GRAMMYs

Harry Wayne Casey

News

Harry Wayne Casey: The Boogie Man Returns

Facebook Twitter Email
GRAMMY winner plots new course for KC And The Sunshine Band and reflects on the inspiration for the collective's distinctive sound
J. Poet
GRAMMYs
Dec 2, 2014 - 4:06 pm

When "Get Down Tonight" came blasting out of car radios and home stereos in 1975, there was nothing else like it on the air. The cascade of glittering keyboards and guitars sparkled like the noontime sun on a tropical ocean. Then the thumping drums, booming bass and delirious hand clapping came in to lift you out of your seat. It wasn't funk, disco or R&B, but it had elements of all three, played with an irresistible sense of Caribbean swing.

"Get Down Tonight" was the song that turned Harry Wayne Casey and his KC And The Sunshine Band into superstars. The song was featured on their sophomore album, KC And The Sunshine Band, a blockbuster that also included the infectious "Boogie Shoes" and the GRAMMY-nominated hit "That's The Way (I Like It)."

Remarkably, KC And The Sunshine Band became the first act to have four No. 1 pop singles in a 12-month period since the Beatles in 1964. But the group toured infrequently because principal songwriters Casey and Richard Finch were constantly in the studio producing other artists, including Betty Wright, with whom they co-wrote "Where Is The Love," which won a GRAMMY for Best Rhythm & Blues Song in 1975. KC And The Sunshine Band also took home GRAMMYs for Album Of The Year in 1978 for their work on the soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever.

Casey dropped out of the music industry in the mid-'80s, but KC And The Sunshine Band's hits seemingly never went out of style. Their songs have been featured in more than 75 films and countless TV shows and commercials. And Casey is now back in action, performing regularly with a revamped KC And The Sunshine Band and preparing a double album celebrating the band's 40th anniversary, tentatively due this spring. 

This is the first music you've put out in a while, isn't it?
I've released older stuff that I had in the can now and then, but this is the first new stuff I've worked on in years. I started the first tracks in December 2011 [and] I have about 39 songs done: 19 classic tunes from the '60s and 20 or so new songs. I'm still editing and mixing, but I'm aiming for 34 songs. I've been collaborating with Bimbo Jones [Britney Spears, Lady Gaga] from London and merging electronics with my original sound. They sent me tracks and I wrote melodies and lyrics for them, and then brought in my band to add more production. I've also done some things completely with the band. It's been a fun project.

Do you have any titles you can share?
I still don't know what the final set list is going to be, but it will be the usual blend of R&B, pop, dance, and jazz — a bit of everything. I've always liked a variety of music, so it'll all be in the mix.

When you cut "Get Down Tonight," the disco revolution was just starting. Did you have any idea KC And The Sunshine Band would explode?
I always felt in my heart and soul that the songs were hits, so it was more exciting than surprising. A lot of the dance music back then was dark. I wanted to bring some light and energy and a positive message to the music. We wanted to make records you could put on at a party to get people moving. Everything we made hit the top 5 on the stations that played them. We had hits in Europe and England before "Get Down."

Your beat wasn't funk, pop or disco, but it had an uplifting swing to it.
My inspiration was the Caribbean music called Junkanoo. We called the band the Sunshine Junkanoo Band at first. Junkanoo [is] from the Bahamas and uses a lot of steel drums, horns, whistles, and cowbells. It's an intensely percussion-infused sound and it takes over your body when you're around it. The idea was to use Caribbean sounds and add a pop beat to it.

Despite the monster hits, you didn't tour much in the '70s.
We were primarily a studio band. The four of us [bassist Richard Finch, guitarist Jerome Smith and drummer Robert Johnson] didn't tour because I didn't like to and we had other obligations. I was producing albums for George McCrae, writing for other artists and making the Sunshine Band records. We had a lot on our plate. Using overdubbing, we got a huge sound from just four people. I'd do two or three keyboard tracks and we'd bring in a bunch of singers and the sessions did get pretty big. At that time, we were limited to eight or 12 tracks, so we had to do a lot of dumping. We did go out and support the records a bit, but it was limited.

Any thoughts on your GRAMMY wins?
I produced and wrote Betty Wright's "Where Is The Love." She'd been having hits since she was 13 years old and was the bread and butter of our label, TK, before the Sunshine Band. We got [10] nominations over the years and won three times. We all got Album Of The Year GRAMMYs [as artists and producers] for Saturday Night Fever, which was a huge album. I think everybody who worked on that album got a GRAMMY.

