Lyfe Jennings has come a long way. At the tender age of 19, Jennings was a convicted felon charged with arson in 1992. During his time in prison, Jennings reconnected with not only music, but his faith in a higher power. It was there Lyfe Jennings took his music to another level.
Seventeen years, over 15 guest features and three albums later, Lyfe Jennings is ready to present his final R&B offering, "Sooner Or Later," which is set to hit stores in September, is putting the light back on composing, which Lyfe calls, "responsible" music. Lyfe Jennings sat down with BET.com to discuss his newest and final offering, "Sooner or Later," life lessons and his thoughts on musical genius, Kanye West.
BET.com: Okay, let’s talk about the new LP, “Sooner or Later.”
Lyfe: Yeah, the new album, ”Sooner or Later” is coming out later on this year. We got a lot of great features. More responsible music, man. Music to make some babies to and make some good decisions off of.
BET.com: Now when you say responsible music, what do you mean by that?
Lyfe: Oh when I say responsible music I mean music that does no harm. A lot of times we hear stuff on the radio that’s popular but that’s not popular from a psyche standpoint. You know? So if I’m talking about the streets, I’m talking about getting out of the streets. If I’m talking about sex, I’m talking about sex as a result of love you know, stuff like that.
BET.com: Do you feel as though R&B artists specifically are not living up to the responsible music that they’re supposed to be creating?
Lyfe: I mean, that’s neither here nor there because I guess it depends on their standards and again that’s first, like love is first. You know the standards that they have where they wanna take R&B music or where they wanna keep it at. Me personally, I definitely feel like that whether you wanna be a celebrity or not, if you are and that is a fact you know then you need to make sure that you stay in accordance with that.
BET.com: From your first album to now what’s the biggest growth that you see within yourself creatively and spiritually?
Lyfe: I think creatively I've really been working hard on simplifying my method, using less words that can say more, that’s more timeless. Spiritually, I always read and do stuff like that. I’m definitely doing my philanthropic stuff, speaking at schools, speaking at prisons and you know speaking to these children.
BET.com: So let’s dip back into your album. Who do you have on the project - features, production-wise, writers?
Lyfe: Production-wise Dre and Vidal, Hyenas, Brian Campbell, and Eric Hudson. In regards to the features, we got Fabolous on the album, we got Anthony Hamilton, Ludacris and a couple more cats. You know, we’re really compiling the project now and then we’re going to pick. That’s not to say that those songs aren’t going to make it, we just want the best project.
BET.com: The internet has become the best way to promote oneself and actually getting a project out to the masses. What’s your take on the internet conglomerates like Twitter, Facebook, the music blogs; how do you view these things?
Lyfe: I think it’s great even for an independent artist from that standpoint. As far as like these new medias such as Twitter and Facebook and stuff like that, I think that they’re great because it gives an artist the opportunity and the ability to touch all these fans personally other than calling the label and having them do their whole media and marketing thing.
BET.com: As far as you being a fan of music, who do you listen to right now? Who strikes a chord in your ear? Like, when they create music it gives you the urge to create music with them?
Lyfe: I like the homey Kanye. Regardless of what they say about him, they can’t front. Dude always finds a way. Dude has messages, he seems like a smart guy to me, like when he talks or when he rhymes he makes a lot of sense in what he says and I like that.
BET.com: And lastly, if you could offer a piece of advice to a new artist, something that you learned coming in from your first album to now, what would it be?
Lyfe: Yeah, I got a lot of that (laughs). I got a lot of advice for new guys coming into the game. I guess what I would say is make sure that you know your reason for doing it and if you know your reason for doing it then it’s easy to find a fan base. It makes it that much simpler and definitely get a grasp for the business because a lot of cats just become artists and once that artistry is gone and it will be gone, you know he may just not be as popular as he once was then you’re definitely going to need the music, the music business rather, to still make sure that you better maneuver in the game that you love and that you done worked so hard to get into.