Most known for her role as Faith Evans in Notorious, Antonique Smith is now a recording artist building a name for herself.  From her beginnings as Mimi Marquez in the hit Broadway play RENT, to singing in church and growing up on the sounds of Aretha Franklin, Celine Dion Biggie and Jay Z, Smith has combined all her influences to create a unique, amazing sound of her own.

Smith stopped by The Source office to give us an interview about her big role as Faith, beginning her music career and her new single “Hold Up Wait a Minute”:

–       On landing the role as Faith Evans

That was crazy because we were all fans of all of them, Faith, Biggie, Kim, Puff, Tupac… I know I could kill this role so I auditioned and I got it and it was just one of the most incredible moments.  I also felt like because I also wanted to be a singer it helped set up this moment and it did.  It was a blessing to be part of Biggies legacy, part of Faith’s legacy.  She loved it, she said she loved the performance and I get a lot of love from it.

 

–       On if she’s worried about being tied to Faith now that she’s a music artist herself:

You know what, no.  Honestly I feel like for me Notorious was like Selena for Jennifer Lopez or Ray for Jamie Foxx or Dreamgirls for Jennifer Hudson.  I think it’s just the first big thing that I’m known for and I’m known as the actual Faith Evans that’s become my name for a while but now that my song is coming out it’s the thing that people will know me from, from now on, it’ll be Antonique Smith not just Faith Evans. I love that I’m getting the Faith love that I get and turning it into Antonique Smith.

 

–       Describing her sound and her musical influences

My music as a whole I would say is like Pop, Soul with a Hip-Hop appeal to it.  Like I said I grew up on Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Aretha Franklin so big vocals that’s just like something I fell in love with.  I grew up singing in church and listening to Mary and Jay Z, Puff, and Tupac and Biggie and all these people so I love hip-hop, soul music, pop and it’s a fusion of me and those elements.

 

–       On who she’s been working with:

Dr. Dre gave us a track that kind of changed the course on things cause he just heard something. Also Toby Gad who did if I Were a Boy for Beyonce, Danja (Justin Timberlake), Jukebox (Willow Smith) and more. It’s all just like a label of love.  We’re independent, we’re doing it ourselves so this is not like a $100,000 a track album.  This is we know Antonique, we know her gift and we know to share that love and be apart of the project.  It has been a blessing.

– Shaina Auxilly (@Shay_Marie)