33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
GOTTA HAVE FAITH, August 20, 2008
This review is from: Keep the Faith: A Memoir (Hardcover)
During the blazing mid-90s when R&B was still laser hot and Puffy Daddy was defining the voice of a generation, way before all the fabricated madness of reality TV shows, there was a voice constantly getting either lost in the shuffle or being completely misunderstood. I remember when Faith came on the scene. I remember all the drama surrounding her since the beginning of her public career. She was tagged as Biggie's wife in the One More Chance remix video and of course, everyone and their mama had something to say about that. Rumors about how she married him in 9 days and for money, etc etc. But I always saw something else: TALENT. Yeah, Mary J. is the Queen of Hip Hop Soul and rightly so. But the same way I feel Gladys Knight will always be in the shadow of Aretha's Queen of Soul, is how I feel about Faith Evans. When Faith dropped "Used to Love You" I remember people loving the song but also saying she "trying" to be like Mary. Which I always knew couldn't be further from the truth. I purchased the classic, underrated, and beautiful first album and knew that Faith has had something special. Something uniquely her own. As the media drama continued after the death of Tupac and then Biggie, I always wondered what Faith's story was. I always wanted to know how a church girl from New Jersey who ended writing songs in the beginning of her career for Usher and Mary J. ended up marrying Biggie Smalls, being the First Lady of Bad Boy, and survive the constant criticisms and fickleness of the industry to be an R&B legend in her own right. Well if you're wondering this too, this is definitely the book for you. Faith takes us on her journey and it's a strange, beautiful, sometimes cruel and painful voyage. I love Faith's honesty. She admits her flaws and her own endless mistakes. She never claims to be an innocent person or being above anyone. She just tells it like it is. The intimacy of the book makes you feel like you're talking on the phone with her, rather than reading it. You get lots of insight into the industry, especially the R&B scene in the 90's which I also found fascinating. I recommend this book to every fan of Faith, every lover of 90's hip hop, anyone searching for a story about a survivor whose beautiful song carries on through every note, laugh, cry, and page of this book.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Urban Book Source, September 7, 2008
This review is from: Keep the Faith: A Memoir (Hardcover)
Reviewed by Nia Jones
UrbanBookSource.com
From her heart to ours, Faith Renee Evans finally shares her side of the legend. From her life before Big to her life after, she keeps nothing, and I mean nothing, from her reader. Written in a conversational tone, Faith's memoir recounts what life was like as the first lady of Bad Boy Records and the wife of Hip Hop king, Christopher Wallace.
Keep the Faith begins in the beginning capturing what life was like for Faith in her early years. Born to Helene Evans, an aspiring singer and entertainer and a man known only as Richard Swain, who was rumored to be a white man, Faith's life began in Dade City, Florida. At the age of three she moved to Newark, New Jersey with Mae and Bob, who she calls her grandparents, but who are really her cousins. Faith got her first taste of performing at the age of three in the Emanuel Baptist church where she awed an audience with her angelic voice. From that point on she knew that she had to make a living with her voice. And so she did, with gigs at weddings, funerals, church engagements, and beauty pageants.
Faith's memoir continues from her early childhood on to her adolescence. By the time Faith graduated from high school, at the top of her class with a full academic scholarship to Fordham University, she had already landed her first paid gig as a background vocalist for the singing group Hi-Five, been repeatedly abused by her then boyfriend JT, a small time drug dealer, who also gave her a venereal disease, had two abortions, was in the midst of an illicit affair with a married man many years her senior, and had already briefly dated Redman, who was simply known as Reggie at the time.
During her freshman year at Fordham, Faith reacquaints with an old friend, Kiyamma, who she begins to spend time with in the studio during her downtime. Eventually Faith becomes pregnant with Kiyamma's child and drops out of Fordham to move to Oakwood, California with Kiy and the rest of his crew who were in the process of negotiating a recording contract. Once on the West coast, Faith and Kiy's relationship sours quickly and Faith moves back to the Brick City (with money Redman gives her) before the birth of her first child Chyna. Shortly after Chyna's birth Faith meets Puffy and is offered a deal by him on the spot to join Bad Boy Records.
Although much of who the public knows to be Faith Evans is associated with the Notorious BIG, he is not mentioned until page 109. From there on Faith shares their courtship, marriage, and separations, "That roller-coaster ride would become symbolic of our relationship--many ups and downs, some within minutes of each other. We moved forward very quickly and then backward just as fast. But through all of it, we were right next to each other, holding our hands, closing our eyes, and enjoying the ride." Along with the basics she also shared her side to all the tabloid topics such as her beef and brawl with Lil' Kim, "When Big and I were together, she played her position--in the back. Way back," her interactions with Charlie Baltimore, "Oh no no no...you got it all wrong. Don't ever call my f***ing house," her fall out with Mary J. Blige, "'Hey Mary,' I said when we crossed paths. It was crowded and I knew we wouldn't really be able to stop and talk for long. But Mary just looked through me, as if she'd never seen me before in her life," and Missy Elliot, "'Um, hey, Missy,' I heard Toni saying. 'I don't think she's here right now...' I sucked my teeth and continued unwrapping my dishes from one of the boxes. 'You ain't gotta lie,' I said. 'I'm sitting right here. But I don't talk to phony people," and of course her rumored relationship with Tupac, "His two friends left. We were now in his hotel room--alone...As soon as the door closed behind his friends, Tupac turned to me. His face was completely different. His teeth were clenched, his nostrils were flared, and his eyes were narrow...He was staring at me like he thought I was the one who set him up," and ultimately the murder of Big.
Keep the Faith is a swift read that is meant to tie up many loose ends to stories the hip-hop world has wondered about for more than a decade now. Although this is just her side to a knotty story, it's a side we haven't heard before, and a side that should be read.
What did you like best about this book?
I liked the honesty of this memoir. It tells the story, the complete story of a young girl who grew up to marry an eminent legend and was forced to deal with the fickle music industry all while dealing with her own scars.
What did you dislike about this book?
In some sections of the book the tone was too conversational, almost as if it was one girlfriend talking to another, telling her side of a story. Although this is what makes the book more personable, it also takes away from the memoir in some instances.
How can the author improve this book?
I would personally suggest that the conversational tone of certain passages, be toned down a bit to give the book more credibility within literary circles. Although I am sure this book was not written with the hopes of it winning laureate awards, I think monitoring the tone would help the overall feel of the memoir.
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