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Truth Hurts - "Truthfully Speaking"

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serv-on:
man this shit is gonna be the bomb, that single is tight as fuck, i hope quik is all over the album. Something to bump in my ride.

Murrow:
USA Today 4/04/02

http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/2002/2002-04-05-cover-truth.htm

This Dre protégée speaks truthfully

By Steve Jones, USA TODAY

Truth Hurts knows a little bit about surviving in the music business. Dr. Dre's newest protégée has been doing it her whole career.

Her soulful album, Truthfully Speaking, features the brutally honest lyrics that mirror her personality and inspired Dre to give her her name. It's an attitude she says comes from years of setbacks, false starts and picking herself up and moving on.

"I've been around the world and back, and it's something that kind of happens when you deal with the hardcore reality of things," she says.

Her toughness helped her cope with being on the road for months with the Up in Smoke tour, featuring Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Xzibit and Ice Cube. She'd known Dre since the mid-'90s, when she was a staff songwriter at his Aftermath Records, and she stayed in contact even after he purged the roster. He used her on the song F- You Too, an unreleased female response to a song on 1999's Dr. Dre 2001 album, and was impressed enough that he offered to produce her solo album.

On her first single, Addictive, her hypnotic vocals float over a quirky DJ Quik track and present a sound that's not easy to categorize.

"I don't really call it R&B," says the church-trained singer, who also studied classical and opera vocals for eight years. "It's a little edgy, but it does have the same values of old-school R&B in terms of melody and lyric. I just call it bringing some truth to the table."

The St. Louis native has been working to get to this point since childhood. At 13, she did her first gigs at local clubs, fronting her cousin's jazz/blues band after he'd sneaked her in with fake identification. When she graduated from high school, she forfeited a scholarship to study opera at the University of Chicago and took off to Los Angeles, where she and a friend landed a recording deal with Giant Records as hip-hop/R&B duo Shug and Dap. They put out one single before the label folded.

Her songwriting ability saved her, though, and she teamed with Mario Winans to pen tunes for the likes of Monifah, L.V., and Phajja. She also wrote for Eric Benét, Shanice and Ray J before she joined Dr. Dre's camp.

Now it's her turn to move to the forefront, and she's already gotten some exposure from a pair of film roles — a lounge singer in Ali and Snoop's girlfriend in The Wash. But acting is something she plans to keep on the back burner until she can study and become really good at it. What she's good at now is singing, and after all she's been through, she's ready.

"I am a survivor," she says. "And this has been well worth the wait."

Truth Hurts (Shari Watson)    
   
Age: 30

Birthplace: St. Louis.

Single: Addictive, featuring Rakim, is picking up steam at R&B radio.

Album: Truthfully Speaking due June 18.

Style: Blunt, edgy; messages on love and life with a church-fired voice that's been trained in opera and classical music.  

Murrow:
MTV.com:

Shari Watson speaks with the unabashed frankness of a character in one of those Terry McMillan fem-powered novels like "Waiting to Exhale" — hence her stage moniker Truth Hurts.

"I've experienced a lot of lies and bullsh-- with people in the music industry," she said last month at Dr. Dre's Burbank, California, recording studio. "It's not truthful and honest at all. I got to a point where I was fed up with that. When you're an artist you feel like, 'This is the only thing I have,' and you want to push forth. ... Just going through the bullsh-- sometimes makes your art not worth it."

Truth's still a little jaded from her years of toiling in the music industry, but with her debut single, "Addictive," buzzing, maybe all the "nonsense" (she uses that word a lot when describing things she doesn't like) was worth it. Maybe her mentor and good friend Dr. Dre was actually on to something when he convinced her to give it another go on the mic and not just continue to write songs with her former partner Mario Winans (who has since moved on to become P. Diddy's right-hand man in production). She's being talked about in the same breath as singers like Ashanti, Tweet and Sharissa as a potential heir to Mary J. Blige's queen of hip-hop soul crown.  

 
You Hear It First:
Truth Hurts
MTV News RealVideo Report  
"Her album is scary," proclaimed DJ Quik, who knows Truth from back in the day. "I'm sitting up here looking at this Mary J. Blige 'Behind the Music' — it's almost like she's a West Coast Mary. Just like kind of the same [vibe]. I used to tour with Mary, and I see a lot of Mary in Shari. Shari is on some soulful, street sh-- and she ain't no punk broad. She's strong and she's different."

"I think a lot of the music the female artists are putting out right now is kind of bubble-gummish," Dre said. "Not to take anything away from the female artists that are out there. They're doing their thing, but that's their thing. I wanted a singer that can really sing, but do the type of music that my audience is gonna buy. I don't think that's been done so far. It's been done with singers singing on rap records, what have you, making it edgy. But nobody just came for themselves, making an entire edgy R&B album. And I think she did it."

The first sample of her edgy R&B is "Addictive." Quik, who produced the song, passed the beat to his homegirl after trying it out with several rappers and misfiring.

"I was like, 'Man, I've never heard anything like this,' " Truth recalled. "I took it to Dre that day, and he was like, 'This changes the game right here. Tell Quik to call my phone right now.' Quik called him, and he was like, 'I love this track. I think it's gonna be her first single.' "

"The song is really simple," Dr. Dre said. "All it is is a drum track, bassline and this Indian girl singing. And it was incredible."

It was about time something came easily for Truth. She had to put up with a lot on her rough ride to the Dr.'s office. She was inspired to sing at age 11 by watching her father, a show promoter, bring talent like the Pointer Sisters and Phyllis Hyman to St. Louis. Her mother wasted no time in making sure her child got to the right start and enrolled Truth in operatic training, which she continued through high school.

