Fame! Is it really all that some make it out to be? Ask that question to many of today’s artists, and chances are high that they will all answer in unison with "NO"! While it can truly be the best thing that ever happens in the life of an up-and-coming artist, it can also kick you down and keep you there! As evidenced by many of the artists we’ve seen over the years, fame and success comes and goes as the wind changes, and sometimes quicker than that! It’s so hard time come by, yet once you reach it, it’s even easier to lose! Take for example, new Dash Music Group recording artist Nicole Wray! For those who may have followed this Virginia-bred R&B siren over the years, you know that she’s no newcomer to the game! Hell, she had one of the biggest hits in urban music back in the summer months of 1998, thanks to the guidance of Missy Elliott and Timbaland! Nicole was the first artist signed to Missy’s then newly formed Goldmind Records, which would be distributed through Elektra! Success was almost inevitable for Wray, who at the time was only 17-years old! After all, Missy had only recently stormed the industry with her ground-breaking and trendsetting debut, "Supa Dupa Fly"! Naturally, it would be a big advantage for Nicole to be working with Missy! Then came the idea that she would be produced by Timbaland, who had already created success for a string of other artists including Aaliyah, Total, SWV, & Ginuwine! Despite their proven track record with everyone else, they wouldn’t have the same effects with Wray! After a couple of successful singles ("Make It Hot" & "Eyes Better Not Wander"), Nicole seemed to vanish in thin air!
We would later hear her one last time via Missy’s "All N My Grill", only to vanish yet again! Then in the year 2000, there had then been talk of Nicole working on her second album, "Electric Blue". That album, as you very well know, was never released, although it did spawn the single "I’m Lookin". While this track definitely showed a bit of growth from her debut in 1998, it failed to build a buzz for anything else! Nicole speaks very candidly about what happened back then when she was on the verge of blowing up big time! "Well, my label was Elektra and Goldmind, Missy’s label through Elektra, and we put "Make It Hot" out! I went across the world and learned a lot from Missy & Timbaland. The thing about it was I was young. I had a young start and I was moving a little bit, kinda before my time, and it just didn’t turn out good. The situation at Elektra folded and Missy wanted to do other things! I had already had another album [Electric Blue] written and recorded. It was, but it never released! So, what happened was Missy gave me a call, and wanted to take me somewhere else, because I guess the situation going on at Elektra wasn’t right, but it just took long! Days became months and months became years. I can’t just sit around and wait. This is my career, and if I don’t take charge then I’m just going to be on the back burner. I really didn’t want that for my career! So, I gave her a call, and basically thanked her for everything that she had done for me, and let her know that I had to move on! And she was cool about it! It wasn’t no love lost, and that’s what she said! "Go ahead and do your thing"! I just didn’t think it would be another long ongoing process, you know, waiting years and just waiting! But in the process, I really got my writing game up. I was this artist that came out underneath some really heavy hitters, and I had almost a house-hold name, I do believe." Being on top of the game one minute, and at the bottom the next, could easily cause an artist to throw in the towel, as Nicole almost came close to doing! "At that time, I had a lot of people with me, and I had a crazy management team! You know, I was under Missy and Timbaland! I was under the best, and then one day, it’s just gone!
So I stayed in the studio, and really started seeing life for what it was. I started finding out about who Nicole Wray was1 Everything was moving so fast, and being an artist you just get drowned out! It’s just work work work! Shows, Interviews, whatever! I needed a break to be me, and everything else seemed so far away that I started to feel like a grudge, or a little feeling against certain people! Like, why do I have to go through this, but now, seeing my life now, I know everything happens for a reason and I’m not mad at anybody! It made me stronger and I’m a better writer."
