00:00Hi Essence family, this is Yolanda Sanguini, entertainment editor at Essence.com.
00:08Welcome to Coffee Talk, your weekly dose of what's hot on Essence.com.
00:13This week we got the chance to spend some time with one of our favorite vocalists, Selena Johnson.
00:18Angry girl, you know you're breaking my heart
00:25because you're making it so hard for women like me to find Prince Charming.
00:34I'm telling you, angry girl.
00:38Selena was here to talk about her fifth album, Chapter 5, Underrated.
00:42Chapter 5, Underrated is my fifth album from the time I came out in 2001.
00:50Here we are, 2011, ten years later, so it's the ten year anniversary album.
00:57It's a great album.
00:59I put a lot into it, a lot of passion, a lot of time and effort.
01:05I was pregnant the whole time I was recording it.
01:08So it's kind of like when it was born, you know, now that it's born, it's almost like having a baby.
01:14It's almost like being pregnant with something and birthing it into the world.
01:17I'd say it's a collaboration of everything that you could want musically.
01:22There's all elements of black music involved in the album.
01:28There's R&B, there's jazz, there's hip-hop, there's soul, funk.
01:32You know, all these elements are encased in this one album.
01:36So I'm really excited about it.
01:38Selena's also celebrating a decade in the music industry.
01:41So we asked her what's the difference between Selena in 2001 and Selena in 2011.
01:47Definitely I was ten years younger, so I was not as seasoned mentally.
01:55And I think that, you know, that was before I had kids and a husband.
02:00Having children changed a lot of things in me as a person.
02:03I think that maturity has helped my writing, and I think it has increased the passion.
02:10I'm more passionate about what I sing and what I write about because I have children.
02:15She also spoke to us about how her songs empower women.
02:19I do think that we should be empowered, but the first person to empower you should be yourself.
02:23You know what I'm saying? And the love of God and what have you.
02:27Not to say that I'm negative and I don't want to talk about, I don't want to empower women.
02:31Damn women! No, I'm not saying that, but I am saying that there's so much more to talk about.
02:36And in turn, it ends up empowering us anyway because I talk about all the things that we go through as a woman.
02:43She also shares some details about an exciting new project that she's a part of, a reality show about R&B singers.
02:49It started off as R&B Housewives, and then Faith Evans got involved,
02:54and so now it's called Faith Evans Presents because she wanted to be one of the producers
02:59because she was going to shoot her own show.
03:01But when she heard of this idea, Nikki Gilbert brought her the idea.
03:04She was like, this is better, this is awesome, you know.
03:07It's myself, Nikki, Faith, Angie Stone, Kiki Wyatt, Monifa, Lili from SWV, and Tisha Joretta from Brownstone.
03:17She's the newest member of Brownstone.
03:19The focus is that we're already established people that happen to be moms and wives.
03:24You see what I'm saying?
03:25As opposed to the show just being wise moms who might have something going on inside.
03:30So there you have it, this week's Coffee Talk with me, Yolanda Sanguini.
03:34Make sure to share your thoughts with us on Facebook and Twitter,
03:37and log on to Essence.com for more Coffee Talk.
03:40Bye-bye.
03:41Bye-bye.
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