Favorite Memories: Shei Atkins And Kelly Rowland & The Switch To R&B

For those of you who don't know me, I'm Shei Atkins. I have three albums out...first one came out in '04. Last one came out in 2007. It's been 3 years since I've released and album. I'm currently working on my new album which will be out 2011. Why has it been so long you ask? Because I had to pray and get direction from and God and learn some things before I came back out confidently. I was able to write a book "Get a Man, Keep a Man" during my down time though. Please support and go get it.

Okay back to the story...All three of my previous albums have a mixture of R&B and Gospel. So ppl were always confused about what style of music I sang. All I knew was that I wanted to help people. I've been married for 9 years, and we almost didn't make it that first year. We survived our storm and what I went through in my marriage created a strong passion and desire in me to help ppl in relationships. I make it a purpose to share my wisdom with the world b/c I know ppl need to hear it. When I write a song, I write what I feel and what I believe the music is saying. I don't write with the focus of it fitting a certain genre. I love all styles of music.

When some ppl heard R&B on my albums they were like, this is not gospel. And you know what? They were right. My albums were not what you would call a traditional gospel album. My music is inspirational...but at the end of the day, there is no inspirational category in the industry. And when it comes down to business, labels want to know how they will be able to market you and make money with your product..... no matter what your personal vision is. So my next album is R&B bc I don't wanna be limited in my subject matter with ppl confused of what I do. First I was scared to say I did R&B bc of fear of being judged. But I know who I am now and what I was put here for. When you're sure of yourself, you don't have 2 prove anything to anybody.

Sometimes I'd go to Walmart just to look at my albums in there. It's a blessing to see your albums in Walmart.lol They had some of my albums in the R&B section and some were in Gospel section. So even Walmart didn't know where to put it.lol It's not that I personally was doing anything wrong, it's just when it comes to being on a record label, you have to be able to market your artist. Unless the artist doesn't mind not being signed and is willing to make the sacrifice of selling it themselves....especially if they don't want to boxed into a certain genre. Then you can pretty much do what you want.

I was getting judged a lot by "ppl" because they couldn't put me in that genre box. A genre doesn't define who I am as a person. My lifestyle and my character does. I don't judge people and I don't like how others are judged because of what genre of music they sing. It's wrong to judge people and assume they aren't right with God and are off the world just because they sing something besides gospel music. You've got some bad apples in every genre including gospel. Whether you know it or not, all R&B isn't bad. It's the lyrics that make a song bad. Just like money isn't bad, it's what you do with the money that makes it bad.

My tolerance level was getting low with the judgment. I had my fans who loved me on one side and I had people judging me on the other side. I did understand that everyone wouldn't understand my vision, but it got to the point to where I just wanted to give up. I wasn't doing anything wrong, BUT I wasn't embraced by gospel all the way, and as I look back on it I understand why now. The truth of the matter is that, it wasn't all gospel so I can see why they kept asking me what style of music I did. During that time I had some great ride or die fans who still held me down, but when you look at what's going wrong in your life instead of what's going right, you lose focus and give up. That's what I did.

My last album "Girl Talk" came out in 2007. I felt in my heart to encourage the ladies and share my story and what I've learned. This is not every singer's calling, but it's mine. Even though my album Girl Talk had just come out, I still gave up. I said you know what, I can't do this anymore. The thing was, I was living for people and worried about what they thought of me, instead of doing what God put in me to do. You've heard of life after death right? Well God told me people don't know how to live life after church. The world needs people like Tyler Perry, Shei Atkins, Anthony Hamilton, Steve Harvey, etc to be lights b/c in reality we are the church. But there are so many ppl without that revelation.

I've seen many folks get through shouting and speaking in tongues and go right back to cheating on their spouses. I've seen young girls and boys leave church and the same week go back to sleeping around. I've seen many divorces in and out the church. People write me everyday about how to handle different situations in their marriage saved or not. People need what I have inside me. My music is for after you leave the church house. Do you know that about 50% of CHRISTIAN marriages end in divorce? But I was judged for singing songs that spoke life into people. That hurt me so bad.

Worship is a lifestyle, not a genre of music. Somewhere it was passed from generation to generation that if you sang gospel, you were right with God. If you sing gospel and don't live it, it defeats the purpose. And if you sing any other style of music and don't live for God, your life is still meaningless. God took me to the Book in the Bible called Song of Solomon. That book is all about love, and relationships and is full of letters of a couple expressing their love for one another. Check it out, you'll be surprised at what you find in the book. The body of Christ is bigger than a music genre. If you are a finger in the body of Christ, you can't look at the toe trying to get it to function like a finger. Every part of the body of Christ is unique and beneficial and if we all work together, we would be so much more powerful.

Even though I had the revelation that I was doing nothing wrong, I gave up because other people didn't see it and I let it stop me at one point. In my mind, Shei Atkins was dead. I said Lord, Shei Atkins is over. I'm done with her. My fans were writing me everyday and still do, telling me how my music has been a blessing to them and how they appreciated my realness. People were writing saying how I helped their marriage and young girls were confiding me and wanted advice on how to live life the godly way. So I knew I was on the right track. But at that point, it didn't matter. I was done. Listen, if you're doing something God told you to do, everyone might not see it. You will want to give up at times but keep going anyway. Not everyone needs what you have but there are many that do need what's inside of you.

A few months after I had threw in the towel, I got a phone call from Kim Burse around February 2008. I had an opportunity to sing background for Kelly Rowland. Not only would I sing background for her, we were going to London and Germany. I hopped on it with the quickness. Kelly and I had the same manager when I first started doing music in 1994, so it was great to hook up with her again. To me, that opportunity was God's way of saying I haven't forgotten about you daughter. That was just the boost I needed to get back into music.

If you are reading this blog, I encourage you not to judge people based on a style of music. This thing is bigger than that. Man made those genre titles up, not God. God is more concerned about HOW you live than WHAT you sing. The word does say you can tell a tree by it's fruit though. When a person has that close relationship with God, they'll be cautious of what comes out of their mouth and very cautious of how they use their influence. You can't be so busy judging people that you don't have time to love them. Even if you don't agree with what an artist sings, loving them will win over way before judging will.

People don't want to get saved when all they see is finger pointing. You have to show them Christ by your love. When ppl don't know God or read His word, You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips. Remember that next time you wanna judge somebody. I want to say that regardless of what genre of music I sing, know that I'm on a mission for God to go out INTO the world and be a godly example. If you can't see and understand my vision, just pray for me. Don't judge me. It might not be for you, but know that I'm on God's side and have fans that love me.

I got a chance to meet some very great people on the trip such as Wyclef and Kim Burse, Beyonce's Creative Director and many others. From the Kelly Rowland experience, I learned that God places people in your life for a reason and he opens doors for you to go places to be a blessing to others through that experience. I was able to do that. This experience will forever be one of my favorites. Thank you Kim Burse for thinking of me. You called me at a time when I had given up on Shei Atkins, and God used YOU to light a spark in me and I'll never forget it. Thank you and I love you.

Check out some video's from my great experience of singing background for Kelly Rowland......