Those familiar with K. Michelle — whether it’s by watching VH1’s “Love & Hip Hop” or listening to her debut album “Rebellious Soul” — know she doesn’t hold back. If you make her angry, everyone will find out. But the R&B songstress is showing a softer side with her sophomore LP, “Anybody Wanna Buy A Heart?” (out Dec. 9) and her current VH1 reality show, “K. Michelle: My Life.” We talk to her about exposing her pain and letting people see the real K. Michelle. Heartbreak and healing “Maybe I Should Call” is especially raw, a song about being in love with a man who is having a baby with another woman. “I sent him a couple songs off the record and he said it was sad that we’re in this position, but this is art. And he said it was a great vocal performance,” Michelle tells us about her muse. But when asked if she saw the album as a way to have the last word she said no: “I see it as a way to heal.” On that Drake song Reality TV vs. her reality If you go:
“When I was recording the album, I was really trying to come to grips with something and either get over it or decide whether I wanted to stay in it. So it was a good time to record an album,” Michelle says of the new album, which she recorded just three months ago. She tells us almost all the songs are about the same person, which Internet rumors suggest is actor Idris Elba.
Not all the songs are intensely emotion-filled. “Drake Would Love Me” is basically a fan’s love song to Drake. “Girls look at Drake and think, ‘Oh my god, he’s so sweet.’ He’s the only one singing real love songs to girls. Other guys are offensive to women,” Michelle says. “I sent Drake the record and he loved it. He was like, ‘This is dope. This is crazy. I’m so honored.'”
“Love & Hip Hop” fans may remember Michelle as a hot-headed drama queen, but while her current show still has plenty of drama, the singer put herself in control as executive producer to make sure that wasn’t all people saw. “People get to see me as a business woman and a mother. It’s hard,”she says. But she certainly couldn’t control everything. “The finale [airing Dec. 8] is shocking and it was shocking for me to experience,” she says. “To end the season like that, I thought, wow, [my life] really is made for TV.
December 9, 8 p.m.
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K. Michelle: Heartbreak and hip hop
Jimmy Fontaine
