Interview with the Freak Like Me Singer, Adina Howard

Sex sells. Plain and simple. Whether if it's a half-naked woman on a magazine cover or a man covered in muscles and baby oil in a music video, the appealing sights sells. So music executives knew exactly what they were doing when they signed Adina Howard to their label. The overly sexual songstress made young men's palms sticky with her debut single, Freak Like Me and had women upping their phone sex skills with T-Shirt and Panties. Now on album number three, Adina Howard is bringing the real sexy back (sorry, Justin) with her latest release Private Show.

Before urban America knew Adina as the sexual showstopper, the Grand Rapids, Michigan native stated that her musical influences growing up included Prince and Madonna. Being from a very supportive family, she reflected back when her mother knew that her young daughter was a young starlet in the making.

...I don't know what my momma heard when I was a child but she would always push, push, push for me to sing. And what I sound like today, of course, I didn't sound like when I was seven years old. Back then, I couldn't sing at all so I don't know what she was hearing.

She continues.

She still has cassettes when she recorded us and I listen to myself and I'm like, "Wow." Because you know how you can listen to some seven-year olds or eight-year olds now and you know they can sing? That wasn't me.

In 1995, Adina released her single, Freak Like Me from her debut album, Do You Wanna Ride? When the song hit the radio airwaves, it sparked the revolution that made women comfortable to express their true feelings through music about love and lust. Howard recalls where she was when she first heard her single on the radio.

Los Angeles. I was driving down Sunset early in the morning. I can't remember what I was doing but I was listening to the radio. I was like "Dag, that song sounds familiar" and I said "Oh, s#*t. That's me." And I was excited and then they were like make it or break it and I had to calm down. Don't get hype now. I remember the radio station saying hmm, that's interesting. She's coming out saying this, that and the third. Let's see if the label supports this.

For anyone who has heard any of Adina's songs, whether it was T-Shirt and Panties or Nasty Grind, he or she knows that she has straight, no chaser lyrics about in-your-face sexuality at its peak. Adina says that she is a very sexual person and that when she began working on her first project, it naturally came across through her lyrics.

When men confront her especially after a show, they often expect to meet the same woman that just performed on stage but that couldn't be any further from the truth. She explains the difference between Adina and Adina Howard.

Adina Howard is the persona. She's the career woman. She's the one who is on stage singing and dancing. She's made up from head to toe. She's in drag. She's the showstopper. She's that person. She's grandiose. She's that vamp. That persona that people say "oh, my God." She's sexy. That's Adina Howard.

She goes on to describe Adina.

Adina. Toyboyish. Homebody. Just average to me in my mind. To me I'm like everybody else. When people see me and they know I'm Adina Howard especially guys... I think, this is just an assumption. I think they feel like, "oh, ok, I think I could possibly get some." Please don't get it twisted. I'm a freak, not a ho. There's a difference...

With all the men who perceive her to be a sex symbol, she says she finds actor Taye Diggs sexy because of his swagger and pretty smile. I asked her what qualities she finds attractive in a man.

A man who is intelligent. A man who is articulate and has class. A man that can dress. A man that can pay his own bills is sexy. Being able to put gas in his car if he got a car is sexy. I love to see a man in a suit and tie and when he opens his mouth, he's smooth with his conversation. His walk. A gentleman. Ghetto to me is not sexy. There are some people out there that like it but the ones with grills and sagging pants and look like they didn't wash their a#$ in morning is not sexy to me.

Women in the music industry are constantly being perceived as mere eye candy and Adina Howard is no exception. I asked her what is her perception of how women are viewed in the entertainment business and the biggest misconception about her.

For me, I don't really focus on what people think about us. To me, it's a no never mind. If we're eye candy, great, we give you something good to look at. However, if you just want to focus on surface, you are just a shallow individual because we're much deeper than that. I don't even trip off that because I know what I bring to the table. Basically when people see me and they say that's Adina Howard or they see me and they don't know who I am and "oh, she's a beautiful person" or "she's sexy" or whatever they on their minds. If they have an actual conversation with me, they will actually find out there is more to me than just the physical beauty. I don't think it is something women should even trip off of because at the end of the day, be glad that you're eye candy. That is gonna catch somebody's attention and then maybe they'll give you the opportunity to prove that you're more than that. I don't even marinate on that a lot...

With two album releases already on her resume, Howard released her third studio album entitled, Private Show. Howard says she decided to name her album after a song she recorded but the record label canned it from the project.

I liked the title so much, I decided to keep it. I decided to name the album, "Private Show." There's really no meaning behind it. It's one of those things where when you listen to it, it's me giving you a performance. I'm doing my thing for you so when you pop it in and listen to it, it's from me to you.

As much as a fan I am of Adina's, I had not heard anything about an album release but fortunately, I had her added as a friend on Myspace. Thank God for Myspace.

While artists like Rihanna and Beyonce were heavily promoted with their albums and other projects this past year, knowledge of Adina's latest release remained hush hush. She stated that the lack of promotion from her record label contributed to the hidden secret of her Private Show. Well, I hope I'm doing my part to get the word out.

Much like her prior releases, Howard's Private Show is a collection of hypersexual songs that listeners can groove to, in more ways than one. Adina says that vocally and mentally she has matured and that listeners will notice that on the album. The album according to the saucy Scorpio herself is that it is definitely for the grown and sexy. Before I ended the interview with the entertaining Adina, she had some words for her fans.

I thank them for supporting me and continuing to be there and enjoying what I do. I want them to love themselves, appreciate themselves and respect themselves. God first. Yourself second and then everybody else then after. To the young ladies out there, HIV is the number one killer of Black women between the ages of 24-35 so please make them brothers put a condom on. If you have to start going to the store and grabbing condoms yourself and carrying a variety pack around to make sure because you don't know what his size is! Be prepared. Otherwise, you might become a statistic.

For more information about Adina Howard and her album, Private Show, check her out at Myspace.com/adinahoward.