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We all know that KeKe Wyatt can sing (make that sang), but did you know that she can also act? Wyatt is currently starring on the Second Season of Bounce TV’s hit series, Saints & Sinners, which airs on Sunday nights, making her debut on last night’s episode. Not to mention that she has her own Being episode airing on BET next month. Those are just a few of the many things the talented singer and songwriter is busy with these days. Lucky for us, she made time to talk to us about how she came to be on the show, misrepresentations of her on reality TV, why she’s tired of people putting her in a box musically due to those duets with Avant, and how she juggles everything as a wife and mother to eight kids.

KeKe Wyatt

MadameNoire: How did you end up getting a part on Saints & Sinners? 

KeKe Wyatt: I did a movie, a stage movie before, and it was called “In God’s Hands.” It was something fun that I’d never done before. I did that and so the same people, plus Russ Parr, the director of the show who I’ve been knowing forever, they were like, “KeKe we want you to play David Banner’s wife on the show.” Her name is Sister Green, and he’s the new pastor, so I play his wife on there. That’s pretty much it. It’s not a lot yet, but it’s still enough. It’s scripted, and I love the fact that it’s scripted instead of reality TV all of the time. I like the whole character thing. It’s cute.

MN: Do you ever miss doing reality TV like you did with R&B Divas?

KW: No, I don’t miss it at all. I am currently working on my own show. The good thing with that is that I can control what gets put out there and what doesn’t. So I’m happy about that. I’m definitely going to be one of the executive producers so that I can make sure that the right messages are being put out there instead of having me looking like a pyschopath. I can’t do that anymore. I’m dead serious. I can’t keep allowing these people to put my name out there like that. At the end of the day, I’m still Keke Wyatt and I’m a mother and wife and woman of God. I can’t have people portraying me as someone who flies off of the wall. That’s not my personality. I will fly off of the wall if you piss me off, but I’m not pissed off every day. I’m not pissed off every time. I’m happy and I have a very exciting, fulfilled life. So I don’t have a reason to be mad all of the time. I can’t wait for people to see what’s really going on in my life and to be like, “Dang, she’s a really happy person!” I’m quirky, giggly, silly — I ain’t all of that mess. I’m happy about my life now. I have so much to be grateful for, shoot, ain’t nobody got time to be mad all of the time.

MN: What made you want to do an entire cover album with KeKe Covers?

KW: My fans kept saying, Oh my God, I hear it on YouTube, but I want to be able to play it in my car, I want to be able to play it everywhere. So Michael Jamar, of course, is the brains behind everything. If he could literally, physically put me on a shelf and film me [laughs]. I’m so serious. So anytime he hears an opportunity to do something he says, “Shoot, you better go ‘head and do that!” So that’s how that came about.

MN: I know that you said that, musically, you feel like people put you in a box because of your collaborations with Avant. Why is that? 

KW: Girl, I’m so sick of that. I’m tired of that. Oh my God. I’m so sick of that and don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad music. Not at all. It’s wonderful music. But at the same time, I try to tell people, that’s not my sound. They’re like, “Then what sound is it?” I’m like, that’s the Keke & Avant sound, but that’s not me at all. I’m getting there slowly and surely. I’m in the studio now, working on what I really want people to hear.

MN: So when you talked about your sound in the past, you described it as a gumbo due to all of your influences. Who got you into country and R&B and all of the things that make up this gumbo sound? 

KW: It’s all in my head. I grew up a little biracial girl smack in the middle of Indiana and Kentucky. You get fed all of these different sounds. My mother and her brothers, they still sing in country bars now. It’s nine of them, so her brothers, they all get together. I grew up hearing that all my life. Then the gospel with my dad. As I got older, then I heard the R&B and hip-hop and pop. I love it all and think it’s all amazing and it all comes together in my music somehow.

MN: When did you first realize that you could really sing? 

KW: When I was two. I was kind of told that I could sing by my granny. She was so surprised it was funny, as if someone threw a nickel at her forehead. She was like, “Oh my God!” I didn’t know. I was just harmonizing with her and I didn’t even know. She called my mom and said, “Oh my God, Lorna, did you know this girl could sing?”

MN: Would you collaborate with your mom on a song? 

KW: Hands down, yes. Absolutely. She’s too busy for me, though.

MN: And based on your recent album, do you have a favorite song or two that you love to cover? 

KW: It would have to be “Diamonds and Pearls” and I love “Tennessee Whiskey.” “Tennessee Whiskey is more country and one of my favorite artists [Chris Stapleton] sings that song. And then Prince’s “Diamonds and Pearls” because I feel like we match. He was very musically inclined and he could play a lot of instruments and so can I. Plus, the song is just dope.

MN: With all of the work you’re doing musically and on television, how do you balance that with being a wife and mother of a large family? 

KW: I don’t know, it’s kind of a thing where you have to do it so you just make it happen no matter what. Of course, my husband is a great dad so I have his support and help. And then, my family, my mom and my brother, they help me out a lot. It’s eight [including a child from Michael’s previous relationship] of them, so I have three real big ones and four little ones. The big ones help with the little ones a lot. My oldest is 16, he’ll turn 17 this month. And then Rahjah, he just turned 14 last week. And Kayla, she’s 13. So I have three teenagers who can really help out. We go to the mall, I say, “Keyver you have such and such, Rahjah, you got such and such,” and that’s just how we do.

 

Image via WENN

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