american r b singer songwriter and producer kim owens better known by his stage name
kem was born in nashville tennessee and raised near detroit michigan even though he didn't come
from a musical family kem ended up as a child prodigy of sorts teaching himself to play the
piano beginning around the age of three he had an obvious passion for it and would sit
and play for hours he started singing in front of his classmates around the fifth grade since
he wasn't a very good student kem says he enjoyed doing it because it was the first thing that got
him a positive response however as time went on kem's life would end up going down a dark path
full of addiction depression and homelessness kem took his first drink at the age of 13 and there
began a rapid downward spiral into alcohol and drug addiction by the time he got to high school
he was regularly using substances to self-medicate while also battling low self-esteem depression
and anxiety he admits that he didn't look at what he was doing as a negative thing
he actually believed that he made better music when he was high or drunk due to his destructive
lifestyle his parents eventually put him out of the house another possibly more important
reason that kem had to go was that his mother was also battling her own issues with addiction
and had recently returned home from her own stint in a treatment facility naturally for her to be
successful on her journey she couldn't tolerate having another addict living under the same roof
he then found himself in a cycle of going in and out of homeless shelters and drug rehab centers
for a period of time all the while music never left kem's spirit and he continued to use it as
an escape and refuge he also refused to give up on his dream of making music his profession after
multiple stays in area treatment centers shelters hospitals and even jail kem made the decision to
get his life on track on july 23 1990 which just so happens to also be his birthday he'd just been
kicked out of a rehab center for his continued use of substances he then spent the next week
filling his body with as much junk as he could he found himself sitting on the bank of the detroit
river nursing a can of king cobra malt liquor and contemplating how his life had sunk so low
and what the next steps would be he would need to take to get things back in order he slowly started
meeting people who were integral in assisting him to secure various jobs such as singing in
a wedding band and waiting tables one day while on duty at the ritz carlton kem noticed the presence
of the minister of the church where his parents attended who happened to be best-selling author
marianne williamson he introduced himself to her and she suggested that he audition for
the church choir he did and won a spot this was the moment that kem's parents finally realized
that singing wasn't just some passing fad for him kem's financial prayers were then answered
when american express gave him a business line of credit he used it to finance his debut album
that he wrote and produced titled chemistry in 2001. he took a page out of the rapper's book
and started selling his cd out of the trunk of his car ultimately moving 17 000 units
the project got the attention of the powers that be at motown records
and before he knew it kem became a sign recording artist to the famous label
from the outside looking in kem's life appeared better than ever but at the time he was in the
throes of the deepest depression he'd ever been in he told tv one's uncensored that he
realize that getting what you want doesn't fix all the ills going on in your life
he knew that even though he'd already been clean and sober for over a decade
there was still more emotional work he needed to do one major revelation was kem finding out as an
adult that the man who raised him and he believed was his father was actually his stepfather
motown re-released his chemistry album in 2003 it went gold and produced the single love calls
which went to number 25 on the r b hip-hop songs chart
second album album two dropped in may 2005 ultimately going platinum it produced the
singles you might win and i can't stop loving you kem's third effort titled intimacy album
three came in 2010. the album's first single why would you stay would give kem his first
and second grammy nominations for best r b male performance and best r b song in 2012 he released
his first christmas album titled what christmas means and made his acting debut in the musical
film sparkle also around this time kem started his non-profit organization called mac and third the
idea was spawned from a series of benefit concerts held in previous years to increase funding for
agencies providing services for the detroit area homeless population in the summer of 2014
kem released his fourth studio album promise to love and grabbed another grammy nom for the song
nobody kem married in 2019 to his girlfriend erica after dating for four years they met at
one of his vip meet and greets following a show in atlanta he's adamant that he's not the type
to collect phone numbers or select women out of the crowd and invite them to his hotel room
however this time something was different this particular woman was someone that he definitely
wanted to get to know better their relationship actually couldn't have started off on a better
foot after having their first date which consisted of dinner and a stop at a nighttime church service
they would also end up getting engaged two years later on the anniversary of their first date at
that same church between the two of them kem and his wife share six children in august 2020 after
a six-year hiatus kim released his fifth studio album love always wins which includes the singles
lie to me and live out your love featuring tony braxton at the start of 2022 kem announced his
nationwide tour called the full circle tour with babyface and hosted by sherry shepard
it kicked off on march 30th and will continue on through may leading up to the start of the tour
he dropped his latest single called stuck on you in february as an ambassador for love kem has made
it his duty to continue to promote that feeling we all yearn for with his tender tunes about finding
and falling in love i think it's natural as we get older and continue to mature emotionally
we get to discover all of these different textures of love in our life if we're lucky
and that's what love is it's my favorite topic and i don't think we can get enough of it
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