Chrisette Michele Talks About Audrey Hepburn Mixtape

Whilst retracing the footsteps of Audrey Hepburn on a trip around Europe, Chrisette Michele recently sat down with SoulCulture TV during her stay in London to talk about being inspired by the iconic actress to craft an audiovisual project in her honour – with the soulful New York native also opening up about what she finds draining about being an artist in the spotlight, and speaking on her upcoming fourth album, titled Better.

  Chrisette’s third album Let Freedom Reign was released in late 2010 through Def Jam, with scarce other recorded appearances cropping up since [Rick Ross' "Aston Martin Music" alongside Drake and the exquisite duet "Oh Yeah" with Musiq Soulchild on The Robert Glasper Experiment's recent Black Radio LP].

“I’ve been travelling a lot over the last two year period, performing a lot… and being quiet. Figuring out what’s on the inside,” she says softly, addressing her absence. I had spent so much time being loud and being seen that I needed a minute. I’m not good with the whole be-seen thing; I suck at it. So I needed a second to be quiet.”

“The stage is quiet to me too – I don’t mind an audience,” she adds. “It’s when you go outside and there’s red carpets and all that kinda stuff… Everybody’s doing things because it might get seen, nobody’s doing things because it’s the way they feel. And that’s exhausting.”

Following her truths and embracing artistic freedom, Chrisette blends her own love for ‘fashion, posing and being a lady’ with the legacy and style of Breakfast At Tiffany’s star Hepburn for her upcoming conceptual mixtape, which sprang to life from a conversation she had with Sean Garrett reminiscing on the style of The Rat Pack and Sammy Davis Jr. and a song she had recently penned titled “Dear Miss Audrey.”

“The whole concept of this mixtape for me is to say; I can’t do it because I think somebody’s gonna like it, I’m doing it because I know I have to say it,” she adds.

“It has nothing to do with what I think is acceptable or unacceptable, it has to do with what I feel like I need to say… And you’ll see it and hear it in the audiovisual presentation. “

Bemoaning typical major label release delays of her fourth album, Better, Chrisette plans a quick turnaround for her conceptual mixtape once she gets back home and hits the booth in Brooklyn – stay tuned for An Audiovisual Presentation Of Audrey Hepburn on December 8th.

Courtesy of SoulCulture