chrisette michelle had many blessings bestowed upon her at the very beginning of her life
she was born into a loving family raised with a strong spiritual foundation and was gifted
with a beautiful singing voice things were going well for many years until an unpopular decision
turned fans family and friends against her and nearly ended her life american singer-songwriter
chrisette michelle payne was born in central islip new york and grew up 30 minutes away
in patchogue with a sociologist father and a psychologist's mother
faith was and to this day is a very big part of chrissette's life she was as she says born
in a pew both of her parents also played prominent roles in their pentecostal church
her mother was a choir director and her father was a deacon she sang for the first time in church at
the age of four and at nine years old she would experience being filled with the holy spirit
eventually she would be made a peer leader and then a praise and worship leader in her late teens
chrisette wasn't raised on r b at all however the musical genre would end up being the one to
launch her singing career after high school she would continue her education in college
and obtain a vocal performance degree during that time chrissette put together a demo
and send it out to all of the record labels in the city the anr at def jam
recordings heard it and called her in for an audition they signed her that day
then an amazing collaboration opportunity would come chrissette's way she became the featured
artist on jay-z's track lost one off his 2006 album kingdom come he wouldn't be the only one
to make good use of chrisette's talents she would go on to be featured on many other tracks by nas
the roots and rick ross chrissette's debut album titled i am was released in june 2007 the album's
lead single if i have my way peaked at number 24 on the rnb hip hop songs chart three other
singles were released including best of me and love is you but it was the track be okay
featuring will i am that would give cressette her first grammy win for best urban alternative
performance in january 2009 chrissette released the first track and title track off her sophomore
album epiphany which came a few months later this song would effectively put cressette on the map
it was her first song to make it on the billboard hot 100. the album overall did incredibly well
debuting at number one on the albums chart like her debut album several singles were also released
off epiphany including what you do featuring neo fragile featuring wale and all i ever think
about the only other song that made any noise on the charts was blame it on me which reached the
number 28 spot on the r b chart just a few weeks before chrissette released her third album she
dropped a mixtape love thy brother was released in the early part of november 2010 followed by the
lp let freedom reign at the end of the month the two singles that were released didn't garner much
attention her second mixtape titled audrey hepburn an audio visual presentation was released in
december 2012 it would serve as a bit of a teaser of what was to come on her next album since it
contained some songs that would be present on both projects chrissette would finally get some love on
the charts again with the release of the second single off that album called a couple of forevers
that album titled better dropped that june and would go on to receive a best r b album nomination
at the 2014 grammy awards in november of that year cressette released her first and to date only ep
titled the lyricist opus she then surprised her fans by jumping headfirst into the reality tv
world by joining the cast of r b divas la for its second season she wouldn't last long though by
the third season she was over it and left midway through by 2016 chrisette was back with new music
with the release of the single steady it served as the lead song from her fifth studio album
milestone which was released that june that same year she also married chrisette and her manager
doug ellison met in college and initially became friends and then business partners
he actually played a significant role in getting her sign to her first deal then things went all
the way left chrisette sued doug in 2007 alleging that his production company had embezzled money
from her def jam contract she later dropped a suit but the damage had already been done
doug turned around and sued her the following year for 20 million dollars claiming she damaged
his reputation and that chrisette's mother tried to suddenly end her daughter's contract
with his company they battled it out in court for seven years after it was all
over chrissette took a break from everything and took refuge in her mother's basement
she admitted to herself that she didn't like the way she felt she felt broken and like something
was missing from her life after an interesting conversation she had with kirk franklin
who reasoned that finding a husband was the solution to all her problems
chrisette admitted to herself that she did still love doug and decided to reach out to him
he responded that he never stopped loving her two days later they met face to face in new york city
and seven days after that they were engaged in january 2017 media outlets reported that
cressette would perform at the inauguration of the 45th president of the united states donald trump
she was initially supposed to perform on the 19th at the make america great again welcome
celebration held the day prior to the inauguration but instead played at one of the inaugural balls
the following day saying that the performance wasn't well received is a gross understatement
many people were highly disappointed and offended with her decision to perform and let her have it
on social media i was rooting for you we were all rooting for you how dare you
another kick in the face trump didn't even personally acknowledge her at the event
she responded via an open letter on twitter as well as her blog defending her decision and
stating that she had intended her performance to serve as a bridge between trump supporters
and opponents still people on social media weren't buying it if they were even able to
read it at all the combination of the background and font colors gave some who tried to read it
a headache others believe that the decision was strictly motivated by money with quotes as high
as seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars chris said admits that it was a paying gig
but not for as much as people think in response to her performing many celebrities voiced their
disappointment including spike lee who removed chrisette's song black girl magic from his
upcoming netflix series she's gotta have it within that first week after the scandal krissette made
a number of appearances on various media outlets to tell her side of the story she believed that
people would understand the positive message she was trying to convey choosing to take the stage
with gospel singer travis green and donning a skirt featuring the artwork of haitian-american
artist jean-michel basquiat just days after the uproar she released no political genius
a poetic spoken word response to the backlash and a breakdown of her feelings on how the country can
move forward cressette wasn't heard from again until nearly a year later she made the rounds
doing numerous interviews discussing everything that had transpired that year from whether or
not she regrets her decision to perform at trump's inauguration to how it affected her mental health
and also having a miscarriage which she believes was caused by all the stress she revealed that she
didn't even vote for trump and her own manager advised her not to do the gig but after taking
notice of how bad and scared people felt over his win her intent she reiterated was to provide
healing and upliftment she summed up her current feelings on the decision during a november 2017
visit to new york's power 105.1 morning show the breakfast club by saying i regret everything that
happened i think that was a bad choice she even disclosed that her record label abruptly dropped
her after the scandal chrisette does have her own label rich hipster but she also had a distribution
deal with capital records she didn't receive any warning and was completely shocked by the move
especially since she just finished a brand new album and was looking forward to putting it out
i went from someone being revered and loved to facing putting out an album in the worst climate
of my musical career if social media wanted to pull me down i guess they succeeded as it pertains
to capital and caroline records i go into the studio and literally pour out my heart and soul
and the label decides to walk away from me chrisette's sixth studio album titled out of
control dropped in 2018. in the summer of 2020 she released the song wait she wrote it right
after filing for divorce the year before prior to the pandemic krissette did have a brick and
mortar clothing store in new york but has since made everything available virtually her online
boutique called moody offers everything from jeans and sweaters to dresses and hats she also runs an
online community called the sistership.org it's a safe space for women to come together to talk
about whatever's going on in their lives and connect with others having similar experiences
in december 2021 chrisette will be seen along with a host of other artists such as lil kim
jim jones and karen clark in the nick cannon directed vh1 christmas film
miracles across 125th street currently chrisette is working on a book titled the red tape she
spoke about it at length in an interview with anthony o'neil on his youtube channel it's all
about the barriers that come between people and how it impacts our ability to effectively
communicate with one another she hopes to have an early 2022 release chrissette's also working
on a new album that she intends to be the kind of music everyone can enjoy the expected first single
is aptly called traitor obviously it's kind of a play on words yeah um but it just talks about
how i loved you so much yeah and um and you cut me mm-hmm you cut me i want to forgive you is it okay
mm-hmm can i can i forgive you because if i forgive i'm gonna love you again
you know that's who i am as a person it's like be good
that's what i want to say to my people guys can we can we can i can i come to the barbecue please
oh man you know whether or not chrisette will ever be able to come back to the barbecue again
remains to be seen thanks for watching please like share and comment also don't forget to subscribe
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