Why did you drop out of music in the '80s? What brought you back?
It wasn't fun anymore. I got tired of the rat race and the pressure of being told what to do and not to do and I kinda lost my mind. I had money from the songs, so I did OK, but I was also on drugs. I was doing "The Arsenio Hall Show" from time to time, and he said his dream was to reunite the Sunshine Band. So we did that for him. It was fun and got me back into it. I came out of my stupor, went to rehab and I've been clean and sober ever since.

There was an infamous "Behind The Music" episode about KC And The Sunshine Band that aired on VH1. Did that help your comeback?
It didn't hurt. They also did a live 45-minute concert series on us and dance music is huge again, although it never really went away. They just rename it, but the clubs and parties are getting bigger and bigger all the time. We're back on the road, mostly on the weekends, so I can have a life, and we're having a great time.

(J. Poet lives in San Francisco and writes about Native, folk, country, Americana, and world music for many national and international publications and websites.)

News

GRAMMY Insider: Madonna, Paul McCartney, Metallica, Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake

Facebook Twitter Email
All the GRAMMY winners news, including the nominees for the Songwriters Hall of Fame class of 2014
Crystal Larsen
GRAMMYs
Dec 2, 2014 - 4:06 pm

(The GRAMMY Insider keeps you up to date about news on your favorite GRAMMY winners, including information about new album releases, tour updates, notable media appearances, interviews, and more.)

Awards
The nominees for the Songwriters Hall of Fame class of 2014 include GRAMMY winners Harry Wayne Casey, Luigi Creatore and Hugo Peretti, Vince Gill, Mark James, Cyndi Lauper, Madonna, John Mellencamp, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin), and Sade, among others. Inductees will be honored at an awards gala on June 12, 2014, in New York. … Nominations for the 2013 American Music Awards were announced with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis leading with six nominations, followed by Taylor Swift and Justin Timberlake with five each. The awards will air live from Los Angeles on Nov. 24.

Records
In more Taylor Swift news, the 23-year-old songstress will be honored as the Nashville Songwriters Association International's Songwriter/Artist of the Year for a record sixth time, surpassing previous records held by five-time winners Vince Gill and Alan Jackson. Swift, who remains the youngest artist to receive the award, will showcase her six trophies at the Taylor Swift Education Center, set to open Oct. 12 at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tenn.

Charts
Justin Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience, 2 Of 2, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 350,000 copies sold, marking Timberlake's second No. 1 album of the year following The 20/20 Experience, which was released in March and earned the largest sales week of the year with 968,000 units sold. … Kanye West's "Gone" peaked at No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week after the song, from his 2005 GRAMMY-winning album Late Registration, appeared in the viral YouTube video of 25-year-old Marina Shifrin announcing her job resignation.  

New Music
TLC unveiled their first new song in 10 years, "Meant To Be," which was written by GRAMMY winner Ne-Yo, among others. The track will appear on their forthcoming greatest hits compilation album 20, due Oct. 15. … Eminem released the video for "Survival," the second single from his forthcoming new album The Marshall Mathers LP 2, due Nov. 5. The video, which also appears in the trailer for the "Call Of Duty: Ghosts" video game, features the rapper performing in a gloomy warehouse while clips of the video game flash in the background. … In a recent interview with The Oakland Press, Metallica frontman James Hetfield revealed the band will begin work on their next studio album in early 2014. "Hopefully it happens soon. I'm itchin'," said Hetfield. "We have tons of material to sift through. … I know we only need a few songs, but there's 800 riffs we're going through. It's kind of insane."

#theysaidit
The next time you start posing for your "Sunday selfie," think of Paul McCartney. In a recent interview on "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon," the former Beatle said, "Most people don't actually know that I invented the selfie," referring to a black-and-white solo shot of himself. When presented with a photo in which he's spontaneously posed in the background of an image of John Lennon, McCartney said, "That's actually me inventing the photobomb."

