If you think you know Chanté Moore, guess again. With the release of her fourth album, the aptly titled Exposed, she’s ready to reveal sides of herself that her legions of fans have never seen.
ΓÇ£I just wanted to keep moving forward,ΓÇ¥ she says about the pleasingly short time between her last album This Moment Is Mine and Exposed. ΓÇ£It had been three years between A Love Supreme and This Moment Is Mine, and I didnΓÇÖt want to take that long again. I decided to go straight into the studio and start writing with my collaborators Laney Stewart and Katrina Willis. We just started feeling things out, not really having specific ideas in mind, but just getting whatever music was in us OUT.ΓÇ¥
ΓÇ£We came up with 'Train Of Thought' and 'Bitter' right away,ΓÇ¥ continues the California native, ΓÇ£which started shaping what I wanted this record to be, which is more of me. It just feels like all of the extra things are stripped down.ΓÇ¥
With Exposed, Chanté explores the deeper (and sometimes darker) facets of personal life, daring to take her listeners along for the ride.
ΓÇ£IΓÇÖm very idealistic, both in my thinking and my writing. I like things that are pretty and euphoric. But life isnΓÇÖt like that all of the time. So even though I like writing about those feeling, I havenΓÇÖt really tapped into the other side, which is what I think weΓÇÖve achieved with this recordΓÇöa little less poetic and a little more blunt.ΓÇ¥
But before you start to think that Chanté Moore is shaping a new image for herself, she’s quick to explain that nothing’s really changed. It’s just a different side of the same smooth R&B artist that listeners have come to know and love ever since the release of her 1992 debut, Precious.
“Exposed is definitely me. I don’t want to give off the impression that I’ve become some other girl, you know, 'the new Chanté Moore.' I love mood music, music that puts you in a place and makes you think and feel. I think we’ve still done that on Exposed, but with some up-tempo music and some different ideas about how to approach a love song, or a song about not being happy. It’s a little different, but it’s still me.”
One of the biggest surprises on Exposed is the very new presence of hip-hop in Chanté’s music, with Chicago rapper Da Brat showing up on the song “Take Care Of Me.”
“I have Da Brat on my album because I just love her,” Chanté enthuses about working with the provocative rapper. “I thought she’d be on one of the Jermaine Dupri tracks, naturally,” she says in reference to one of R&B’s most respected producers (and a regular Chanté Moore collaborator). “But when I heard the track produced by Tim & Bob, I knew that was the one. I could just hear her sassy voice on it before she even got there. It’s strange to think that I have a rapper on my record, but it fits perfectly with the album.”
Chanté also spent some quality studio time with producers Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, two men that need no introduction and have produced a good chunk of most good R&B record collections. “We ended up doing two songs together this time,” she says of the duo, which was responsible for her smash hit “Chanté’s Got A Man.”
ΓÇ£TheyΓÇÖre great, period,ΓÇ¥ she raves. ΓÇ£They make me sing a song over and over and over and over, to get the best possible take. Even when I donΓÇÖt think I can sing it again, Jimmy says, ΓÇÿYou got one more in yaΓÇÖ,'" she laughs.
One of those Jam & Lewis productions is also one of ExposedΓÇÖs most personal moments, the albumΓÇÖs closer, ΓÇ£LoveΓÇÖs Still Alright.ΓÇ¥ "IΓÇÖve been disappointed and had my heart broken in the past, [but] love is still constant,ΓÇ¥ is how she sums it up. ΓÇ£My mother once wrote me the most special letter, where she talked about how she saw the way I found the strength to never give up on love, even after the heartbreak and disappointment. Sometimes, you need for someone to look at you for you to realize the true value of yourself. 'LoveΓÇÖs Still Alright' reminds me of that. Even though bad stuff has happened, I still look forward to more love and to giving my heart again and being vulnerable again. I just love to be in love.ΓÇ¥
One of the most real moments on Exposed is the song “Bitter,” which finds Chanté getting frank about the bitter side of love. “There are so many ways to look at that song. Honestly, 'Bitter' started out as a joke. Somebody kept calling me on my phone, and whenever it would ring, I’d be like, 'Please don’t let it be him.’ At the time, Laney was playing this really beautiful melody, and I just started singing this line, ‘Stop ringing my phone, ni—a.’ Then the joke turned into a real song."
Another song sure to raise some eyebrows is “I’m Keeping You,” in which Chanté reclaims her man’s love from another woman. “It’s a song about a woman and her husband, and we find out in the first verse he has a mistress,” she explains. “The song says that she’s gonna love him so right that he’s gonna forget about this woman. Sometimes, these things do happen. I’m not saying take everything from every man, but if a man makes one indiscretion, get to the root of the problem and deal with it. But if it’s the wrong man, by all means let him go.”
It’s the close and personal rapport that Chanté has with her audience that fuels her introspective songs and their deep meanings. “I think that’s what I was put here to do: to talk about my own life and my own views. I like to be able to expose my experiences so that people know they are not alone. Sometimes people will come to me like, ‘Girl, your music got me through a time when my heart was broken.’ That makes such a big difference. I know that I’ve been alone, and my heart was broken and I felt like no one cared, and those certain songs made me feel like I wasn’t alone. If I can give others that assurance, then that’s what I want to do. That is a blessing for me.”
So the evolution of Chanté Moore continues, always pushing her forward, looking for new ways to express the endless supply of emotions and details of love, life, and beyond.
ΓÇ£IΓÇÖm really happy with this album,ΓÇ¥ she says finally. ΓÇ£I donΓÇÖt want to throw my long-time fans off thatΓÇÖs too out there, so I made sure to include songs especially for them. But I also went somewhere new. I donΓÇÖt necessarily write for the world, but for myself and the people my music touches.ΓÇ¥
