The Floacist feat. Musiq - Forever
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Fundz O' Plenty
Members Posts: 10,382 ✭✭✭
New Floacist... Song Yes, Look.... Yikes...
Your thoughts.....?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmKAyM2xqPAYour thoughts.....?
Comments
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Even though they are individually talented, and possibly could be successful as solo artist . Their sound together is > than their sound apart. Good track though
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Decent. I never heard of The Floacist before, so I've just been introduced to her. She looks like the member of Floetry.
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Decent. I never heard of The Floacist before, so I've just been introduced to her. She looks like the member of Floetry.
That's because she is a member of Floetry. She just got a new look. -
not really feelin the track too musch like the beat tho nice n simple... i think musiq really holds this track together adn kills it for her
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Even though they are individually talented, and possibly could be successful as solo artist . Their sound together is > than their sound apart. Good track though
X Fundz o' Plenty
Musiq did his thing on this track... Nice addition to enhance the track. -
Wow, LOL, now I recognize this is her. When did she start her solo career??freepostking wrote: »That's because she is a member of Floetry. She just got a new look. -
Wow, LOL, now I recognize this is her. When did she start her solo career??
I'm assuming after Floetry split.... -
I guess so too. Trying to find out more info about her solo album and whatnot.Fundz O' Plenty wrote: »I'm assuming after Floetry split....
I'm feeling this song a lot now. Makes you feel so comfortable. -
Here's an interview with Vibe:
http://www.vibe.com/content/natalie-floacist-talks-new-album-neo-soul-possibility-floetry-reunion
'The Floacist' Talks New Album, Neo Soul & Possibility Of Floetry Reunion
VIBE.COM By: GangStarr Girl Posted 9-30-2010 7:29 pm
Together as Floetry, Natalie Stewart and Marsha Ambrosius burst on to the music scene in the mid-90s as coveted songwriters. The duo penned hits for Michael Jackson, Bilal, Jill Scott and more. But by the turn of the millennium, they debuted their own style of music, which they describe as “floetic” (also the name of their debut album). Their sound was described as neo-soul but there was no denying that their unique interplay between spoken word and soulful singing blended with jazz was something that the masses craved (they have the Grammy nominations to prove it).
Although their sophomore album, 2005’s Flo’Ology, reached top-3 upon release, Floetry split the following year. Natalie, the floacist, was more low key than her singing counterpart who still toured and made cameo appearances but after four years of taking a break from the spotlight she’s gearing up for her solo debut, Floetic Soul, dropping November 9. Here, she opens up to VIBE about the Floetry split, her relationship with Marsha and why she still embraces the term neo soul. ⎯Starrene Rhett
VIBE: How was it collaborating with Musiq on your first single, "Forever"?
Natalie Stewart: Musiq was one of the first people I met when Marsha and I had come to America in 2000 and I’m a complete fan of what he does. I think not enough of us neo soul artists collaborate together and I’ve really been looking forward to working with him. I made the song out in L.A. and at the end of recording it I was sitting down listening to it and I could just hear Musiq’s energy. It was like his spirit was in the space and I felt I just needed to get him on there so I gave him a call and he said he would love to get on there. It was a very quick process but I suppose, over a long time due. So the song is about companionship, union and just how over the years in love we can do more than just be in love we can be supportive of each other.
What have you been up to all these years since your departure from Floetry? Were you touring?
If I had been touring you would have known about it [laughs]. I’ve been being creative. I did a few different shows over a few years but more so on the spoken word side of things. But ultimately I’ve been cultivating my craft, recording, trying out different energy. I’ve been building my music company. I’ve been learning and growing as a person. Living. I’ve been away from my husband and my son; I’ve been living away for so long. I came home, I got married, I’ve lived a beautiful life. I’ve always been creative. Art is not an "it’s time to make an album" kind of thing for me. It’s a day in and day out thing. It’s not only what everybody hears. I have journals upon journals of books and sketching and writing all different types of things. I’ve pretty much just been chilling and gearing up to have something new and fresh to say. It’s not always about putting albums out. Sometimes you have to⎯in order for the content of the record to come together you may have to live a bit to have something to say. So in a whole, personally, that’s what I’ve been doing since the end of Floetry, and just trying to understand and formulate in my mind how I can continue the floetic ethos, the energy, floetic delivery, musical intent and just music that makes you feel good.
Talk about your music company.
I’ve created my own production house. It’s Free Sum Music. It’s a creative outlet. I work in collaboration with a few producers that I have and I produce myself. My business partner is also my husband. We all produce over here. We create the sound. We’ve executively produced this project and we work with other people and get other sounds out as well. So it’s a nice production outlet. It’s quite similar to A Touch of Jazz.
What was the reason behind Floetry's split?
