Post by Da Dragon Princess on Apr 16, 2006 19:02:24 GMT -5
HARD EDGE>>>>>>>>>>>>>
First things first: Sisqo did not tell VIBE, in last February's cover story, that he licked his lips the first time he met K-Ci Hailey from Jodeci. Yeah, his legs buckled a little and his muscles tensed up and his palms got a little sweaty. He was nervous, for Chrissake, the way anyone would be when meeting his idol. But nah, says Sisqo, cruising through the dark night in his new Benz, there was no licking of lips. Let's get it straight.
"That made me mad, 'cause it sounds like I was looking at him in a sexual way or something," says Sisqo, changing lanes on the way to his new home in suburban Baltimore. "I wanted to be that nigga. Him and Michael Jackson are the premise of my whole thing. Artists are afraid to say who their influences are because they fear they'll be put in the shadow of that artist. Not me. When I get an idea from somebody, I straight say, 'I took it from them.'
When Dru Hill first appeared in August 1996 with the gold single "Tell Me" and a self-titled LP on Island Black Music that went on to sell more than a mil, Sisqo did indeed sound a lot like K-Ci. "That's because I was a little blond nigga that nobody knew," he says. "I had to catch them somehow." And catch us he did. Since their debut, Dru Hill have emerged as one of today's most dynamic male R&B groups. Thanks in large part to Sisqo's frenetic dance moves, platinum 'do, tattoos, and blazing lead vocals, these four friends from Baltimore managed to carve out a niche of their own in the look-alike, sound-alike boy-band wasteland. .
By May 1999, their second album, Enter the Dru (Island Black), had gone double-platinum, and it seemed as though Dru Hill were headed for R&B superstardom. But by the end of the year, things began to fall apart. Woody (James Green), the spiritual center of the quartet, abruptly left the fold to return to his gospel roots. And Nokio (Tamir Ruffin) turned up (rapping!) alongside Eve on the Swizz Beatz produced hit "What Y'all Want." .
Now Sisqo, Dru's fiery frontman, is striking out on his own. He (along with Jazz, Nokio, and Woody) signed a multi-album deal with Def Soul, Def Jam's new R&B imprint, late last year. The arrangement includes solo albums for all of the members and a new Dru Hill CD. Sisqo's Unleash the Dragon (Def Soul, 1999) marks the dawning of what the record company has triumphantly labeled The Dru World Order. .
"Only time will tell if Sisqo will reach the level of Prince or Michael Jackson," says Kevin Liles, president of Def Jam/Def Soul. "But what you remember about those artists is that there are no others like them. And there is no other artist like Sisqo." .
With the blessings of his bandmates, the blond boy wonder is poised to cross over from lead singer to solo star, leaving Jodeci comparisons behind and giving R. Kelly a run for his superstar status.
Spending time with Sisqo, born Mark Andrews, is like listening to a semi- nar on the post-Thriller, post-Jodeci black pop superstar at the turn of the millennium. He references songs-and sometimes breaks into song-to make his points on matters of the heart or the wallet. But there is nothing coy about him, rather he's as shrewd and calculating as the best CEO. "I study everybody," he says, "from Christina Aguilera to Jennifer Lopez to 'N Sync. I watch MTV's Total Request Live every day." Sisqo knows that as a solo artist he's the heir apparent to the sex-you-down mantle of the R&B heroes he worshiped growing up. His self-awareness seems odd in someone so young-he's all of 22-yet his desire to have it all is palpable: Sisqo says he wants to be what Puffy was when Puffy was The Hottest Thing.
Flash back a couple of weeks to when Sisqo was on top of the world, or at least on top of Los Angeles. Here he stands on the roof of The Bank of Hollywood building, waiting for his cue. The camera is about to roll on "Got to Get It," the million-dollar-plus video for the album's debut single, directed by Hype Williams. Sisqo's body rocks with visceral tension-his lean torso is wrapped in a furry white vest, his blond hair covered with an oversize Apple Jack cap. The corner of Hollywood and Orange has been shut down for two nights to accommodate the drama. That's Hollywood and Orange, where you find the famed Mann's Chinese Theatre, where Hollywood royalty press their handprints in the wet cement. The last time anyone can remember this corner being shut down was when Disney was shooting a mega-flop about a giant ape called Mighty Joe Young. Sisqo is on top of the world, and he's tripping just a bit.
"I'm from the ghetto in Baltimore," he says, his hands gripping the leather-encased steering wheel of his Mercedes 500 SL, gleaming and black and being driven for only the fourth time. "And they closed that shit down for me? They don't close that shit down for black people. They don't close that shit down for nobody. Last time they did that was for Disney-that blew my mind. I was, like, buggin' out there."
This is what buggin' looks like when you're Sisqo and your group has already sold more than 3 million albums and 4 million singles and you've guest-starred with Will Smith in the video for "Wild Wild West" and then gone solo for real: Buggin' looks like you're scared as hell.
"I was doing the first take and I froze up," Sisqo says, accelerating. "We almost canceled the whole video. I thought everything was wrong and nothing was right-not the clothes, not the choreography, nothin'. When they actually calmed me down, I realized I was over-analyzing. But I also realized that Jazz and Nokio and Woody weren't next to me. I was by myself."
It's been a long time since Sisqo hasn't had his boys by his side. As teenagers, Nokio, Woody, Jazz, and Sisqo grew up singing under names like 14K Harmony, Legecy, and Storm.
