Montell Jordan
DOING IT WELL
With 'Get It On...Tonite,' Montell Jordan Discusses the Thin Line Between Romance and Lust
When Montell Jordan's ubiquitous, frat-house anthem, "The This Is How We Do It" exploded on pop charts in 1994, many predicted fleeting fame for the lanky, surprisingly debonair, 6'8" former rapper. Since then he's penned the longest-running No. 1 R&B single, Deborah Cox's "Nobody's Supposed to Be Here," and released three popular albums. Pretty good for a supposed flash-in-the-pan. Now, with his steamy new GET IT ON...TONITE, a virtual musical sex manual of sophisticated R&B smoothness set to shuffling electro-beats, Jordan is clearly set to have the last laugh. From his Los Angeles home, Jordan chatted about love, family, and getting your groove on with bn.com editor Brett Johnson.
barnesandnoble.com: How have you avoided being pigeonholed as pop act after the initial crossover success of your 1994 blockbuster hit, "This Is How We Do It?"
Montell Jordan: Me and my record company have taken the great experience of "This Is How We Do It" and tried to get past it to have other good and great songs. We've focused on creating a career as opposed to creating just hit records. Each of my [subsequent] albums has been a painstaking effort to legitimate me as a true R&B urban artist but also in some ways cater to a pop or crossover audience that remembers a "This Us How We Do It" record. Probably, my pop audience most remembers "This&" and thinks that's the last thing I did, whereas my urban audience knows this is my fourth album in five years.
bn.com: Listeners get a hint that your personal life has changed since 1994 with the album's introduction by your three-year-old daughter, Sydney. How do you balance the "family-man" sensibility with the music's sexy playa perspective?
MJ: It's difficult. But with anything that's difficult, there's a payoff to it. The beauty of it is when I sit down with my daughter at home and I will say to her, 'Sydney, who am I?' And she'll say to me, 'Daddy.' And then I'll point to the television and I ask who's that. She'll say, 'Montell Jordan.' Even at three years old my daughter has the understanding that Montell Jordan and Daddy are very different people. And so that's something I try to do musically, professionally and personally is to allow an audience to identify with the guy they see in the videos, with the women. When you want to see me outside of a video, you'll see me on a Sunday at church with my wife and my daughter. I'm able to distinguish the lifestyle. I'm able to not have to live the dream and the illusion that the television paints. I entertain on television. I entertain musically, so in my life I don't feel like I have to be so damn entertaining.
bn.com: On the album you play two sides of the coin also. Why did you break up the album between party oriented songs and ballads?
MJ: I basically put all my uptempo songs back to back so you'll have 40 minutes of uninterrupted partying. And then I took all my extracurricular, bedroom activity records and put them back to back for uninterrupted bedroom pleasure. Hence the subtitles, "For Those Who Like It Fast" and "For Those Who Need It Slow." If you're about to roll out with your dawgs or a lady is about to hang out and have a good time with her girlfriends, start the record at No. 1 and let it go. If you're a woman that's at home starting a nice, big bubble bath, put on the Montell album, hit No. 10 and let it play for 40 minutes.
bn.com: The album is filled with references to love and lust. How do you define love?
MJ: Well, understand my definitions of love are not so defined on this particular album. I think I deal with relationships on this album and the pain that comes with particular relationships. [But] to me, love is sacrifice. What I sacrifice in my life for my daughter, unconditionally is love. I think the ability to put someone else before your self is love...in its purest form.
bn.com: As a married man, how would you and your wife listen to your album?
MJ: We would start off with the beginning and work our way to the end. That's the perfect evening, when you start out partying, enjoying family and friends and cooling out. And then, as it starts to slow down, you kick everybody out of the house, talk a little dirty to set the mood and handle your business. You know what I'm saying?
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