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Mica Paris

Will Hodgkinson
Friday February 15, 2002
The Guardian

The British singer has a hard road to travel. The industry doesn't seem to know quite what to do with its own talent, and Mica Paris, the closest we have to a real soul diva, is a case in point. "Black artists are always being asked to make the kind of pop records they have no interest in," she states. "Until there are more black people in the record industry to A&R this kind of thing, it's not going to change - which is a shame, because there is a market for real soul from this country."
Fourteen years after being discovered as a teenager fresh out of the gospel choir, she has mixed feelings about how the business works. "The record industry is set up so that the artist cannot win," says Mica. She's at home at her flat in west London, looking after her 11-year-old daughter who is currently bedridden and feeling sorry for herself due to the nasty strain of flu that has been going round.

"When Prince and George Michael try to fight back, the public can't understand what they've got to be angry about, but unless you own your own material you tend to make a lot of money for other people and not see too much of it yourself. It's taken me 14 years to learn that. I didn't know that the nice big advance they give you when you first sign is recuperable. I was from Lewisham Girls', for God's sake - I didn't have a clue!"

Inspiration comes from survivors such as Chaka Khan, godmother to Mica Paris's daughter, recent guest on her Radio 2 show Soul Solutions, and a close friend. "She was brilliant on the show, as she always is, and her attitude is: just keep on trucking - it doesn't matter how hard the knocks come, you have to get on with it. She's an inspiration in an industry where, if you're a woman and you're over 25, they don't like you any more, and I'm 32 now. It's great that Jennifer Lopez is successful now despite that, and Mariah too - although bless her, she's going through it at the moment."

Also bringing hope is the new wave of soul coming out of the States, carried by the likes of D'Angelo, Jill Scott, Angie Stone and Mos Def. "People are getting so tired of overproduced music that they're going back to the real stuff, and a lot of that music was influenced by a vibe that was going on here 11 years ago - Omar, Young Disciples, and a B-side I had called Should Have Known Better. Those American youngsters heard all that stuff and went off with it. It's great that they can make good music with a budget that we never had, but it's also sad because artists like Omar are still struggling to get heard."

While her daughter loves the manufactured pop that fills the gaps between the real talents that can only ever make up a tiny percentage of the charts, Paris is waiting to be astounded again. "When D'Angelo came out I could hardly breathe, and I still feel like that - nobody has come close yet to his talent. Bilal is the only person who has excited me recently, but nothing has really blown me away, and that's disappointing. Where's the new Aretha? They try to put a lot of people into those niches, but they're not good enough. Where's the new Sade?" For that matter, where's the old Sade? "She's around, man, she's doing her thing still. But I miss the good stuff, I miss the lick."

There is, however, Prince. "Rainbow Children is his new album and it's ridiculous, it is so good. He's right there again, he's back. He's just rude. I mean, he's totally on this Jehovah's Witness tip at the moment - God bless him, not my thing, but choose what you want - but nobody has come close to what he's doing and until they do, let the old cronies keep at it.

"You don't have to retire, and Prince is showing us that. Most young stars just want to be famous, but that's the easy part - the hard thing to do is to leave something that stirs the human consciousness, and Prince has done that. Do you know what I mean?"

It was Whitney Houston and Anita Baker who made Mica Paris want to sing in the first place; she sat down at the age of 16 and wondered why there was no British equivalent. "Whitney opened the door for people like me, while Diana Ross opened the door for Whitney, so you need these major artists to make it happen for so many other people. I've got a lot to thank that girl for. So Whitney, get your arse together and make another bloody record, for God's sake."

Her all-time heroes include Tania Maria, the Isley Brothers, Curtis Mayfield and, most importantly, Marvin Gaye. "I'm a huge fan, and when I was reading the story about Here, My Dear I couldn't believe how sad it was." Here, My Dear was the album that Gaye was contractually obliged to record for Motown, and the album's content concerned his bitter divorce with the Motown owner Berry Gordy's sister. "I grew up listening to that record and I thought it was all just stories, but now I realise that he was singing about actual things that were happening to him and you think: poor sod. No wonder he's not here now!"

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Boy, she really sounds like a snop bitch(like alot of ya'll ).

Every time you see her in an interview they ask her about Prince, it was like, what 15 years ago that she received a tape of If I Love U 2Night in the mail? It's not her fault, this baggage follows her around.

Her last single was a gospel/disco track - released a month or so ago, she's got pretty big too.