Lanez who was 2 years old when we made our song. To record it and make it a hit again, is further confirmation. That success is about building a legacy that will be around, long after you’re gone. Not about how many pairs of Louis Vuitton shoes you have or how big the house is you live in. So to just redefine what success means to you. More important than a successful career, being able to sleep at night. Feeling comfortable in your own skin. Being able to look at yourself in the mirror and say hey listen, I failed but I gave it my best try. You know what I’m saying.

UrbanBridgez.com: Exactly, so true!
Nicci Gilbert: Oppose to saying I stole something from someone and I’m winning (both laugh). So yeah something that will redefine your legacy and teach other people.

UrbanBridgez.com: Anything else you want to leave with your fans, before we wrap?
Nicci Gilbert: I don’t want to plug anything. Just really focusing on health, mind, body and spirit. I like many of the other divas and shout out to Syleena by the way. She looks amazing!

UrbanBridgez.com: Yes she does!
Nicci Gilbert: Like bay bay, just physically and the transformation. More important than anything was her physical transformation. That takes a level of discipline that is really difficult to achieve. So I would say to everybody, listen to the Podcasts. Buy the music, support artists as much as you can. Individually I think the one thing we can all do in our own lives is to try to create a healthier, mind and body and spirit. Even while you’re in the crib, you can go up and down some stairs. Do some jump and jacks, to a work out DVD. You’ll come out o this moment, stronger, healthier, mentally, physically and spiritually. The healthier we are as individuals, the healthier we are as collected. The healthier we are as a nation and world. Everything else is going to be what its going to be. The one thing we can control without money, is you can exercise in your living room and read your word.

Charmayne “Maxee” Maxwell passed away in 2015 and in 2008, UB had the pleasure of speaking with her. We asked about Brownstone;

UrbanBridgez.com: How did you become apart of Brownstone?
Maxee (Brownstone): Years ago I met Nicci and at the time we were both solo artists. Then we decided to form a group, so we started looking for another young lady to join.

UrbanBridgez.com: “If You Love Me” really blew up, I remember hearing it on the radio every hour. What do you remember best about filming your first music video for that single?
Maxee (Brownstone): That it was interesting. I was a bit shy, so it was odd having all those people around us just there watching. I was like UGH! I wasn’t really comfortable with all of that at that time. But it really was fine after awhile and the director and the actor in the video were really cool. It turned out to be really fun!

UrbanBridgez.com: Till this day, you guys still have the best remake of “I Can’t Tell You Why” my all time favorite Brownstone track. What made you guys cover that song?
Maxee (Brownstone): Aww thank you so much! It was actually the President of the labels idea to do it. We knew we wanted to do a cover of something. Then he came in and was like do “I Can’t Tell You Why” by the Eagles. So we tested it out and decided that we wanted to go with it for the album.

UrbanBridgez.com: What do you think was the reason “Still Climbing” didn’t do as well as the debut album?
Maxee (Brownstone): Lack of promotion! We didn’t get as nearly as much promotion as we got for our first album, for the second album. Promotion is VERY important!

UrbanBridgez.com: You all appeared on the single “Freedom” for the Panther soundtrack which featured every R&B artists who was hot at the time, how was that experience?
Maxee (Brownstone): It was really great. Just the chance to meet some of those artists that we had never met was really good. It was a wonderful opportunity for us.