Interviews

Published on May 22nd, 2019 | by Guest Contributor

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Stokley (Of Mint Condition) Operating Off of His Own “Soul Clock!”

Mint Condition has cemented its legacy amongst the top of the R&B/New Jack Swing era genre. Lead singer, Stokley explains the journey, solo efforts, and future plans!  As a band, Mint Condition has provided the world with 35+ years of hits. Their sound ranged from, jazz, R&B, new jack swing, soul, funk as well as rock. The Grammy-nominated, Twin Cities band released their debut album, “Meant to be Mint,” in 1991 and would go on to release 8-more albums as a band.

Lead singer, Stokley Williams, was the vocal juggernaut of the band. His range and versatility were showcased on some of Mint’s biggest hits, such as, “Breakin’ My Heart” (Pretty Brown Eyes), “U Send Me Swingin,” and “What Kind of Man Would I Be!” In 2011, Stokley would team with, Kelly Price and the duo produced a certified hit, “Not My Daddy,” which appeared on her album, “Kelly. It was nominated for a Grammy for “Best R&B Performance.” In 2017, Stokley released his first solo project titled, “Introducing Stokley.

I recently spoke to, Stokley who opened his versatility being the key to his longevity, his most fulfilling moment as an artist and much more!

The Hype Magazine: It’s a pleasure speaking to you. How is everything going? How have you been?

Stokley: It’s beautiful, man. Everything is great, man. Just moving forward; maintaining and gaining.

The Hype Magazine: Your discography is insane. You have worked with so many amazing artists. What would you say has been your most fulfilling moment outside of your solo project and the work with Mint Condition?

Stokley: I would have to say, one of the most fulfilling creative and surprising moments, a lot of dynamics go into it, but this group I played without of France called, Ursus Minor. Just because as a musician and a true artist, that’s what that project is all about. Being able to create whatever. It could be something kind of avant garde; in that genre. Where it’s just totally free. And then not only that, once you put music like that out there, anything you want to do, there is a captive audience. So, people who are actually into it, it’s like, man, you can do anything from something more of a rock-n-roll edge to something more classical and people are with you on it. They understand what it is. So, that’s probably outside of myself and Mint is probably the most fulfilling projects that I have done that’s most recent. Of course, there have been things in the past that were very fulfilling for me as well. A lot of things that still helps form me in my past before, Mint. Before the infancy stages before, Mint when I was coming through.

The Hype Magazine: You got your start in 1984, I was 4-years old and here I am at 38-years of age conducting an interview with you about your music. Have the keys to your longevity just been based around you being so versatile and being able to do so many different things musically?

Stokley: Well, I think that’s just it. Doing so many things keeps your artistry alive. I continue to have joined crafts and continue to push the envelope for myself and try to push limits and reach those limits. As I’m tipping off each plateau, I make sure I push myself to the next one to see what’s going to happen. That kind of vibe. I think you always have to stay into what you’re doing and grow yourself. Never be stagnant. That’s the key. Stay curious. What’s the commercial say, “Stay thirsty my friends!” (Laughing).

The Hype Magazine: I think it is somewhat shocking… actually a lot shocking that it took until 2017 to get a solo album from you. Was it just always more about the band? Why did that take so long to come to fruition?

Stokley: It was absolutely about the band. It was about where I was at artistically mainly. That’s pretty much what it is. They say, you could have done this year’s ago, yeah, of course. I move to do things on my own time, I have my own soul clock. I’m not on society’s time, I’m not on the music industry’s time. “You need to do it now!” I lost a lot of possible gains I’m sure, but I gotta be cool and good and satisfied by how I move and who I am. I gotta be able to cope with what I am, who I am and how I move. I do it now because I’ve been moved to do it. God called me to do it and my spirit said, now is the time. I’m so proud of the music that I have created with the brother’s from, Mint Condition. It’s an amazing, thick, rich legacy for us, for the culture for people to go back and let it instruct them on how to put together great music and great songs. For men to get together, black men to get together and do what we did, stay together and build something. Stand for something and get past some of those barriers that was put in front of us. So, it was a lot of that. It felt so good to be a part of that. Being a part of something bigger than myself and it’s always about that, I think. Those are some of the reasons that I felt that music and that institution and that university is important for me to stick around, stay there and stay focused on that. At the end of the day, a person can always do it themselves. That’s the easiest thing in the world to do. I’ve always liked a challenge. I think it sometimes can be a challenge once you’ve built a brand up and then you break off and do something else. But again, it goes back to your first question and it’s about staying hungry and, on the edge, and fight for things. If everything is handed to you, man what fun is that?

