Syleena Johnson

Syleena Johnson

During the past few years, singer/songwriter Syleena Johnson has emerged as an unique and popular artist who skillfully blends modern R&B, hip-hop and classic soul/blues. She has already had two successful album releases on Jive Records, Chapter One: Love, Pain and Forgiveness and Chapter Two: The Voice, which included the R&B hit singles “I Am Your Woman,” “Guess What” and “Tonight I’m Gonna Let Go”. In addition, she was the featured vocalist on the Kanye West smash hit, “All Falls Down” (from his The College Dropout CD).

Johnson has just released her third album, Chapter Three: The Flesh, which again demonstrates her powerful, soulful vocals. As this title would indicate, this CD explores more openly passionate and sexual themes. The new songs reflect Johnson’s perspective and experiences this past year, following her recent divorce and subsequent return to experiencing life and romance as a single person. Johnson co-wrote most of the songs on the CD, creating lyrics and melodies.

For her new album, Johnson collaborated with several of the top writer/producers in urban music, who were excited to be working with her. She again teamed up with superstar R. Kelly (who has written & produced cuts on each of her albums) on two songs, the uptempo “Hypnotic” (featuring a rap by Fabolous) and the sensuous midtempo tune, “Special Occasion". “R. Kelly is my mentor,” said Johnson. “He’s a great friend. But I’m one of his biggest fans at the same time. I strive to be the female R. Kelly.’

The CD also features excellent collaborations with other leading hitmakers, including Kanye West, Jermaine Dupri and Kay-Gee. In addition, the album features guest vocal appearances by Anthony Hamilton, Common, Twista and other artists. One of the highlights is a strong, emotional and hooky ballad called “Another Relationship” (co-written by Johnson), which is her latest single.

Johnson discussed how she likes to create a concept and theme for each album (thus the titles Chapters One, Two and Three). “As a writer I’m like a storyteller,” she said. “When I first signed with Jive Records, I wrote about what was going on in my life at the time. I kept a journal, and I wrote many of the lyrics based on my journal notes. For my second album (Chapter Two: The Voice) I was in a place of spirituality, discovering God again. I was in such an anointed place that I didn’t need to keep a journal – the lyrics were flowing out of me because I was so moved.”

For the new album, Johnson also wrote about what she was going through, which was a period of being single again and experiencing new love and relationships. “Being single changes things. You know how when you get free from somebody you get kind of loose? You wanna party. I was sort of in that quote-un-quote ‘crowd’ for awhile so I began to see and experience a lot of things. I’ve been around my peers more since my divorce. My material has been influenced by that.”

Syleena Johnson

Johnson also discussed her writing and recording process, and how she hooked up with the writer/producers for her CD. “When we’re starting a new project, my A&R exec Wayne Williams does the searching for tracks and collaborators. Wayne goes shopping for me. It’s kind of like shopping for a couple outfits. I’ll try it out, and if it doesn’t fit I’ll take it back to the store. You discover which collaborations work and which ones don’t. In many cases I would receive a track, then I would write the melody and lyrics and see how the song develops.”

Now with the release of Chapter Three: The Flesh, Johnson is keeping a busy schedule, promoting her new CD and preparing for a concert tour. In addition, she remains a full-figure model for the famous Wilhelmina Agency, and she’s the spokesmodel for the Ashley Stewart clothing line. And this Fall, she will be acting in a major production called Cheaters: The Stage Play, which also stars Brian McKnight, Michael Jai White, Wendy R. Robinson, James Avery, Gerald Levert and Tammy Townsend.

“I’m excited about being in Cheaters, which is the first play I’ve done on a major scale,” she said. “It’s got a great cast, and I’m happy that I will be singing ‘Another Relationship’ (her new single) in the play. We will be performing in 10 cities, including Detroit, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and Atlanta.”

In the midst of all these projects, Johnson has already thought of an excellent theme and concept for her next album. “Chapter Four will probably have Love as its theme. I want to have an album of beautiful love ballads, about all kinds of relationships which express love. It will be about such relationships as a husband to wife, mother to child, family love, friend to friend, and a love of God.”