Oral Hit-story: Faith Evans, ‘Soon As I Get Home’
The Grammy-winning R&B artist gets real about her highest-charting pop single and life with the Notorious B.I.G.
It’s been a long day. You’re tired and a little down. You fiddle around in your pocket for your keys and finally find the right one. You open the front door to find an ocean of lit candles, shadows dancing on the walls. Red rose petals form a path leading into your bedroom, and when you enter, ______ is there in bed waiting for you. The lights go out.
Yes, faithful reader, it’s whoopee-making time, or as we like to call it, “Tuesdays.” Our soundtrack? One endless loop of Faith Evans; today and forever, she’s your DJ of Doin’ It, Queen of Gettin’ Obscene, First Lady of Fu…well, you get the picture.
Back in 1994, around the time when hip-hop artists like Warren G ruled the airwaves, Evans was signing on as the first female solo artist on Bad Boy Records. Founded the previous year by Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs, the powerhouse label would go on to release some of the most influential hip-hop and R&B records in music history, including Evans’ 1995 debut, Faith; and 1994’s Ready to Die, from her rapper husband, Christopher Wallace (a.k.a. The Notorious B.I.G.).
If you’re unfamiliar with Evans’ music, it will make for a happy discovery. She is truly one of her generation’s most talented songwriters, with a tremendous ear for a hook and unique vocal timbre, unmatched by most of her peers (Mariah Carey and the late Whitney Houston included). Evans’ effortless mezzo soprano makes Hozier sound like a hoser: Instead of singing about taking you to church, her entire catalog actually puts you inside one; she’s the French inhale of the R&B world.
Maybe the best place to capture Evans’ genius is on her debut. Spend a little time with the songs, and you’ll realize she’s singing many of them to somebody. That would be her then-husband Biggie, whom she married not long after signing to Bad Boy. While we could recap the events surrounding Evans’ separation from her late husband and his March ’97 murder, we’re going to leave that to your Google-searching skills. Too many times the events surrounding his death have been used to define Evans’ career. Certainly, she’s definitely paid tribute to him in the past — most notably, on her Grammy-winning tune, “I’ll Be Missing You”— but maybe the greatest single tribute to him, when he was alive and they were first in love, is Faith. It’s a beautiful, highly soulful album on which it’s clear how great of a guy he was, despite his fallacies (which all of us have).
This year, the album’s celebrating its 20th anniversary*, and you can catch Faith singing its greatest hits and those from her other albums on tour this year. Arguably, Faith’s most recognizable — and maybe, most misunderstood — single is “Soon As I Get Home,” the subject my latest Oral Hit-story. Thought it was a love song? Think again.
You have a pair of new albums in production, one of which features duets with your late husband Biggie**. Are these brand-new songs or just newly reimagined ones?
They’re all new songs, but I’m taking some vocals from some of his stuff that was released. I’m doing a lot of different versions: Some of which he’ll be rapping most of and I might sing the hook; some of which I might be singing most of and he might rap the bridge. I’m taking pieces of his vocals and making them a call-and-response type thing. So I’m being really creative with it.
You signed to Bad Boy in 1994 as its first female artist. Was it difficult to be the only woman in an all-men’s club?
No, it didn’t feel that way. I was the first female solo artist, but the group, Total, was already signed early on. I think I met Total before I even met Big at that photo shoot that we [first] met at. I was already writing stuff [for] Puff prior to my deal being signed. I already felt very much like family with everybody.
Around that time, you married Biggie. You’ve done tributes to him throughout the years. Why do you think he has had such an effect on you, personally?
Well, he was my husband. We still had a great, great time, although we were separated when he passed — and for a few months before that. But we still had a great life [together]. And actually around that time, he was giving me certain signals…I wasn’t quite sure [if] he was trying to reconcile or not, but he was trying to spend a little more time around me and the kids. Not to mention the person he was, which only someone that really knew him in person could know. That’s something that will never leave — his spirit, his humor. Things like that are what still keep us all together. I’m still friends with most if not everybody that was around him at that time.
Twenty years ago your debut, Faith, was released. Did you have faith that it was going to sell as well as it did?
I did not, and I would always ask my friends and my manager, “Do you think people are going to like my music?” I mean, obviously someone liked it, but at the same time, this was new to me; I came from church, so I didn’t know radio was going to take to it. I certainly didn’t take [it] for granted … like “I know I’m about to be the shiznit,” you know what I’m saying? [laughs] And I’m still always surprised and grateful when people say, “Yo, I’ve been listening to your music since I was a kid, or I’m a fan,” because you have a choice in what you like.