GRAMMYs

Turning Jewels Into Water

 

Photo: Ed Marshall

 
News

World Music Innovators Turning Jewels Into Water Fuse The Spiritual With Digital On Their New Album

Facebook Twitter Email
Genre pioneers Ravish Momin and Val Jeanty talk to GRAMMY.com about the making of their forthcoming work, 'Our Reflection Adorned by Newly Formed Stars'
Noah Berlatsky
GRAMMYs
Aug 8, 2020 - 7:00 am

"What is world music? What is global music? Do you have to show up in ethnic gear with a tabla and a sitar for you to consider me Indian?" drummer Ravish Momin says, with some exasperation. "Or what if I just showed up with an electronic drum pad? If you were a quote unquote, world promoter, you'd be like, 'No…that's not right.'"

Momin and Haitian-born drummer Val Jeanty's electronic music project Turning Jewels into Water draws on influences and collaborators from across the planet, but, as Momin says, their music isn't easily slotted into any one genre. On their new album from FPE Records, Our Reflection Adorned by Newly Formed Stars, laptops sound like traditional instruments and geeky experimentation is indistinguishable from spiritual yearning. It's music that pounds and shakes and shimmies so hard it lifts off from any one country, drumming in the stratosphere, and points higher up.

Momin's been difficult to pin down ever since he was a child. Though he was born in India, his father's job at an Australian bank kept the family on the move. "We lived in the Middle East for a minute. We lived in Australia for a minute. We lived in Hong Kong for a minute. We were just traveling around, and I was picking up music in all those places," Momin told me.

The family finally settled in New York in the late '80s when Momin was around 14. He was interested in jazz, and started taking drumming lessons. But he had trouble finding a teacher comfortable with his range of influences. "They'd be like, man, all that stuff you're doing, we've got to work on getting rid of all that and making you a real jazz drummer," Momin told me. "And I felt bad for a long time, like, oh shit, I'm doing something totally wrong here." It wasn't until after college when he studied with the great avante garde drummed Andrew Cyrille that he started to see his background as a resource rather than a hindrance. Cyrille, Momin says, "was the first drummer I'd gone to who listened to my audition and said, okay, cool, I see what you have. But I also see what you don't have. So let's find a way to make that work."

Momin went on to lead the global/jazz band Tarana for 14 years. He gradually became more and more interested in incorporating electronic percussion into his music. But, he says, "I immediately found out [I] was not accepted in the so-called jazz world at all. You can't be a legitimate jazz musician and have a laptop on stage. That was just heresy for a long time. It's still stuck, believe it or not, where Miles [Davis] left off. There are innovators, obviously, that have been pushing it, but it really hasn't kept up with electronic innovation happening elsewhere."

Looking for a new direction, Momin invited Val Jeanty to jam with him while he was in residency at Brooklyn's Pioneer Works. The two, who were already friends, clicked musically. Their first album as Turning Jewels Into Water, Map of Absences, was released in 2019.

Jeanty "was the first person that I met who was channeling electronics with this spiritual vibe," Momin says. "And I'd never really experienced that. I'd only heard experimental electronics like blips and screech, or very much four-on-the floor techno in New York. So it was incredible to hear this historical, organic rootedness, and have it still be all digital."

Jeanty started drumming with her family in Haiti during Vodou religious rituals. "You can think of it like church music, but in a different culture," she told me. "The drums are very important; it's like the heartbeat. Each rhythmic pattern is dedicated to a specific ritual."

For Jeanty, raised with drumming as part of religious festivals, all music is a spiritual practice. "In our culture, there's no separation between what we do and the music. It's all one. It's all a prayer. It feels for me like a spiritual practice, whether I'm listening to classical music, whether I'm listening to John Coltrane. It's the same thing."

Working with Momin has been exciting, Jeanty says, because "in the Indian culture, the music is very spiritual. So, we have that connection instantly. And he's also very progressive pushing it as far as using triggers, using Ableton Live. That's the stuff that I love. It's just great to have similar aspirations as far as keeping connected to the culture but working with electronic instruments."

One of the album's most ambitious mixtures of traditional and electronic music is "Crushed Petals and Stones Fall On My Drum." The track features South African percussionist and musician Mpho Molikeng, who plays a range of African instruments, including the lesiba (a mouth-resonated bow), and the mamokhorong (a kind of single-stringed violin). On the collaboration between Molikeng, Momin and Jeanty, electronics and indigenous instruments drone, thump and shake around each other as Molikeng chants, and it's virtually impossible to tell the analog from the digital. Here and there, meatspace and binary realm stomp and change places in a joyous dance or trance. And then they get up and do it again on a remix by Shanghai producer Laughing Ears, who ads a vivid club-ready techno sheen. From Haiti to India to South Africa to Shanghai, the petals fall everywhere, nowhere, and on all the spots in between.

