There is only one white artist who is so deeply adored by the black community – that is the iconic legend of R&B/soul Teena Marie.
With classic songs like “Out on a Limb,” “Portuguese Love” and the legendary duet with Rick James “Fire & Desire”, Teena Marie is equally a part of soul music as Stevie Wonder, Patti LaBelle, Marvin Gaye and so many others. In addition, she is so rooted in the black community that she is one of few white women who can date black men and black women are not perturbed — now that is transcending racial lines!
Teena recently released her thirteenth solo album Sapphire, which debuted at number 24 on the Billboard 200 and number 3 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. Also, her song “Ooo Wee,” reached number eight on both the Urban AC and R&B Adult radio charts. After over twenty-five years in the industry Teena Marie is still making hit songs and maintaining her rightful place as a soul legend. In an in-depth interview with Rockacandy.com Teena Marie discusses her new album, current R&B music and the late-great Rick James.
R.C.: I love the new album! Tell me about your writing and musical process for Sapphire.
Teena: Well, actually this album was real deep to me because I had lost Rick and I was very depressed about that … within two months of his death, I was writing songs. Actually it felt like he was writing some of them with me, like he was right there, waking me up in the middle of the night and saying, "Get up and write my songs!" You know … and I think you can really hear Rick’s influence in "Make It Hot For You" and the ballad "You Blow Me Away." It was really special for me because I was in so much pain it was my way of writing myself out of my pain. I still felt it, but it wasn’t on me like it probably would’ve been if I didn’t have a God given gift to be able to feel the things that I feel and put them into song and touch people. It’s a blessing.
R.C.: This is your second album with Cash Money - what made you decide to originally sign with them?
Teena: My first record was almost finished and they wanted me to come to New Orleans … I was like, Teena Marie and Cash Money - that’s different. You know, no disrespect, but we’re totally opposite. I flew down and they were like, we’re going to start a classic label, we love the record and we want to put it out just the way it is. We don’t really work together all that much, I pretty much do my own thing and I turn it in.
R.C.: I love your tribute to Hurricane Katrina on the song “Resilient (Sapphire)” — there have been many tribute songs to Katrina, but honestly yours is one of the bests I’ve heard. I was really moved!
Teena: Oh, thank you! I really felt it with Cash Money being down there. I was actually one of the last flights to get out, I was looking for property down there - I was looking for a home that weekend. I have a lot of extended family there because I have Creole family here in L.A. that I call my family — and with my Cash Money guys I could really, really feel what was going on. Also, it was really wonderful to be able to sing that with my daughter. It is just an amazing joy to be able to sing harmony with your child. When I prayed for her to be able to sing with me when I was pregnant I was like, I don’t care if she has an amazing voice God, but if she could just sing harmony that would be so cool. I think because my prayer was so pure that God gave her an amazing gift as well.
R.C.: She can definitely sing!
Teena: Thank you!
R.C.: There are no white artists who have had the kind of appeal among African-Americans like you have. Why do you think you’ve always been so embraced by the black community?
Teena: My thoughts are so sincere that they come through musically. I have a white mother that gave birth to me and I have black mother that nurtured me as well, who was always there by my side and explained a lot things to me that I didn’t understand as a young girl. I’m just very true to who I am and the music that I love — I think people can feel that sincerity. I think they know that it’s not contrived; this is the way that I live. I think God wanted me to bring people together through music and you shouldn’t have to be a certain color to sing a certain type of music. A lot of people thought that Minnie Riperton was white because some of her songs were more pop, folk kind of stuff. She was very soulful in her own right, granted she wasn’t the kind of soul that Aretha Franklin had, but in everybody’s individual spirit we all have our own soul that transcends through what we do. Some of the greatest opera singers in the world have been black women. They can’t sing opera because their black? That’s ridiculous … I think music is colorless and I think that’s what people hear when they listen to me.
R.C.: I don’t know how true this is but I heard on your first album Wild & Peaceful in 1979 your face wasn’t on the cover because Motown didn’t want people to know you weren’t black — is there any truth to that?
