For Anthony Hamilton, the road to success has been long and hard. Without struggle, however, there is no progress. Accordingly, the "bumps and bruises" Hamilton endured along his multi-label journey gave him insight into the "business"-side of the music business. From the shelving of his debut album, in the midst of his move from Uptown Records to MCA, to his fateful transition from Soulife to So So Def, after twelve long years, Anthony Hamilton has finally realized "the point of it all."
With seven GRAMMY nominations to his credit, Hamilton's recent win for "Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance" solidifies his reputation as a dynamic—and significant—voice within the R&B genre. Upon review of The Point of It All, Anthony Hamilton managed to squeeze some time out of his busy schedule and settle down for an interview with Clayton Perry — reflecting on Al Green, fatherhood and his TASTE Foundation.
In retrospect, the beginning of your career could very well make use of the title from Lemony Snicket's novels: "a series of unfortunate events." Along your six-label odyssey, what key life lesson did you learn?
I learned endurance, and how to not give up. You have to believe in your dreams enough to follow them even when times get hard.
Is there a particular setback that you look back upon and see as a blessing in disguise?
There's no one that deserves more credit than the other. I think all of them are a blessing. They create character and personality. They also give texture to your life.
To date, you have released three studio albums: Comin' from Where I'm From, Ain't Nobody Worryin' and The Point of It All. Two compilation albums—featuring unreleased tracks—have also been released: Soulife and Southern Comfort. What input did you have in the production of the compilation albums, and did you authorize their release?
Soulife was coming out whether I knew it or not. It was an attempt by the record company to make money off of the place I was in. Southern Comfort – I kind of got a whiff of that one. That was another last-minute-found-out thing. Same people, pretty much. Soulife – Atlantic Records allowed us to kind of get back in there. I was able to go to the studio and listen to it and approve some. I couldn't really do any singing and all that stuff because of the contract, but I was able to at least hear it. Southern Comfort was just a blatant, "We don't care; we're going to put it out."
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