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KEKE WYATT'S 'GHETTO ROSE' BLOOMS: Singer discusses 'the incident' (not!) and new disc that's 'coming soon.'
source*After a very successful 2000 collabo with R&B star Avant on the track "My First Love," singer Keke Wyatt, then just 16 years old, was on the rise in the music industry.
Fresh from that hit, she released her 2001 debut album “Soul Sister,” which churned out the single and was certified Gold.
Wyatt was on the fast track of stardom, but the brakes compressed after a Christmas Day incident that she’s almost become more known for than her soulful voice.
The “incident,” as she refers to it, was a domestic dispute Wyatt had with her husband Rahmat Morton where she stabbed him five times with a steak knife on December 25, 2001. Morton did not press charges; the police charges were eventually dropped, and Wyatt served no time for the episode.
With not much further detail, Wyatt explained that today her husband is still “in her life” – which seems appropriate since she penned the Pussycat Dolls hit “Stickwitu.”
Nevertheless, with that behind her, Wyatt started to take a break from recording and then channeled her vigorous passion and energy into her music, creating her latest album offering, “Ghetto Rose,” which as far as we can tell, has gone from being on TVT Record’s October release schedule to “Coming Soon” according her MySpace Page.
“After I took the time off to get Keke straight, I had a deal with Cash Money [Records] and I was with them for about two years,” she said explaining her studio hiatus, “but that didn’t work out well for the simple fact of [Hurricane Katrina]. It put a damper on everything and everybody over there and I felt I didn’t have time to wait.”
Clearly a woman of action, Wyatt shopped her wares at the afore mentioned TVT Records and scored a deal with the indie label. That was over a year ago, but Wyatt explained that in addition to prepping music for the disc, she had to prepare herself.
“After the ‘Christmas incident’ I had to get myself together emotionally and spiritually,” she said. “I had to make sure I was OK before I could come back out and get back in this grind. It’s rough and people have their comments and their way of thinking, so you just want to make sure you’re prepared for that.”
Which leads to Wyatt’s latest fight: seems the songstress has taken issue with an Essence.com reporter/interview over an August interview, claiming she was misquoted in the story in regard to her take on race, skin color and the N-word. [Listen to Wyatt’s side of the story on the EUR(pod)cast
http://www.eurweb.com/story/eur37064.cfm]
“They always will take a story and turn it all around and make it completely different than what it was. I know that, so I had to take some time off,” she said and resolved not to open herself up in interviews anymore.
Fortunately, the singer did talk to EUR’s Lee Bailey to share her side, refocus and talk more about the new album. She said that the Christmas incident and the Essence.com qualms are not what are really important right now.
“At the end of the day, all I really want is for people to buy my album. That’s what I want,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what color I am. It doesn’t matter how I look. None of that matters. At the end of the day, if you love good music, if you enjoy R&B – that’s what I sing and that’s what I do best.
“Ghetto Rose” - the title track from the new project - is available digitally at iTunes. It's also created a modicum of interest, and received quite good reviews. Wyatt describes the sophomore album as focusing on relationship issues, and includes her take on things that she’s experienced as well as what some around her have dealt with.
“It has a lot to do with things I’ve seen my best friends go through. I just want to be able to help girls that might be in the same situation that I was in. I want to help them get out of whatever they might be going through. This album really hits home on a lot of situations in relationships. I have make up, breakup – you name it, it’s in there. It’s real life. It’s real R&B.”
Wyatt’s real life appears to have enough material for a number of discs as she’s admitted to being bumped around in life, the music industry, and the media. But the singer said that she will continue to fight her battles to make sure her fans get what they want.
“I love music and I have so many fans out there that bought ‘Soul Sister’, that love my music and love me for who I am – as far as they know, and love me for my music and my voice, so I fight for them,” she said. “I’m a fan of other artists and I want music from them, though I know they go through hard times. I have over 500,000 people out there that love Keke Wyatt, so that’s why I fight so hard. I go through the crap that I go through for my fans. It’s worth it.”
Though concerned about how she’s handled by the media and viewed by the public, Wyatt is determined to share her talent with the new “Ghetto Rose” album, even though she’s realized that everything’s not always so rosy.
“I’m very happy about my album coming out. And I love touring, I love meeting people, I love singing to people. I’m looking forward to it so much,” she said. “I love my fans very much and I thank them for being supportive and patient with me through all this time.”
To get the latest on Keke Wyatt and to hear "Ghetto Rose," visit her site at
www.kekewyattmusic.com.
UPDATE: After inquiring, we were contacted by TVT spkesperson Joe Wiggans who told us the CD's release date has been pushed back to the first of the year.
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I can't believe she could sing that powerful at the age of 16.
I still have her cd, and EVERY SONG on it is tight.
Good to see her back on the scene, and I pray that all is well with her and hubby!
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