“I got the streets with me,” K. Michelle said. In front of a better part of 2,000 fans at The Ambassador Saturday night, the singer said she assured her record label with those words on the cusp of releasing her hit debut CD “Rebellious Soul.”
Based on Saturday night’s show, she’s absolutely right.
She’s been the subject of urban blogs and celebrity news for the wrong reasons in her past – both from her personal life and her antics on “Love and Hip Hop Atlanta.”
But the singer-turned-reality-TV-star has enjoyed the warmest of receptions from the around-the-way-girl population – who pushed her album to the top of the R&B charts when she returned to her musical roots.
And they were in the building as Michelle kept it real in St. Louis for her first headlining performance.
Her stage presence coupled with strong live vocals will bring her a new type of buzz when she continues her rounds across the nation as the opening act for Robin Thicke.
Michelle met the audience with “My Life,” her own narrative about growing up on the wrong side of the tracks in Memphis.
She cursed. She sang explicit songs. She thanked her fans repeatedly – including her high school principal, who probably sat in the audience cringing at some of the subject matter her lyrics touched upon. And she sounded good doing it.
K. Michelle’s “straight-no-chaser” persona was in rare form as she gave fans a taste of her live show.
She fired off on her ex J.R. Smith – who famously made light of their relationship and blasted Michelle on Twitter.
“He’s been quietly riding the bench all season,” she said before singing a song written specifically in response to his social media shenanigans.
She got extra raunchy with “Pay My Bills,” the song that probably secured the “explicit content” label on her album cover.
Michelle knows her core audience – and related to them in a special way as she sang a handful of selections from “Rebellious Soul.”
“Dudes use us for [expletive]. I use them for songs,” K. Michelle said as she crooned about immature lovers, her sexual prowess and everything in between.
The mostly female audience sang along to every word of “Can’t Raise a Man.” And they grooved to the beat of “V.S.O.P” as she closed out the show.
If there was any downside to the show it was that it was just a taste. She made the most of her keyboard player, background singers and performance tracks – but the performance felt too brief. She’s on the road with her first album, but a few cover selections could have filled in the gaps and stretched the show to a more suitable length.
With respect to beefing up her set, Michelle could have taken a note or two from show openers Seviin Li and Aloha MiSho – who pulled out all the stops as they primed the crowd for an evening of female soul music at its finest.