The Hype Magazine: I’m sure the art of forming a band and maintaining a band for such a long period of time while combining so many different personalities and everyone brought something different to the table, but egos had to be put to the side I’m sure. How did you guys make it work?

Stokley: Absolutely! Each one has a rich history of whatever they bring. It was a learning process, man. I think God put each one of us in each other’s path for a reason. I really do believe that. And, we made so much great music together. We lifted each other up, learned so many lessons and not just in music, but coming from young men to grown men. From adolescence to young men to grown men. To have our own families and all these different things on the outside. Just being able to deal with the even flow of human behavior within what we do. With the music industry and everything that comes with it. It’s both unique and not unique. Everybody has their path that they have to ride down and figure out how you can cope with it. We’ve been blessed to do what we love to do and make some other things out of it and here we are, man.

The Hype Magazine: The song, “Breakin’ My Heart (Pretty Brown Eyes) dates back to 1991 but looking at it in today’s stream and viewership world, the video has 22 million views and the live performance version is up to 13 million views.

Stokley: Is that right? Wow!

The Hype Magazine: Absolutely! Given the demographic that YouTube reaches, that has to be a great feeling that not only the people from that generation obviously still looks up and plays the song, but the newer generation does as well.

Stokley: It’s a beautiful feeling and that’s what music is for, man. It’s here forever. To inspire, to uplift, to create or to help you get over a hump that you need to get over. You know, whatever that is to get you to the next phase. Our catalog and legacy is intact. It’s doing what it’s supposed to be doing which is inspiring and educational at times when it has to be. I hear from a lot of different people from a lot of different walks of life telling me what our music means to them. So, yeah man it’s a beautiful feeling. And we really do it for the spirit and not the numbers or awards or anything as artists. It feels good to us; we were just reflecting what we saw. This is the gift that keeps giving and that’s how you know it was real and true.

The Hype Magazine: I know it’s not about the numbers because you actually asked if that was right. You had no idea it was viewed that much.

Stokley: Yeah! It’s for ya’ll. It’s for the people, man.

The Hype Magazine: I’m sure you are tired of hearing this, but I love the song, “What Kind of Man Would I Be,” but I don’t want to love it because I’m sure those lyrics preventing a lot of things from happening because it was like your conscious talking to you.

Stokley: It’s the song that brother’s hate to love (laughing). But it’s real. This comes from real conversation and real talk. Just humans being humans. We ain’t perfect. We got a lot of things that we do that we get ourselves in hot water sometimes and this is just one of those conversations that either one or all of us or none of us have been in at one time or another and everybody goes through it. I think that’s the thing that resonated with people. We always tried to find topics and phrases and titles and concepts that resonated with as many people as possible. And we made it as unique as possible and I think that’s what touched the heart. It’s nothing new under the sun it’s just how we tell our stories. But you know, as all storytellers and poets and song writers… it’s what we do. We try to find our own little unique corner and you say what it is, and you speak the truth.

The Hype Magazine: That’s why I enjoy the “Introducing Stokley” album because you stayed true to who you are and you didn’t play with them, almost necessary evils of today like, autotune and the collab with the hottest rapper. You stayed true to your sound and I know that’s important to you.

