Producer and songwriter Raphael Saadiq is getting ready to expose himself.
Though known for performing with Tony! Toni! Toné! and Lucy Pearl, next month he'll be on his own for the first time when he releases "Be Here," the lead single
from his debut solo album, Instant Vintage (May 28).
The groove-laden, sensual R&B song features murky beats, a funky rhythm and sultry vocals by Saadiq and ladies' man D'Angelo.
"It's talking about your girl," Saadiq explained from his studio in North Hollywood. "Maybe she's out of town or maybe you just bought an apartment and you're trying to convince her to move with you. But it's saying, 'You should be here. You don't need to be across town. You should be with me.' That's something I've experienced from being on the road touring or traveling, but I think it's something every man can understand. Like, you could be in the military like those cats over in Afghanistan now. They probably all wish their wives and girlfriend could be with them."
This weekend, Saadiq will make his directorial debut shooting the video for "Be Here" with D'Angelo. The clip will be filmed in and around Saadiq's studio, Blakeslee Recording Company, and on location in Los Angeles. It'll feature shots of the two crooners pining away for their girlfriends while a bevy of beauties flocks around them.
"There are gonna be a lot of girls hanging outside this old, beat-up apartment, and we're just kind of ignoring them, waiting there for our girls to show up," said Saadiq, who will be filmed eating alone, doing dishes and gazing longingly at a picture of his girl. D'Angelo will be depicted in a similarly melancholy light, distractedly channel surfing and talking on his cell phone.
"Our girls never really show up until the end of the video," said Saadiq. " It's gonna be shot really artsy and kinda funky. It ain't gonna be your typical bootie-shakin' video, but there's gonna be some booty in it."
Saadiq and D'Angelo will reconvene later in the year to help produce D'Angelo's next album. Saadiq is also planning to do some production work on Justin Timberlake's solo disc and has recently worked with Kelly Price and TLC, whose T-Boz guests on the Instant Vintage track "Different Times."
This report is from MTV News.
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