Crave: Marc Dorsey

by Cyclone Wehner

One day Marc Dorsey would love to enjoy the same level of respect as his hero, Stevie Wonder. And, yes, he deserves to. Marc has been paying his dues for years in urban music's game of Monopoly.

Indeed, Dorsey's name is not exactly new on the R&B circuit. He first stepped into the limelight some years ago when he made over The Stylistics dime, "People Make The World Go 'Round", for the soundtrack to Spike Lee's "Crooklyn" movie. Afterwards he went on to cut material for the revered director's "Clockers" and "Get On The Bus" soundtracks as well. The Washington DC native (who has resided in New York for about eight years) was all set to bring out an album on Lee's MCA-affiliated label, 40 Acres And A Mule, when he found himself embroiled in MCA's changing corporate climate. Dorsey sought to extricate himself from the label. All this took time. Ages, in fact. Now, Dorsey has finally resurfaced on Jive with the single, "If You Really Wanna Know", produced by Manuel Seal, a sometime Jermaine Dupri sidekick whose name has graced releases by Mariah Carey and Usher. And, at long last, Marc has completed his debut set, "Crave", on which he emerges as a new RKellyJoeCaseDonnellJonesBrian McKnight. Or something. "Crave" is a conceptual relationships album. It's all in the title. To crave is to desire. To need. To yearn. You get the vibe. So what does Dorsey himself crave in life? "I crave to have a successful album," he says solemnly.

Dorsey was cooped up in the studio for at least a year working on "Crave" with the likes of Timmy Allen and Larry Campbell, who also just happen to be the occasional collaborators of his labelmates, R Kelly and Joe. Completing the album took much longer than expected. Marc and his new label couldn't decide on what direction to follow. Inevitably, Dorsey has bowed to commercial pressures. He has delivered a fairly formulaic urban album that harks back to the work of his aforementioned labelmates. What elevates "Crave" is Dorsey's voice. Think Wonder. Or the late, great Donny Hathaway (Marc's other hero).

Dorsey admits that he had to compromise along the way. 'I like more live instrumentation in my music, but the record company look at what is actually selling in the market place, so we kinda had to meet in the middle.'

Fortunately the singer doesn't mind being compared to his peers. 'It doesn't really concern me. A lot of artists tend to compete against each other, but I don't think we should, because there's enough room for everybody to get a piece of the action as far as the music is concerned. I consider it a compliment to be compared to a Joe or R Kelly, because they're both successful artists and they're really talented guys and, personally, I think they're nice people. I think it's an honour to be compared to those people.'

Dorsey elected to cover Wonder's "All I Do" and, less predictably, Shirley Murdock's As We Lay. Does he feel at all apprehensive about having reinterpreted a song by his idol, Wonder? 'I don't think I really feel too nervous, because I don't try to outdo what Stevie has done. I think he's such a master at songwriting, performing and playing instruments. I just try to be the best that Marc Dorsey can be. And so that's just a tribute that I paid to Stevie.'

Dorsey had altogether different reasons for reviving Murdock's 80s hit. With this song, he simply wanted to flip da script. 'That's pretty funny, because here in the United States in the late 80s that was an anthem for women all over the country,' he enlightens. 'We actually demoed that song -- we just tried to see how it would sound if we recorded it. And the guys' response to that song was really good, because it basically put the shoe on the other foot as far as they are concerned. Women are always male-bashing, because guys are no good a lot of the times, so, yeah [laughs], we hear about it in the songs. So we thought it would be good to actually put the shoe on the other foot and have guys talking about cheating women.'

Yet Dorsey is not entirely amused by the growth of a new women's R&B genre in the wake of the box-office breaking movie "Waiting To Exhale". This 90s off-shoot of urban culture is devoted to exposing men's foibles (TLC's "No Scrubs" is just one excellent example) 'Someone interviewed me and they asked me my opinion of women,' Marc offers cautiously. 'I don't have the answer, because I'm still trying to figure women out! Personally, I think a lot of women think men are dogs, just scrubs, in general, because they make a lot of wrong choices. I think there's a lot of good men who are really overlooked when it comes to trying to find the right women! And, for that matter, the women will pick the wrong guy because she thinks he is the right one, when in all reality he's not. I think there's a lot of bad guys on the one hand and there's a lot of bad women on the other, but we all tend to make a lot of wrong choices.'

Has Marc found his soul mate, then? 'I don't know ... I've been dating for a few years and I have a woman and she's the mother of my kid. I don't know if I have my perfect soulmate yet, but what I've basically been focussing on is trying to have a successful career and find myself as a person, and then I can be a better father and a better husband in the future.'

"Crave" is out through Zomba.