I was always curious about that – considering the awkward timing and promotion of those releases. The lead single off of your third official release, The Point of It All, is "Cool," which features rapper David Banner. What is it about your persona that allows you to work well with artists outside of the R&B genre without the collaboration coming across as forced or contrived?
Me being real and people seeing my music as being real. My fans can identify who I am, so it's affirming who I am.
Over the years you have had several collaborations with Mark Batson. During the writing process, what chemistry do you have with him that you rarely have with anyone else?
He knows my music. He knows what I really want. I'll come in and he'll have five or six ideas that he knows I'll love and we'll go from there.
Out of all the songs you've collaborated on with Batson, what song has the most special place in your heart?
"Charlene" off of Comin' From Where I'm From. I didn't have anything. He didn't have to record with me. We did no songs before that record.
How did you hook up originally?
I met him through James Poyser. They had met doing Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, back in the day.
Both you and James have worked with D'Angelo in the past. And back in 2000, you performed backup for D'Angelo's "Voodoo" tour. How did you end up landing that opportunity?
My first album was supposed to come out at the same time as D'Angelo's, so we knew each other from the industry, played each other's music, respected each other's talent. He found out that my album wasn't coming out and asked me to audition for the tour. I was interested, auditioned and got the job.
What songs from the tour's playset could you perform time and time again without getting tired of it?
"How Does It Feel," "Lady," and "S**t, D**n, Motherf**ker!"
After doing a little bit of research, I found out that you have a songwriting credit on one of my favorite songs of all-time: "U Know What's Up" by Donell Jones. When you hear that track, is there a specific memory that comes to mind from the early days?
Yeah, I was on my way to being broke. That song, I was just breaking up. That was the beginning of my Comin' from Where I'm From album. I didn't have any money. My relationship was broken up. My record deal had fallen through for the third time. But that was a little ray of sunshine that I got from that experience.
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