Award-winning and multi-platinum singer, songwriter and icon Adina Howard has released her sizzling red hot and seductive new single and accompanying music video for "Keep Lookin".
"Keep Lookin" follows after Howard's previous single "Mind Reader" and 2018 album Resurrection and is available on streaming platforms.
After Adina Howard released her 1995 Gold-selling debut album Do You Wanna Ride? via Elektra Records, which features the Gold-selling hit single "Freak Like Me", she started working on her sophomore album titled Welcome to Fantasy Island.
Originally set for a July 1997 release, the album included the top 40 R&B hit "(Freak) And You Know It" and the now cult classic "T-Shirt & Panties", but despite this, the album was pushed back by her label several times due to creative differences and conflict with Elektra's then label head Sylvia Rhone until it was eventually shelved.
Rhino Records recently acquired the rights to the critically acclaimed album and released it for the first time-ever in it's original form on digital platforms.
R&B Singer, songwriter, actress and chef ADINA HOWARD rose to prominence in the mid-90's with her Platinum-selling debut single "Freak Like Me" which peaked at No. 2 on Billboard's Hot 100's and R&B chart respectively. Subsequently releasing her breakout debut album, Do You Wanna Ride? which turns 25 this year. I caught up with the Songstress to discuss the 25th Anniversary of her debut album, her musical journey to her new single "Mind Reader" that's available on all digital music streaming platform services.
TERRANCE: This year marks your 25 years in the music business. What has the journey been like thus far?
ADINA HOWARD: Wow. I mean, like all journeys. Does it ever flow? You know what I'm saying? Peaks and valleys. I'm human, so we all go through something and my journey has been a very human journey, even in the music business. But overall I have been blessed and marinated in divine faith. I can't complain.
TERRANCE: What do you attribute your Longevity to in this ever-changing industry?
ADINA HOWARD: I attribute my longevity to favor and not focusing on staying relevant. Just doing me.
TERRANCE: Talk about the concept behind your new single "Mind Reader".
ADINA HOWARD: Okay, so we've all been in situations and relationships where there's a breakdown of communication. We've all been in situations where a person is looking at you or their thinking you can read what's in their heads and their giving you this body language, and you gotta look at them like, what's wrong with you? What's going on? What you want? What you need? What you feeling? And it's a breakdown of communication of things. Use your words. Your body language is speaking your mouth, but your mouth ain't saying anything.
TERRANCE: I noticed sonically it's different for you.
ADINA HOWARD: I wanted to do something different. I'm an artist and a creator, so when you're a creative person, you have to just allow yourself to be, because when our creativity is recycled, it causes a major issue for us. That energy has to get out and it has to be expressive in the manner in which we want it to come out as expressed.
TERRANCE: How did you connect with Reel People Music for this single?
ADINA HOWARD: My business liaison, Paris Toon of Mother's Favorite Child. He has a great relationship with Reel People and he reached out to them and told them that we had this song and they liked what they heard and did a remix to it and Opolo put his groove on it and here we are.
TERRANCE: Can we expect a follow-up album to Resurrection?
ADINA HOWARD: At this point, I'm considering it. It's not a strong consideration. At this point, I'm just choosing to release music how I want to release music versus doing it the traditional way from back in the day. Now we're in an era where music can come out at any given moment. You can do an EP, album or single and for me, I like that flexibility. So right now, I'm just going to exercise my options. Whatever comes is just whatever comes.
TERRANCE: Your debut album, Do You Wanna Ride? turns 25 this year. What do you remember the most?
ADINA HOWARD: I remember long hours, late nights and bad food (laughs). Eating a lot of Popeyes, KFC... just bad food.
TERRANCE: Did you think or know then that this album would make such an impact and pave the way for those who followed?
ADINA HOWARD: Absolutely not. No. Not in a million years. I just went in to do my job. I was blessed with the favor of having success, but no. My mind was let's get this job done. You know what I'm saying? When you're going through the process, long hours, late nights, bad food, in my mind and in my head, I hope this pays off.
TERRANCE: Are there any personal favorite tracks from that album or one you thought should've been pushed as a single?
ADINA HOWARD: I actually cringe every now and again when I listen to that album, only because vocally I have come such a long way. When I listen to it, I'm just like, Oh God (laughs). Can I say this? With all due respect, it's not for me to enjoy. The album wasn't done for me. I'll put it this way. I'm very pleased with what the album has done for me and I'm grateful for the success of it, but when it comes to listening pleasure, I don't put it in, I'll put somebody else in.
TERRANCE: Are there any future performances or special events you can tell us about?
