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Ever since Q Parker was a teenager, he has entertained. The singer grew up before our eyes as one quarter of the popular Bad Boy group, 112.

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Now in 2012, Q Parker is a full-fledged adult man, and he is still entertaining.

Q Parker has gone solo and he’s getting ready to drop his solo debut album, The MANual.

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Q, who is originally from The South, recently took a trip out to the East Coast to shoot the video for the MANual’s first official single, “Show You How.”

Of course, the singer couldn’t leave New York City without kicking it with GlobalGrind.

During our conversation, Q talked about what he’s been up to the last seven years, what The MANual means and what his relationship with Biggie was like.

Check out the interview below!

GlobalGrind: Talk about The MANual.

Q Parker: We started very young, so a lot of the fans and everybody in the public watched us grow up from teenagers to young adults, pretty much. And it’s one thing for the fans to know Q from 112, but it was important for me on this record to introduce people to Q Parker the man and just how I matured as an artist, as a songwriter, as a producer, as a man, in all areas.

Then when you add the second part of it to make it the MANual — I believe that women need male singers that are going to cater to them.

Back in the day you had certain artists that their main goal was just making music for women. Joe, Gerald Levert, Brian McKnight, they didn’t care about what was going on in the club, they didn’t care about none of that. It was just, when they came to your city — full of women. And I just think there’s a void in there right now, and that’s why I stepped in.

So you think singers that cater to women are missing from R&B?

I do. I think that we do have some that do. I think Tank does a good job. Tyrese now, just released an album. But, I mean outside of that, there are artists that do it, but it’s like they dibble and dabble.

What have you been doing since the last 112 album dropped seven years ago?

Our albums normally last about two, two and half years. So even though we released Pleasure and Pain in 2005, we kind of toured and worked it to about 2007, 08. So, really, since about 2008, we’ve toured.

Of course you know when you have a catalogue, people want to hear the hits. So that’s a blessing we’ve had the amount of hits that we’ve had. Because, still to this day, we tour off of the hits. But at that time we wanted to allow ourselves to explore our own individuality. That’s when we came up with the idea to separate for a second and allow everybody to explore their individuality, and then we’ll get back in the 112 car.

Slim released his solo record, Daron and Michael are doing their music and now I’m releasing my album. We are in talks right now of the possibility of doing a reunion tour or possibly a album, end of this year, early next year. And it’s about time.

Is anyone from 112 on the album?

No. My sister Faith Evans is on the album, and I may have another feature with another artist.

Is the album done?

The album is done. We’re looking at a summer release, June or July. The reason behind that is I want people to know that they’re getting their money’s worth. The single downloads are just so popular now because you go buy a album, and there’s only one song on there that you really like, so people don’t want to spend their hard-earned money — I know I don’t.

So my mission was to at least get two solid records in the market place and then release a album, so these people know — ‘I know two songs I like on this album.’

You were on Bad Boy for years and this year is the 15th anniversary of Biggie’s death, how close were you with him?

Very, very, man. He was very special to us, man, for a few reasons. He introduced us to the music industry. And had Big not been on that record, “Only You,” we probably wouldn’t have received the initial and instant support that we did.

Simply because Big was on that record, millions of people gave it a chance. Now, once they pressed play, they realized, these little dudes can sing, a little bit. They’re actually a little cool; ‘I like these guys.’

For that, he’ll always have a special place in my heart. People always ask me what’s my favorite 112 song. I don’t answer it from a favorite perspective because we pretty much wrote them all so they’re all special in their own regard. But from a special standpoint, “Only You” will always get that answer because it started it all. Outside of that, he was just a big brother.

He would give us money, make sure we had some food to eat. He would get Puff off our back, sometimes. Just a good dude, man. Always joking around — he was the jokester of the room, the class clown.