Soulchild bringing two nights of Musiq

By Tribal News Writers

For Puyallup Tribal News
Published on: March 20, 2008

From a homeless high school dropout to a successful musician, Musiq Soulchild is the definition of a starving artist success story.

It also means he has a lot to sing about.

The Philadelphia native, the oldest of nine kids and the self-described “black sheep of the family,” found himself homeless after dropping out of high school at seventeen. Knowing what he knows now, he believes he could have handled things differently.

“I could have used that forum to my advantage ‘cause there were people whose job was to teach me,” he says now. But at the time he just felt patronized. “When you’re young, you just want what you want and you don’t see better.”

Much to his parents’ chagrin, he found himself working menial jobs and sleeping on friends’ couches just to get by. But even when things were at their worst – when he couldn’t find a friendly sofa, for instance, and found himself sleeping on the train or on a bench in the park – Musiq found a creative way to get himself through the hard times.

And even when Musiq was at his worst, there was always music. He remembers playing dresser-piano and air guitar when he was a kid, and singing along to his father’s Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway records before he really knew what they meant.

But then he realized that “I can sing. I just looked at it as something I could do and something I wanted to get better at and something I could get attention from.”

Today, Musiq has released four successful R&B albums that have topped the charts and received much critical acclaim.

Since his 2000 debut, “Aiguswanaseing,” Musiq Soulchild has become known for creating some of the supplest R&B of the new millennium, crafting ear-caressing tracks that blended old-school soul fervor with new-school hip-hop rhythm. But it’s that same quiet devotion to his sonic impact as a musician that drives the man to want to re-introduce himself, to set up his return to radio and clubs as a new begging of sorts, and not take for granted his status in the music industry.

After a three-year hiatus, Musiq Soulchild released his fourth album, “Luvanmusiq” in 2007.

“I’ve been away for a little while,” he said. “The industry’s changed and so have I, personally, mentally and psychologically. I look at my previous three albums as grade school, middle school and high school. Now with the new album, Luvanmusiq, it’s like I’m going off to college. And college never sounded so good.”

“Luvanmusiq” burst onto the scene with immediate success. It went straight to the No. 1 spot on the Billboard charts and topped the “Top R&B/Hip-hop” albums list.

Musiq Soulchild, who is influenced by such American icons as Stevie Wonder, James Brown and Ray Charles, was nominated for three grammy-awards including:

best male R&B performance, best song and best album in 2008.

Musiq Soulchild will be taking over the Emerald Queen Casino for two nights in a row, 8:30 p.m. March 28 and 29, at the I-5 showroom. Tickets range from $25-$50. Call 1-888-831-7655 for tickets and more info. Must be 21 or older to attend.

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