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Soul Rebel Q&A Exclusive: Case is Back! Talks T-Pain, Barack and Beyonce
Posted on December 29, 2008 9:25 AM
With 2009 literally around the corner, I'm all amped for the new releases the New Year is set to bring. While I'm curious to see what practiced songwriters like Keri Hilson and Novel will do as new artists, I've also got my eye on old favorites like Bobby Valentino and Case, who both make their returns via February releases. Check out my recent chat with Case who spilled the beans on how he feels about T-Pain, Barack Obama's victory and his own meeting with Beyonce at the altar.
Soul Rebel: So where have you been hiding?
Case: I've been around, I been having a lot of ... well I wouldn't call it bad luck I've been going through a lot of hard times, but going through some good times too. But I'm hear now, I'm blessed and I'm better for it.
SR: What made you decide to come out now doing the independent thing? Was that something you and Blue (manager Michael "Blue" Williams) came up with together?
Case: I've been with Blue since about 2001 when the last album came out. What we were going to do was we were gonna try to go with another major label but we decided not to because we started to see how the game was changing. That was really the main thing for doing it the way we're doing it, independent. We thought we would give it the attention it needed and it deserved.
SR: Why did you decide to name this album The Rose Experience?
Case: It's a couple of things. My alter ego is the black Axl Rose, which is Blaxl Rose. I've got the tattoos and everything. It's me giving everybody their first taste of Blaxl Rose. You've had Case before now this is Blaxl Rose.
SR: What's the difference?
Case: I'm gonna have a little more fun, the same issues but I'm going to talk about it from different angles. Before I had "Happily Ever After," I had "Missing You" I had "Faded Pictures." On this one I have a song called "Can't Believe "which is not your typical breakup song. This song I'm full of shit. We broke up because I played too many games. I'm putting the blame on me. Imma have another song where I have a girl I was friends with we was cool, then we started messing around and her baby father knows...
SR: Uh oh.
Case: Yeah so different angles. How real life is.
SR: So how much of it is based on actual experiences?
Case: It's all real. Most of the things that I've ever written were either things that I was going through or people real close to me. It's always going to have some realism to it.
SR: So who did you work with?
Case: I worked with Mario Winans, Jazz Nixon, Tim & Bob, I did production for the first time on this album. It's something that I wanted to tackle a long time ago I was just gun-shy about it, but this time I was like 'Fuck it.' I did co-production on "Me & You" which was my first one, so that's my baby and "Let Me Down Easy".
SR: To switch gears on you a little bit, where were you when Barack won the election?
Case: When Barack won I was at my house and actually I was in the bathroom and I get ESPN alerts and they sent me an alert with the news and I came out just yelling. Growing up we learned about the civil rights movement and the "I Have A Dream" speech and for all those years it seemed like a speech but that right there is the fruition of it and all I've been thinking about it since was I wish Dr. King or his wife was around to see it. Or that Barack's grandmother was around to see it. I remember when I got nominated for two Grammy's and I remember I wasn't even that happy for me, I was just happy that my mother got to see it.
SR: How do you feel about the current state of music, do you think the other R&B artists are doing a good job?
Case: Who I think is doing the best job is T-Pain because he sticks to the melody which is the most important thing in any song. You don't have to say nothing but the melody is what gets people. And he's always being creative, I definitely love and respect him for that.
The way the game is I kinda like it because it's at that point where you don't need the major labels to do what you got to do. You can go off on your own, you have more options. It's not that whole "slave" thing where it's you mess with us or it's your ass. I definitely like that.
SR: Now I have to ask you whether you feel any pressure to compete with all these young hot new artists, I noticed some promo pics of you with your shirt off and I definitely don't remember you doing that much in the past.
Case: That's cuz I've been in the gym. I don't feel pressure to compete, I never have. I feel everyone should do what they do. I'm a big fan of old music and if you think back to the 70's you had Earth Wind and Fire, you had Stevie Wonder, you had Marvin Gaye, Parliament Funkadelic and they all did different things and they all stuck to what they did well. So my thing is I don't ever want to look at it like I'm competing with anybody. I do what I do and hopefully people appreciate it the same way I love doing it. The shirt off thing was just I been in the gym, I was tired of being a fat boy. I was fat before so I took a page out of LL's book. I was 200 lbs.
SR: If memory serves me correctly you had Beyonce in your video for "Happily Ever After" before she was BEYONCE.
Case: It was '99, right before Destiny's Child's "Bills, Bills, Bills" came out. I am so happy and proud for her because I remember on the set of the video, this was April of '99 and she was like "I wish we could be on tour, and I wish we could be nominated for this and that" and that next single blew up for them in like July and everything we talked about happened. So I'm just so happy and proud. She is such a beautiful person. I have love for her, Matthew, all of them.
SR: What songs should I be looking for on The Rose Experience?
Case: I would say the whole album, but some of my favorites are "Can't Believe," Me & You, "I Can't", "Lovely," which is the first single. Oh and what's the shit everybody loves that I hate.... ? Yeah "Bet You Don't Know Why".
SR: Why do you hate it?
Case: I just do, but remember I hated "Touch Me, Tease Me" and I hated "Missing You" so me hating it is a good thing.
SR: If you could write your own story for what's coming in 2009, what would you write?
Case: More of the same, but it's gonna show a lot more growth and personality than it has in the past.
Case's upcoming album The Rose Experience is due in stores February 10th on Indigo Blue Records/A2M Distribution.
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Rebel, my father recently passed away and im feeling really down. Could u make an uplifting playlist this week, if its not asking much?
Sorry to hear about your loss soulfulone. I'll try and put something together for you. I also have a really special mix I planned to post for Friday.
If she was in the video back in '99. Wouldnt he have been marrying a 15 or 16 year old. yuck.lol