Credit: Francis Hills
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Before Keke Wyatt became synonymous with drama for allegedly assaulting her then husband/manager on Christmas Day, 2001, the vocal powerhouse emerged from obscurity on Avant’s chart-topping 2000 duet, “My First Love.” Six years later, the Kentucky native has returned to bless her loyalists with what they’ve been missing. Essence.com caught up with Wyatt to find out how she deals with being labeled a stabber, what she’s learned about the industry, and why she isn't affected by the N-word.
Essence.com: You’ve been gone too long. Why has it been six years since your debut album?
Keke Wyatt: Honestly, I was ready to give up. My attitude was, Screw music, the whole industry, people suck; they’re wack, they scheme, they’re snakes. And then Randy (Jackson of American Idol, who is one of the people responsible for my career) was like, “Hol’ on dawg.”
Essence.com: Well, thankfully he talked you out of giving up singing. What turned you off about the industry?
K.W.: I sold more than half a million records on my first album and I wasn’t even supposed to have an album out, so I was like a guinea pig.
Essence.com: In what sense do you feel you were a guinea pig?
K.W.: I was 16 years old when I recorded “My First Love” with Avant, and 18 when the single was released. It wasn’t even supposed to be a single, but when the record industry heard it, everybody went ballistic and it stayed in the Top 10 on several leading R&B charts. Afterward, they thought, If she helped Avant sell records, then let’s see what she can do on her own. They gave me two weeks to record an entire album. That ain’t no guinea pig to you? I was a pimp dummy.
Essence.com: So you had no time to prepare as a new artist?
K.W.: Well, giving me two weeks to record an entire album was nothing new for me because I’ve been recording since I was 10 years old. I used to do a bunch of gospel stuff when I was a lil’ girl. When I was like 14 and 15 I was getting paid $1,500 to demo songs for labels and they were getting placed. I wrote the majority of one hit song. Of course, I didn’t get the credit for it because I was a little girl, but it’s cool.
Essence.com: Did you ever try to take legal action?
K.W.: No. The people who stole it from me know who they are. I’m not one for putting people’s business out on Front Street like, "I did that." At the end of the day that person knows and I know, so it’s going to eat them not me. What I will say is, the artist isn’t the one that did it, but the people who were in charge of me demoing the song are responsible.
Essence.com: So you weren’t disappointed at all?
K.W.: Yeah, I cried to my mother and my daddy. I was just a lil’ kid. Things happen in your life for a reason; they make you grow up. My mother was like, “Don’t worry about that honey. It ain’t that deep because at the end of the day you are going to be a star.” And I’ll be daggone if my mom wasn’t right, so I don’t care about that anymore. Because I’m not the little girl that they stole from, I’m Keke Wyatt and I have people wanting to talk to me and know about my life and that’s hot. I feel that everyone has his or her time to shine. Just look at Usher, he put out four albums before he became a big star. This is only my second album. It isn’t like I’ve had four or five albums and now I’m washed up and I can’t really do nothing.
Essence.com: Do you think that your success is largely based on your collaborations with Avant?
K.W.: Well, like I said, my first album sold more than half a million copies, so people were listening to more than just “My First Love,” which wasn’t even on my album. Sometimes I regret starting off my career with someone else, but at the same time, things happen for a reason. My time is coming and I love Avant and I’ll never change the way I feel about our musical chemistry, but sometimes it gets annoying to be “the girl who sang with Avant.” But I’m good because this new album is going to tell everyone who the hell Keke Wyatt is.
Essence.com: What can we expect from Ghetto Rose?
K.W.: I hate when people say, “Oh, my album is dope girl, it’s 'da bomb'” and you hear it and you’re thinking, Oh, okay, that was a lie. But, no, seriously, this album is really hot! It has so much of me in it and so many things I’ve gone through in my life that I’m trying to tell girls and guys about. I’m like, I’ve been through a lot in my life and before I let you make the same stupid mistakes I did, let me tell you how not to do that because there’s a right way to handle certain situations.
Essence.com: What are some of the topics you broach?
K.W.: Well, there’s a lot of love, a lot of make up, a lot of break up, because you do that a lot in relationships. In the beginning of a relationship it’s all fly and fresh and then you find out something and you’re thinking, Aw hell. I swear, every single relationship I’ve been in, after a year I find out something that surprises me.
Essence.com: Well, the first six months of any union is known as the honeymoon, it’s afterward that you have to keep your eyes open.
K.W.: Yes, you literally go into the relationship so dumb and blind. Once you find out the real stuff you’re like, Do I really love him enough to want to go through that?
Essence.com: Would you say that’s what happened between you and your husband when you were arraigned for stabbing him?
K.W.: I started my life as a woman at 18. I got married, had a family, and things didn’t quite work out the way I thought they would. You have a fight and crap happens. It made Keke Wyatt really big; my album was in the Top 5. And, of course, it got broadcast to the world, not just in the States but also in Japan, Korea and Europe. Man, everywhere I go—I’ve been touring over all those countries—people approach me and say, “You stabbed your husband?” I’m like, “Wow, so you guys heard it all the way over here in London, huh?” And women would tell me, “Ohmigod we prayed for you.” I’m like, Ohmigod (laughs). But I mean, I think it’s cool. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a bad thing to know about me, but at least you know me. Obviously, I was something to somebody, because, they ain’t gonna put your business all over the world if they don’t care.
Essence.com: Do you ever feel awkward when people ask you about the incident?
K.W.: No because I feel like I chose this lifestyle and people are going to be in your business. I did something stupid and it got broadcast all over the world and I have to take it. Some people come up to me and say, “Girl I would have done the same thing, so I don’t blame you!” But I don’t promote violence so don’t do what I did.
Essence.com: How did the community receive you after the incident?
K.W.: Where I live now, a lot of people in my community don’t know my business. They know who I am, but they don’t dig deep. My old neighborhood, I don’t even really go there anymore. When everything happened, I moved immediately. There were helicopters over my house, people stealing stuff out of the yard….
Essence.com: What? What were they looking for—mementos or the knife?
K.W.: (Laughs) For flags, whatever they could find. You know, it’s a country town. I was like, Time to go! I had people coming up to me in the grocery store, and people still do, asking me questions, and I’m like, “What magazine or TV show are you with?” But like I said you have to be built for this industry. Personally, I can’t see myself with a nine-to-five job and stay-at-home life.
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