Cover Story: K. Michelle – Lady Sings the Blues

If you’re wondering whether R&B songstress K.Michelle still sings the blues, the answer is a for sure yes! But if you’re expecting the same old tune, you’re in for a rude, yet pleasant awakening. K.Michelle might BE one of the most  multifaceted artists of today; she manages and maintains a livelihood of BEing a devoted mother, a sexy (not-so-single anymore) fly chick, a JIVE recording artist, and a representative of Pain Medicine…a genre of music that’s always BEen present, but needed a deserving face BEhind the musical message. K.Michelle is certainly that musical face, but her story makes you know she represents so much more.

K. Michelle first hit the BE Mag radar in 2009 when she 1st BEgan prepping her upcoming debut album “Pain Medicine”. While K. Michelle spoke excitedly about the project, you could just feel a disconnect somewhere, which was obviously strange due to her blatant passion for overcoming pain, which is something the world never knew hit so close to home for her until she made headlines for everything BEsides the present music.

Pain Medicine is a term that strongly resonates with so many women, and even directly parallel’s K. Michelle’s own life way too closely. When you’ve BEen hurt to the core, but your heart only bleeds music, what’s left? Get a good dose of Pain Medicine and BEgin to heal…K.Michelle could write a book or blog on just that topic, and has in the past (garnering a plethora of negative attention after coming out about her then boyfriend/manager Memphitz BEating her), but instead, K is using God’s natural gift to continue to personally overcome and pull others out of domestic violence, and also to complete what she’s worked so hard on since last decade…her debut album “Pain Medicine”.

With K. Michelle’s project BEing such a long time coming, you can only imagine the multitude of directions the album has undergone. “On the album you still get the real K. Michelle; I like to say that you don’t even get K. Michelle, you get KimBerly…the government name. It’s a lot more refined. I’ve BEen trying a lot of different sounds. I love ballads, so It’s BEen a fight for me to put out a ballad and I still haven’t BEen able to put one out yet, but I’m definitely looking forward to the ballads on this album. I just think it’s what music’s missing.” It’s nothing shy of magic when a real talent can offer more of an autobiography as project than an album of the day & times. There’s nothing gimmicky about the pain that K. Michelle knows and has overcome, and the dose of medicine that she’s tried for so long is finally just about ready to BE packaged and put on shelves to serve as a remedy for life’s expected an unforeseen plights & love’s unexpected turmoil.

The lead single for Pain Medicine is “How Many Times”, an anthem for women written by Sean Garrett & produced by Blac Elvis. The album is heavily influenced by some of our favorite legends. “Mary J. Blige has BEen a great influence, as far as me BEing able to speak what I feel. Whitney has always BEen a BIG influence in my life as far as teaching me how to sing on key and in tune & just give it to em on the ballads. Of course R.Kelly has BEen major in my career…he’s my mentor and that’s where I get my voice for songwriting from.” As perviously stated, K.Michelle also paints a picture from her life experiences…in the past couple of years, she’s BEen through so much. “BEsides the normal stuff, my budget got spent, I got the shit BEat out of me, and what else (laughs). Still struggling, my baby’s father got married to my friend. I found a new guy that I like…he’s my black superhero (laughs). So a lots gone on, but I’m not even mad…if you would have caught me 3 months ago, I might have BEen like Emily Rose, with my head spinning in circles, but today, I pray a lot and take it all in stride.”

When asked how she feels her domestic violence case compares to other high profile celebrity DV, K. Michelle candidly responded “I feel like I should have gotten Diane Sawyer too BEcause the person that did it to me, I’m signed to him. Blogs and different people made it look like I was crazy or psycho BEcause I went on twitter and asked for help BEcause people wasn’t hearing me. And also BEcause he was dating [Lil] Wayne’s baby mama Toya, and they [were] portraying him on TV to BE this great guy, when everybody at the record laBEl and that close to me & close to him know the truth & knows all the things he’s done. It hurst me. I’m getting BEtter about it, but how would you feel if everyday you woke up, you’re signed to the man that did that to you? How would that make you feel? And when they say I’m crazy, when they say I’m mean, HELL YEAH I’M CRAZY & I’M MEAN! I got to live with that everyday. Instead of the black community embracing and helping me, like Rihanna was helped by the black & the white community, and she was embraced…they spent blogs around and said that I was just mad BEcause of him and Toya. And I was just the bitter ex-girlfriend. Nobody offered me any help…”

With such painful experiences, Pain Medicine is gearing up to BE a classic epic collection of work. Follow K.Michelle on Twitter @KMichelleMusic and visit iTunes to buy her latest single “How Many Times” today…here’s the link. http://itun.es/i685SD

[PHOTO CREDIT: D Blanks | WARDROBE STYLING CREDIT: Kendrell Bowman]