Even before I finished writing the song, I knew I wanted to get Missy on there,” she recalls from a New York City hotel room. Her upcoming disc Incomparable (slated for release November 24) is her first solo project in four years. “I wasn’t sure what Missy was working on or if she would have time, but we got it done.”
Back in her Emmanuel
Baptist Church days in Newark, New Jersey—where she joined the choir at 5 years
old and sang in the choir with a future MC named Reggie (Redman) Nobles, Faith
was inspired by the voices of the Clark Sisters, especially sister Karen.
Meeting years later, she
and Karen Clark collaborate often. “We
did an inspirational song for my album called ‘Paradise,’ ” Faith says. In
the past, the two powerhouse singers worked together on “Nothing Without You,”
from Clark’s 1997 solo debut. “We also recorded another song for Karen’s new
album.”
It was in the jiggy era of
1994 when writer/vocalist Faith Evans first arrived on the scene, a shy girl
with a daughter and a hoopty that was constantly breaking down. After a chance
meeting with Sean “Diddy” Combs, the emerging king of hip-hop cool invited
Faith to the studio to become part of his fledging Bad Boy Entertainment team.
Working behind the scenes in various capacities before getting signed as an
official artist, one day Faith would be picking up Usher from school (yes,
bananas); on another, she’d be writing lyrics for yet another Puff project.
“Every day was something
different,” the former “First Lady of Bad Boy” says. The label celebrates its
20th anniversary this year. “This was before he built Daddy’s House [recording
studio] and we were working out of the Hit Factory. Puff would book all the rooms and have an assembly line of writers and
producers making tracks.
“Puff
trusted my opinion. I remember him taking me and [producer] Chucky Thompson to
Atlanta with him to hear 112, because he wanted to know what we thought. Puff
is a creative visionary, but at that time, we were all figuring it out.”
It was at the Hit Factory
where Faith recorded her early classics “You Used to Love Me” and “Soon As I
Get Home.” It was also where she met her first husband, legendary MC Chris “the
Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace. “Big tried to
act quiet when I first met him, but that was all a front,” Faith says. “Big was
a jokester; both of us are Gemini, so we had a lot of fun together. When he
asked me to marry him, I was ready. The only problem was, Biggie wasn’t.”
As documented in the 2009
film Notorious (based on co-screenwriter Cheo Hodari Coker’s brilliant biography,
Unbelievable: The Life, Death, and Afterlife of the Notorious B.I.G.) the glam
couple’s doomed relationship was turbulent from the beginning.
With Big’s constant
cheating with protégés Lil’ Kim, Charli Baltimore and countless groupies, Faith
was always more than ready to rough up her rivals. Indeed, if fans learned
anything new from Notorious, it was that Faith knows how to throw a punch.
“I
hated to fight when I was younger, but growing up in Newark, I saw my share of
them,” she confesses. “I don’t consider myself a prizefighter, but I have guts
and a fearless attitude. Looking back at those days, I’m like, ‘What was I
thinking?’ ”
For many fans of ’90s soul
music, one of the standouts of Faith’s early career was her duet with label
mate Carl Thomas on the wonderfully beautiful break-up song “Can’t Believe,”
which appeared on her third album Faithfully in 2001. “Originally that was done
as a remix for Carl’s song ‘Emotional,’ but I’m not sure what happened. I
thought my vocals could have been better, but Puff kept telling me I was
killing it.”
Right now I’m working on
other stuff. I want to have a new show hopefully next year.” For the moment,
Faith’s reality is her new music on Incomparable, and trust, it gets no realer
than this.
Let's hear it
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