Marques Houston’s Got Something To Say
There are two things you need to know about Marques Houston: he’s well-versed in being fodder for the public and he doesn’t play about his wife, Miya.
Unlike her and their children (Zara, 2, and Greyson, 8 months), the 43-year-old Hollywood veteran signed up for the spotlight when he entered the industry as a child. After having survived what he felt was the hardest year of his life, Houston is addressing it all on his new album, The Best Worst Year Ever.
For most of the 14-track LP, Houston is doing what most happily married men do. The singer has dedicated his album to his muse a.k.a. his wife and subtly details what goes down in their bedroom and lives, respectfully. He doesn’t shy away from or ignore both the praise and criticism regarding his public and private matters. He sees and has heard it all.
This may not be the first time the couple has had to confront speculation on how their union formed, but for Houston, he wanted to return to his first love—music—and really get some things off his chest.
VIBE spoke with the former IMX frontman about the ways in which The Best Worst Year Ever is a Naked sequel, how his relationship became a hot topic in the court of public opinion, why he doesn’t need to protect his wife from the public, and its perception of her, and whether the album marks a reintroduction or a grand finale.
VIBE: I feel like I have not heard this type of sound from you since Naked and Veteran. Starting with the first track, what has got you tired of Hollywood?
Marques Houston: “Tired Of Hollywood” is actually one of my favorites on the album, and it’s the most special to me because I think it’s very true to who I am. I’ve been in the industry for so long, but sometimes I do feel like I don’t get the credit that I deserve for being so deep into the culture, with shows like Sister, Sister, and things like You Got Served, albums like Naked, changing the game with Immature, B2K, and everything that I’ve done in my career. “Tired Of Hollywood” is one of those personal tracks where I’m just going off. This is just how I feel. Y’all going to have to deal with it.
You also went off on the title track, “The Best Worst Year Ever.” I feel like you had to address some things and get it off your chest. With it also being the title of the album, why so cryptic?
I suffered a lot of pain, and a lot of the stuff was public [in 2023]. My business partner and manager, Chris Stokes’ mom, died, and I was very close to her. I had done a couple of interviews that got twisted around, so that was happening. Then there’s just rumors about me and my wife. It was overloading, and it was just like—Man, it wouldn’t stop.
On the other hand, the success of Footage Films— which is our film company— was growing so big and everything was happening so well career-wise. My family life was so great, and it just was this big contrast. At the end of that year, my son was born, and I think I said to one of my friends, “This is the best worst year ever.” I was like, “Wait a minute. Got a ring to it.” It was just really organic how I came up with it.
With all the controversy, how did you handle that contrast in real-time?
One thing is having a strong foundation, which is my wife and my children. She’s held me down through a lot [along with] my core friends and my family. I’m the kind of person that genuinely does not care. I don’t care what people think about me. I don’t really care what people say about me. I know it’s all false, and I just don’t really buy into it. I always say, “There’s good and bad with being in this industry.” The moment you’re in, you’re marked as a target to be criticized about what you do, what you wear, what you say, everything. I’m just used to it.
I always say, “You can’t buy into the positive.” At the end of the day, it’s a business. It’s not real life. Sometimes people take it too far. I learned from a young age that it ain’t real. Even the glory. That’s why you gotta have a real solid core foundation, because if you don’t, that’s when you’ll crack.
Age gap couples are not new to Hollywood, but you and your wife are a controversial topic. Why do you think that your relationship became such a hot topic in the court of public opinion?
You know what? I actually don’t know. I don’t think I ever really thought about that. Maybe because we were 19 years apart, but I don’t know what made it such a big topic. I will say that our age gap— you really can’t see it. Our children are beautiful, and we raise them as a team. Like I said, Miya is my core. She really is my foundation and keeps it real with me. She checks my ego. A lot of people don’t know how she is. I’ve dated a lot of [industry] women and no one’s ever just had that realness with me. Miya was like, “I don’t know who you are. I don’t really care who you are. I like you, but it ain’t because of nothing else.” I think that’s what I respect about her. Maybe people just don’t understand it. When you don’t understand something, you hate on it. I’ve seen so many stories that have been made up. Nobody even cares about the truth anymore; they just care about the lie.
Her backstory is really obscure. Does that matter?
It could have been that. The fact that she did run away from home, and the fact that she had a rough life as well. A lot of people played on that, but none of [the rumors are] true. When I met Miya, she was already who she was. She had already had that backstory. When we first started talking and getting to know each other, she told me about that, and it made me respect her more. For somebody who can be young and go through all that and still be spiritual and mentally okay, I thought that was respectable. No one’s perfect. No one’s spotless, and everybody has their own things that they deal with, whether that’s mentally, internally, publicly. When I really got into her backstory, I thought that could have been a reason why people spun it out of control, because it’s a deep backstory.
