Southern Sangin’
Interview with RAHBI
By Charese McLean-Davis
reseydavis@excapethematrix.com
In
preparation for this interview, I had been listening to RAHBI’s album, “The E.P.,”
for a solid week prior to seeing him live. Like tons of other folks I know, I
was already familiar with his jam, “Another Chance.” By the time I reached the
night of the show, I was well aware that he was a double threat with his singing
and writing abilities. I just hoped that his talent translated off “The E.P.”
and onto the stage.
Fast forward one week.
At the Savoy Entertainment Center in Los Angeles, Donnie, the power packed vocalist who brought us “The Colored Section” is just showing out. As a vocalist, Donnie is practically from another world, so anyone who would dare try to hang with him best bring their entire voice with them. There is no way half steppin’ will suffice. Simply said, you breathe for one second too long and you will get left behind. Obviously Donnie knew what he was doing when he brought the equally talented RAHBI along to represent him as his background vocalist. While RAHBI, dressed in his self proclaimed “Glam-Soul” look, is showing out for the sake of performance, he is unmistakably representing himself as well. He’s singing notes that true sopranos and/or tenors can’t touch with both operatic and gospel flavor. You don’t know whether to dab your eyes with a Kleenex or throw your shoe at him! Together, they are having a ball. As I watch them interact with one another through their body language, eye contact and vocal call and response, I lean over to my girlfriend and say, “Okay...he is SICK! What is that?” She simply says, “I’m sayin’!”
After playing phone tag for a couple of days (including a singing voice mail from him that I wish I could’ve saved forever), I finally spoke with RAHBI a few days later. I was so pleasantly surprised to find that he was just as nice as when I’d met him after the show. Not only is he down to earth, he’s refreshingly funny. He’s got that Southern drawl that makes you feel comfortable and at home. When we hung up, I felt like I’d known him for years. Indeed, talking with him was like catching up with an old friend.
CMD: I saw you perform with Donnie this past week. After watching you, it’s obvious to me that you’re in love with music and with singing, right?
RAHBI: I am, because I’ve been doing it so long that it’s become a part of me. I don’t even think about it, it’s like another sense.
CMD – What does performing mean to you?
RAHBI – I just want the people to feel good. I’m an entertainer and when I feel like I’ve pleased my audience and they’re leaving like, “Damn, I just really had a really good time,” I feel like I’ve done my job. That’s what I try to get out of my performances, just trying to make y’all feel what I’m feeling, which is just good.
CMD – Well, that would be me ‘cause I was rockin’ your CD and I still am. I am out of control!
RAHBI – So funny…
CMD –Let’s just do the obvious questions, okay? How long have you been singing?
RAHBI – Since I was three. I started singing at a small Pentecostal church in Atlanta. My grandfather was a pastor there and he used to call me up to sing all the time. At first I was scared and would hide behind pews and everything, but he started paying me every time he thought I did a good job so that broke my fear.
CMD – Were you one of those little kids who just got up and just started blowin’? Were people’s mouths wide open?
RAHBI – Uh…no…my voice wasn’t
really strong at first. I had a real soft voice. It was more
pretty
than strong. In middle school I started taking opera lessons and they started
training me with classical training, and that’s when my voice really started
getting stronger. I didn’t really like my voice. It was pretty but it was more
light.
CMD – I was gonna ask you if you had any vocal training because when I listen to you, it sounds like a mixture of classical training, because I definitely hear those remnants, and then it just sounds like you’re at church.
RAHBI – Right. I like that. I mean I was a vocal performance major first when I went to Columbus State University. I like the blend of classical and just raw because I think both are needed to reach a wide audience…you know, the white folk and the black folk.
CMD – We are so here on that! So then how did you get into the professional side of it?
RAHBI – I was in eighth grade and my father had a friend that worked with him who knew L.A. Reid somehow. He had two guys that he’d signed already and he was looking for a third guy to just seal the deal. Hey, in this business, it’s all who you know. So I auditioned for him, L.A. thought I was a good fit and said I was gonna be the sexy guy in the group and I fit. I was signed basically all of my high school career. It didn’t quite work out but hey…I met a lot of good people through it and I made a lot of connections.
CMD – Yeah and I guess it’s a process. That didn’t work out but that must have been some sort of stepping stone to where you are now.
RAHBI – Yeah, yeah…and it took the group not making it to build my confidence, ‘cause I was a little insecure in the group.
CMD – Uh…I don’t know why! (laughs)
RAHBI – I don’t know why either. I guess ‘cause at that young age I wasn’t used to showing out and really just stepping out and doing my thing. So the other guys kind of intimidated me a little bit but not anymore
CMD – Now they’re like, “Can we sing background for you?”
RAHBI – Right! They’re calling me like, “How did you get this gig and how are you performing all over the place?”
CMD – “Can we come to the show?”
RAHBI – (laughs)
CMD – I was reading your CD credits and I saw that you wrote a lot on there.
