She also has a neverending stream of songs in her head that she attributes at least in part to attention-deficit disorder, a condition that she calls “a gift.”īut it wasn’t until the day a high school track coach stopped her in the hallway - Chrisette had been jogging down the corridor singing - that her artistic fate was sealed. Still, Chrisette Michele describes herself as “a kid of the hip-hop culture” who didn’t have MTV, but sang and freestyled in impromptu rap circles at school. That’s quite a statement for someone with a family full of clergy, who led the gospel choir in high school and college but never got a CD until she was 17. “I was preparing in my head how I would say, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t do this,'” says the singer-songwriter of her meeting with the hip-hop mogul.īut after Jay-Z played the track, which deals with commitment, friendship and death, “I looked at him and said, ‘Yo, this song is spiritual.’ This song is about self-respect.” Chrisette pauses for a moment. The 23-year-old Long Islander was on her way to a studio to write and record the hook for “Lost One,” the first single off of Jay-Z’s album “Kingdom Come.” She hadn’t heard the rest of the song yet, but the deacon’s daughter wondered if it might be too explicit for her strong moral code. It was after church on a Sunday, and Chrisette Michele had God and hip-hop on her mind.
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