Russell Simmons' Last Discovery: Case

Welcome to younghollywood. com. Hey Young Hollywood, it's Michelle Marie. I am sitting here with R&B man right here. This is Case. Tell us about how you got discovered. I know it was by Russell Simmons. What was it like working with him?

Actually, I'm the last artist that Russell signed personally to Def Jam. So, I had that distinction. Russell was very cool. I had a song on my demo that was written by Faith Evans and he heard it and he was like, I'm signing him and that he actually signed me off of that song.

Did he give you any words of wisdom?

Russell is like a walking quote factory.

Remember one of them?

He just told me to just know who I am and he always told me how much he believed in me and for me to always believe in myself and just stay focused on what I had to do and don't let nobody change that.

Missing you. That was actually one of my favorite songs. It reminds me of a breakup and I'm sure everyone says that to you.

They say that. Yeah, everybody says that. Joe wrote that song actually. And um, the reason why I was able to deliver it the way I was is that like you said, everybody's been through that before and it so I felt it, you know what I'm saying? I nominated for a Grammy for that song too.

Now you've had actually three albums and this is your fourth album, The Rose Experience. Lovely is going to be your single that you dropped. Can you tell us the meaning behind that song?

When I was about maybe 14, 15, there was a lady that was at the same bus stop as me every day. And I had a crush on her. I mean she was, she was in her twenties. And I didn't know her name so my name for her was Lovely. So that's why the song is like lovely is what I call you because I don't know your name.

Did she know about this?

Nah, uh-uh, she never knew. Nah. But, yo, she was way too old for me. Maybe she'll see this interview, you never know. I had the Mrs. Robinson going on.

Tell us what we can expect from the album.

On this album, I wanted the music to sound brighter and I wanted to kind of talk about the same relationship issues but kind of get deeper into them and kind of talk about them from different angles.

So what did you draw from creatively?

I got to go from real-life experiences and from the people that influenced me in the past. So it's like, you know, anybody from Marvin Gaye to Stevie Wonder, Elton John, The Beatles, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin. I listen to all kind of stuff so it's kind of like I just draw from that and take, you know, whatever I need and then put my flavor on it and just, you know, put it all together.

Your father was actually in Cameo, right? That's crazy. So what was it like, you know, at the household when you were younger just jamming?

It was cool like any time you could think of it, it was me and my pops in the living room singing and my would do concerts for company. We had the microphone plugged into the stereo system and I had my shades with the lenses poked out, don't ask me what that was about.

What's up y'all? I just want to say, you know, thank you for the support. Um, come hit me up on MySpace.