Keith Mitchell: From R&B to Gospel

Keith recently sat down with R&B Haven for a two-part interview about his experience in After 7. In the second part of the interview, Keith discusses his work as a manager of white female rapper Sarai, and his recent experience as a gospel singer. He also provides an insiders look on Mariah Carey's rebirth in R&B and gives his input on why he thinks she's been able to regain her success. To find out more about Keith's latest activity, be sure to check out Keith Mitchell's Myspace

Interview with Keith Mitchell of After 7

I know in 2001 you started your own management group, 1.5 Management. So how is it working as a manager versus being a singer?

I have to say, it has its rewards in that you get to channel some of your success onto another artist and help to guide them past some of the hurdles and pitfalls that lie out there. Cause the music industry is like a quicksand and you step in the wrong spot and it could be over in a minute. I mean there are so many people out there pulling and tugging on you. So it gave me an opportunity to share some of what I learned as an artist with artists.

I managed Sarai which is really probably the first white female rapper who got signed by a major label. And I signed her over to Sony onto the Epic label. Soon after Sarai got signed, there's a bunch of internal turmoil within the company and she ended up in the pop department. So it's hard for the pop department to really understand hip-hop.

So she just came into the label at a very diverse time. It was very difficult for them to try to get it right. You know a white girl rapping who don't look like she got this voice coming out of her but she's got mad skills. And she can flow, she can freelance, just at the drop of a dime throw it out at you.

So she was legit but the presentation could have probably been a little different. The roll out wasn't totally fine-tuned because the company was in a flux when leadership is in the midst of being changed a lot of issues come up. And so most artists are only as good as the leadership that brings them in, so when your leadership gets changed over, it's gonna have effect on a new artist coming in when you haven't sold any records. And so Sarai got caught up in that. I mean it was just a fiasco of one event after the other that led to her not really having a big splash.

She was number one in Chicago B96 maybe five, six weeks into the record release with no video. I mean that's crazy. B96 is a huge station in Chicago, they fell in love with her, and typically, they carry enough weight with those crossover stations that everyone jumps on the record. Which is what was happening, but radio stations don't like to be out front with records that aren't supported by video. And by the time the label was able to pull a video together, and get it to MTV, you got MTV playing games. You woulda thought that MTV woulda jumped all over that and put their stamp on it and they dragged their feet with it. For her to have garnered that type of radio support but the label and MTV couldn't get their acts together and her project suffered.

But it was very fun working with her and taking her around the country and introducing her to thousands and thousands of fans. She even toured with 50 Cent and in some markets, she had a top two record right behind 50 Cent. So she was getting airplay, but she wasn't getting exposure so the whole impact of her project hitting the marketplace was compromised by not having the visual.

Now it sounds like both within your work as a manager and within your work as a singer, you've seen this conflict between artists and the major labels. I spoke recently with J.Poww of the group UNV and he talked a lot about that as well and mentioned moving towards the independent scene. Have you found that yourself that you're moving in that direction?

Well as far as what I'm doing on my gospel project, that's the way I would have to lean is toward the independent because what has happened with the major labels is that they've put artist development on the street. So you gotta really build a story with your music and with who you are on the street before you can really get recognition from a major. Because majors don't spend money developing you, they'll just put money behind something that's already happened. Or they'll stay with their old roster and try to build that. They're not gonna take too many chances on new artistry the way they did back in the 70s and 80s.

So the independent route right now is the most viable route for anyone trying to break into the business, which is hook up with the local showdog records. They've got some money and a little bit of connections locally. Try to get you recorded and try to distribute that record to all the local clubs and the local DJs and try to get them to play your record and maybe shoot a little real inexpensive video and put together a DVD package and send that around. So it's all grassroots until you build a buzz and with the invention of what they do now with YouTube, iTunes and a couple of the other vehicles that allow you to distribute your music online.

That's the way you're able to build a story about selling something new, marketing something new, and if it gets hot, one of the majors may find you and offer the people that represent you a deal to come on board. So the independent way pretty much is the way to get found.

You mentioned you're working on a new gospel album, can you give us a little more information on that?

Well I mean, if your listeners and viewers go to myspace.com/keithmichell08 you'll be able to listen to about five or six songs that I wrote and perform on. The producers that I use are some lifetime friends, Tony Benton, a young guy by the name of Pete Wright. They afforded me to sit with some of their tracks and I started allowing God to speak through my hand because I never considered myself to be a songwriter, but I think once you allow God to reveal himself in your life and listen to him and let him guide you, you're able to do some things that you never knew you could do. And though I never considered myself a songwriter, I think I did a great job with the songs that are represented on my web site.

I have completely recorded approximately 25 songs, haven't secured any independent record deal but I am interested in something like that. But I haven't procured any particular opportunity. I have been on a television show in the Atlanta area, a local TV show where they brought me on for a couple of different times. I came on the show and performed several of the songs and did extensive interviews. I'm still pursuing putting together the final touches on the project, still recording a few songs, but I do plan to try and get something released here in the 2009 year.