If you’re a music fan who reminisces fondly about 1990s R&B, your recollections wouldn’t be complete without mentioning Faith Evans. Not only did the multi-faceted singer and songwriter carve out her musical legacy behind the boards for some of the biggest and brightest in the business (Mary J. Blige, SWV and Usher, to name a few), she established herself as a solo hit-making force to be reckoned with before and after her tumultuous marriage to the Late, great Notorious BIG.
In the 20 years since her sultry soprano first hit the airwaves, Ms. Evans has maintained a longevity that newbies can only dream of, spinning her gifts into a catalog of smash CDs (including 2012′s charitable tribute to the late Whitney Houston, Faith Evans R&B Divas), a Grammy Award, a best-selling memoir and a second season as a co-Executive Producer on TVOne’s hit reality series, R&B Divas.
With kids to raise, new music in the works and her first-ever performance as a headliner at this years’ Essence Music Festival, Faith doesn’t have a lot of free time on deck, but that didn’t keep her from giving Knowshi some Q&A time to discuss new music, Divas’ second season and why she feels that she’s finally earned the right to claim that lofty title for herself.
MELODY CHARLES- Great talking to you today Faith, Happy 2013! Did you have a good Mother’s Day? How is the family doing?
FAITH EVANS: “The family’s good, just trying to finish up the school year and looking forward to them being with my mom for 3 weeks (laughing). I actually was in the studio [on Mother’s Day], my daughter [Chyna] went and bought some breakfast from Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles. But it was nice.”
MC- I’ve been watching this season of “R&B Divas” so far and….wow. It’s deep.
FE: (chuckling) “Tell me about it….it’s been interesting.”
MC- That clashing between Nicci (Gilbert) and Syleena (Johnson), the additions of (former Xscape member) Latocha Scott and industry veteran Angie Stone—-is that what we’re seeing right now, strong-willed personalities trying to work together that end up clashing in the ‘get to know you’ phase, or….
FE: “We’re all strong-willed, but a lot of the things being seen have nothing to do with what we’re [ultimately] filming. I think that……(click here for the rest the of the Faith Evans Q&A)
