This album has been a long time coming, for lots of different reasons. When I released my first solo album TUNING FORKED TONGUE back in 2003, it was a fairly haphazard effort. I was running around recording random songs for the fun of it, and after some of them had been sitting collecting dust for 3 or 4 years, I decided I might as well print up some CDs and sell them. I love the material included on that set, but there was definitely no coordinated effort behind the song selections or the subsequent marketing. Over the past 6 years since TFT hit the market, I've had even more "random" commercial success, as a house music singer/songwriter recording with some very notable producers including Marlon D, Opolopo, Joey Negro, Frankie Feliciano, Quentin Harris and my boys Steal Vybe (Chris Forman & Damon Bennett). But again, this wasn't a career move that was approached with a plan. Successful singles turned into EPs and full-length albums, and thankfully these releases have given me notoriety and airplay in clubs and on radio all around the world. Yet, the final product for each of these recordings ultimately catered to someone else's vision for my voice and lyrics. I've been a muse for the producers, but somehow lost in the shuffle of industry protocol and preferences. I appreciate the opportunities, but it is now time for me to begin to chart my own musical success. That begins with this album. HOT LIPS is an intentional compilation. All a cappella, with a generous nod to the Grammy Award-winning gents of harmony: Boyz II Men, Take 6 and Bobby McFerrin. I fell in love with all three acts as a student at the University of Pennsylvania, which is where I got my first taste of a cappella singing and arranging as a charter member of The Inspiration. As a section leader and subsequent Music Director for that group, I was challenged to take the favorite songs in my head and arrange them for voice. Using the groups above and the legendary production prowess of Quincy Jones as a guide, along with music theory learned from years of clarinet playing with various bands and orchestras, I began to chart out my ideas for some of the songs I loved best. Several of those arrangements are included on this project. What you will also hear are a few special verses that have endured from the years when I was very much a regularly-working spoken word artist. Today's poetry scene is so much more flash and theatrics than lyrical substance, and the pieces I recorded for HOT LIPS represent some of the work that matters most to me because of form and content. Dr. Sonia Sanchez once wrote that poets should craft their work with utmost care because you don't want a piece to pop up twenty years later and embarrass you. I have no such worries about any of the pieces I've chosen to share with you here. They were written and are presented vocally with my deepest sincerity. So...I hope you enjoy this example of Stephanie Renée as a one-woman ensemble. All vocals and production by yours truly. For the first time, accepting responsibility as the captain of my musical fate and the master of my lyrical soul. But trust me, this is only a small sample of the works of which I am capable (knowing better than to end a sentence with a preposition, thanks Grandma Jean - RIP). Only a taste of the bigger purpose of my creative vision. Twelve tracks--symbolic of the student kneeling before the master--growth, acknowledgement and a passing of the baton. THANK YOU for taking a walk with me along the journey.