Keri Hilson visits the ESSENCE office to talk about new music, her career and more.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00I'm thankful for the break because I grew in a lot of positive, beautiful ways as a human, as a woman, as a daughter, as a sister, as a friend.
00:11I grew, I learned so much, and I became a lot of the things that I always wanted to become internally and externally.
00:21I cultivated a lot of relationships that needed cultivating.
00:26So yeah, I can't look back at it, even though it was kind of painstaking.
00:30At times, I can't look back at it and regret it because I know all the beauty that came with my time away.
00:35What's up, guys? It's your girl, Ms. Capri, baby.
00:45I think the biggest truth I've covered was truth itself.
00:49Is understanding and respecting truth, which also begets authenticity and being centered and grounded in truth itself.
01:05For yourself, for others, that has such a ripple effect outward that that truth was just the red pill.
01:17It's how we accept things.
01:19It's how we grow.
01:22It's how we become self-aware.
01:26It's how we learn what love is.
01:29It's how we, you know, truth itself is the red pill.
01:33If you hear the song and you are of a certain age or generation, you would definitely understand why Method Man is on that particular song.
01:43Um, I couldn't have it any other way.
01:47I mean, initially it is not, right?
01:52So you're going to stop right over here?
01:53It is absolutely, um, something that as the record progressed, um, it's produced by Danger, co-written by myself and Teron Thomas, um, of Rock City.
02:05And, um, it's just, it's special in a certain kind of urban New York way, sonically.
02:15Uh, but I also think of it as kind of tribal also, um, and a little bit of like Maroon 5 feeling to it in, in the approach of the top line, which is the lyric and melody of like the hook particularly I'm talking about right now.
02:32So it has a lot of things, but like, it also had this like New York gritty, grimy sense, kind of Wu-Tang feeling to it.
02:41So I was like, yeah, it's, it's gotta be Method Man.
02:43That's how he came about.
02:45And he, it was a resounding and quick yes from him, um, when I did reach out and I was really pleased, really proud to have him on my record.
02:55I think that R&B has taken on a lot of different, a lot more shades.
03:01It's really colorful now.
03:04Um, like the spectrum has widened and the songs to me that are nostalgic.
03:12Um, are the ones that I love the most, you know, with all the colors I can appreciate.
03:19I even paint with different new colors on this project as well myself, but scream is one that, that does remind me of like kind of classic or like early 2000s R&B.
03:32Um, so yeah, I mean, I can't say that it's like important to do, but I can say that I love a certain era of R&B and I love when I get a chance to, um, you know, give my take on that era.
03:48I wasn't out in the early 2000s.
03:50I mean, kind of, yeah, you know what I mean?
03:55So yeah.
03:56Um, I would say mid nineties, early 2000s, but you know, Jodeci and Usher and like certain records that, that were happening.
04:06I think, um, yeah, I'm really proud.
04:09I'm really excited sometimes to me, one night stand.
04:12It's like kind of in the same vein as one night stand scream is to me.
04:16Um, there's some like Jodeci isms.
04:18There's some like T-bots or TLC isms.
04:21There's some, um, like I said, Usher, uh, it's just, there's, there's a certain era that, that, that it reminds me of.
04:33Um, love that record, wrote that, co-wrote that with, co-wrote that with Tiffany Fred.
04:39I'm not who I was when I signed a contract as an early 20 something year old.
04:44Um, I think I was just hit 20 around that time when I first signed.
04:49Um, also, uh, personal things, you know what I mean?
04:55Like I had some growing to do.
04:56I'd been in the industry, uh, performing from 14.
05:00And when I took a break, I was nearing 30, I think maybe 28 or nine.
05:09And, um, that was already 15 years of like putting my all into this industry.
05:16And I just kind of didn't feel like I knew myself.
05:18There were things I wanted to learn and experience and, and, and know about to even write about it.
05:24You know what I mean?
05:24I'm, I'm an explorer, I'm a sag, I'm an adventurer, I'm an explorer.
05:29I love psychology, but I also want to understand things from a real empathetic point, not from a perceived empathetic point.
05:38So I wanted to feel, I wanted to experience and grow and learn and love and do all the things that normal people do.
05:45Um, I had deprived myself of doing that.
05:47I just pushed myself into the industry, um, really young, uh, in a group and then songwriting and then now performing and other stuff later.
05:58But I just, uh, it was really necessary to grow as a human.
06:04Yeah.
06:04And as a woman, if I had to name three things that I learned about myself in the 15 years, I learned that, um,
06:12I learned that I don't think like most people, um, I'm not, I guess what you would consider the status quo thinker, like the average.
06:38I'm not an average, I don't have an average way of thinking.
06:43I don't relate to an average, the average person.
06:46Um, so I, I'm not saying I'm better than anyone or superior.
06:50That's not what I'm saying.
06:52I'm saying I think differently.
06:54And I now, and probably just simply because my experience from young has been different.
07:01You know, we all have lived different experiences.
07:03Um, but as I'm looking out into the world and I'm hearing and I'm having conversations as a human, I'm, I'm realizing like, oh, okay.
07:10I just respectfully disagree with that.
07:14Uh, you know, so that's one.
07:16Um, two, I learned, I gained a really spiritual side of myself.
07:23I gained knowledge and tools and wherewithal, um, through journaling, through spiritual retreats, through, um, a lot of other things, methods, tools that have helped me understand.
07:37Like, I'm a really spiritual person.
07:40Um, I don't know that I would have considered myself that 15 years ago.
07:44Um, I learned, oh, I, I learned how to fight for my peace.
07:55I learned boundaries.
07:57I learned how to follow my intuition.
08:00I learned the importance of that.
08:02I learned, um, you know, how to protect myself and, and my, my surroundings, my environment, which is inside too.
08:11As a multi-hyphenate, uh, creative being individual, um, the advice I would give would actually be, and this is something I spoke about with Method Man during the session that we had for a song on my album called Search In.
08:31And we were talking about how great it is to be able to do many things and, and like, if something isn't working out, you could fall back and, you know, or pick up another paintbrush and use that for a while.
08:50But we talked about the importance, and I'm, I'm glad you said, like, because I'm a multi-hyphenate, I can say, and because he is, he can say, and he did say, he's like, man, you know what it takes to do anything really good.
09:03And so what is required, what we realize is that what is required of us to be great at any of them is to put the others down for a second.
09:14Um, and that may not be what fans want.
09:18And that's kind of what we realize is, you know, in our conversations, like, yeah, they, they hate that, but that's what it, that's what's required of us to be great at, say, acting or say music.
09:28Like, I can't, you can, I try to merge the worlds and I do, I do it well, but when I'm in it, I'm in it.
09:34I'm not focused or thinking and I can't, and don't ask me to do that.
09:37I won't.
09:38I know what's required of me to give my all at this.
09:43And that's the advice I would give.
09:47Focus, focus fully.
09:49Um, don't split your focus knowing that you're multi-talented because you'll, you'll end up being a jack of trade and master of none.
09:54You have to give the time it takes to be a master at that craft when you're doing that.