"Swirl in the Waters," is another collaboration, this time with Washington, D.C.-based Iranian singer Kamyar Arsani, who plays the daf, a wide drum, and fronts the punk band Time is Fire. "I've been trying to get people involved in the project, who can again span different worlds and can do different things," Momin says, and, sure enough, on "Swirl in the Waters" Arsani moves seamlessly from spooky post-punk intonation to ululating Middle Eastern chant. "I used to be a goth when I was a high-school teen," Momin laughs, "and this track has that dark energy."

The album's title track, "Our Reflection Adorned by Newly Formed Stars" is a tribute to the Siddis, a group of Indians of East African origin who are believed to have come to India in the 600s AD. Momin says he was not aware of the Siddis while growing up. Their history is not commonly taught in much of India, a fact which Momin attributes to anti-Blackness. But, Momin says, "they have been here in India for a long time, and they came in not as slaves, which is really important to know. It's one of on the first instances of Africans ruling a non-African population."

The video for the song, designed by Art Jones, includes historical Siddi images, and a dancer rotoscoped in angular blocks of color, so they seem to pulse from future to past and back again. "It's capturing the spirit of the Siddis and the dancers and the movement. It's an imaginary timeline of what would have happened, if they had never lost their grandeur, and were still regal. It's creating awareness of the Siddis and their plight."

A track about the Siddis, and their mix of African and Indian culture and art, fits naturally on an album by a duo from the African and Indian diasporas, creating music steeped in where they're from, where they are and the journeying between the two. A tribute to the Siddi was initially Momin's idea, Jeanty says, but it made sense to her. "We're all connected. Especially right now with all this separation and division, I think it's important for us to know that we all belong to one thing, to one mother."

Work on the album began before the coronavirus made travel impossible, but the collaborators had to finish it in isolation, sending files back and forth. Jeanty acknowledged that the conditions were not ideal. "There's something spiritual about being in the same space at the same time," she said. "The virus is disconnecting us more, so it was a little bit more challenging than if we were together." The disconnection and the need to focus made the recording process "a little bit more intense. I do feel like there were some really potent moments that I couldn't get if this COVID thing wasn't happening," she laughed.

Our Reflection…is an album about bridging distances, that didn't seem bridgeable by music, boat or byte. "We want to just showcase the idea that, hey, look, we're still doing all this stuff, where we're bringing all these rhythmic and melodic and other practices from our folkloric traditions, but we're doing it in this new environment," Momin says. That new environment is the whole world, and some newly formed stars as well.

Noise Experimentalist Evicshen Talks First LP 'Hair Birth,' Crafting Xenomorph Face Masks & More

Grammys Newsletter

Jamie Grace

Jamie Grace

Photo: Leon Bennett/Getty Images

News

Jamie Grace On Her Uplifting Song "Marching On," Life With Tourette's Syndrome And The Transformative Power Of Gospel And Contemporary Christian Music

Facebook Twitter Email
The GRAMMY-nominated singer-songwriter talks about the personal journey and universal message behind her inspiring track and how she's advocating for the Tourette's community
Susan L. Hornik
GRAMMYs
Aug 8, 2020 - 5:00 am

Jamie Grace strives to be a beacon of hope for young people who struggle with Tourette's syndrome (TS). Diagnosed with the debilitating disease when she was just 11, the GRAMMY-nominated singer-songwriter creates contemporary Christian music fueled by empowering lyrics inspired by, but not limited to, her condition, as heard on her recent song, "Marching On."

The song carries a message about the importance of resilience in the face of adversity. Its uplifting lyrics unify those who suffer from TS while celebrating their uniqueness: "We are warriors / We are beautiful / Even with our scars / We march on / 'Cause we are fighters," she sings in the chorus. 

While the song grew from her personal experience with living with TS, its underlying theme of positivity is universal, Grace says.

"I intentionally avoided talking about Tourette syndrome in the lyrics ... I wanted people to hear this song and immediately think about something they have faced, but have chosen to continue to press through, whatever that may be," she tells GRAMMY.com.

