Chasing the Dream: The Case Story

You were discovered by Russell Simmons who brought you into your own solo career when he signed you to Def Jam Records. How did you line up the chance to meet with him?

Well, I was working on demos and still trying to get heard. I had a young lady named Misha Hilton who was managing me at the time and she was a friend of mine from High School. She got Faith Evans to write a song for me on my demo, and she sat down, she was friends with Kimora. She took the song that Faith wrote called "Don't Be Afraid" and let Russell hear it and he loved it. He said he was going to sign me and that's exactly what happened.

Was that song on any of your albums?

Yea, it was actually on the first album.

Moving more towards your actual music you put out, I was hoping to talk more about some of the collaborations you've done. One of my favorite songs is the track you did called "Best Man I Can Be." You did it with Ginuwine, R.L., and Tyrese. How did this song get set-up?

Actually, the label set it up. The soundtrack was being done and I hadn't even heard about the movie, but they were saying that there was a song that they were doing and they wanted to put a bunch of guys together to do it. So they asked me was I interested and I said yea.

I had actually never even heard the song, and we flew up to Minneapolis to Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and when I got to the studio, they played it. Told me my part and I went in and sang my part and we all just knocked it out.

So what was it like working alongside an R&B super collaboration with all of these big names all coming together?

It was cool but actually, I was more excited about the chance to work with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, cause they're like legendary. So that's what I was most excited about. The other guys that were on the song, I had known them for some time already, we were all cool and friends.

What was it like working with the two of them?

It was crazy, because it's like you go in the studio and you look on the walls and I mean there are hundreds of plaques. You got Janet Jackson, Human League, all the old school songs and you got The Time. It's just tons of plaques and you realize all the people they've worked with. You sit there like wow, I'm actually in here working with them. It was cool, I got to learn a lot from them, especially from Terry, about song writing and just about being in the music business and having longevity. You know, things to do, things not to do, handling the money. We sat and talked for hours, so it was definitely a good experience for me.

Looking at another collaboration you did, a user on the site mentioned being a big fan of your song "Faded Pictures" and based on its success, I guess a lot of people were fans of it. Do you have any plans of working with Joe ever again?

Yea, if the right situation comes up.

Actually, I performed at a ski trip about a month ago and I performed on a Saturday night and Joe performed that Friday night. So nobody knew I was coming so I got on stage and we did "Faded Pictures" that night. I hadn't seen him in a long time so that was fun.

So are you back touring again or was that just a chance occasion?

I never did stop doing shows here and there but right now I'm in the midst of a promo tour so I've been going hard for like the past month and will be for the next few months.

Looking at a few collaborations, one that everyone seems to talk about is your brief work on Ja Rule's "Livin It Up," and then you also did with Ghostface, "Shoulda Known Better." What's it like working with rap artists on these songs?

I mean it's cool as long as you have the right song and you have chemistry. Like I've always been a Ghostface fan, so it was something that I was trying to get done for a while. So when I actually got the song, "Shoulda Known Better," I did it and said "You know, he'd probably sound perfect on here. So we called him up, sent it to him, he liked it, he knocked it out.

Same thing with Ja. Me and Ja was good friends, we'd hang out a lot. He would come to my sessions to hang out, I would go to his sessions. And actually, me and Ja had done a song together before he got his deal. He was just in the process of working on his first album and we did a song together called "Thug Life." But we couldn't get the sample cleared so we were never able to use it.

Ever since then, we were saying we were gonna do something, and we were out in LA hanging out one week and he said he thought he had a song that we could do and that we could definitely get the sample cleared. So we went in and knocked it up. Actually did that song the day before I recorded "Missing You."

After Case's third album, Open Letter, was a big success in 2001, Case went relatively quiet. Today, he's back.

So after your third album "Open Letter," it was a big success, it went gold. You went quiet after that for seven years. I understand you were working on another album at Def Jam that fell through and had a nearly fatal gun shot wound. So what was it like during this time? Did you have any fears that your career might be over?

Nah actually, I didn't have any fears that it would be over, I was just wondering what my next move was going to be. I never really had the thought that it was going to be over, I just didn't know exactly what my next move should be or what it was going to be. That was probably the most trying thing.

Looking at the industry today, a lot of the visitors to the site were curious to get your own opinion about the way things are right now. How do you feel about the new autotune technology? You know, T-Pain uses it a lot, how do you stand on that?

I think that the way T-Pain uses it is dope. But the problem I have with it is just because T-Pain does it, doesn't mean that everybody else should go run around doing it. Because it's like everything starts to sound alike. You know, I think everybody should stay in their own lane.

He does that, he does a good job with it, let him do that and let everybody else do what they do. The people that benefit from that are the fans. I'm a big T-Pain fan and I definitely love what he's doing with it but I just don't like the fact that everybody feels like they have to run out and do it because he's doing it.

Taking that and then what we talked about earlier with the way groups have faded out, you've been around for a while, how do you feel the R&B industry has changed since you came into it?

I think that for a while here, there's not been so much of a focus on making "real songs" and "real melodies." It's just been kinda copycat, everybody's doing what everybody else is doing and just everybody trying to be rappers instead of just making real R&B music. And I think that's the one thing that's missing right now.

So one last question in this part. At R&B Haven we have a tradition where we like to ask artists what their favorite songs are from the 90s. So in your opinion, what are some great 90s R&B songs?

Aw man there's a ton of em. I like the whole first Jodeci album, I like the whole What's the 411 album. "So Anxious" by Ginuwine I love. "Where I Wanna Be" - Donell Jones I love. "This Is Your Day" - 112, which actually, Al did that song. Yea there was a lot of stuff in the 90s that I liked.

Looking at today's industry, are there any songs today that you really enjoy?

Well, I love Jasmine Sullivan and I love T-Pain. Those two, I love.

Alright well that's a wrap, Case. Thanks a lot, it's great to have you back in the industry. I look forward to your new album, The Rose Experience, it's coming out March 24th. Thanks for stopping by man.

Alright, thank you.

Keep up to date with Case at Case's MySpace and Case's Twitter.