Kelly Price is one of the most talented, consistent R&B singers in the industry. Discovered by Mariah Carey in 1992, Price has continually demonstrated her powerful, gospel-worthy pipes on numerous hit records, been nominated for multiple Grammy Awards and written and sung chart topping collaborations with the likes of Whitney Houston, Notorious B.I.G. and of course, Mariah Carey.
Price is currently gearing up to release her sixth full length album and GlobalGrind was lucky enough to sit down and chat about making music on her own terms, her acting ambitions and her numerous amazing charitable contributions.
Your new album “Kelly” is coming out this Spring, when is the release date?
March 29th.
Tell us about your journey and process while making this album?
Oh gosh, 38 years of living is the foundation of this album. This is going to be, apart from my first album, because it was my first, this will be my favorite body of work. Simply because of the journey that you’re asking me about, that I’ve taken. The process of making this record, there was an awakening I believe, that happened with me, a liberating that happened with me, that made me feel OK about just releasing. I’ve always written and sung music that was connecting to who I am and connected to my circumstance. But just finding myself at a point of being OK to completely let it go 100%, feeling like even the things that I may say in my music, that may be revealing in some areas, that I may have not been prepared to reveal in the times past, and being OK with it. So the journey was interesting. it was like a birthing. It’s not hard to explain but in a way it is, because I took an emotional walk through this process and I almost could probably tell you right around the moment when I kinda felt myself pop out and say OK this is what it is, like it, hate it, it’s me. And that’s how the album ended up being named “Kelly,” as opposed to being named for a track on the record.
What was that specific awakening that made you feel like you could be you
Literally listening to the music, having some second thoughts about if I should soften the tone of some of the songs, change some of the lyrics of some of the songs, to make the tone a little softer. Do you really wanna say this in that song? You know that once you say this its gonna raise questions, people are going to ask questions, they’re gonna wanna know this, they’re gonna wanna know that, it’s going to raise eyebrows. And then having the moment behind that moment, where I said this is pretty much who I am, it is what it is. It frees me first. It’s weird but that was the moment, I literally was just reviewing the music and trying to make the decision on whether or not I was really, really ready to say everything that I was saying on this particular album and I made a decision, yes I am.
Go to the next page to read more of GlobalGrind’s interview with Kelly Price!
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A lot of your songs are very personal and people can relate to them, would you say that your songs come from personal events in your life?
Yes, 90% of it are my own personal happenings, my own personal experiences, the other 10% of it literally can be something going on socially or with people around me, but it’s all relevant because obviously if I’m writing about it, it’s affected me in some way that’s moved me to want to write about it. But for the most part, without having to think about it, when I put pen to pad I’m writing about things that