As an advocate for the TS community, Grace has been vocal about her condition throughout her career. She's actively worked with the Tourette Association Of America (TAA) for the past 10 years. During Tourette Syndrome Awareness Month, which ran from May 15–June 15, she joined the organization for a livestream performance of "Marching On" and worked with the nonprofit on National Advocacy Day in March.

"We are proud to have Jamie as a partner, raising awareness and fostering social acceptance for Tourette' Syndrome, which impacts an estimated 1 million Americans," Amanda Talty, CEO and president of TAA, says. "'Marching On' is an anthem for people in the Tourette community; they are diverse and talented and bring incredible gifts to the world like Jamie!"

Released in May, "Marching On" has since taken a new meaning in the wake of the nationwide protests in response to the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black U.S. citizens by police. Grace, who's faced racism throughout her life and career, has embraced the song's second life. 

"Now when I sing 'Marching On,' I am reminded of my culture ... the beauty in the color of my skin ... and the many Black men and women who are fighting every day to continue marching on."

GRAMMY.com spoke with Jamie Grace about the personal journey and universal message behind "Marching On" and the healing power of gospel and contemporary Christian music.

You released your song, "Marching On," in May, but it resonates even more so now.

As a songwriter, you never know how people will interpret the songs that you write, even if they are very specifically about something that happened in your life. However, it's rare that I write a song about one thing and once it's released, it begins to take on a new meaning for me. In the last few months, I have shared more than I have before when it comes to my experiences as a Black woman in America. I did lose some followers on social media who oppose the idea of speaking out. But more than anything, I have been privileged to be a part of seeing perspectives shift and eyes opened. 

Over the years, I have faced racism in many of the churches where I was booked to sing, and I have dealt with the daily microaggressions as both an entertainer and in social settings. These experiences have been pushed aside or shot down by many [of my] peers and some of my audience, but I am seeing a shift toward humility and a willingness to listen that I am grateful for.

Even so, the last thing I want is for stories of racism to become emotional bait that do not call for self-evaluation, intentional education and, ultimately, action. And as Black people, though often faced with the struggle, we are many years post action, as resilience is simply a part of who we are. So now when I sing "Marching On," I am reminded of my culture ... the beauty in the color of my skin ... and the many Black men and women who are fighting every day to continue marching on.

Tell me about the inspiration behind the song.

I never want to be seen as a victim. While I want people to be empathetic toward what I go through on a daily basis with Tourette Syndrome, I want my resilience to speak louder than my pain. My friends and I saw Billie Eillish perform at the [2020] GRAMMY Awards. When someone complimented her voice, I casually said, "There's something about us … " alluding to the fact that when you face adversity in your life, resilience is almost an obvious sequel.

I finished "Marching On" just weeks before flying to [Washington] D.C. with the Tourette Association for National Advocacy Day in March, spending intentional time thinking about and praying for kids, teens and adults with TS. Many of us share our stories publicly, but if you stop for a moment and hear about our Tourette, we simply hope that you will stick around and hear the rest of the story, and how in spite of our challenges, we are marching on.

What makes the song so relatable?

I intentionally avoided talking about Tourette syndrome in the lyrics. I did mention a "tic" in the lyrics, but even then, most people have had or known someone who has had a temporary eye twitch or nervous tic. I wanted people to hear this song and immediately think about something they have faced, but have chosen to continue to press through, whatever that may be. 

We have all experienced something in our lives that we cannot control—whether it's our health, family dynamic, the result of a test, job application, loss of a job or even losing a loved one. There is "a time to weep and a time to laugh ... a time to mourn and a time to dance … " [Ecclesiastes 3:4] and I wanted this song to be a bridge of those moments that we all inevitably face.

You recorded your tics and implemented them into the song, with your tics themselves becoming instruments. How did that feel? What does that sound like?

At 28, my tics are vastly different than they were when I was a teenager. When I was growing up, there was a list of 10-12 physical and vocal tics that weren't very easy to disguise, so it was pretty obvious that I had Tourette's. Even so, I would often suppress them, which I shouldn't have, to attempt to present myself as "normal" to my peers. But my tics would always find a way to show up.