Stokley: Yeah, I think it’s important. Again, I’m just magnifying who we are as people. That’s just not being this cookie cut… everybody comes from a different mother. We all have a mother; we have a father and we all come out unique and all I wanted to do was just amplify who I am at this point in my life. I do music. I have a unique set of gifts and certain skill sets. Some that haven’t been all the way explored and that’s what I’m doing now. I think it’s really important to stick to that and make sure I’m focused on that, along with keeping your ear to the street and knowing what’s going on socially and sonically. All of that is great because I think that people always want to hear something familiar. It’s great to know what time it is, but make sure you’re in line with yourself because that’s what people love about you. You’re unique and it may take you, what I call the slow drip method. You want as many people to hear your music at one time just to be on the same accord, but sometimes it takes a minute. That way is just more tried and true. It gets in people’s system and kind of permeates in there and then it builds and builds and it’s like, “I really like this. I really get it.” Because sometimes you may not get it off of a first listen. That’s something we said about real art. If you go look at an art piece, like a visual artist, you may look at it five times. You got that painting up in your room and then you see it from a different angle and realize you never seen that shape or that color. I see a face in there now. So, this is sonic art for me. You may put on a set of headphones and you may hear something the tenth time you listen to it, hopefully you listen to it that many times. And it’s like, “Oh, I never heard that. I never heard that bell in there. I never heard this melody; that whisper.” That’s what it is. I want you to listen to it from a different perspective. Or a lyric. “Ah, I thought this always meant this, but it actually means this.” I want everybody to get something different from it each time. That’s the true art that’s in it because it’s a lot of layers that we put into it. It is a lot of time that we spend adding these layers, colors and textures.

The Hype Magazine: Prince was a major influence for you musically. Being from Minnesota helped that I’m sure. In 2017, you had the opportunity to honor him during a concert with the “Revolution” members. What was that experience like for you?

Stokley: It’s amazing. He’s influenced the world; so many different people. Of course, he’s been an influence here in the Twin Cities and everybody around here as he was for the whole industry at that time. Whether it be a look, whether it be a sound or that kind of thing. That’s been great to be a part of that whole legacy. Knowing him and having him kind of champion what, Mint has done and what I’m doing now, he’s a part of that. Also, with the “Revolution” and me having an opportunity to play with them. That whole “Purple Family” has been an amazing experience. I really enjoyed that. It’s a special thing and again, I just come at a time where this unique individual shined his light on the world and I got a chance to meet him, he had a chance to respect what I do and that’s everything. Anytime you can meet some of your musical heroes or whatever kind of hero. Anytime you can meet someone like that, and they interact with you and say, “You know what, I love what you’re doing. Good job and I respect it;” that’s everything. It was a beautiful thing.

The Hype Magazine: You were also a part of “Black Men United.” You guys recorded a song titled, “You Will Know.” I loved the song, I love the selection of artists picked for it and I found myself trying to think of 12-15 artists today who could pull something like that off and no disrespect to anyone, I had a tough time thinking of that many artists who could pull off what, “BMU” did back in 1994.

Stokley: That’s really interesting that you say that because when I think about it… we were in our twenties or whatever it was. And I think about, who in their twenties could do that right now? There’s not many. You could pick people, but it might end up sounding the same. I think the voices at that time in R&B were so distinctive. You got, Tevin Campbell, myself and just so many different sounds. They all sounded different. You knew what it was. Gerald Levert has a very distinct sound. I’m trying to figure it out now because the sound of the industry right now…there’s a certain frequency that everyone is singing. I was just talking to somebody the other day about this, the frequency that has left and gone and we could get into a whole different space, but the baritone voice like a Barry White. That’s gone. You don’t even hear that anymore. Where is that? Everybody is kind of in this upper register thing and that’s great, but where are the differences. But, it’s really interesting you say that. So, I’m going to think about that, who under thirty could pull that off. That’s interesting you brought that up.

The Hype Magazine: You made a great point about the different sounds because I could literally hear, “You Will Know,” not look at the screen and say, “That’s Stokley, that’s Aaron Hall, that’s Tevin Campbell… Raphael Saadiq,” and so on. You can’t do that today.

Stokley: Right! Exactly! That’s my ear. Somebody else might see it differently. And I can tell the difference in some singers if I really know them, but it’s just not a big difference it seems like because everybody’s kind of doing the same kind of music, same kind of style and vibe.

The Hype Magazine: You mentioned meeting and speaking with your heroes, well, anytime you have the opportunity to speak to a legend you do it and it’s been a pleasure and honor speaking to you, Stokley. Is there anything else you would like to add?

Stokley: Thank you, man. That’s it. Make sure you check up on me and let folks know about my socials, @stokleyofficial and that’s Twitter, Instagram and all the rest. I got the new project coming out. I got “Sonic” coming out. The new single will be hitting probably in the next month or two. Definitely, be looking out for that. It’s going to be something crazy. There will be a lot of fire on it.

By Percy Crawford


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