ADINA HOWARD: I'm going to have a home based in Houston, TX at "The Studio" for an event called Crab Legs & Karaoke. So I'll be doing that on a regular basis starting in May and so if you're in the Houston area, make sure you come and check me out. I'm the host for the evening and it's called "The Studio".
TERRANCE: Any final words you would like to share with your fans, followers and the readers?
ADINA HOWARD: Just to believe in yourself and do what's best for you. I'm all about inspiration and self-motivation. It's very important that we recognize that we have to sow the seeds in order for our dreams to come true. Stay focused and be kind to yourself. That's very important, because one of the things that I've noticed, is we have a lot of self-demeaning talk. People will talk about you, but when you're talking about yourself, that's the worse you could ever recieve as far as I'm concerned, because there's a conflict to where you can't get away from yourself. So be nice to yourself. Talk kindly to yourself. Love yourself. Support you. How can anyone love you, be kind to you and support you when you're not? So love on yourself and thank you for the continued support and especially to you Terrance, because we've done this four times so far. You know what I mean? And counting, so thank you for your interest in my career and my journey.
In our exclusive interview R&B songstress ADINA HOWARD update us on the follow-up single “Nasty” from her latest album Resurrection which pays homage to her iconic hit “Freak Like Me”...
LISTEN TO "NASTY" BELOW:
TERRANCE: We spoke last year when you released your latest album Resurrection. Since then what has the feedback been like?
ADINA HOWARD: It’s been doing very well and it’s getting a lot of good reviews and I’m very, very pleased with that. We tend to appreciate other people appreciating the hard work that we put into what we do, so I’ve been blessed with positive feedback. I’m excited where this project is going.
TERRANCE: “Nasty” which samples your 1995 breakout hit “Freak Like Me” is the follow-up single to “Blasphemy”. What sparked the decision to make that the next single after "Blasphemy"?
ADINA HOWARD: People have been asking about that and they can look forward to a visual and we’re in the process of doing that as well, so things are moving forward.
TERRANCE: What are some of your favorite songs in your catalogue you enjoy performing?
ADINA HOWARD: “T-Shirt & Panties” is definitely one of my favorites. I enjoy performing “Blasphemy” off of the new album. The music that I enjoy performing and singing is more jazz and I haven’t really had the opportunity to showcase that yet, but that is definitely coming up, so out of my repertoire there’s not anything that I’m just in love with. There’s just songs I did that I felt they were appropriate for where I was in my life and for my listening audience.
TERRANCE: What’s your stance on Bruno Mars allegedly being a cultural appropriator?
ADINA HOWARD: Before we as a people talk about cultural appropriation we need to check ourselves because that’s the pot calling the kettle metal as far as I’m concerned. You’re a black woman walking around here with blonde hair past your ass and blue contacts in your eyes then you can’t scream ‘cultural appropriation’. That to me doesn’t make any sense at all. If someone is appreciating what we’re bringing to the table as a culture and they adapt it then okay, but I’m a person like so what? Who cares? Why are you so focused on cultural appropriation when you need to be focusing on bettering our school and community and making sure our children are safer in our community. Making sure that we are inspiring and uplifting one another in our community. I personally think our perspective tends to be off because we’re focusing on things that are trivial. Things that are not going to help increase the safety of our community and uplift us economically, so like who cares? That’s just my thought. *laughs*
TERRANCE: There’s also been talk of Best Buy discontinuing physical CD purchases. What’s your thought on that?
ADINA HOWARD: Well, technology is what it is. For me personally I’m not invested like that. I’ve seen different mediums disappear in my lifetime. There used to be 8-track tapes and now there are no longer 8-track tapes. There used to be cassette tapes and now there’s really none of those anymore. Now there are no CD’s and that’s the next thing to go because technology continues to evolve.
TERRANCE: What do you hope listeners take away from the Resurrection experience?
ADINA HOWARD: I want them to take away having some really good music. Appreciating the work that went into it and just sharing it with everyone to let the world know that it’s available. I don’t do it for me. I do it for those who have asked for it and now they got it so now it’s time to spread the word.
R&B Vet Adina Howard who burst on the 90’s music scene with the signature staple “Freak Like Me” and “Nasty Grind”, weigh in on her new project Resurrection, profound meaning behind her latest single “Blasphemy”, being Independent and what’s next...
TERRANCE: In our first interview you mentioned releasing an album wasn’t your focus so bring me to date with what prompted you to record your new project Resurrection.
ADINA HOWARD: My husband actually prompted me; the universe prompted me. Realizing the divine told me that my platform had a purpose and the divine was using my husband to urge me to create another project, I was like Okay gotcha! So it was a combination of the universe speaking through my husband and him saying Adina you have one more in you, just do this last project and so because of that I was like, you know what? Fine I'll go ahead and do it and the divine had put everything in alignment with the producers, songwriters, rapper Tyler “King Gas” Gaston who reached out to me and sent me a song I fell in love with which was the first song he wrote specifically for me which is “Radiation” and when I heard that song I was like this is Everything! And when we had our conversation he was like what is it that you want? We started working and Tyler was heaven sent I knew because of the chemistry that everything was right about moving forward with the project.
