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GERALD LEVERT ‘SPEAKS’: Versatile R&B sang’er talks about new CD, Jawn’s column, and record company politics.
*A regime change at Atlantic Records, love drama and the post-9/11 state of the world both make their presence felt throughout “Do I Speak for the World?,” the fourth album from R&B love bear Gerald Levert and the follow up to last year's "Stroke of Genius," which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.
His latest work, due Nov. 30 on Atlantic, was recorded in the wake of an executive earthquake at Atlantic Records that saw the exit of Levert’s homegirl Sylvia Rhone, former head of Elektra Entertainment Group that handled the artists under Atlantic’s various labels. Rhone left her position in March after Elektra was absorbed into Warner Music Group, leaving your boy without his personal cheerleader in the executive suite.
In the first of a two-part series, EUR’s Lee Bailey sits down with 38-year-old son of Eddie Levert at his luxurious hotel suite to discuss the effects of Atlantic’s executive shift on his new album, the politics that fuel the project, the upcoming tour with his pops, and the Jawn’s Juice column about his alleged “diva” behavior at BET’s recent Smokey Robinson tribute.
The 16-track "Do I Speak for the World?" sports cameos from Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornell West on one of the album's three interludes. Other tracks include "What Happened to the Love," "Click a Glass," "Duty Calls" and "Lay U Down (Make It Right)." But if you think the disc's first single, “One Million Times,” sets the tone for the rest of the Cleveland native’s album, think again.
GERALD LEVERT: The single is probably the only thing like the single on the album, and that was done for a purpose. That was something that when everybody that heard it, it was like - it’s different, it’ll give us that other ear to come around. It’s like Ray Charles – he’s done all kinds of stuff. I’ve done country, I’ve done all kinds of stuff. I don’t’ want to be pigeonholed. I just want people to know I can be versatile.
LEE BAILEY: I don’t know if youngish, or popish is the way to describe the sound, but it’s not the soulful, soul man sound that I associate Gerald Levert with.
GL: But the soul man is all there on the album, [too]. Most of the album is that. It’s like, when we did “My Body” with LSG, it was like, that was different to everybody. So I feel like it’s something I’ve done. I want to see what people are open to, what people will listen to. I’m trying to compete with a lot of people out here, and I’m trying to do something a little different and get some different listeners to come to the table. But once they come to the table, all they gonna get is the soul man.
LB: So the plan is working?
GL: Yeah, I’ve got some stations that didn’t get on my last record, mainstream stations. Basically, this album is my “What’s Goin’ On” and “Let’s Get it On.” It’s a mixture of all that.
LB: Socially conscious?
GL: It was going to be a whole album of socially conscious songs. But when this [Atlantic Records] change thing happened, I was like, this is new people. I need to do some new kind of stuff. With Sylvia, she knew where I was headed anyway, but with the new people, I didn’t know if they would be open to all of that. They would just think I was going left. I didn’t want to put all that on somebody, so I just split it up and made it a social/love-your-sistas-and-brothas, to a social/love-your-woman, and then also love-your-family. It’s just a lot about love and making change in the world. But there’s also a lot of pain and suffering in there, all kinds of emotions. I just tried to be real open with my feelings.
LEE BAILEY: Let’s talk about the video.
GL: There’s about 12 women in it, I think, and all of ‘em are fine. Whooaa.
LB: You picked all of them yourself, I’m sure.
GL: I looked at them, but I let the young guys pick em. Their taste may be a little different than mine. I gotta have a little junk in the trunk. I gotta have a little extra. See they don’t understand all that. I need a little more to work with. But the video is real sexy. [It’s directed by a] young lady Nzhinga Stewart, she just did the Prince video “Call My Name,” she’s really, really creative. Really good.
LB: What’s the song about?
GL: Well the hook says, “I made good love a million times, but nobody loves me like you.” Being the man that I am, I’ve been around a little bit, and I’ve been in that kind of situation where you feel like you found that one [woman] that just outdoes everybody else. She means the most, but it’s like, until you get your head together and say I’m ready to settle down – at a certain age, I think you know when you’re really ready. I wasn’t ready before, because I was still … you know. But now, I see that I’m more focused. This kind of video, maybe five years ago, I would’ve had maybe three of them girls over here. But now, it don’t even interest me like that. Sometimes, back in the day, I felt I had to be extra, but you don’t have to do that.
LB: Why title the album “Do I Speak for the World?”
GL: That’s how I felt. All last year, there was so much stuff on TV news. I was watching a lot of CNN. That’ll drive you crazy, man. You can’t get stuck on CNN. When you look at all the situations and all the things that are going on in the world, there are so many things that need to change. I never thought I’d see a lot of the stuff that’s going on now. This is crazy to me. The title cut is basically, I’m asking people, “Do you feel like I feel? Do you feel like this world is falling down on you? The taxes, the same-sex marriages and stuff like that? I really got deep on the stuff. The terrorist stuff, all that stuff is just deep to me. This record is probably more prolific, lyrically, than any one I’ve had.
LB: You and Pops are going back on tour.
GL: Yeah, Nov 24 [in Cincinnati] through Jan. 22 in Houston. This’ll be our second time, and we’re taking all the hits this time, because we wanted to open up the secondary markets. [Nowadays], you don’t get to go to the Tallahassees, or the Savannah, Georgias and all that stuff any more. We need to touch those people. People down there who grew up with this music, they want to hear it, too. So we’re just getting it all together. Me and my father are bumpin’ heads on what songs to do. We’ll come up with an idea, then it’s like nah, let’s not do that, let’s do this.
LB: Do you want to address the Jawn’s Juice column several weeks ago regarding your absence in the press room of BET’s Smokey Robinson tribute?
GL: You know what? Nobody told me about the [press room situation]. I was sitting in the trailer after the show. They let me dry out, because I was wet. I did three songs. I was the only person to do three songs in the whole show, and it was the finale. A lot of people left before the finale. I stayed, did the finale, I did “Ooh Baby Baby,” “You Really Got a Hold On Me” and “Ebony Eyes” at the end of the show. Then I came back and did “Goin’ to a Go-Go” to close the show. So basically, I was on there the whole show. It should’ve been [called] “Gerald Levert and His Friends Do Smokey.” And when the column said something about I wasn’t cooperative, I was like, nobody made it clear to me that everybody was doing press at that time. I was in the room talking to Stevie Wonder for a minute. Then I went to talk to Smokey, and they wasn’t rushing me, so I figured it was cool. I still went up in the press room, but a lot of people were gone by the time I got up there. Let [Jawn] know, that when it came to press, I was signing autographs and taking pictures, I went up into the party afterwards. But [during the show], I had to do a speech, I had to do some emceeing, I had to learn some melodies – because I didn’t know the melody to “Goin’ to a Go-Go” – I had do a lot of stuff. So I’m sorry, I meant no harm. I was very nice to everybody.
LB: Anything you want to add that I didn’t ask you?
GL: I’m not engaged to Mo’Nique. Can we clear that up?
In the second part of this series, due later this month, Gerald Levert discusses specific cuts on the album, plus vents about the sad politics behind his dad’s “For the Love of Money” song doubling as the theme to “The Apprentice.”
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