So how does one recover from such an abrupt ending! There really is no direct answer! Sometimes, it never happens, and then in other cases, an artist gets a second chance at fame, which rarely every happens! While Nicole agrees that’s it can be nearly impossible to come back, she has a different outlook on why she’s still here! "I will never fall off because it’s a gift that GOD has given me! Some people use your talent, but you have to be able to be in control of your own talent. Good music is good music! If you keep doing it, you’re going to get somewhere. If you let up off the gas, the car is going to stop, but if you keep your foot on the gas it’s going to keep on moving. I’ve been through so many situatuations! I was with Missy and that folded! Then I was with Rocafella, and it’s always ROC for life, but I got into a whole new situation, but if you check it out, the music is still moving. I’m more focused on getting my face out theren now, because it’s like out of sight out of mind! So now, I want people to see me and know what they are hearing and the person I am! I look at a lot of magazines and you really get to know what you’re seeing and hearing. For me, I would like that to be more expressed this time around, because I really didn’t have that last time. It was just music! People didn’t know who I was. They never heard nothing I said, what type of food I like, what makes me happy……they just heard the music! So I would like people to get to know who I am because it makes them feel more at home! Like Mary J. Blige, everybody knows who she is inside and out because she invited them into her world. I’m not ashamed or afraid to invite people into the life of Nicole Wray because I’m a regular person!" And a regular person Nicole wants to remain! During our interview, I really got a chance to listen to Nicole speak more on her life outside of the industry! So often, we hear from artists, and it’s only about the music, who’s working on the albums, and so forth! Having to readjust to the simple life after leaving Goldmind, Nicole makes it clear that her life is not based on the industry! "I like to cook! I just cooked some chicken and rice today!
So how does one recover from such an abrupt ending! There really is no direct answer! Sometimes, it never happens, and then in other cases, an artist gets a second chance at fame, which rarely every happens! While Nicole agrees that’s it can be nearly impossible to come back, she has a different outlook on why she’s still here! "I will never fall off because it’s a gift that GOD has given me! Some people use your talent, but you have to be able to be in control of your own talent. Good music is good music! If you keep doing it, you’re going to get somewhere. If you let up off the gas, the car is going to stop, but if you keep your foot on the gas it’s going to keep on moving. I’ve been through so many situatuations! I was with Missy and that folded! Then I was with Rocafella, and it’s always ROC for life, but I got into a whole new situation, but if you check it out, the music is still moving. I’m more focused on getting my face out theren now, because it’s like out of sight out of mind! So now, I want people to see me and know what they are hearing and the person I am! I look at a lot of magazines and you really get to know what you’re seeing and hearing. For me, I would like that to be more expressed this time around, because I really didn’t have that last time. It was just music! People didn’t know who I was. They never heard nothing I said, what type of food I like, what makes me happy……they just heard the music! So I would like people to get to know who I am because it makes them feel more at home! Like Mary J. Blige, everybody knows who she is inside and out because she invited them into her world. I’m not ashamed or afraid to invite people into the life of Nicole Wray because I’m a regular person!" And a regular person Nicole wants to remain! During our interview, I really got a chance to listen to Nicole speak more on her life outside of the industry! So often, we hear from artists, and it’s only about the music, who’s working on the albums, and so forth! Having to readjust to the simple life after leaving Goldmind, Nicole makes it clear that her life is not based on the industry! "I like to cook! I just cooked some chicken and rice today!
I’m a home body! I like just relaxing and enjoying life! If I feel like doing a hot song, you know, it just happens. I don’t like to be forced to do anything! I don’t like anybody trying to force anything on me! I like to just relax and let it come! I like buying stuff for my house and being around my two nieces! They make me happy! They’re like my two A&Rs! They help me decide on good music! They say the kids are the future, and I’m always around kids so they make me happy! I don’t have no kids, but I have two bad nieces that’s always at my house. We cook and we watch movies. We go in the studio! I have a studio upstairs in my house and we just record! I might make some cookies and we just, you know, regular life. We might go shopping, and I live right around the corner from Outback! I’m a family person! It’s not about all the craziness in life, because that’s where stress comes in at! I want to be relaxed, and I’m still on my grind! Don’t take that from me, I’m still grind, but I can grind and relax too!" She enjoys doing just the regular things, like shopping, chilling, and so forth! "The other day, I went and bought like 40 pairs of socks! The little stuff makes me happy! I like to relax in the studio, and like I said, I have a studio in my house so I be in a zone! I’ll put my pajamas on, I’m walking around and chillin!
