Live album now, new disc this fall.
.jpg "Keith Sweats Hotel Rates Well")
If anyone has made the act of begging into a melodic sound, it’s R&B singer Keith Sweat. However, Sweat’s career has hardly been wanting.
After honing his skills in his hometown of New York, he was discovered in the mid-80s and released his debut album, “Make It Last Forever,’ in the fall of 1987, which featured the hits “I Want Her’ and the title track that catapulted him to R&B fame.
More than just a crooner, the singer has also been marked as one of the shapers of the early ‘90s New Jack Era.
Sweat’s career sparked in the early ‘90s, but the singer has constantly and consistently stayed on the charts ever since and he is hard at work promoting his new project “Sweat Hotel.”
He is also finishing up a new untitled album, of which the early first single “How Deep Is Your Love” has had major radio spins. And, as though staying in the music curve isn’t enough, Sweat hosts his own syndicated radio show and continues to tour regularly.
“Basically I’ve got a radio show, I’ve got a new DVD (which was released June 12), and a new CD coming out in September 17th, so I’m just doing a whole lot of different things at the moment,” Sweat told EUR’s Lee Bailey. “The DVD is my live stuff; basically a live concert of the stuff I’ve done through the course of my career. The CD is basically new material I’ve got coming out.”
The DVD project is called “Sweat Hotel [Live],” which has an accompanying CD. It’s a concept the singer came up with in relation to his full-service musical career. Taped before live, sold-out audiences in Atlanta and Dallas, the project also includes special guest appearances by Monica, Akon, Da Brat and Athena Cage, plus music from some of Sweat’s most memorable songs.
Believing in his inventiveness, the “Sweat Hotel” concept went beyond the music world and had some fans expecting an actual posh and stylish hotel from the singer. Reports circulated that Sweat had a deal for a property called Hotel Sweat in Atlanta. However, the singer said the reports were false.
“Marketing is great, right? That was a good thing,” he said with his patented sly grin and explained that while he did not currently have plans to open a hotel, “you never know what’s in the making.”
In the meantime, between his new disc and contemplating the hotel business, Sweat is staying on the airwaves with his slow jams radio show.
“On radio, I’m giving people what I’ve always given them,” he explained. “Radio is a form of entertainment. It allows me to talk to my listeners. What radio does for me is allow people to touch me where they can’t touch me on CD – they can touch me on the air, they can call me, they can question me, we can have conversations, we can have confessions. Radio opens up a lot of doors for a lot of dialog.”
“Keith Sweat Hotel” the radio show airs from 7pm – midnight in major markets like Miami and Detroit, broadcasting live from his Premiere Radio Networks studio in Atlanta. He keeps happily busy working on radio Sunday through Friday and doing shows and touring on the weekend. When EUR caught up with him last month, he was performing a show in Los Angeles as a tribute to Gerald Levert, who died in November 2006, and LSG – the group he formed with Levert and Johnny Gill ten years ago.
“It’s a tribute to Gerald, [and the promoters] thought it would be a good package if me and Johnny Gill were on the show,” he said. “So, in part, it’s a tribute to Gerald; we were like brothers.”
The concert featured the two remaining LSG members with Gerald’s father, Eddie Levert, filling in. The singers were also scheduled to perform the tribute last night, opening night at the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans.
Incidentally, another trio made up of solo R&B stars is coming on the horizon. In the tradition of LSG, the group is called TGT for Tyrese, Ginuwine, and Tank.
“I commend them on that,” Sweat said, flattered that another group of crooners have teamed up. “I think more artist should do things like that. There will never be another LSG. People might try to imitate that. I hope TGT builds their own format. I don’t want people to call them another LSG. I wish them luck. They’re great vocalists.”
Not only will there never be another LSG, but there’ll never be another vocalist like Gerald Levert, says Sweat.
“I miss him,” Sweat said of Levert. “Gerald is a legend. He’s given a whole lot to the industry. His music won’t be forgotten. The good thing about radio, music, movies, and TVs is that you can play those things back and the person will still seem like they’re here. Gerald’s memory will always lie within me, but anytime I really want to see him, I just push rewind and he’s right there.”
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