Eric Benet is a singer, songwriter, producer, actor, and businessman. He is popularly known for his duets with Faith Evans on the track “Georgy Porgy” and the single “Spend My Life With You” featuring Tamia.
Most recently, Benet has released a new song called “Something We Can Make Love To” with Tamar Braxton on his appropriately titled new album “Duets.”
Benet said he was first drawn to Braxton for Something We Can Make Love To because of her incredible voice. The two met while performing in the Je’Caryous Johnson and Snoop Dogg stage musical “Redemption of a Dogg.”
“Got a chance to become really good friends with her, and it’s one of those things,” said Benet, “when you vibe with somebody on a personal level. Especially if you’re two artists and two singers, invariably, the question comes up, ‘When are we going to work together?’”
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Benet said it was right before the Coronavirus pandemic when he and Braxton worked on “Redemption of a Dogg.”
At the time, Benet had just started a record label with his business partner Allison Ball. “Of course, if I’m starting a record label,” he said, “I’m not only going to be signing artists – I’m going to have to do another record.”
It was Ball’s idea for Benet to do a duets album. And Benet said although he wrote most of the songs on the “Duets” album, he did not write “Something We Can Make Love To.” It was written by musical producer Laney Stewart.
“Laney submitted this song… soon as I heard the intro – the intro to that joint is like – come on man, I’ve got to do something with this,” said Benet.
Benet remembered Stewart’s younger brother, record producer Tricky Stewart suggesting Braxton as the signer who should perform “Something We Can Make Love To” along with Benet.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, I love Tamar,”’ said Benet. “We’ve been talking about doing something forever, and he [Tricky Stewart] literally reached out to Tamar that day. And by the end of the day, she was in the studio putting her vocals on the record.”
Benet said he is very excited for audiences to hear all the new tracks on his “Duets” album.
On top of his successes performing duets, Benet is primarily a solo artist. “Spiritual Thang,” “Femininity,” and “True to Myself” are three of his most loved singles.
In addition to creating music, the anthology television series “Snap” was created by Benet with his co-creator Devin Hampton. The show was sold to and then aired on the AllBlk streaming service for one season.
Of late, Benet has also launched a new entertainment company with Ball called JBR Creative Group, where he serves as president. Ball is the acting CEO.
Benet said Ball is a former head of artists and repertoire at Warner Brothers Records, and she was responsible for giving him his very first record deal. Their forming of JBR, he said, came from a need to empower artists. It was something Benet said he did not feel early in his career.
“I remember being at Warner Brothers, and look, I am blessed to have the opportunities I’ve had, and I’m blessed to have been signed to Warner Brothers – I learned so much,” said Benet. “I was also aware enough to notice… there are lot of things about this system that are so jacked up.”
“It’s not specific to Warner Brothers. It’s… major record labels,” Benet continued. “The artists are not really thought of as artists – we’re thought of as product, [and] product is extremely disposable.”
Benet said not only are the artists disposable the record labels executives are as well. “By the time I was signed to Warner Brothers to the time – fifteen years later, when I asked to be let go” he said, “No one there knew me.”
Benet said labels sign deals because they initially believe in what the artists brings to them creatively, but then a team is brought in to change who the artist is organically. “Our whole approach at JBR is to be aware that the artist is the captain of that artist’s career,” said Benet.
“You are in charge of your career not me,” Benet continued. “We look at the artist as a partnership. Yes, at the end of the day, JBR is going to spend the money to try to accomplish a goal — we want you to be successful, but we want you to have all cylinders firing on the magic that is you.”
Benet said he also wants his musical artists to have co-ownership of their recording masters with JBR, which has not been done traditionally with music labels. “As the company grows, I want the artist to grow financially,” said Benet. “It was something I never really felt when I was in the system.”