"That is the best training you can possibly have," she said. "It gives you the resonance, the depth of singing right."

From there, Truth got started grinding and moved to San Francisco Bay Area to pursue a singing career as Shug of the group Shug & Dap. The duo dropped a single, "Anotha Man," in 1994 but disbanded soon after due to their label, Giant, folding. It also didn't help that Truth had become pregnant with her daughter, whom she now she credits with inspiring her to talk about "real things."

Leaving a shady industry and going into "mommy mode" wasn't a hard decision to make. But a few years ago, Truth, who was earning a living by writing songs, was coerced by Dre to take up singing again.

"When I first met Truth she was writing some songs for an artist we had a couple of years ago," Dre said. "When she came in she had to sing the song down. And I was like, 'I'm feelin' her.' She was kind of crazy."

"Dre appreciated my character from the beginning because I think I walked in with a bottle of white Zinfandel. [I was dressed] in my lounge gear like, 'Lets get it started.' I didn't give a damn who he was, I was like, 'I'm here to write, I'm here to make my paper, gotta take care of my baby. Now what?' He was like, 'I love her, she's cool.'

"I learned everything I need to know from working with Dr. Dre. I love him for being a perfectionist and knowing what it takes to do this sh-- for real. Not just throwing out some nonsense. He's a master at this game."

We'll get to see how few missteps the master and his pupil make on June 18 when Truthfully Speaking is released, peppered with production from Dre, Quik, Hi-Tek, Organized Noise, and Tim and Bob.

Murrow:
SIXSHOT.COM had an opportunity to sit down with Dr. Dre protégé and AFTERMATH recording artists Truth Hurts who's hot single "Addictive" is changing the game.

SIXSHOT: O.K., the name, “Truth Hurts”, that’s hella original.....where did the name come from?

TRUTH HURTS: From Dre. He named me according to my personality. I say what I mean and mean what I say. I give it straight, no chaser.  

SIXSHOT: The single “Addictive” is bananas...from your ultra-strong vocals that are disturbing, haunting and full, to the breakthrough production by DJ Quik, to Rakim surprising appearance. Where did the idea for “Addictive” come from and how did it come together? Is that what we can expect on the rest of the soon to be released disc “Truthfully Speaking”?

TRUTH HURTS: The idea for addictive came from a bunch of great minds. Quik had the beat for about a year. A lot of artist tried to ride it but couldn’t do it. Quik brought it to me and thought I could take it to the next level. I heard it, thought it was great, and immediately took it to Dre. As soon as he heard it, Dre said, “This changes the game”, and called Quik up and told him he wanted it.  

As far as the lyrics go, Dre and I sat for ten hours…ten…trying to write a song for the beat and couldn’t do it. Then, Dre called Static from the group Playa. Static came over, and it took him ten minutes to put the song together. And he did it all off the top of his head. He never wrote anything down.  

SIXSHOT: How would you describe your singing style?

TRUTH HURTS: It’s a mixture of different kinds of music: Classical, Old School Jazz, & Soul. To be a great singer you have to study. I think I’ve done that. I’ve studied a lot. I have a lot of passion, love, and respect for music. I’ve taken things from different kinds of music and made them my own.  

SIXSHOT: How did you hook up with Dr. Dre?

TRUTH HURTS: We hooked up about five or six years ago. It was a tough time for me. I was going through a bad marriage. I met Dre through a friend who was affiliated with Bad Boy. I auditioned and joined a group Dre put together. After things didn’t work out with that group, I joined Aftermath as a songwriter.  

SIXSHOT: What’s your favorite track on your soon-to-be released disc?

TRUTH HURTS: Well there are 15 tracks on it. That’s a tough one. The song “Next to Me”, is one of my favorites. Another song, “Bullshit”, written by one of my album co-writers and good friends, Taura Stinson-Jackson, is a favorite of mine. All my songs are from the heart and very passionate. So its hard for me to choose.  

SIXSHOT: Who has influenced you and your singing style?  

TRUTH HURTS: As far as songwriting goes, I use my life experiences when I write. As far as singing, I love Jazz. Etta James and Phyllis Hyman have been big influences. Wow, there are so many, Stevie Wonder, Teena Marie, Patti LaBelle.  

SIXSHOT: How do you write your songs? What process do you go through as a songwriter preparing to write?

TRUTH HURTS: I would describe my songwriting style as PASSIONATE. I write about what I go through. Everything is passionate for me. When I write everything is with concern and from the heart…and I shoot straight from the hip.  

SIXSHOT: When you hit the studio what kind of mood are you in? How do you approach the work you have to do in the booth?

TRUTH HURTS: I strive for excellence and really push to make it to that next level. I really want to give all I have. And Dre is with me. He’s waiting to hear the best best vocals from me, and I expect it too.  

SIXSHOT: Who would you like to work with?

TRUTH HURTS: Teena Marie is at the top of my list. I love Portuguese Love.  

SIXSHOT: Do you guest star on any tracks?  

TRUTH HURTS: I’m on Rakim’s album, I did a song for Eminem’s album but I’m not sure if its going to make it on there. I’ll also be on Dre’s album, DETOX.  

SIXSHOT: Are you touring?  

TRUTH HURTS: We’re trying to get it started right now. I’d really like to do an Aftermath Family Tour. I’d love to do that. I love working with family, and that’s what Aftermath is.  

SIXSHOT: When does the CD drop?

TRUTH HURTS: Early June.  

Murrow:
The "Addictive Remix" has leaked.  Dre produced it and Rakim has two verses.

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