Let’s talk about the single “Soon As I Get Home.” You wrote that with Diddy. Do you remember exactly where you were when you wrote the song?
[starts responding, dissolves into laughter]
Hey, Faith, we missed what you just said there.
[coughs] Sorry, I’m choking on my water from laughing. Excuse me. [Producer] Chucky Thompson and I were at the Hit Factory studio, and I think Puff probably changed one or two words. The song was finished. Back then, I was like, “Oh, OK, [Puff] wrote it, too.” But whatever…it’s all good. He was going to get credit anyway as a producer [laughs]. But I just remember Chucky playing these three or four chords, and I said, “Just repeat those chords over and over; that sounds good.” And he did it with a tempo behind it, and I just started singing [sings], “Soon as I get home…,” and that was how it started. [laughs]
It’s an apology song, but it strikes me that in the history of songs like this, it’s usually the man who’s begging his woman’s forgiveness. Were you writing it from a man’s perspective?
Yes, I was! It’s funny, because also I’m saying “I,” but I was writing it from the perspective of “this is what I wish [Biggie] would be saying to me,” because he was on the road a lot at the time. We didn’t have a lot of time in the beginning once we got married; Big sorta just blew up, so that was kind of the perspective I was singing from: I wish he would be saying this to me when he’s calling me from out of town. [laughs]
When your first album blew up, do you remember how and where you celebrated when you got the first check from the label?
Well, that check didn’t come for a long time, so that wasn’t how I celebrated. [laughs] When I considered [my] album “blowing up,” [it was] hearing my single on the radio and Funkmaster Flex dropping the bombs.*** I literally cried in the car by myself. I’m very emotional, but I tend to keep it in. But moments like that is when I can’t hold it in, so I had people looking at me like, “Are you crying? Not you!” [laughs] It’s like, “I can’t help it. I feel so happy!” [laughs]
When you perform “Soon As I Get Home” live, the crowd sings along with every word; you almost don’t even need to sing. Have you ever picked out a handsome guy in the audience and sung the song directly to him?
That’s one thing I don’t think I’ve ever done in my shows. I’m so weird and funny like that. When I would make videos that may have been a little more sexy or had a male lead, and they wanted me to do something just as simple as stroke him or let him touch my neck, I’d be so nervous on the set. They definitely couldn’t get me to kiss somebody. You know, shaking, touching this man that I don’t know. [laughs] I know that sounds really crazy. These are, like, some really handsome guys. I’m talkin’ Boris Kodjoe. [laughs] But, no, I’ve never done that. I’m a little weird when it comes to intimate type of contact, even though it’s just acting. But I don’t know…I’d have to get paid for that. [laughs]
Are your kids supportive of your music career, or are they like, “Mom, you’re way too old school”?
I think now, in the last two years maybe, [they’ve become supportive], because all my kids are very, very, very talented, and they want to be in the business. They want to pursue music — whatever that means — and of course, they want to make money. But I’m trying to get them to understand that it’s so different right now with the money-making part. [laughs] They’ve totally realized, like, “Wow, mom, you’re really a legend.” My 22-year-old daughter goes out to different events and music concerts and open mics, and [she hears] so many of those people she’s going to see play, say, “Oh my G-d, do you know how awesome your mom is?” They definitely know that I’m good, but they have a little different appreciation now. Like, “She’s still dope and she still gets up and packs lunch and wakes up and works out.” They’re putting all of those things together. [laughs]
I watched the video for “Soon As I Get Home” a bunch of times and in it, you’re standing there in the rain in this gigantic, white fur coat. Do you still have that coat?
[laughs] Oh my G-d…that coat. There’s a running joke with my Soon-As-I-Get-Home Coat. OK, there was an incident back in the day, where Biggie had something at the Palladium in New York. And I never wear my video clothes, but I got cold and I threw that coat on and I kept saying the whole night, “Oh my G-d, people are going to see me walking down 14th Street in my Soon-As-I-Get-Home Coat.” Turns out, we end up getting into a scuffle or something with somebody — I don’t know if it was Lil’ Kim–related at the time,**** who knows? But I was like, “All I need is for people to see me out here on the corner about to fight in my Soon-As-I-Get-Home Coat!” I gave it away right after that. [laughs]
*This story was originally meant to publish on Mother’s Day weekend in 2015.
**That would be The King & I, which was release in May 2017
***A well-known New York City DJ, Funkmaster Flex is known for “dropping bombs” during his set on exclusive singles that he premieres. Read more on Genius.
****Lil’ Kim was one of Biggie’s mistresses.
I filed this story to my editor at the now-defunct Made Man on April 19, 2015, and it never saw the light of day. Until today. Enjoy.
