LITT MAGAZINE

LIFESTYLES IN THE TWIN CITIES

DIRTY

Coming Home Tour

MONEY

By NB

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What do you get when you take two of the hottest songstresses whose voices are powerful yet at the same time passionate and sultry and an entertainment mogul that is known as the king of hip hop? Diddy’s newest creation Diddy Dirty Money. Dawn Richard who 1st entered the industry as part of Diddy’s making the band group Danity Kane has been the key success factor in the group Danity Kane. There Dawn was able to show her strengths as a singer and a writer. Kalenna Harper is no new comer to the industry. She is the winner of four Russian Grammy Awards and has been singing since the age of nine and writing for some of the top artists in the industry such as Jennifer Lopez, Jill Scott, Timberland and the Pussy Cat Dolls. In December 2010 the group released their debut album, Last Train to Paris which includes anybody who is anybody in the business. The list includes Grace Jones, Lil’ Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Chris Brown and the list goes on. The album took three years to put together and has become a great compilation of Euro style dances tracks with a funk vibe. Only Diddy could pull off such a stunt. Today, April 13th marks the launch of DDM’s highly anticipated Coming Home Tour which kicks off in Minneapolis MN. Litt Magazine was able to briefly speak to the ladies of DDM about their tour, the group and the album Last Train to Paris.

 Litt: Tell me about the new album Last Train to Paris Dawn: We are excited because we are taking an album that we have been working really hard on and we are putting it out for the world to see it. It is a really exciting time for us. The album is doing really great. Both Hello Good Morning and Coming Home are platinum singles. So people are loving the songs and we are proud of that. This is a great time for us. We are so happy to be able to put the words, meaning and lyrics together along with our emotions to show what we have been through. Litt: So on the album we have Chris Brown, Swiss Beatz, Nicki Minaj, and Grace Jones, who is not on this album! Tell me which song is your favorite and why? Kalenna: My favorite song is Yeah Yeah You Would with Grace Jones. It is my favorite because of the connection we had with her on the song. It was very organic between us. It was a dream come true for us to work with her. I remember seeing her in the airport and Dawn was pinching the hell out of me and saying “There is Grace Jones”. We had poured so much of our emotions into this song and were wondering who could possibly give this song justice. Once we started working with her on the song we knew this was it. Litt: Dawn tell me about the transition from Danity Kane to Diddy Dirty Money? Dawn: Well there is a guy in the group and that’s definitely different and he happens to be a multi millionaire. Also, the camaraderie of being with a woman on stage and the vibe between Kalenna and me is great. She is the Yang to the Yin I am. Working with her and the vibe that we have in DDM is different from DK it’s great. One big change is that I am working WITH Puff. He went from being my boss to being my group member. That is a whole different vibe and a different way to see a person. He went from “I want you to run around the track” to “I want you to help me sing this song” That is a different dynamic. DDM is also different style of music. DK was more pop, while DDM is more soulful and hip hop influenced. Litt: Kalenna you were formerly a songwriter, how does it feel to be up front vs. behind the scenes as a songwriter? Kalenna: Contrary to what many people think I was in artist before. I was singing professionally at nine in the gospel world. I always loved being on the stage. Writing allowed me to be a business woman in the game. It helped me to insure that I was going to say what I wanted to say, the way I wanted to say it. It is a dream come true being in this group. I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else I feel very comfortable with it and I ready for it! Litt: Where did the name Dirty Money come from? Dawn: We were at this super small strip club in Tampa and there were ten people in the club when we first got there. We get in and Puff decided he wanted to throw money everywhere. All of a sudden it went from 10 people to like 500. People were every where going crazy. We had to leave the club. When we got in the car, Puff said “man this is some dirty money. It feels like this money has circulated everywhere.” Then something must have clicked in his head. We wanted a different name, we wanted a name with meaning behind something like smashing pumpkins we didn’t want a typical R&B name. We wanted something RAW. Litt: What Can we expect on the Tour? Kalenna: You can expect a lot of energy. You can expect us to continue to tell our love story. You can expect fashion, you can expect swag on a million, and you can expect a fourth member of our group which is our stage and our lights. We are looking forward to bringing energy to these small venues. I don’t think people are prepared to see what we are going to do to the stage. You can expect a lot of unexpected guests and faces that you probably didn’t expect to see there. Expect to see us singing our hearts out. Expect to get to know us on another level and expect to get to know Puff too. He is wild and he is on a different level. Litt: What’s Next for DDM any solo projects? Dawn: We are going to do both, we are doing our own projects, but we will continue to work together because we organically make good music together. Expect to see a Dirty Money take over. We love what we do and we love music and we want to continue to give you good music.