Truth Hurts

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Shari Watson (born October 10, 1971 in St. Louis, Missouri), known as Truth Hurts, is an American R&B singer. She is noted for her funky and powerful vocal style.

Biography

Her father worked as a concert promoter, helping to bring acts such as the Pointer Sisters and Phyllis Hyman to St. Louis audiences. Thus exposed to music at an early age, Truth developed a passion for singing. Her mother quickly recognized the girl's talent and signed her up for lessons. By the mid-1980s, Watson got help her cousin, who played with a St. Louis cover band called Mystic Voyage. The cousin brought Watson into the band, and soon she was singing regularly at St. Louis clubs that she wasn't old enough to enter as an audience member.

Coming out of high school, Truth turned down an opera scholarship to the University of Chicago so that she could pursue a career in popular music. A break came after she formed an R&B duo called Shug & Dap in the early 1990s with a friend. Shug & Dap released a single called "Anotha Man" on the Giant Records label in 1994; however, Giant went of out business and project was shelved immediately.

After the bankruptcy of Giant Records, Truth become a songwriter for such acts as Mario Winans, Monifah, Shanice, and others during the rest of the 1990s. In 2000, Watson signed to Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment label. Watson also appeared as a lounge singer in the 2001 motion picture "Ali" and in a more major role in the 2001 film "The Wash". Truth Hurts first appeared on Busta Rhymes' 2001 hit single "Break Ya Neck" as a background vocalist. She also appeared as a background vocalist on the D12 song, "Nasty Minds". For her first solo LP Truthfully Speaking, issued on Aftermath in 2002, Truth Hurts enlisted the production talents of Dr. Dre, Timbaland, Hi-Tek, and DJ Quik. Her debut single, "Addictive," was a Top 10 hit in the United States, and featured a verse from hip hop artist, Rakim. Though the original song, Lata Mangeshkar's Thoda Resham Lagta Hai, was used as the main base of the track within the chorus, the modern-style beats, rhythm, melody and even the video was copied from the original remake (first version), UMI10's "Kaliyon Ka Chaman Jab Banta Hain" (2000) featuring Meghna Naidu. This original remake was highly popular amongst the youths in South Asia, though it was almost non-existent within the West due to the language barrier. The first version was therefore only deemed popular to a specific niche market and culture. Although very little was changed to the original remake of the classic song, Truth Hurts' version was more marketable for mainstream release and therefore became more popular internationally whilst the original remake wasn't known to exist.

The song, produced by DJ Quik, utilized an uncleared sample of "Thoda Resham Lagta Hai" by Hindi artist Lata Mangeshkar. The copyright holders sued Aftermath and parent company Interscope Records for $500 million dollars, and issued an injunction against further sales or performances of the record.^[1] A judge later ruled that the album was not to be sold without being stickered with proper credits for Mangeshkar.^[2] In summer of 2002, Truth Hurts secured a high profile spot on the Smokin' Grooves tour with Lauryn Hill, Outkast, Cee-Lo, The Roots, Jurassic 5, and Erykah Badu.^[3] However, following the buzz on "Addictive", Truth Hurts became relatively obscure, only contributing guest vocals to "The Watcher 2" on Jay-Z's Blueprint 2 album and "What" on Eve's Eve-Olution. To date, she remains as a one-hit wonder in both America and the UK. "Addictive" was followed up by a song called "The Truth" featuring R. Kelly on the chorus. The song underpeformed on American radio and video outlets. This was likely due in part to the firestorm of negative press Kelly received over sex crime allegations that hit media outlets shortly before the single's release.^[4]

Truth Hurts returned in 2004 with her second album, Ready Now, on Raphael Saadiq's independent "Pookie Entertainment" label. Its first single, "Ready Now", was released in the summer of 2004 without much fanfare. The album was however critically acclaimed. In 2005 Truth Hurts collaborated with J Dilla on Jay Love Japan on the track "Ghetto Love", shortly before his death in February 2006.

Discography

Albums

Singles

• 2002: "Addictive" (featuring Rakim) (U.S. #9, R&B #2)
• 2002: "The Truth" (featuring R. Kelly) (R&B #47)
• 2002: "I'm Not Really Lookin' (featuring DJ Quik)
• 2004: "Ready Now"

References

External links

• Official Truth Hurts MySpace
• Truth Hurts at Allmusic
• [1] at Tv.com
• Pookie Entertainment website
• [2] at IMDb
• Boom Go the Bombs, Boom Goes the Bass. Fitzpatrick, Chris (June 14, 2002). Alternet.