After 20 years in the business, Maxwell has seen and done a lot of things. One thing he hadn’t done, though, was meet Wendy Williams. But the two finally met on today’s episode of The Wendy Williams Show.
It was a chat lovefest between the two. “This is my first time looking at you all close up and everything. You’re a handsome man,” gushed Williams. “You’re a beautiful woman,” Maxwell replied.
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When Williams asked about his old signature Afro, Maxwell quippped, “I divorced my hair, I guess. No, you know what, I just wanted to not be a haircut. I wanted to be music. I wanted to not be a gimmick and a caricature of myself.”
Maxwell also talked about his legacy in the music game, two decades after his classic debut Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite. “I’ve heard so many incredible stories about people [conceiving] children to my songs,” he said. “You have to live up to the legacy of the music that you’ve created.”
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As for his seven-year hiatus between BLACKsummers’night and its follow-up, blackSUMMERS’night—due July 1, the day he headlines ESSENCE Festival in New Orleans—Maxwell says, “The music is something that God has allowed me to have. And I don’t connect my ego with it. So that’s why when I go away I get to reacclimate myself to being the guy that can write a song.”
Don’t miss Maxwell and a star-studded lineup at this year’s ESSENCE Festival. Buy your tickets now!