Musiq Soulchild can relate, as he is an artist reborn. On his fifth album, Onmyradio, the neo-soul wunderkind is leaving home, literally and metaphorically. The Philadelphia native recently relocated to Atlanta, and the change in scenery mirrors his change in style. Long heralded for his ability to deliver smooth Stevie Wonder-like songs, Musiq is venturing into new territories, ones with dancefloors and a variety of flavors on the decks. There’s reggae on "iwannabe" with Damian Marley; romantic R&B balladry on "ifuleave" with Mary J. Blige; and up-tempo club-ready tracks like "backagain" and "radio." Musiq hasn’tabandoned his voice—he’s adding to it.
Onmyradio sees you branching out; it sounds like you’re game for a lot of experiences.
Yeah, that’s been one of the challenging things in my career. I haven’t started making the kind of music that I naturally intended to make. All the music that I’ve been making has been suggested by the label, the producers, my managers. It’s basically been my version of pleasing people. I found that it always leaves me creatively frustrated because I’m not doing what I want to do. I’m doing what I think people want me to do. I felt like it’s not fair—not only to me—to allow myself to be boxed in and restricted by certain parameters, but it’s not fair to the audience members because I have a whole lot more to offer. The only way I can do that is if I step out of this perception that people have of me. I’m doing what I can to make the transition as convenient, as efficient and as entertaining as possible. That’s why on this project, you hear a lot of different things. I want to warm you up to the idea that there’s a whole lot more I can do than just a whole bunch of neo-soul songs.
Did you have a hard time convincing your label to let you try new things?
It’s not so much the label. Kevin Liles [ex- President of Def Jam Music Group and current Executive Vice President of Warner Music Group] spearheaded my whole career. He has an idea of the kind of artist that I am. From a business perspective, I sort of understand where he’s coming from. You know, find something that works and just milk it, because that’s just the business. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it; run it ’til the wheels fall off. My whole career I’ve been trying to get him to understand that this… it’s like trying to pitch a gimmick. Some people, it works for them because there isn’t that much [versatility] there, so that’s their support system. As far as I’m concerned, I know that there’s more [to me], but I feel like all of these things are being lost and wasted on trying to contribute to this one idea. But they’re not bad ideas; they’re really, really good ideas.
It’s like you’re blessed and you’re cursed. You deliver spot-on soul songs, so that’s what people expect.
I’m not complaining about it. It’s not that I’m not grateful or that I don’t acknowledge the accomplishments and the fact that it makes people happy, it brings joy to people. That’s ultimately my end-all objective. That’s why I never really battled it. At least at the end of the day, I’m making music that people like, that they enjoy, that they’re willing to invest time and money on. That’s all that matters. Everything else is just personal stuff. However, that personal stuff, it does matter because it affects the way I perform. Lately I feel myself being very, just, distant because everything started to become real redundant. Just boring. I felt bored. Not to disrespect what’s happening, but creatively I’m getting bored and I don’t think that’s fair to my audience for me to be onstage and [affects disinterest] "Ohh-kay, let’s sing ‘Halfcrazy.’ Ohh-kay let’s do… this song." Realistically speaking, you get to a point where you perpetuate that sameness, stuff starts to get stale, at least for an artist like me, and I know that I want to be as fresh as possible. I knew that the only way I could accomplish that was if I just changed it up a little bit.
How do you see your performance changing?
I don’t know. I’m still working that out. I just know that I don’t want to do what I’ve done for the past eight years. I’ll take into account what I’ve done as far as what works, but I’ll just try to do something else so that people spending good money on that ticket will get a really good show.
Do you still plan to launch your own record label?
I’m actually planning on making that official within the next year. Ultimately my plan is to bring good music to people, whatever that means.