words: Tajha Myer-Ferreira

From selling demos in Detroit back in 1998 from the trunk of his car to becoming a Grammy- nominated artist in the 2000s working with the likes of Kanye West and David Banner, Soul star, Dwele, has just returned with his fourth masterpiece and does not disappoint.
Seven or eight years in the making, W.ants W.orld W.omen takes us to a side of Dwele he’s never shown us before. “How can I make it possible for me to show my other side without stepping too far out of my element, without turning people off, and how can I still give them what I’m used to giving them. I wanted to bring a different me to the circuit,” he explains..

W.ants W.orld W.omen is an expression of Dwele’s personal experiences and political views as he describes it. “It’s soul music wearing different hats,” he says. The record breaks down into three sections: “The Want section is my alter ego. The World section is recapturing the climate of the economy right now and the Women section is the baby-making music [laughs], the feel good music for the woman.”

Like his infusion of R&B and Hip Hop on Sketches of a Man and the vintage soul of Subject, W.ants W.orld W.omen, is inspired by the likes of soul legends that he grew up listening to, Donnie Hathaway, Marvin Gaye: “When you hear their music now, you feel exactly what the climate was at the time, and that’s the job of musicians, to talk about the world’s situation. Because I was raised on hip hop, I was raised on soul music and jazz music, when I produce or write a song, it all comes out of me.”

Born and raised in Detroit, with an appetite for music from the age of six, after the fatal shooting of his father at the age of ten outside their Detroit home, music since became a way of self-healing: “I kinda make music for me to get things off my chest, to get my feelings out. I write retrospectively,” he says. “Every album I write from a personal perspective. I’m influenced by life experiences, things that I’ve been through, what my peoples have been through and also I write about things I want to go through, situations I wanna be in sometimes.”

With over ten years in the game, Dwele, now 32 years-old, never expected he would make it this far after beginning his musical career as a rapper. “In 1998 I was a rapper, then I had the idea I’d be a singer in 2000,” he said. Selling his first demo “Rize” to his local fans from the trunk of his car to topping the R&B charts with the release of his current collaboration with Kanye West, ‘Power’ , and the first single from Dwele’s new album, ‘Whats not to love’. Dwele agrees that W.ants W.orld W.omen should appeal to more than just Dwele’s devoted fan base. “I think this album kinda spans a more wider age range based on the twitter posts etc, it’s opening me up to a whole another audience.”

With a growing reputation in the UK, Dwele is expected to come to the UK on tour when he sets off on his world tour later this year: “We got Africa coming up in September, a Europe tour for October or November. I can’t wait to get to the UK. I love the UK. The UK is my 2nd home. I love the women, I love the accents. I can’t wait to get back.”

W.ants W.orld W.oman is out now and features guest spots from David Banner, Raheem Devaughn, Monica Blaire, DJ Quik.

Here’s some classic Dwele G from the vaults…