As an adult, my tics range from blinking my eyes to hitting my upper chest to making "ah!" and "uh!" sounds to my arms and legs bending repeatedly. Most days, I may not twitch a lot, but when I do, it's pretty obvious. The list of the subtle and bold ways Tourette presents itself in my speech and movements [is quite long], so recording it for a song felt more natural than suppressing it.

Some people with Tourette have explained it like a sneeze. You can hold it in as much as you'd like, but eventually it's going to show back up, and maybe even more intense than it would've been the first time. So pressing "record" and letting those walls fall down felt like pure freedom. Then, as a musician and nerd, I enjoyed chopping up the sounds and making them into music.

Read: Want To Support Protesters And Black Lives Matter Groups? Here's How

What do you think about what is happening in our country right now?

Growing up as a little Black girl in Georgia who rode horses, wore boots, dreamt of playing guitar but also loved hip-hop and smooth jazz, I am not oblivious to what it means to be different and to be treated differently because of it. I have experienced racism since I was a child, and I have heard the many stories of my parents, grandparents and others. While I continue to grieve the injustices that Black men and women face, I am grateful that things are being brought to light.

I do believe that there is hope for our future—I must. I try my hardest to do my part in sharing music that is honest and joyful, in sharing my story in hopes of providing understanding for those whose eyes are just now being opened. And I try to shed light on the activists who are on the front lines of the fight for justice and the calls to action they so graciously share.

The gospel music featured during the George Floyd memorial in June was so soothing. Can you talk more about the spiritual side of gospel music? Do you think the genre can cross over into mainstream audiences?

Historically, music has been a crucial part of recovery and rejoicing for Black people and people of color. I remember being a little girl and my mom playing Mahalia Jackson throughout the house and making sure that my sister and I knew about Negro spirituals. These songs, while full of hope and joy, were oftentimes written out of places of absolute despair ...

George Floyd did not deserve to be treated the way he was treated and certainly did not deserve to be killed. As I heard "Amazing Grace" at his funeral and later in the service, seeing people get up and clap and sing along to "Every Praise," I realized that the world is seeing who we genuinely are. 

As a people, we have been victimized and brutalized, but we will not allow our voices to be silenced. Whether singing about not turning around when faced with gas-masked injustice or about the grace we still find to face yet another day in the midst of tragedy, we will always sing. But know that our voices don't end when the song does. Our lyrics are a representation of the depths of who we are, and the message in our words is a call to action for us all to create and advocate for significant change.

How have you overcome the challenges of having Tourette's while being a singer-songwriter?

I realized that music was therapeutic for me when I was really young, even though "therapeutic" wasn't yet a part of my everyday vocabulary. It always brought me so much joy to sing songs with my mom in church or to dance in the living room to jazz with my dad or listen to rock music that my older sister, Morgan, loved, though I wasn't positive I was cool enough!

Shortly after my diagnosis, our grandaddy brought over a drum set and a guitar for Morgan and I. He wanted to bring a little bit of joy into our day, but he sparked something in us that, years later, still remains. Our dad is also a drummer, and both our mom and granny love to sing. I remember the entire family staying up way too late, making up new songs night after night.

The physical act of playing music is a literal antidote for my tics. The choice of choosing songs with lyrics that encourage and empower subconsciously start the work of building me up emotionally. 

I am grateful for my therapist, my doctors and my family, of course, but being a singer-songwriter has been one of the greatest parts of having Tourette. Because even though I have a complex condition that often causes me physical and emotional distress, it always pushes me to be creative and find a release that I always enjoy.

How resilient did you have to be when you were growing up?

Fortunately, my family is the greatest support system I could have asked for. I had to learn to bounce back and recover from bullying and the everyday stress of having a neurological condition. However, I always had a safe place at home. I was provided with love, support and understanding, which took some of the pressure off of me to be resilient. If I needed to cry for what seemed like a long time, I could, because their strength was always something I could depend on.

Even so, I didn't realize until adulthood that I had to grow up a lot faster than most of my peers. There was a time when my medication was affecting my heart, so I was put on a heart monitor. Learning how to jump very gently on a trampoline so as to not mess up a heart monitor was a casual lesson for me in middle school. 

Spending nights in the hospital because my tics had caused physical damage was "normal," and my tics being mocked was a part of my life almost every time I was around kids and teens. When you grow up with a medical condition, your mental health is largely dependent on your ability to face and experience excruciating pain and disappointment, yet still find the strength to press on. I am so grateful for a family that provided comfort in my life, allowing me to find that strength.

