The Gospel According to Kem

Wisdom from R&B's Most Underrated Crooner

Photography: Devon Warren

Kem is no Casanova. Though he writes and sings about love like a Cupid descendant, his real-life aura with women is dimmer. 

“I have no game,” the Detroit crooner admits while settling into a modest Tribeca studio. It’s the height of New York Fashion Week, and his jean-textured ensemble makes clear he understood the week's assignment.

Kem, 56, was never the type of musician to scan a crowd for women at a show. He has no groupie stories. He’s an introvert who used to to rely on drugs and alcohol to summon a bombastic version of himself as a teen. Those vices got him kicked out of his home at 19, leaving him to wonder each day where he’d sleep that night. He’s grateful for the Detroit Rescue Mission, Salvation Army, and the South Oakland Shelter.

Those struggles never slowed his songwriting. Kem believed God had a plan for his gift. From selling CDs out of his trunk to meeting his wife Erica — together, they now have seven children — he gives thanks to the Lord for it all. Especially for his partner in praise. Kem glows when referring to his wife. Their first date was at a New Year’s Eve church service. 

“I tell people the Lord was in our relationship from the top,” he says.

After a long career at Motown, Kem returns to his independent roots, with full control over his music and marketing. His latest album, due top of 2026, will deliver the smooth, signature rhythms fans have come to expect (Reference the album's first two songs, "Rock With Me" and "Give My Love".).

Over an 80-minute conversation, LEVEL asked the R&B veteran to pass along some wisdom — to us, and to you.

We start the sentences; he finishes them.

The hardest part about vices is recognizing that it's a vice.

The thing that I remember most about my addiction is being homeless. I left my parents' house when I was 19 years old because I couldn't live there anymore [due to] the life I was living. Being homeless is traumatic. Waking up in the morning in a strange place is one of the most painful, distraught feelings an individual can have. I had to use my whole day to figure out what was going to happen at night and nurse the addiction the whole time.

My parents never came to any of my performances [in high school]. If they had supported that and said "we're going to put this piano in the house, so you're going to have to sit down here on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday for half an hour," it would have been a different dynamic. If I didn't have something to push up against I don't know what I would be doing today.

The key to selling CDs out of a car is having something that people want to hear [laughs]. I was selling it out of the trunk, but I was also giving music away. I put people on planes to Chicago from Detroit to just be out in the streets giving CDs away so that people could experience my sound.

The last job I had was waiting tables at the Ritz Carlton in Metro Detroit. There's a sign when we walk in the back of the hotel that says, we are ladies and gentlemen serving the ladies and gentlemen. It was about excellence — going above and beyond for your guests. I was exposed to people of wealth and influence. My coworkers [would say] "you act like you own the hotel when you walk through here." I wanted to be on the other side of this.

What people get wrong about the Prince-Michael Jackson debate is that there is no debate. They stand in their own lanes.

I asked my wife for a business card. She told me she was a DJ, and I was like, do you have a business card? I was trying to make a move, but I didn't really know how. I was trying not to let everybody in the room know that I was trying to make a move [laughs].

They're going to be days when you love each other and there're going to be days when you don't.

It takes a lot for me to approach a woman. I have no game. I've never been the artist who's on stage pointing out which one I want to bring [back]. I used to be ridiculed for how shy I was and for not having game, but really, I think it's a blessing. I've been protected.

I'm really in tune with the idea that I don't have all the answers so if there's somebody who can help me in any regard, in any regard with my kids as a dad, it's like, dude, I'm open to it.

If something happened to you does your spouse or the people who are in your life know where the passwords, bank accounts, and insurance policy are?

God will not do for you what you will not do for yourself. One of my favorite adages is you ask God to move a mountain, you'd better bring a shovel.