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It’s been over two years since Cleveland native Cheri Dennis emphatically sang “I Love You” to the world. Though an album never followed, Cheri left an indelible mark on music, amassing a large fan-base along the way. And while her relationship with her label hasn’t always been a Portrait of Love, Bad Boy’s long tenured songbird is finally prepping for her debut release. On In and Out of Love Cheri is displaying her true emotions and life lessons in an offering complete with diverse music and a positive outlook. What’s going on with you album? My album is called In and Out of Love and it is an album about emotions and relationships, but it is not an album that makes you want to jump off a bridge; it still feels good. I think we got a lot of diverse music on it. I think we got something for everybody on there. It was never my objective to make pop records, but I do have a couple pop records on the album. I do have soul records, I do have street R&B records, but they all are cohesive; I don’t think that I’m all over the place with it and I’m just really excited that I finally get to have a body of work that people can listen to. So, I hope you don’t have too many male-bashing songs on the album. (laughs) You mean the man-bashing, “you hurt me all the time” records? Naw, I think if you’re a true artist a lot of the music you make its about where you are in your life at that moment, and I’m not gonna say you’ll never get those type of male-bashing records at some point, because that might be something that I’m going through at some point in life, but I love men. I don’t think all men are dogs. I don’t think all men are the same. I think you need to base everyone on individual merit, so on my records when I talk about being out of love, it’s just certain things that you go through in relationships. It’s not from an hateful place, and it’s not like I’m jaded because I’ve been in a few bad relationships. I just speak on the things that go down in relationships. A true artist makes music that’s reflective of where you are in your life. You created a pretty unique style that’s characteristic of Cheri Dennis. How have you gone about doing that? I don’t try to set myself apart, I just make music. I go in and create from my soul and I guess it’s partly because of my personality, and partially just cause I don’t go in trying to make music like anybody else. I hate going in and saying, “This is my radio record,” or, “This is my club record.” I don’t go in making those kinds of records, I just go in and surprisingly the [records] come out with a mind of their own. A lot of people may not know too much about your past. I know you’re originally from Cleveland, but how exactly did you get involved in music? I sang in the church choir very early on, and then I progressed to the school choir, and then I was in a singing group when I was a teenager. It was five girls, five different personalities; groups don’t always last long, especially not with chicks. But that experience definitely taught me a lot; it definitely prepared me for my professional career, and I don’t regret it at all, but I had exhausted the whole music scene in Cleveland and I needed to go somewhere where there was a major music market. So I decided to move to New York and
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pursued getting a deal. How exactly did you get your deal at Bad Boy? I’m signed to a production deal to a company called Cozi Music, spearheaded by Jimmy Cozier. He had a friend who worked at Bad Boy who invited Puffy and Kim Porter to a party, and I sang—I kind of freestyled, like ad-libbed over the music that was playing and that’s how the interest got sparked in me getting my deal. Getting my deal was fairly easy, you know—right place, right time-but getting it to the point where you see it at now, packaged, pressed, and in stores, that has been journey for me. But it’s a journey that I don’t regret at all because I’ve learned so much and it’s made me a stronger, better person, and a stronger, better artist. You had the “I Love You” single that did pretty good a few years back, and I know you had to be disappointed that it’s taken so long for you to get your project out. I was frustrated at the time because I was ready to come out, but looking back in hindsight, my journey has been so long that I think that the album needed revamping and refreshing. A lot of the records were old; they weren’t bad, but they were just dated. Also I had to restructure my situation; I have new management now, so this last year has been about me getting my business in order. So looking back, I’m glad that I waited, and I’m happier with the album this time around. How is it working with Bad Boy? I know you probably can’t say anything bad about your label, but— Hold on, you don’t know what I can say. Boy, let me tell you. (laughs) No, it’s up and down; it’s a job. I’m not going to sit here and say that ‘cause I’m signed to Bad Boy everything is peaches and cream, and shit is always sweet, because it’s not. It’s a job for me, and there are days when I wake up and I don’t want to be bothered. There are days when I wake up completely frustrated with a decision that’s been made about my career: maybe this song I don’t like, or maybe this look I don’t like, maybe this show they feel is important I need to do, and I may feel like, “Why do I need to do that show?” It’s up and down, its not always peaceful, and it’s not always a smooth ride, but on the flipside of that I have to thank Bad Boy because they’re giving me an outlet to get my music out to people. I have to be grateful for that, so even with all the stress and tension that comes with it sometimes, there’s still love there because I’m being given an opportunity of a lifetime. // - Eric Perrin