Do you ever want to perform other kinds of music?

I've always felt privileged to be able to incorporate all styles of music into the kind of music that I make, especially now as I've been producing my music for a few years. I'm definitely a Christian, and I love singing about my journey as someone who truly loves God. And for me, that includes singing about everyday life experiences.

Within the genre of gospel music, there are so many different styles. I grew up on mostly faith-based lyrics, and most people think that means I don't know much about music. But within gospel, there is hip-hop, country, soul, contemporary and so much more.

I play the banjo, and recently did a singer-songwriter-style project with my sister called "Show Love." I also love hip-hop, and I recently shared a single called "Dream Big." One of my favorite things about my faith is that God is leading me through every aspect of my life. So whether it's a song about my husband ("90's Kids") or a song about my relationship with God ("Wonderful"), to me, it is gospel music because it's a part of a story that is so beautiful, I know that it must be bigger than me.

What's next for you?

I will continue to raise awareness by helping the Tourette Association Of America, and I'm releasing music every month for the rest of 2020, including an EP in October that will be released alongside my book, "Finding Quiet." Most people, whether you have Tourette or not, face some kind of anxiety or anxiousness throughout life. The book is about my journey to quieting my mind in our anxious world. The EP features songs that I have written during this journey.

Robert Randolph Returns To Gospel Roots On 'Brighter Days,' Talks Stevie Wonder's Genius, Basketball & More

Grammys Newsletter

GRAMMYs

Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion

"WAP"/ YouTube 

News

Cardi B And Megan Thee Stallion Deliver A Juicy Collaboration With "WAP"

Facebook Twitter Email
The song is Cardi B's first collaboration with Megan Thee Stallion, and their sexually empowered lyrics leave nothing to the imagination
Jennifer Velez
GRAMMYs
Aug 7, 2020 - 2:42 pm

Cardi B has released her first song in nine months and has tapped in Megan Thee Stallion for the juiciest collaboration yet—pun intended. 

"WAP" is a sexy song showing off how proud the "Money" rapper is of her vaginal lubrication. Short for "Wet A** P**sy," the song is Cardi B's first collaboration with Megan Thee Stallion—and their sexually empowered lyrics leave nothing to the imagination.

"Bring a bucket and a mop for this wet-a** pussy/ Give me everything you got for this wet-a** p**sy," Cardi B raps. 

In the past, the rapper has expressed on social media how she feels judged for her sensual vocals, particularly when it comes to lyrics about her lady part. 

"People will be saying don't like hoes and they don't like that p**sy talk. People love it. People love it. They love it," she said in a recent interview with New Music Daily on Apple Music.

Cardi B insists while some people may judge her for her lack of PG content, they like to listen to it: "There's different rappers that rap about those things that you all want to hear. There are conscious rappers. But you all not going to them. So you can't be mad."

"WAP" shows the rapper undoubtedly sticking to her guns. The just-as-sexy video, featuring both rappers walking around a house full of sensual decor in skin-tight, eye-catching outfits that serve non-stop curves, set out to not only celebrate sexual liberation but highlight female empowerment. To do so, the rapper invited special guests including Spanish singer Rosalia, who appears in a latex matador-inspired jumpsuit, and model/rapper/influencer Rubi Rose. 

"I wanted a lot of different females, not just female rappers. I wanted different... A lot of different people," Cardi said about her vision. "And y'all going to see it on the music video as well, from models to influencers and everything. And I really wanted the video to be very sexy, very clean, very nice, very cut." 

During her conversation with Apple, the Latinx artist said a months-long pause on music can be seen as a negative thing these days.

"When you put out music in nine months, people on social media will make you feel like you're doing something bad or you went away," Cardi B said. 

The new song will be featured on her forthcoming album and follow-up to Invasion of Privacy. The rapper said she wanted to work on more music but the current times have her feeling a certain way.

"This whole f**king Coronavirus, shit. It's just really f**ks with things and how you want to move. Like even when I had a song, it just, I was like, damn, like I don't want to put my next song with a f**king Corona video in my backyard," she shared. "I want to f**king be able to f**king perform my song. Like that's what I want to do. I don't know when this shit happen."

Roc Nation Will Launch New Music, Entertainment And Sports School At Brooklyn’s Long Island University