Source: Entertainment One / eOne
R&B Divas may be long over with, but a lot of the drama witnessed on the show and its spinoff is hard to forget. Two people whose issues kicked up quite the bit of dust include Syleena Johnson and Nicci Gilbert, especially over that workout video situation. To this day, clips of the women reading each other resurfaces in social media feeds (“knock a– knees” is still a classic comeback), and for some time they weren’t in a good place. In 2014 we asked Johnson about it and she said when it came to a resolution, “we have resolved that we will never speak to one another again. That is the resolution baby!”
Time can certainly heal some wounds, though. During a chat we had with Johnson this week when we asked if she still keeps in touch with her former R&B Divas cast mates, she emphatically said they are all on good terms.
“Absolutely! Actually, every last one of them,” she said over the phone. “Yep, every last one of them. Monifah just sang with me last night at my show. I just talked to Keke [Wyatt] and congratulated her on her baby. I saw Nicci [Gilbert] backstage at a BET event that we did and we talked for a minute. Faith [Evans] came down to Sister Circle. Meelah [Williams] comes down to Sister Circle all of the time. Latavia [Roberson] comes to Sister Circle, Angie [Stone] came down to Sister Circle. We all still talk to each other. There are no bad vibes between any of us I don’t think — from my end anyway.”
Johnson no longer shares the small screen with those ladies, but she does have a group of divas she shares screen time with just about every day in her Sister Circle team. As co-host Quad Webb told us, there is no drama between them in this case, but rather, just friendship.
“She’s absolutely correct. That is our truth,” she said. “We’re not perfect people but we make it work every day. We don’t have what you see on reality TV, the depiction of negative imagery for Black women. It doesn’t happen every day at Sister Circle because nobody’s trying to do that. We’re not running around trying to have a bad time with each other. We have personality flaws, that’s for certain, but that’s everybody. We don’t bring it out on the show and we do that on purpose. We don’t combat with each other on the show because Sister Circle‘s mission is about us working together, so if we can’t work together in front of millions of people, we don’t need to be on the show. I think we at least have that general understanding when the lights come on. So I think that’s what makes us appreciate each other when the lights are off.”
“It’s definitely not like a reality television setting, where maybe some negative things are perpetuated,” she added. “We don’t have that. We just come to work, ‘Hey, girl. What’s going on?’ and then we go home [laughs]. All of our lives are so full that everybody is not really focused on trying to combat and go back and forth with each other. That’s not the focus.”
Source: Entertainment One / eOne
Johnson’s life is one of the most fully packed these days. Outside of Sister Circle, she is a businesswoman, an author, a wife, mom, fitness competitor, and first and foremost, a singer. She has a new album, her 10th called Woman, out now.
“I wanted the sound to be reminiscent of Syleena Johnson but with a fresher, newer feel,” she said. “I just wanted it to be very R&B and stay true to my roots, but I just wanted to freshen it up some more and evolve it a little more. We can’t just keep doing the same kind of music all the time and then the industry is moving and you’re not.”
“Plus, it’s a sound that I just really wanted to explore, not to just try to keep up with the times but because I wanted my live shows to be more energetic and more emotional,” she added. “I really feel like this is a more heartfelt, emotional album. It comes straight from me, heart wise, so I think it’s going to be impactful when people listen to it. A wise woman, Queen Latifah, once said, ‘If it comes from the heart, it goes to the heart.'”
It’s a wonder how Johnson is able to manage everything on her plate, but she says no matter what, the music she makes will always be her priority.
“Music is the forefront,” she said. “First is music, everything else mentioned are subsidiaries. Music is the parent company. That’s my first love. I’m never going to stop making music as long as God will allow me to make it. The other things are creating revenue streams and helping me pursue other dreams. I’m not just one-sided, I’m multifaceted. Hopefully we can sustain as much of it as we can, but the music will never go.”
