Kelly…..still Priceless
Kelly's Drop for Heed
By Marq Melton
A writer. A “preacher’s kid.” A mother. An artist. An activist. But undeniably… Kelly.
“I’m not where I want to be yet, but I definitely like the direction I’m going in.”
Who is Kelly Price?
Her fourth studio (and first gospel) album, This Is Who I Am, blatantly answers this question -- and if you’ve been a fan of Kelly’s and followed her since 1998 on her musical migration, then you know exactly who she is. Or at least you should. With that said, she often finds herself branded by so many labels: a gospel artist, an R&B artist, a church girl. But if you really knew Ms. Price, you’d know that she’s all of these -- and more. She is by no means a one-dimensional artist.
Recently criticized for her seemingly “flip-flop” attitude towards R&B and gospel, she clears the air addressing those who insist that she must “pick a side.”
“All of the subparts of who I am make the whole of who people have decided that they love. That’s very much R&B. It’s very much gospel, as well as jazz and classical.” Kelly affirms that “all of these pieces of me create the Kelly Price that the public sees.”
And what we see is an irrefutably talented artist with a powerful voice. Whether she’s singing gospel, R&B, or covering Barbara Streisand (yes, Kelly wants to one day record some of Ms. Streisand’s work in a potential standards album), fans can’t deny that it is the voice that captivated them twelve years ago. For those who want to put her in a gospel artist box -- or claim that she’s crept out of it -- Price reminds us of the definition of gospel, which simply means “good news”, and she believes that she’s delivered that in her music before she ever recorded her live gospel album.
“There were messages in my music that spoke of real situations that were sometimes harsh but I always find a way…to tie in something positive. My music is good news music no matter what I believe. It’s real life music.”
Does Kelly feel a difference when she sings/writes gospel versus “secular” music? Unless she’s in worship, the answer is no. With an anointing to write music, as she puts it, the spirit that leads her to write is all the same no matter what the genre. When Kelly sits to write, God is always acknowledged first. Her desire is that somebody is helped by it, that somebody is touched by her music. She reveals that this isn’t always the “Jesus message”, because the reality is that life happens to us all and, though it is for Kelly, Jesus isn’t the core for everybody. So the messages must be diverse to touch everybody at their core.
“So whether I said ‘Jesus is God’ or ‘she was a friend of mine’, if that’s what you’ve lived you’re going to feel it because it comes from the same place inside…It would frighten me if I had to acknowledge that [what compels her to write] is something other than what I know it to be -- the gift came from God.”
Even if you haven’t quite figured out exactly who Kelly Price is, she knows. And she’s “Tired”! The first single from her upcoming fifth studio project, simply titled Kelly, is the preamble to one of the best pieces of work she’s ever done, she says, partly because the album most closely mirrors her debut, Soul of a Woman. Chronicling her life and experiences over the past twelve years, this album has brought her full circle and captures the considerable changes she’s withstood. She reflects on this evolution as a mother grasping that, “I started out as a solo artist with a little boy who is now a man.” Liberating herself from the stigmas of being a “church girl” and a “big girl” she says that every day, “I press to be better tomorrow than I am today.” Her music reflects this and, as far as Kelly being some of her best work, she says, “Trust me on this one.”
We certainly will. If anyone knows about making good music, it’s Kelly Price. It’s all she’s ever known. Born in a family of all self-taught musicians, a musical career path was destined and inevitable. As a young child, she didn’t realize that she could sing, or that it was something she was actually good at; it was just a way of life for her. It wasn’t until she started school that she understood that this musical gift was something special. As she learned songs with the other children in class, it was clear that she was unique.
“I didn’t realize so much that I could sing, as I realized that everybody else doesn’t.”
Just like all children, Kelly learned from her environment and everything around her was music. Did she foster this same environment for her own children? She speaks very emotionally about her first prematurely born son. “When he was living in this incubator, I would stand outside…because I couldn’t even hold him and sing to him.” She sang to him constantly, even while inside the womb. Not restricting him to just her voice, she made him a tape of musicians from Donny Hathaway to the Clark Sisters. It’s no surprise that he grew up inclined to music. Kelly’s younger daughter followed suit and writes music as well. Does mom want her children to have a career in music like she does? She’s not forcing it.
“I wish I could get them to want to [pursue music] as much as I want them to do it but I know eventually they will…when you have something that powerful, it’s a part of who you’re supposed to be. Even if it’s not the thing they do, it will be a part of what they do.”
Another title that Kelly holds proudly is that of activist. A fervent supporter of March of Dimes and breast cancer awareness, Kelly is adamant about supporting causes that not only is she affected by, but that have a global affect. With a mother and mother-in-law both diagnosed with breast cancer, Kelly has a personal connection to the disease and the search for its cure.
“I want to see a cure for breast cancer; I want to see a cure for all cancer. I want to wrap a bus…and I’m going to go around the county and go into neighborhoods where women are not getting their mammograms done. We’re going to sing and give mammograms.”
March of Dimes touches her just as personally as she talks about her experience as the mother of baby born two months premature. “When I had him [her son] at 19 years old I didn’t have great insurance and I couldn’t afford to take him to the doctors that he needed to go see to be treated. God gave me a miracle.” It is this gratefulness that compels her to support the improvement of babies’ health.
Her commitment to women and children spawned her desire to also become a part of Broadway in the Hood, an organization that uses the arts to rescue underprivileged and underrepresented youth from the streets and give them the outlet and the means to be successful. Kelly was drawn to this effort remembering her upbringing in the projects in a single-family home; watching her mother, even though she didn’t have the resources, keep a roof over their heads. Sometimes no food, sometimes no lights or hot water but still surviving, it’s this experience that caused Kelly to jump on board to help get this program the funding it deserves.
In the midst of all of the growing and evolving and outreaching and soul searching, Kelly still finds the time to be excited about and to endorse her new self-titled album slated for an early release the first quarter of 2011. In addition to the gut-wrenching, chart-topping first single “Tired”, the album is comprised of songs that tell Kelly’s story in a more experienced and more convicted way than she has ever told it before. “Not my Daddy” is the second single, featuring Stokely from Mint Condition. She’ll soon begin shooting for both videos.
Look out for Ms. Price on tour to promote the new album, the new look, but still the same priceless Kelly.
