Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment as a solo artist. Many were surprised when the group split. Stewart’s solo album Floetic Soul was released in 2010 and last year, Ambrosius dropped her album, Late Nights and Early Mornings. But Stewart’s new single, “Soul ,” released last month, and upcoming album Floetry Re:Birth is most reflective of the split.įor years, Stewart remained mum on the parting, while Ambrosius was more vocal. Ambrosius told Honey Mag in 2010 that Stewart left the group and it was “the biggest heartbreak” she ever had to go through. However, “Soul” details Stewart’s side of the story as she sings, “I just can’t sell my soul,” which has led many to speculate that there is animosity between the former musical partners. “It’s not a negative song!” Stewart quickly corrects. “The vibration and ebb and flow of Floetry is very precious to me. I never wanted it to be tacked on to any negative vibrations,” she explains as her reason for staying silent. Though she does admit she was put off by Ambrosius’ 2007 mixtape entitled Neo Soul is Dead.“I was hurt by the language used in that,” she says. Stewart’s second studio album, Floetry Re:Birth, counts as the first Floetry album in six years - though Ambrosius is nowhere to be heard on it. We wrote that song together, so Marsha was included on the album as best as I could include her.” “I did everything I could to get Marsha on the record and the best I could do was to do a re-interpretation of “Say Yes” to honor the 10 years. Stewart makes up for the lack of The Songstress by collaborating with other artists, such as Raheem DeVaughn and South African artist Thandiswa Mazwai. “Floetry is a genre and over the next 10 years I hope to be able to assist more artists to create their own floetry.” “It’s not about trying to replace Marsha because Marsha is irreplaceable,” she says. Stewart looks back on Floetry with fondness, though attention was never what she was seeking. “I never actually grew up saying I wanted to be a recording artist. “Writing has always been my first love and music came to me.” I was a writer and a performer who studied theater,” she explains. Stewart, who describes herself as an army brat, was born in Germany but was quickly uprooted, with her family, and moved to Hong Kong where she began school.
They later moved to London where she was raised, along with her older brother and sister (she now has a younger sister as well). It was at the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology where Stewart met singer Ambrosius, with whom she later formed Floetry in 1999.
in 2000 and the success happened from there. Not only did they pen hits for themselves, like “Say Yes” and “Getting Late ,” they also collaborated with other notable artists like Jill Scott, Bilal and Michael Jackson. Stewart cites her time working with musical icon Prince as one of her most insightful encounters. “He predicted the challenges the group would face,” she says. “I don’t have a song with Prince, but the collaboration of his spirit is very important. He told us, ‘Floetry will never end because Floetry is more than a name. As long as that’s remembered, Floetry will always live.'”Īs far as reuniting with Ambrosius in the future, Stewart says the door is always open. I feel grateful for everything that has been and highly anticipate everything to come.”įloetry Re:Birth will be available Nov. Follow on Twitter for more information.For our latest Retro Neo, we spoke with Xavier Omär, who talked about borrowing from D’Angelo, the gospel qualities of Floetry’s “Say Yes,” and what has changed the most about neo-soul. Instead of yearning for closure he asks “can I get reparations for the pain?” The seductive poeticism that Omär produces is reminiscent of the nimble lyricism of Musiq Soulchild. For Omär, Soulchild’s music - as is with neo-soul - has a special place in music. “Neo-soul can be based much more in feeling than R&B, which can lean to more pop style melodies,” Xavier Omär told Okayplayer.
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