Michel'le: Still California Dreaming

Michel’le: Still California Dreaming

Posted On: October 14, 2010
Posted By: odeisel
Comments: 1

By Malice Intended

It’s always a bit disconcerting to fans when a phenomenal talent emerges like a force of nature only to disappear just as quickly. Michel’le is one such artist. She was the official song bird of Ruthless Records, and her self-titled 1989 debut established her as force to be reckoned with. Boasting production by a young Dr. Dre, the album not only proved Michel’le to be a powerful vocalist but revealed Dre to be much more versatile than his than originally imagined. The album birthed a number of songs that quickly went into heavy rotation on R&B stations around the country. Almost a decade later, she released a sophomore album on Death Row records that went relatively unnoticed.

Having been absent from the music scene for a considerable amount of time, Michel’le is now ready reintroduce herself to the world. Planet Ill recently talked with her about her new music, as well the path that her career has taken over the past twenty plus years. She seems to have no regrets, and has no desire to dwell on the past. She lives in the now, and wants her fans to focus on what is as opposed to what could have been. **SCROLL DOWN FOR AUDIO**

Planet Ill: In his memoir Ruthless, Jerry Heller kind of described you as a forerunner to Mary J. Blige, kind of the original queen of Hip-Hop Soul. How do you feel about that?

Michel’le: I don’t know if that’s quite accurate, as though it is that we did what they started doing first. I think Mary back in the beginning gave me and Dre props for our sound. She definitely said that we were doing Hip-Hop/R&B before anybody else, which we were. I’m not competitive, it’s good. I think it’s great. She kept it alive. She made it what it is today. She made it stay around.

Planet Ill: Your debut album was huge. It sold really big, but it hardly gets mentioned as the classic of modern R&B that it is. Why do you think that is?

Michel’le: I think honestly because it’s politics. I think it’s politics. I think Dre is more active than I am. At this moment I think it’s politics. I can’t put anything else on it. I just happened I took a long recess or break or whatever they want to call it. That had a little bit to do with it as well but I think its politics.

Planet Ill: Has your style or your content changed over the years?

Michel’le: Absolutely! Everything changes. Yesterday is not going to be like today. Tomorrow is not going to be like today. Of course it did.

Planet Ill: What would you say is the biggest difference between your style and content now as opposed to back in 1989 when you first started?

Michel’le: When I first started, I guess the only thing that didn’t change was that I’m still living in an imaginary world that’s make believe, that I think that I would like to come true. That hasn’t changed. I’m still right from that format. I still believe in that. I think what changed now is the wisdom and the consequences that come with it. I think that now my writing is still as imaginary and creative as it was when I wrote it then and I still have that truth of what I was going through. Now I have that truth of what consequence means. So now I write from “okay I know that this has a consequence.” Everything is cause and effect. I didn’t know that at seventeen.

Planet Ill: How do you feel about modern R&B? Do you like what you here in the radio? What do you think could be better?

Michel’le: It’s not about what I like. I like the creativity. I like that people are able to express themselves and it’s changed because everything is supposed to evolve. It just is. I don’t knock anybody’s creativity. Of course it’s different from what we were doing. When we came along they said the same thing about us. “Do you like? We don’t like it! That hip-hop, that R&B, what are they doing? I don’t like that!” So I know what they’re going through because I already been through it.

Planet Ill: You were signed to Death Row for a time. Do you think that your career would have taken a different path if that album would have gotten more light?

Michel’le: Of course! Isn’t that with anything? I mean if you got to work and you stay there diligently and you do a good job, one day you might be manager? I mean always, that’s the goal. What ended up happening with that album was my personal life got so in the way of my career at the time that there was nothing I could do about it. I was living in a constant state of fear for many, many years. Even if I did want to make a decision it wouldn’t have mattered. So I let that go and I’m free.

Planet Ill: When you were signed to Death Row did you find yourself caught in the middle of any conflicts between Dre and Suge?

Michel’le: Never! Never! Not that I remember. I learned later that there were things that were said but nothing that was ever physical or anything like that.

Planet Ill: Okay so you were never a party to anything that went on between the two of them?

Michel’le: Not that had to do with me, no.

Planet Ill: I you could have done anything differently over the course of your career what would it have been? Was there anything that you did that you thought you could have done better?

Michel’le: Yeah I think I should have definitely stayed with Ruthless and wherever Dre went. Like I had been doing all along I should have stayed. I stayed because I have a loyalty about myself. When we went to Death Row, Death Row was good to us. I didn’t see why we would abandon ship without really doing some more homework. At the time Dre wasn’t telling me everything, nor was anybody else but I was trying to learn on my own. When I was the one telling him that everything is not what it should be, they were telling me “No it’s okay! It’s good”. Then when they became me, telling me that everything wasn’t good I was saying “No everything is good!”

I understand what happened. Once again, that was politics. I probably should have stayed where I was, in a safe place. It probably would have been a different outcome for me. Then again I have to look at the universe and what it’s saying to you and why you’re here and some of the paths you take for whatever reason. So I made the best of whatever I could. I was happy to get out and be free and to have a chance to start over. My blessings get everyday.

Planet Ill: Is there anything you’d like to say in closing to the readers of Planet Ill?

Michel’le: I would like them to go to my website his michel-le2010.com and follow and come to the shows and hang out and listen to the new music and I’ll be releasing singles like every couple of months. No album in stores. Eventually I’m going to start talking about where I’ve been and where I’m going. Probably, the universe will tell me why I’m here. I know “Something In My Heart” is part of a connection I have with the universe because the song has transcended through all the tragedies that I have gone through, all the mishaps and the bad decisions. I want people to always know that something that you do in life the reason that you get up the next day.

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