y l t n e i t a PWaiting They say you can tell a lot about a person by their name. On his Slip N’ Slide/Jive debut, singer and songwriter, Qwote, definitely lives up to his. “There a storyline behind everything that I write,” he says of his narrative album, Qwote Unqwote, due out this summer. “I set it up for the listeners from the beginning to the end. I talk about real life affairs.” Earning the nickname Lil’ Qwote as kid after folks in his neighborhood realized he’d call fraudulent characters out on anything they said in a heartbeat, the 25 year-old prides himself on speaking nothing but the truth. His dance track featuring Trina, “Don’t Wanna Fight,” starts the album off just the way he wanted, capturing a universal, but down home sound. “This is a classic album,” he says confidently. “The lyrics actually have substance. It’s really an emotional [record].” Born in Haiti and raised in Miami, Qwote remembers his grandmother filling the house with the soulful sounds of Sam Cooke and the Temptations. Calling upon those influences to help shape his own musical identity, Qwote got his start writing for other artists. He worked extensively on Trina’s latest album. Impressed with his abilities, Slip N’ Slide decided to sign him in 2007. From there he inked a distribution deal with Jive Records
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after flying out to New York and impressing the label’s CEO Barry Weiss. Illustrating his agility with the pen, Qwote’s Final Cut/Slip-N-Slide/Jive debut bounces and weaves between pleads of apology on the woeful “I’m Sorry” to tales about wanting to break up with a girl on “Rose on a Lonely Sunday.” And while he says his album appeals to everyone, Qwote is really all about speaking to the ladies. “We be messing up so much, man,” he chuckles. “I want to please the ladies and I want to use it as a manual for the fellas too. We gotta get it together. I want this album to help keep relationships happy.” With Jim Jonsin, Mr. Collipark and Lil Jon (who he says is “cool as hell” to work with) behind the boards, Qwote is confident his project will reach all kinds of listeners. “I want this album to introduce me to the world,” he says. “This is the gift that God gave me. I want it to show that I was meant for this industry.” And you can quote him on that. - Words by Jacinta Howard // Photo by Bogan