Keith Sweat: From Stock Market to Pop Market

Keith Sweat has a major crossover hit on his hands with “I Want Her,” a funky, drum-dominated dance jam. He’s so tickled about it that at a recent interview he refused to answer any questions until he’d had a chance to sit down in an office at Elektra Records with the latest issue of Billboard.

“Aah, great,” he fairly chortled, savoring his No. 1 position on the trade magazine’s black singles chart. “I can see dollar signs. . . .”

“Hey, it’ll be a year before you see the royalties,” a label staffer warned him.

“Yeah, yeah, but I know they’re coming,” he said, his eyes still glued to the chart.

Sweat’s financial emphasis isn’t hard to understand, considering that he spent four years in New York handling brokers’ accounts at Paine Webber. He’s currently on leave of absence from the Wall Street firm.

“I definitely won’t ever be penniless,” Sweat said. “I’d rather put my money in CDs than buy a big car with a swimming pool in the back seat.” When this musician talks about CDs, he doesn’t mean compact discs.

While it wouldn’t have taken a genius to lay odds that “I Want Her”--from Sweat’s current debut Vintertainment/Elektra album “Make It Last Forever”--would appeal to hard-core funk fans, it’s nothing short of amazing that the single has cracked the Top 40 of the pop charts. Its success counters the prevailing opinion that R&B; artists must dilute their sound to gain mass acceptance.

“I wouldn’t have thought the record would cross over,” admitted Sweat, who makes his local headlining debut Thursday at the Palace, then moves to Anaheim’s Celebrity Theatre March 31.

“White people want to dance, too, I guess. Then again, seeing somebody and wanting them is something anybody can relate to. Every day I encounter an incident that inspires that kind of reaction.”

The tall, lanky Sweat, 26, has a conversational style that is equal parts bravado and let-the-chips-fall candor. While the singer/composer/producer is gratified that his own music has broad-based appeal, he is critical of artists who “sell out,” as he puts it, in order to gain followers.

“I am strictly R&B;,” said Sweat. “That’s why I don’t buy Lionel Richie’s records. He’s gone pop. He’s forgotten the soul element and is talking about dancing on the ceiling. I can’t get next to that.”

Sweat, formerly a member of the New York funk group Jamilah, was brought to Elektra by Vintertainment Recordings president Vincent Davis. Davis’ Bronx-based independent label--whose biggest hit prior to “I Want Her” was Lovebug Starski’s 1986 rap record “Pee Wee’s Dance”--is known for producing records with a raw, ultra-urban quality. With his rap music background, Davis was more in tune to Sweat’s style than the typical record company executive would have been, Sweat asserted.

“If I had taken my demo tape directly to Elektra I would’ve been turned down, I know it,” the singer said. “Frankly, a lot of A&R; guys can’t hear the music. They go home to their big houses in Upstate New York and lose touch with what the folks on the street want to hear.”

Sweat has been influenced by the work of former Slave member Steve Arrington--whose vocal signature is as offbeat and distinctive as Sweat’s--and by go-go music, a raw, percussion-heavy style that’s highly popular among black teens in Washington.

“Go-go is a ‘street’ sound,” Sweat explained. “It’s that drums-oriented, high-hat rhythm you hear in the middle of ‘I Want Her.’ People respond to that. I’ve gone to clubs where nobody is on the floor, the deejay puts on ‘I Want Her’ and people go crazy.”

Sweat flashed a self-satisfied grin. “If I had held back or prettied it up, you wouldn’t have felt it.”

Despite his penchant for go-go, nothing else on “Make It Last Forever” has the same grit, heft or funk of that one track--a deliberate strategy, according to Sweat.

“I wanted to prove that I could go a number of different routes. That I could get mellow.” One of his favorite cuts on the album is a remake of “In the Rain,” a soulful ‘70s ballad by the Dramatics.

“I like the song because it has a story line. It’s about the ups and downs of love. It’s about a guy who doesn’t want to cry because of his macho image.”

Sweat wrote six of the album’s eight tracks with Teddy Riley, a buddy he grew up with in Harlem. Offers to produce other artists are increasing rapidly for Riley. “He usually works with rappers, guys like Kool Moe Dee,” said Sweat. “But together we are phenomenal. Together we’re going to make a lot of noise, I promise you.”

First, though, comes his first concert tour as a solo artist. “I’m not nervous. Well, I say that now! I do know I don’t just want to be a success on wax.”

He also doesn’t want to be a success by compromising himself.

“I think you can appeal to people without going out of your way to cater to them,” Sweat insisted. “I can’t write for a certain radio station format or audience. It’s got to be sincere and come straight from the heart. Otherwise, nobody can relate to it.”