Then I’m into producing now! I did like three songs, and I played it for 7 and he loves the direction I’m going in so I feel good about that! He’s one of the hottest to ever do it, so for him to tell me he like’s what I’m doing, I’m good!" So here we are, just over six years after her debut album, and Nicole is ready to hit us with her second LP, sort like her rechristening into the game! She signed a deal nearly a year prior with Roc-A-Fella Records after a chance move to New York! "I had done so many songs, and I had a manger in New York! I called her and just said I need to come to New York! I went by myself! I didn’t have no money! I just went with the songs that I had, and went in ther studio and grinded it out! Allen Iverson had his label going on, and I was going to be the first girl on the label, through his A&R. I met a girl through him who knew an A&R at Roc-a-Fella. I went in the office with the music and played it for Kenny Byrnes, and we went right in the studio like a week later! I did the Welcome Home record for Dirtt McGirtt (Rest In Peace). That kinda took off in New York, and from there, Dame started being there and they started hearing the music I had, and from there we got in the studio and started working on the Nicole Wray project! Most of the recording was at Dame’s house. Everybody came over, and we just got into a vibe! We recently made changes over at the label, and it’s now Dame Music Group, which he has a lot of artists he’s giving deals to! I’m still working on my album, which is titled "Love Child", and I’m kinda excited about it! I get a chance to be creative and they love what I do. I’m in the studio now with 7 Aurelius, so we’re cooking up some stuff. I just left Miami, doing some stuff with Scott Storch, and I got a lot of up-and-coming producers on the album! First and foremost, I wanted to work with them because they came to me at a time when I felt like nobody was on Nicole Wray’s radar. They was hungry like I was, and we grinded it out! It’s not that I don’t like working with established producers, but it’s just something about the new ones!" Her first musical offering on the label, a sort of "welcome back tribute" to the then recently free Dirtt McGirtt, came early in 2004! The track began to sizzle among the streets of New York, reaffirming the fact that Wray was built for this music thing! She later hit us with the heatseeker, "If I Was Your Girlfriend:, which undoubtedly shows a more provocative Wray, and is also a major contrast from how we saw her years ago! "Actually, it’s really a gift that was given to me, before I was even born! I just had to figure out how to use my talent, and not let people use my talent for me, you feel me! And I feel like that’s what was happening in my younger years! I was letting other people use my talent for me, and I never got a chance to use my own talent. It’s just that I dig deep into my gift, and I express my life the way it is! I’m a regular person and I see everyday for what it is!
I don’t come from a wealthy family; I come from the streets! I struggled and my family struggled. In some ways, we’re still struggling, but you have to realize where you see your life being, and I see my life being happy! When I heard that record, I just heard the beat and thought this is what I want people to feel! I started writing about what I wanted to feel, even if I was having a bad day! That doesn’t mean my music has to be bad! I’ll write about partying and having a good time! Cause a lot of times, I’m not feeling good. I really don’t want to talk to noone and I just want to be quiet but can’t express that on the song! Sometimes I can, but other times, I just want to zone out from that!"
The last time we heard an album out of her, she was still a teenager. Her music was far from kiddie or bubble-gum, however, she clearly was not at the level she is now! So what’s new about Nicole now? What has really changed, and what does she have to offer us? "Experience", she later says! "My voice has grown a lot since I got started. I knew I had range, but like I said, I let most people use my talent, if you understand what I’m getting at! My voice is really powerful, and now, I understand where I’m going! I see clearly, and experience, you know, coming from off the road and going back to the regular life. I now have something to write about and it’s true! I’m grown, and I’ve experienced it! I had a chance to work with some of the best people in the industry like Terry Lewis, Pharrell, Missy, Timbaland, and now I’m under Damon Dash and 7 Aurelius, and I’m working with some of the up-and-coming producers who are going to be the next big thing! I don’t want to just do music for radio. I want to be happy with my music! I want to feel like this is me, and not somebody else forcing something on me! When I lay down, I have to live with this! I have to live with this album! I have to live with the way my album cover looks, and I want to feel happy! I don’t feel any pressure. They used to ask me if I felt pressure because I was the first artist on Missy’s label, and although I would say now, I really was feeling pressure! I was but I don’t know it! I don’t deal with that now because that’s negative! My album is titled "Love Child". It’s titled that for a reason! Before the whole Rocafella situation and the whole Dash Music Group situation, I was just sitting at home doing nothing. I was just a regular girl, still doing music, but everything had died down! I felt like giving up, and I felt people had betrayed me! It was really becoming a problem with music for me! I took that problem out on music, and it became a good thing. Now, I describe it as love, and my music is love! My album is all love because I had a negative feeling about music before.