It’s not as razzmatazz as I supposed it could seem. I left Floetry in 2006 in December. That was when the last show had occurred. Marsha had signed to Aftermath earlier in 2006 and Marsha and management were more so pursuing a gangster rap creative outlet and that’s just not what I came in for. So I wanted to stay in the direction of Floetry, which is poetic delivery with musical intent but that’s not musical intent. Creatively the sounds were different and I fired management and that was when we stopped working together with them. -
Do you think you guys would ever come back together?
That’s the interesting question. I don’t think it’s a hard one. I think we would both have to be making the same type of music. It’s more so in the music, in the energy that’s put out. The thought of Floetry is always open to the members of Floetry. Absolutely. Floetry itself is something that has to be adhered to exactly what it is, anyway. Floetry. Sound. Energy. Creation. Floetry is a genre within the genre of neo soul.
Are you still friends?
I think if Marsha and I were still friends, no one would be having to find out whether or not Floetry will ever get back together again. To be quite fair, I think that’s a fair statement. Marsha’s my sister, though. It’s not a case of whether or not she’s my friend. I love her and we’ve done amazing things together. I think from YouTube and jumping on the Internet, that’s how I found out where everything is just by looking on the Internet and hearing. And I don’t think it would be fair to say that. I feel like if I said that I would just be saying that because it’s an interview. And just to be fair and to be pure, she’s my sister. But we haven’t been in communication for quite a while.
Going back to you using the term “neo soul,” some people consider you a femcee but is it that simple? How do you define yourself?
I’m the floacist [laughs]. Initially, when I was creating floetry I had this little paragraph which was, “My flow assists her song to stretch,” it was something we did when it came to introducing us in this little piece that I used to bust when we were coming on to the stage so it’s like flo-acist. Like I said, it’s poetic delivery with musical intent as the base and I’m a poet. I’m also an actress. I’m a performance poet. So my pen is where my music derives from. That’s how I came into music. I wasn’t trying to do music. I was on the performance circuit. I was doing open mics and inviting my friend, Marsha, down and us traveling and doing open mics in The States turned into producers asking us to come to the studio. And it’s really completely the work of a spoken word artist working to see how one can broaden the audience of spoken word with musical content.
With regards to you embracing “neo soul,” there’s a lot of people who say that the term is outdated and that that period in music is over, so where does your music fit in?
It’s a funny thing. I think all of us in neo soul obviously for quite a few of us it’s been about ten years ago since our records dropped and again, I don’t think we fully understood the term neo soul. I think we felt a bit branded and awkward but ultimately what I think that means is we are the new soul artists of today. And there’s a certain ethos and to some degree responsibility. I don’t mean that as in ball and chain but that there’s something in the picture that the music does and say for instance, like, in the time of Motown when it may have been that African American artists were trying to break into the mainstream of music, which was, it was a white music base. Now mainstream music is hip-hop and I think it’s a different kind of pressure, which is the soul artists wanting to feel relevant to the mainstream audience and there might be a bit of an identity crisis that goes along with that but I’m very proud of being part of the new soul, neo soul movement.
I feel very proud to be identified with a certain group of artistry people that I admire surrounding me whether that be a Jill Scott, and Erykah Badu, Musiq SoulChild, Raheem Devaughn, even as far out to who I deem the Godmother of neo soul, Sade. So I’m very proud of the people that are within this realm. I didn’t used to understand the importance of being able to identify yourself. If you’re looking for my music you can go to the neo soul section. That’s what happened with Floetry, there was always this talk of wanting to cross over, wanting to do more and I was very content with what Floetry was. It was everything I dreamed of it was everything I wanted it to be. It was perfect to me; the audience; the people. Yeah there were always things to work towards like the first album, there were a couple of songs I would have loved to have done videos to and by the time we got to Flo’ology management was just more trying to get crossover, whatever that means. Because as a poet, Floetry was as crossover as I got on you might as well have called me Rolling Stone. It was everything; it was beautiful, Seven Grammy nominations. It was fantastic. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, it’s a beautiful genre of music.
What else are you working on?
I’m always working on other things. In this time away I’ve been doing a lot of writing. I have books, I have movies, I have different things that I’m working on but I’m also very much right in this moment like, literally, before I got on the phone I was writing my credits and my thank you’s. Right now I’m very focused on this release and the part I play in the journey but yes, there are always other things. I’m working on myself but it’s not just me, me, me, me, me, I’m wanting to share and give some other people opportunities as well. So there are lots of things I’m always thinking about something. I’m married to my business partner and my manager is like my sister so we’re always talking about something new and my husband and I are both poets and actors so there’s always something that’s being spoken about being conjured up.
Any last words?
Neo soul is alive and I’m looking forward to seeing my fans on the road. I miss them very, very much. I feel like I know everyone by name. I miss everybody and I’m looking forward to getting on the road again and sharing.
