Keep the Faith: A Memoir

This is an amazing book! I couldn't put it down. Faith honestly tells her story and easily captures your attention. Even more importantly, her sense of responsibility is refreshing. Not blaming and finger pointing like some biographies. Life happens and she deals, point blank. Faith, I wish you much success with the sale of this book. Keep em' coming, us "ride or die" chicks need good literature too!

The novel addresses many issues, including that of Big's ex-lover Lil Kim, from the reason she has an unreasonable hate for Foxy Brown(biggie wanted her for junior mafia), to the fact that Big was sleeping with three women at the time he was sleeping with Kim, and how horribly he treated her. Dead..lil kim fans are downeddddddddddddddddd

Based on Faith's musical history, I figured I'd be in for a treat, but KEEP THE FAITH took me beyond my expectations. From page one, her memoir proves to be candid, moving, at sometimes sad. It's a pageturning book that perfectly captures Faith's account of how she broke into the music industry, and who she met along the way. I enjoyed reading the detailed info about what went on behind the scences when she was recording her debut album. And I sympathized and could relate to the mistakes she made in relating to various men. I actually cheered when she had to throw down a few times when certain females overstepped their boundaries when it came to her union with Biggie Smalls. And I enjoyed how her vivid portrayl absolutely made me feel like I went back in time and could see and for myself all the glorious and tragic incidents that have become a legendary part of her life. KEEP THE FAITH is highly recommended due its honesty, relatability and lessons that can be learned through her colorful life.

As a longtime music journalist, who once interviewed Faith for a VIBE magazine group cover story, I have to say that the best part of this book is that it sounds like Faith is actually talking to you. The tone is intimate and conversational, and Faith is very detailed about the ups and downs of her life. The book is riveting because, not only does Faith have an interesting personal background as a mixed-race child who was raised in a strict religious household in Brick City by two distant relatives, but her path crossed with so many people who have come to define the r & b, pop, and hip-hop of our time, including a young Usher recording his first album, Mary J. Blige at the height of her "My Life"-era troubles, and Sean "Puffy" Combs as he was in the beginning stages of building his empire. (And this isn't even getting into the stuff about B.I.G., who's still considered by many to be the greatest rapper of all time.) As a memoir writer myself (All I Could Bare: My Life in the Strip Clubs of Gay Washington, D.C.), I know how hard it is to turn a series of life experiences into an engaging story. But Faith and her co-writer Aliya S. King have successfully done that.

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.