Floetry
“Poetic delivery with musical intent” – that’s what singer-songwriter Marsha Ambrosius and emcee-songwriter Natalie Stewart call the fusion of soul and spoken word that is Floetry. Their anthem, “Floetic,” serves as the first radio track (and title track) of their debut album. “We put floeticism into everything we do. We are two opposites on the planet coming together and making something real creative happen,” Ambrosius says. “Love songs today seem to be about arguments and breaking up, and the club songs are all about getting one over on someone else,” says Stewart. “It’s like, come on, I just want to be happy for someone. We don’t deny the difficulties in life, but we want to say something positive, too.” But even before music brought them together, Ambrosius and Stewart had the court. “Natalie and I met through basketball,” Ambrosius says. “That was our main love. I was the superstar of my area of London – she was the superstar of hers. Everyone considered us rivals. But it was a friendly competition.” They both attended Brits Performing Arts School, then parted ways after graduation. Ambrosius got a publishing deal, and Stewart formed a poetry group called 3 Plus 1. The group started having problems, so when Ambrosius called Stewart saying she had a hook and wanted Stewart to add her poetry, the timing was right – and they jumped right into it with a show. “We rehearsed on the train on the way to the show,” Stewart recalls. “We had a real breakthrough when we got up there – it was an incredible feeling, being onstage with somebody you feel 50/50 with. And there was such a reaction from the audience. Everyone was crazy about it.” The girls began writing together in earnest, and soon they were booked solid on the London performance circuit. Then a friend who lived in Atlanta encouraged them to explore the poetry scene there. “So we went to Atlanta and blew people away,” says Ambrosius. “And I’d always been afraid of the U.S.A., thinking, `They have major talent – what are we gonna bring?’ But we were something new. Our music was something fresh to them.” After that, Floetry headed to Philadelphia for a show, and it was there that they eventually hooked up with Jeffrey “Jazzy Jeff” Townes (as in Jazzy Jeff And The Fresh Prince). Townes, who oversees A Touch of Jazz Productions, helped them land a deal with DreamWorks Records and then provided the production team that helped create Floetic. Besides doing their own music, the duo are also much sought-after songwriters. They’ve worked together to provide songs for artists like Michael Jackson, Jill Scott and Glenn Lewis. Through it all, Floetry is a team very in sync with each other. “There have been shows where Nat’s smiling at me for something I’ve done, and then she’ll start spitting all kinds of freestyles, and I’ll be thinking to myself, `How is someone that clued?’ I chose the right person to be down with,” Ambrosius says. Stewart agrees: “We’re right there for each other, seeing it, feeling it. You know, there have been some arguments and some tears, but also a lot of hugs. We don’t have boyfriends. We don’t have children. We don’t have anything we’re carrying with us. What we very much have is each other.”
