Big Bub, New & Improved

Where is the real talent? I respect all R&B artists, but in my day you had to be able to sing and dance. Now you can have a little bit of voice, and just dance all over the world. And you are the future of R&B! That’s unfair.

(Big Bub…going strong)

Ladies, sit back in your bubble bath with vanilla votive candles placed around the tub, and inhale the Egyptian musk incense as it invites your senses to come alive. Make sure you have your favorite chocolate in hand and then press play on your music player, because Big Bub is back and he promises to return the sexy and love to R&B.      

Remember Big Bub? Well if not, he was a member of the 80’s R&B quartet, Today, and from the group’s inception in the music industry they sold out shows nationally and overseas. Everyone who knew good music loved Today and before the internet was invented, adoring female fans placed posters of the foursome all over their bedroom walls, folders and lockers.     

Looking casual and comfortable in his lime-green polo shirt, demin shorts and white sneakers, Big Bub sat down with Black Star News at a rustic Indian restaurant in mid-town Manhattan to reminisce about his twenty-year career in the music industry, and his new album, Tug of War which features twenty tracks of conscious Gospel and R&B music. Tug of War uniquely blends Gospel and R&B together and also highlights the dualism “save Christians� endure in cohabiting their religion and external cultural influences. Between bites of his flakey salacious lamb samosas, Big Bub opened up about his sentiments about today’s mundane R&B music, women in the industry, and his struggle to preserve his Christianity. 

BSN: For many years you were in the backstage of the music industry, making hits for other R&B artists, why did you decide to return to the limelight?
BB: Because of the fans, they always wanted to hear me out. [My fans] want the real R&B and entertainment to come back.

BSN: Why did you decide to combine gospel and R&B music?
BB: I was looking towards changing my life, and giving my life to god, but there were a few things that I need to clean up, so I just didn’t want to come out with a strictly Gospel album, because I would be lying to myself. I came with the concept of Tug of a War, which is living in the flesh on the R&B side, and dying in the flesh on the Gospel side. [In the album] I am pouring my heart out and making people aware about my feelings for god.

BSN: Does the music industry respect R&B artists that sing about god?
BB: They should. The industry respects it, but they don’t have [the love for god] in their hearts. Some people get caught up in their wealth, and forget who put them their.

BSN: Have your fans been receptive to the new genre of music that you are presenting in combining R&B and Gospel?
BB: Yes, they respect it, because they know that I am coming from the heart. [My music] is still urban, it’s still Bub, but the lyrical content is different.

BSN: Talk about the emotional process it took to develop this album?
BB:  It took me seven days to do the gospel side of the album, [because] god spoke to me, and the songs just came. [But making the R&B side] it took at least two years. [Because] I didn’t want to play with god and I had to tell it like it is.

BSN: You started in the music industry when you were seventeen years old, how was it being a teenager with a record contract?
BB: Everything was a blur, I wasn’t prepared for it, and I didn’t know the business. But, it was fun, knowing that you have twenty thousands fan screaming at you.

BSN: Do you have any advice for young artists who are starting out in the business?
BB: Stay focused, stick with your plan and please believe in god, he has to come first and foremost.

BSN: What do you think about how the music industry continues to pump out untalented artists?
BB: Where is the real talent? I respect all R&B artists, but in my day you had to be able to sing and dance. Now you can have a little bit of voice, and just dance all over the world. And you are the future of R&B! That’s unfair.

BSN: What do you want the public to know about the new Big BUB album?
BB: I just want them to know, that I didn’t lose [anything], and I will be representing R&B to the fullest.

BSN: You have created Drake Web Music Group with your partner Russell Webster, why did you decide to create a record label?
BB: There is a need for good artists. We are trying to get different varieties of music to soothe the soul. It’s not always about Hip-Hop, and we want to [create a record label] that will let people love again through music.

BSN: Will your record label be different from the rest?
BB: [At Drake Web Music Group] we are going to work on artist development, because [right now] all the rapper and R&B cats look the same. Some artist just come to the [the music industry] to just be an artist. You can’t do that, there’s more than jumping up on stage and the video. 

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