Teena: Yeah that is true; it was Mr. Gordy’s idea. That whole little formula had been going on in black music where they would put white people on the cover of black records. He felt he wanted the music to be able to speak for itself; he wanted people to hear the music before they could derive any conclusions about me and who I was. I don’t even know if that would’ve affected anything at this point, but I think it was a really good idea. It worked and we’ll never know if it would’ve worked the other way — I think it would’ve, I think the sincerity would’ve shown through. It was a great idea that he did that to let the music play for itself.
R.C.: You have amazing lung power. Where did you learn to sustain that kind of power — did you have vocal training, were you raised in the church — where did that voice come from?
Teena: I was raised in Catholic Church and I had a couple of nuns who worked with me as a young girl and taught me a lot of religious music — in the Catholic Church they are more operatic. I didn’t have a lot of extensive vocal training - it was pretty natural. I had a lot of great people who worked with me, but I never really studied a lot. I was going to go to Europe — I met this famous Italian opera coach, I was 16, she had heard me sing and she wanted to take me to Europe to study opera, but I didn’t want to go. I wanted to sing what I sing.
R.C.: You’re voice is still amazingly strong after all these years; it sounds like that same voice I heard when I was a kid. How do you maintain your voice?
Teena: I’m just not abusive – I’m not abusive to myself. There’s nothing I’ve really done other than I take care of myself and I don’t abuse my blessing … we all do a lil’ bit of something every now and then, but I pretty much have seen through being around other people that you can hurt yourself and lose a lot of what you are and what God gives you if you abuse yourself.
R.C.: R&B has changed a lot since you first started - it’s gotten more sexual and provocative. What is your take on current R&B music?
Teena: Well, it’s starting to get better. For awhile it seemed really overtly sexual, over the top - I like people like Marvin Gaye who can be very sexy, but very classy about what they say and can find a different way to say certain things. I think there’s some really great R&B music out there now - the stuff Mary is doing is great, I love Keisha Cole’s record "Love" - that is probably my favorite song right now. I just don’t like when people run all over the darn place! (laughs) Every single line has to be a run, it’s like — sing the song and run later! It got a little boring for quite awhile and you couldn’t tell different singers apart, especially the guy singers. It’s starting to change - it seems like it’s going back in the direction that it used to be. I’m happy about that - if I would’ve put out my record six or seven years ago it probably wouldn’t have worked.
R.C.: Who were your influences?
Teena: Earth, Wind & Fire, The Emotions, Chaka Khan, Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, Led Zeppelin, Santana, Donny Hathaway and Minnie Riperton - all the greats, all the classic stuff that people still listen to today.
R.C.: Besides this album, what is your favorite album?
Teena: Irons in the Fire probably, the third one. This album isn’t my favorite - I like it, it’s really good, but it’s not my favorite … Irons in the Fire is my favorite.
R.C.: What’s your fondest memory of Rick James?
Teena: Right off the top of my head he had a song named “Sapphire,” never came out - completely different song than mine. It’s a song about black women and their contributions historically. It starts off with Nefertiti and Cleopatra, it talks about Oprah — it’s really a beautiful song, I hope it comes out one day. It’s one of my favorite Rick James songs. A little before he passed I was telling him, “Rick , I wish this would come out so people could hear this other side from you, people need to hear this and it’s so positive, we need this right now.” He would always look at me too and he would say, "Well, it’s hard for you too Teena because your Sapphire." That’s how I got the album title.
R.C.: Well, thank you so much - it is just such an honor to interview you.
Teena: Thank you!
R.C.: I love your music and I’ve listened to it all my life. It’s amazing and you’re amazing so I wish you the best of luck with your CD.
Teena: Have you heard it?
R.C.: I have it in front of me!
Teena: What did you like - did you like the Smokey Robinson song?
R.C.: I love the Smokey song. I really love the second half like "Romantica," "You Blow Me Away" is amazing. I just think you’re so talented and to interview you, a legend, it just inspires me.
Thank you - I appreciate you.
Tags: Clay Cane, Interviews
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