I AM… That is how the young and sultry songstress Chrisette Michelle will greet the world with her debut album. Ms Chrisette has already put the music world in awe with her voluptuous voice adding sentiments of nostalgic jazz scenes to songs by hip-hop heavyweights Jay-Z and Nas. It has been non-stop for this rising star since her unmistakable sound left a mind blowing first impression on Def Jam exec L.A. Reid. Through it all the Long Island native continues to remain cool, collected, and poised with the grace of an EMPRESS…After a recent show Chrisette took time to talk to Empress about how she does it:

A.M: What would you define the word "Empress"?

C.M: Empress is everything that a woman embodies: Power, Strength, and Beauty.

A.M: How did you get started singing?

C.M: In church. My mother was a choir director at church. I started at a really young age doing solos.

A.M: How did you get to the level of working side by side with people like Jay-Z, Nas, Babyface, and John Legend?

C.M: Really, the grace of God and just being in the mix of the music culture itself. I have been studying music my whole life. I started playing instruments at about 8 years old. I have played the piano, saxophone, and woodwind. After I went to school for music performance I studied theater and vocal jazz and started singing all over the city. Finally somebody from Def Jam by the name of Shalik Berry discovered me. He saw me at the Village Underground and had me come sing for L.A. Reid. I was signed on the spot.

A.M: How do you integrate your wide breadth of musical experience into the hip-hop music you work on?

C.M: I incorporate my soul and my spirit into everything I do. Every type of music whether it be hip-hop, R&B, jazz, country, or reggae is soul music and as long as I keep putting my soul into my music I am sure that whatever genre of music I am singing people will understand who I am as well as what the actual genre of music is.

A.M: With all your successes and busy schedule do you keep yourself grounded?

A.M: What is it like having your mom as your manager?

C.M: How does it affect your mother/daughter relationship? It's awesome having my mother as my manager because she knows me better than anybody else in the entire world. Plus it's always fun to see my makeup artist make her into this little celebrity mom. It's really special. We are best friends.

A.M: Wow that's beautiful. Let me ask you if you had one message to the younger Empresses out there what would it be?

C.M: Stick together. Understand what is going on the world and stick with those people who are for the same cause as you are because if you are not united with people who have the same cause as you, you will go nowhere. And secondly: Be yourself.

A.M: Thanks and before we go let us know what we can expect on the album?

C.M: You can expect tracks with Will.I.Am, John Legend, Babyface, Calvin and a young man by the name of Jazz. I wrote every single song on the CD and the lyricism is pretty awesome. It's a fusion of jazz, hip-hop, and R&B. That is one hell of a line up for a debut CD! And we are sooo happy to hear a young sista doing her thing bringing a new flavor and wealth of creativity to the scene. "I Am" in stores June 19th.

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