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Tuesday, December 16, 2003
Montell Jordan: Life after Def
Multi-platinum, singer/songwriter/producer Montell Jordan returns with a vengeance with the release of his sixth album, "Life After Def." The album is being released on his own label, The Enterprise, which is being distributed and promoted by KOCH/In The Paint Records.
Born and raised in the notorious South Central section of Los Angeles and a graduate of nearby Pepperdine University, Jordan burst onto the scene in 1995 with his debut album, This Is How We Do It. The set's title track topped Billboard's pop and R&B/hip-hop charts, remaining at No. 1 for seven consecutive weeks.
The album, which bowed at No. 4 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and reached No. 12 on The Billboard 200, has sold more than 1.3 million copies in the U.S. Each of his subsequent albums released in the U.S. appeared in the top-15 on the R&B chart, with 1999's "Get It On ... Tonite" debuting at No. 3.
"I think that my music has evolved," Montell says, looking back on his career. "As I continue to grow and write and progress as an artist, and to live and grow and experience things as a man, as a father, as a husband, I've found more eloquent ways to say things."
The 13 tracks on Life After Def reveal Jordan's diverse talents -- from the club-ready grooves of opening track "Big Man's Back" and first single "Supastar" to ballads such as "Bottom Line" and the devotional closing track, "Yes."
"When you want to feel love, when you want to feel lust, when you want to party, when you want to pray, there are a variety of songs to choose from," he explains. "God has blessed me with a gift... the ability to make different kinds of music."
Jordan describes the material on Life After Def is "very relationship based and very real. When you hear these songs, you're dealing with real circumstances which I think people can identify."
Jordan split from Def Soul and Def Jam, where he had spent his entire career, following differences that prevented his 2000 album, "Montell Jordan," from being released in the U.S. (the album was released internationally). He and his wife, longtime manager Kristin Hudson, decided to take things into their own hands and establish The Enterprise/tbc, Inc.
While he admits that titling the new disc Life After Def has raised some eyebrows, Jordan insists he's not trying to provoke his former label. "I don't want it to be looked at as a jab," he says. "It's just that Montell has been boxed in for so long with other artists underneath a logo that this is reintroducing me without the logo."
The album was written and produced by JorJa Black -- a trio comprised of Jordan, James Earl Jones ("Not the James Earl Jones," Montell notes with a chuckle) and Percell Black Holmes.
"To go out and get a song from the Neptunes or Babyface or Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis is a great thing to be able to do," Montell explains. "But to complete an entire project in-house and on your own, with people that you personally want to see strive and achieve and gain from this outing, I think is a more admirable gesture."
Both professional and personal events had a hand in "Questions", which Jordan refers to as "the most personal song on Life After Def.
"I address the record label situation in that song, I address a personal tragedy that I had in my life a little over a year ago. There's a lot of personal things that deliberately went into that song, and in a brief amount of time people get an overview of what I've been through personally in the past two years."
"'Supastar' is one of my favorite songs on the album," he adds. "That is the one that wants to show all the guys how a woman should be treated."
Of "Yes," recorded with Tonex (pronounced toe-nay), he says, "It reaches out not only to those that are very spiritually minded, but to those that don't really have a relationship with God at all, it kind of grabs and tugs at them a little bit... To me it's a way to show that it's cool to have a relationship with God."
And he has nothing but high praise for Tonex. "He is incredible," Montell adds. "He is one of the most talented male vocalists I've ever had the opportunity to work with. His voice opens up heaven for me."
Jordan has a history of producing top hits. He co-wrote and produced Deborah Cox's 1998 smash single "Nobody's Supposed To Be Here," a No. 2 pop hit and the longest running female No. 1 R&B hit (14 consecutive weeks). The song he penned for Sisqo, "Incomplete," was a No. 1 pop hit.
Montell has arranged songs for such superstar artists as Whitney Houston, Lil' Mo and 98 Degrees. His talent is so diverse that he has even worked with smooth jazz mainstay Dave Koz. In his career, he has toured with the likes of Boyz II Men, Mary J. Blige and TLC.
Along with starting a record label, Montell is breaking into acting. He recently took on his first major film role in the Paramount production The Fighting Temptations, which stars Cuba Gooding Jr. and Beyoncé Knowles.
Jordan is heard on several of the songs in the movie, one of which appears on the Fighting Temptations soundtrack. He's among the guests on Angie Stone's "Rain Down," which also features the O'Jays' Eddie Levert Sr. and Walter Williams Sr., Melba Moore, Zane and T-Bone.
Montell is looking forward to more film work in the future. "When you look at artists-turned-actors like Will Smith and Queen Latifah, you realize there are some that get roles and some that are able to move beyond. I'm looking to try to move beyond and it's just a matter of making sure that the right roles are chosen."
Even with a multi-faceted-career, as well as a growing family -- he and Hudson live in Atlanta with their 7-year-old daughter Sydney; they are expecting their second child in September -- Montell is not worried about losing focus on his music.
"There was a time in my life when music came first. It came first before my wife, over church. That was part of the strain of the journey I had to go through," he explains. "So I had to re-prioritize my entire life. I put God first, I put my wife right behind that, I put my family right behind that, and then I put the music."
"As long as I keep those things prioritized, there will always be room for the music. Whenever I get those things out of line and I try to put the work before my family, this is where things begin to crumble, and I don't want to make that mistake."
With such diverse talents and a clear vision of the important things in life, expect to hear good things from Montell Jordan for a long time to come.
(December 16, 2003 issue)
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