With Jazz's (Larry Anthony Jr.) training as an opera student at the Baltimore School for the Arts, and Woody's strong gospel roots (his mother forbade him to sing secular music when he was a kid), the group garnered around-the-way accolades from local radio stations and impressed music executives like Jimmy Iovine, president of Interscope Records, and Hiriam Hicks, then president of Island Black Music (who eventually signed the group), with their impromptu a cappella performances.
And they had more than vocal skills. They had Sisqo's trademark golden hair, which was Nokio's idea for a way to get noticed. It worked too. Sisqo became known as The Boy With the Blond Hair Who Danced Down at Hammerjacks (Hammerjacks being the hot club around the way). And the platinum dome didn't hurt when he stepped to the mike, either. "When I sing I make faces, and I didn't want to seem too aggressive, so I dyed my hair to smooth out my image," Sisqo says.
"Sisqo definitely has a flamboyancy that's been kind of missing for a long time," says Heavy D, former president of Uptown Records. "He dares to be different. The hair really says a lot. He's an R&B star, and coloring his hair blond, going there, is kind of rock 'n' roll. That's dangerous. But he don't care."
In fact, it was Sisqo's hair as much as anything that helped propel Dru into the spotlight. But last year, just as things were really taking off, Woody jumped ship. Singing R&B had never been Woody's ultimate goal, and it was time for him to return to gospel. "I was mad initially," says Sisqo. "[When we first got together,] Woody was like, 'I'll be in y'all group as a favor, as long as y'all promise when we get big we'll go back to gospel.' Unfortunately, we didn't feel that we was to that level yet. But God told him it was time, so we couldn't be mad."
For his part, Nokio regards Dru Hill's deconstruction with detached reserve. He's known these guys long enough to see this is how it was meant to be. "We knew that Woody's break for gospel was coming because that's the kind of family and background he comes from," Nokio says from his home in New Jersey. "Basically, we all went solo because we asked ourselves one question: What could we do to keep the fans interested after two hugely successful albums?"
As fire-breathing as the mythical serpent for which it's named, Unleash the Dragon reveals a new and improved Sisqo: sexy where he used to be simply sexual; vocally refined where he used to be riff-raw; confident, rugged, and sophisticated. Sisqo's solo album comes tempered with the generosity of spirit that marked early R. Kelly and the pop melodiousness that made Boyz II Men kings. With guest appearances by Ja Rule and Beanie Siegal, the CD is balanced with caressing, sensitive ballads and ruff-housing romps. The project is the kind of artistic triumph those who go solo hope for.
But Sisqo says art had little to do with the current state of Dru Hill's affairs; in fact, it was economics as much as anything that motivated the members to break and go solo. "It was a carefully devised plan," Sisqo explains. "We had basically accepted our position, which was Boyz II Men/Jodeci 2000. But by the time those groups had their third album, something [bad] happened. Like, Boyz II Men went from 3 million sold, to almost 10, then dropped to a little more than 2. Then their career seemed over. I'm not sayin' they got worse or people wasn't feelin' them, but you can only have so much of one thing before you say, 'I'm sick of that.'
Sisqo may have it all planned out, but some say his shot at solo stardom is a little premature. "I think the one thing I wouldn't have done is go solo just yet," says Heavy D. "I would have established the group a little more. Some people still say that Dru Hill sounds like Jodeci, when they [don't]. It takes a minute for people to get that. One more album would have solidified it. But you've got to admire him for being daring enough to do his own thing."
With a cockiness that's just a bit shy of arrogant, Sisqo insists he knows what he's doing‹and that's simply trying to pay the bills. "With a third Dru Hill album, [only the] people [who bought the last album] would have bought the record. It isn't a bad thing, because I love my fans. But," he adds with a laugh that's slightly jaded, "the cost of living is changing, and if we came out and only sold another 2 million, I couldn't afford my bills. I'd be a bum on the street. I hate to sound like I'm all about the dollar, but niggas ain't gonna be feelin' me forever. They feelin' me now, so I gotta get the money." Sisqo reclines in the plush seat of his ride as he pulls into the circular driveway of his new colonial-style suburban home. He seems winded, as if the little lesson he's just taught (How to Be a Superstar 101) has drained him. But Sisqo likes to talk, he revels in candor. "I tell everything," he says with a long exhale and a shrug of his shoulders. "I tell my business because I ain't got nothing to hide. I'm a star, but you can talk to me." Sisqo gets out of the car and enters his stately crib. He moves past the big-screen TV and huge sectional that dominate the den, through the kitchen, and into the white-carpeted living room filled with a beautiful ivory piano and the gold and platinum plaques that symbolize a grip of success. Not bad for a 22-year-old. But for Sisqo, this is only the beginning.
"I want my house to be paid for. I want my money to work for me, and I wanna sing when I feel like it," he says, sitting at the piano. "I wanna be in the studio because I want to, not 'cause I gotta pay a bill. In the year 2G, I'm not writing no songs about I hate you, or you did this wrong to me. I want to get along with everybody, with my dogs, with girls. I'm not putting down songs like 'Bills, Bills, Bills' or 'No Scrubs.'" He plinks out a pretty tune he wrote for his girl group, LovHer, on the piano. "I want my album to be one of the soundtracks of the new millennium. I don't know if it's gonna be a classic or last forever, but it will be bangin' in the year 2000."
Class dismissed.