RAHBI – I wrote everything.”
CMD – Right. So does your art imitate your life?
RAHBI – Does my art imitate my life?
CMD – Yeah, because your music is very personal and I definitely get some feeling behind it and some truth, and I don’t think people can really represent that unless they’re telling something.
RAHBI
– Yeah, most of my songs are true stories and real life experiences because I
feel that that’s how you get true emotions out of songs. You either have gone
through it or know somebody that has gone through it. So they’re either my
experiences or things I’ve seen, but I’m also influenced from everything. I’ve
been influenced from seeing kids playing on the playground or a movie I saw or
just something that happened on the train. It doesn’t necessarily have to be my
experience.
CMD – So you tell folks’ business basically.
RAHBI – (laughs)
CMD – Look, next thing I know, they’ll be some song about some girl in California who interviewed you!
RAHBI - Hey! I got my recorder goin’, too! (laughs)
CMD – So tell me, how do you feel about the state of music today?
RAHBI – (Sighs…) Uh…you know, most people, when they do interviews, it’s about. how they feel bad about the music talk now. But you know what? I think we have some people that are good. A lot of people are talking bad about Beyonce right now-
CMD – That makes me mad!
RAHBI (laughs) – I feel Beyonce, Fantasia and NeYo still have some really good songs, especially as far as the lyrics. I think soul music has just changed; it’s taken on a different form today, like this is soul music 2007 style. They can’t expect soul music to sound like it was in the ‘70’s, it’s 2007. I think I understand that ‘cause I am a lot younger than a lot of these other soul artists. A lot of them are walking around sour and mad because of all these other younger people all the time, but they’re using sounds that people are familiar with now and y’all are just using live bands on everything, which is cool, but it’s not now. But if you mix the two, maybe people will get it. Now folks are gonna be mad at me (laughs).
CMD – Did you use the word “sour?” (laughs) You are so not from California! That’s hilarious!
RAHBI – (laughs)
“I think soul music has just changed…”
CMD – So who did you listen to growing up that influenced you musically?
RAHBI – Just to name a few, Karen Clark Sheard was a big influence and the Clark Sisters, Daryl Coley, mostly gospel artists. I didn’t start listening to R&B until the beginning of high school and when I joined the group.
CMD – Was that by choice?
RAHBI – Nope. It was because they were like, “Do you know any R&B songs? Go purchase Tevin Campbell’s ‘I’m Ready’ CD and learn this song.”
CMD – Oh wow!
RAHBI – Right. I didn’t know what that was.
CMD – Okay, you mentioned Beyonce and NeYo. Who do you listen to now?
RAHBI – Well, I listen to a lot of me now.
CMD – Are you on your own iPod?
RAHBI – You know what? I don’t even have an iPod.
CMD – (screeches) What?
RAHBI – I still have a tape player and a CD player. I still record my vocals with two tapes.
CMD – No! Not like you push record and play at the same time!
RAHBI
(laughs) I listen to a lot of me right now ‘cause I want to perfect what it is
that I do so I can continuously grow and not left behind. Because please
believe, as soon as you start sleeping there’s somebody right on your tracks.
CMD – Oh, it’s true. We’ve seen that happen. I think I would agree that as soon as there’s a space, a void…when Luther died, a thousand people could have rushed in and took that spot and I don’t think anybody’s really done it. You know, once something gets wide open like that, somebody’s coming! But I’m not gonna worry about you because your mouth is big enough for a lot of people.
RAHBI – (laughs)
“I don’t even think about [singing], it’s like another sense.”
CMD – So who would you like to work with?
RAHBI – I’d like to work with Fantasia, Missy, Timberland, Justin Timberlake, Gwen Stefani, a lot of different…really I want to work with a lot of pop artists or just some straight sangin’ fools.
CMD – Like yourself! So give me one motto that you live by today.
RAHBI – Just do you. You know what I’m sayin’…cause I think that’s the only way people can receive you well. I think that applies to singing, dancing acting…just do you for real and it will come across right and people will feel the emotion. If people don’t really feel the dancing, they’re like, “They’re dancing and counting all the moves in their head.” If they don’t feel it with acting then people are like, “Okay, they’re not really in the moment.” If you don’t feel the emotion singing, then they’re like, “Okay, they’re a contrived artist.” So just do you in whatever it is that you do and I feel that it’ll work.
CMD – How old are you, if you don’t mind me asking?
RAHBI – (laughs)
CMD – Because you’re an old soul! I can tell. I can hear it when you sing, I can hear it in your conversation.
RAHBI – I’m however old you want me to be, baby.
CMD – That’s a good answer, RAHBI!
RAHBI (laughs)
CMD – Well, we’re done!
RAHBI – Oh, okay!
CMD – We’ll be talking soon.
RAHBI – I’m looking forward to it.
Want more RAHBI? Check him out at : http://www.myspace.com/RAHBI