On July 15, Marsha Ambrosius will release her sophomore album Friends & Lovers featuring production from Pop & Oak, Da Internz, Eric Hudson, and J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League.
The gifted singer-songwriter, who’s worked with everyone from Michael Jackson to Dr. Dre, recently sat down with Rap-Up TV to discuss her famous collaborators and the follow-up to her 2011 debut, which she calls her “baby.”
“It’s been a tedious, very rewarding journey as far as creating the album, but that’s what I do. I make albums,” she said. “I had to live and breathe this, whether that was the heartache, whether that was getting over it, whether that was lust, love, fuck, love, whatever it was, I had to be there. For me, that’s what I’ve been enjoying the most is living it.”
She also revealed that every song on the album will have a visual starting with the single “Run.” “I have to make a movie surrounding this album. Everything’s gonna have a video. Everything will have a story behind it. It really is the sequel to what Late Nights & Early Mornings was. Late Nights & Early Mornings resulted in some Friends & Lovers.”
In addition to working on her album, she has been back in the studio with Dr. Dre. “This is our seventh year. We went to Hawaii just before the end of last year for a couple of weeks and got to really cram in with the production team that he’s got going now, Focus and the squad, so we’ve been working. You’ll get to slowly see the work.”
But if you’re still waiting for Detox, don’t hold your breath. “Detox was a title that was thrown around so many years ago,” said Marsha. “There’s so many other things in the works for you to not have to be concerned about anyone detoxing. It sounds like a fitness center now. No. You’ll see something else.”
Plus, she’s collaborated with her longtime friend Kanye West. “I don’t know what it’s for, but there’s a couple of things floating around. You’ll hear them soon.”