TERRANCE: What was that like collaborating with Tech N9ne on "Radiation"?
ADINA HOWARD: Everything!! He is my number one rapper and to be able to connect with him and say I have to have you on this song and for him to say yeah okay mama I got you was like Yasss! (laughs). So it was amazing to work with him and to get the greenlight because he is a hard one to lock down.
TERRANCE: So talk about your single “Blasphemy” and the meaning behind it.
ADINA HOWARD: “Blasphemy” is basically when I look at our community and I look at how our young Kings are acting niggerish and not realizing they come from royalty you know, we are created by the divine so therefore we are divine and to just look at how we are negating the fact that we are better than what we are shown on television etc. It’s like something has to be said, like this is disrespectful the way you’re talking to each other from both our young Kings and Queens, this is not who we are. Just because we’re being fed the propaganda and yes some of this is real and it’s going on, doesn’t mean we have to act like savages because that’s not who we are and to look at yourself in the mirror and see that you’re better than what they’re expecting you to be, you’re better than what you’re told you are and to see a greatness. So that song right there for me was to let us know young, old and in between that we weren’t slaves when we came here, we were enslaved. We were put into bondages and so don’t believe the hype when they say, oh y’all were slaves, oh no boo boo, we were enslaved. There’s a difference, we were free prior to the savages wanting free labor, we were enslaved so that you can be lazy. And it’s just bringing awareness that we were great and we need to continue being great. Project that.
TERRANCE: One of my favorite stand out tracks is “Love Jonez” what was the recording process like for that song?
ADINA HOWARD: Easy breezy. There wasn’t any incense, candles and things of that nature (laughs). It was just a regular recording session and I had some extra sexy music in my ears and music for me, whatever it conjures up emotionally I inject that into the song.
TERRANCE: If there’s one song off the album that best represent your current state of mind what would it be?
ADINA HOWARD: Most likely “Work” if I had to choose one that would be it.
TERRANCE: From your perspective, what are the advantages of being an independent artist?
ADINA HOWARD: You have control over everything!! And I’m a control freak more than anything in the world (laughs) and to have the control I have has been a blessing because I can do things my way.
TERRANCE: What are your thoughts on the beef among female artists especially in Contemporary R&B music today?
ADINA HOWARD: I think it’s foolish. Absolute foolish. I think that when you are making the money that you are making and doing what you have a passion for you’re living your dream so why is there conflict? What sense does it make and don’t get me wrong I’ve had my beef with an individual artist back in the day and that was my immaturity and that’s basically what it is, immaturity and it won’t really dawn on them until they grow up that it was foolery. I’m a mature woman now I look at it as this is foolish, y’all make your money and enjoy your life because at the end of the day you’re wasting your time on another female that ain’t feeding or clothing you and ain’t paying your bills so what the fuck?
TERRANCE: Three things people might not know about you.
ADINA HOWARD: I have Asthma, i’m a beast in the kitchen and I’m funny as shit (laughs).
TERRANCE: Who are some artists you’re enjoying at the moment?
ADINA HOWARD: That’s a very interesting question for me because I drive a great deal in silence. I’m just in silence most of my days. I think silence is golden because there’s so much noise going on in the world today. I just love and embrace quiet like I don’t listen to television, radio, nothing really comes on around me. Amy Winehouse is one that I listen to because her voice is just ridiculously amazing.
TERRANCE: Aside from the music what’s next?
ADINA HOWARD: Oh man! Acting is on the agenda. I have a lot of people approaching me about acting and that’s something I’m currently and actively working on. I actually had an audition via skype for an independent film.
TERRANCE: Anything not discussed you would like to share with your fans and the readers?
ADINA HOWARD: Go get Resurrection (laughs). Go get it and check it out. I did it technically at the end of the day for those individuals who wanted to hear more Adina Howard music and for us to recognize our greatness as we discussed via “Blasphemy”, to recognize that we are our own worst enemy and if we do not get it together we don’t have to worry about the enemy so to speak destroying us because we’re doing the job for them. So let’s wake up and recognize that if we get it together through unity not only will we survive but thrive and division will die. We have to get it together because there is a mission out there to destroy us so don’t help them destroy us, make it hard for them to destroy us and i’m not necessarily saying pull up your pants and wear a suit but we need to recognize quote unquote Black Lives Matter then we need to act like they matter. Period.