The last time we heard an album out of her, she was still a teenager. Her music was far from kiddie or bubble-gum, however, she clearly was not at the level she is now! So what’s new about Nicole now? What has really changed, and what does she have to offer us? "Experience", she later says! "My voice has grown a lot since I got started. I knew I had range, but like I said, I let most people use my talent, if you understand what I’m getting at! My voice is really powerful, and now, I understand where I’m going! I see clearly, and experience, you know, coming from off the road and going back to the regular life. I now have something to write about and it’s true! I’m grown, and I’ve experienced it! I had a chance to work with some of the best people in the industry like Terry Lewis, Pharrell, Missy, Timbaland, and now I’m under Damon Dash and 7 Aurelius, and I’m working with some of the up-and-coming producers who are going to be the next big thing! I don’t want to just do music for radio. I want to be happy with my music! I want to feel like this is me, and not somebody else forcing something on me! When I lay down, I have to live with this! I have to live with this album! I have to live with the way my album cover looks, and I want to feel happy! I don’t feel any pressure. They used to ask me if I felt pressure because I was the first artist on Missy’s label, and although I would say now, I really was feeling pressure! I was but I don’t know it! I don’t deal with that now because that’s negative! My album is titled "Love Child". It’s titled that for a reason! Before the whole Rocafella situation and the whole Dash Music Group situation, I was just sitting at home doing nothing. I was just a regular girl, still doing music, but everything had died down! I felt like giving up, and I felt people had betrayed me! It was really becoming a problem with music for me! I took that problem out on music, and it became a good thing. Now, I describe it as love, and my music is love! My album is all love because I had a negative feeling about music before.
I felt like people don’t understand me, and they just want to do what they want to do to me and I can never feel what I feel! Now it’s all love, and I’m not going to go through the pressure. Music is something that comes natural to me, so why should I feel pressure about something that comes natural? That’s just me. I don’t even talk about if things don’t happen because I will always do music, but I only see the positive outlook! I do good music, and I do it…..I don’t know! It’s just easy! I don’t like all the other negative stuff!" So the questions still remains whether she will be able to hold our interest with her new album? What direction does she take and what is she singing about now? "It’s a lot of interesting things on the album, talking about my life, you know, from day one like when I first started! Love, relationships, trust, and all the things I’ve been through that have made me a stronger woman. I feel like I want to be able to have experience with what I’m singing about. At one point, I felt like I was struggling. I was sleeping on the floor and I ain’t really have no money. It was like I woke up and it was over. Sometimes, I don’t even feel like I came out with an album! It’s that weird to me, but now I really feel like an artist. I really feel like Nicole Wray because I had a chance to go back and re-live a regular life. Some people don’t get a chance to do that! I have balance in my life now, and I appreciate every moment of the struggle because it helped me to be a better person. The music really can stand out, and people can feel at home and really feel the pain because I’ve experienced that as a young female artist!"
Clearly, Wray has arrived at that place she needs to be mentally in order to make her career work! Unlike many artists, she had the opportunity to go back to a life of being virtually unknown and doing things regular folks do, and then she was able to bounce back into her love of music! Some would look at her disappearance as a major stumble, and in cases for other artists it has been, however, she was able to turn her negative experience into a positive! She compares her situation to the likes of D’Angelo, Lauryn Hill, and Erykah Badu! "Those artists….there’s no time limit on them, you feel what I’m saying! They can come out whenever they feel like it! [They] can come back and do whatever the hell they want to and it will be like they never went anywhere. They learned how to use their talent for what it is!" Indeed, Nicole now knows how to use her own talent and benefit from it! She simply equates her strength and success to balance! "Exactly, it’s balance! And I definitely would not love myself if I was one of those artists that always thought it was just about me, I don’t know nothing about regular life, I don’t know nothing about the streets, and I’m just doing music. You got these artists that think they’re the shit, and they couldn’t even take care of a house! It’s balance for me, and I’m not dissin anybody or saying anything bad about anybody, but I’m thankful that GOD put me in that situation so that now I can respect it and understand what’s going on! I understand life, and not think that it’s a hand-out!"
Listening to her speak now, it’s evident she has a true respect for her craft, and with the lessons that she has learned over the years, she definitely won’t be letting anyone stop her! She’s back on the fast-track, and she shows no sign of a slow down! There’s definitely a higher level of maturity in her swagger, and it ain’t just in the music, but also in the person! She has always had the inner-makings of a star, and now, she’s ready to let that star shine bright! Look for her Dash Music Group debut in Summer 2005
