“This was just the right time in my life – the right place at the right time, man,” notes KEM, who also changed management between albums. “Two years later I proposed, and a couple years after that we married.” They have five children between them, with a 3-year-old son and 10-month-old daughter together. “There was something there that made me want to keep in touch,” KEM remembers. KEM married last November for the first time – to Erica, a DJ from Georgia who he met during a fan meet-and-great at one of his concerts several years ago.

And fortunately, he had an eventful interim for inspiration this time.

“I don’t really think about it until I’ve got a nice group of songs together,” he explains. He routinely takes several years between albums, and he’s not driven by time. Part of KEM’s success is a focus on quality over quantity. “Lie to Me,” the first single from “Love Always Wins,” gave him another high-charting addition to that hit list. And he’s been nominated for three Grammy Awards, and scored hits such as “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” “Love Calls” and “Why Would You Stay.” His last release, 2014’s “Promise to Love,” debuted at No. Born in Nashville and raised in Detroit, he’s notched three Top 5 albums on the Billboard 100 and on the R&B/hip-hop charts. Love has never failed KEM when it comes to his career. No matter what’s going on, when all else fails, that will always stand. But I wanted this particular body of songs to remind people that there is still good in the world, and I believe that good is love.

Most of the music had been done by then, but the subject matter became even more apropos. Now the two singers’ album rollouts will unfold in parallel, since both plan to release new full-lengths on the same day next month - Spell My Name is due August 28.“Sure, part of the writing was fueled and informed by our politics and the divisiveness in the country and the uncertainty – and then, of course, it was amplified with the pandemic in March. The current radio chart-topper is Motown singer Kem’s “Lie to Me ” this week, Braxton also hopped on a duet with Kem titled “Live Out Your Love,” which channels classic Marvin Gaye ballads.

“Do It” climbed to Number Three on the latest R&B radio chart, according to Mediabase, earning 2,251 plays and reaching more than 11 million listeners. “Dance” follows “Do It,” a sweeping ballad the star released in April that was subsequently remixed by Missy Elliott. The production stays crunchy, with a popping bass, darting strings, and shrill horns joining a thwacking drum. The track will appear on the upcoming album Spell My Name, Braxton’s first new full-length since 2018’s Sex & Cigarettes.īraxton sets the scene quickly in the first two lines of “Dance:” “I found out just the other day/That you were giving it away.” She considers her options, quickly rejects reconciliation (“I ain’t tryin’ to make you stay”), and heads to the dance floor a few short lines later. Toni Braxton attempts to spin and twirl her way through heartbreak on “Dance,” a shimmery slice of nu-disco co-written and produced by the R&B ace Antonio Dixon.

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