You’re a child star. You can take the criticism. Miya was not in that world. How do you protect her and even your children from that public consumption? Because you signed up for this, they didn’t.
That’s true. I always try my best to protect her and my kids from that, but I also don’t need to protect Miya as much because Miya is almost thicker[-skinned] than me. There are times I’m like, “Babe, no, no. Don’t respond.” I don’t think I have to protect Miya from anything. If anything, she protects me. But the kids, once they get older, I’ll explain to them how the industry works. I’m definitely not one of those dads that feel like I’m going to protect my kids from the industry. I’ll prepare them for whatever they want to do and allow them to do that. It’s better to try to teach them as much as you can even and have that spiritual grounding. That’s what me and Miya both had, and that’s why we connected. She’s the most normal person I’ve ever met in my life. The beauty of our relationship [is how] we’re able to pull from each other. We teach and learn from each other every day.
On Naked, you have a song called “Marriage,” where you say marriage don’t change nothing but your name. When you wrote the song, was that your personal take on marriage? Since then, how has marriage changed you?
When I was in my 20s, that was definitely my take. I was the guy who never thought I would get married, never thought I would have kids. I was like, “Marriage is just a paper.” [It wasn’t] until I did more of a spiritual deep dive about the core, the beauty of marriage, and how God created marriage [that] everything changed. Once I met Miya, I was like, “Okay, I get it.” My pops had told me, “When you meet the right one, you’re going to know. When I met your mom, I knew. Boom, right away.” Once me and Miya started to get deeper into each other’s mental, I felt like I was okay with the idea of being married and accepting that challenge, that responsibility. Miya’s always wanted kids. Us being able to have kids and me being able to be a father now has changed my dynamic and my view of life so much. You look at these little faces, and they love you so much, and you just want what’s best for them. Sometimes I feel bad that my kids have to grow up in this world. For me, it’s important to make sure that they have everything that they want so they can be rich in love. Me and Miya do everything with love, and we make sure that that’s first in our household.
How long were your parents together?
My parents were together when they were teenagers until my mother passed. I was 15 [then].
Coming from IMX, Immature to your solo work, I noticed you have a lot of songs about sex. Do you feel like your mom’s passing somehow affected how you approached relationships?
It could have. When you lose something, you start to look for feelings and emotions to replace what you lost. That’s just a natural thing that we do as humans. Every woman that reminded me of my mom, I found myself searching for that. I had mommy issues because I was so young and just searching for that [but] nothing can ever replace your mom. [Yet] when I met my Miya, everybody around was like, “She reminds us so much of mom.”
On ME, you dedicated “Forever’s Not Enough” to Miya, saying you wrote it when you first started dating. Would you say that on this current album “Never Give You Up” is also about her? Would you consider her to be your muse?
Absolutely. She’s my muse. This whole album is geared towards how I feel about her and [those] emotions. Of course, you can’t write every song about real life and about your experience, but it can definitely be influenced by how you’re feeling. Being in love and understanding what the priorities are in my life now versus when I was in my 20s, understanding that I am a husband, understanding that I am a father, and that I have to really make music that my kids can grow up and listen to. There’s nothing that I do as a man, as a husband, where I don’t check with her first because I value her opinion. I like her take on the industry because it is not the inside circle that I’m used to going to. I really value that in her, and it helps me a lot in the music, movies, and everything.
Speaking of opinions, what would you say is your favorite song from the album, and what is hers?
Hers is “Holding On.” Right from the jump. My favorite is— “Tired of Hollywood” is the most personal, but I will say my favorite would be “Cowgirl.”
Let’s talk “Cowgirl!” It interpolates Bobby Brown’s “Rock Wit’cha” and feels like the more grown-up, sexier version of your song, “Sex Wit You.” What was your approach to making that record?
Initially, I [wanted] to remake [Brown’s record]. Then I was like, “Well, not really, because then that’ll be a remake, so let’s do our take on that.” I am a family man now, so I can’t be out there talking about “Sex Wit You” no more. I didn’t want to be too vulgar with it. I wanted it to still be tasteful.
You also sampled Tevin Campbell’s “Can We Talk” on “Last Drop.”
Well, the thing with that one is we had that before the Tevin Campbell Challenge on Instagram. I definitely believe in music being timeless. When the challenge became so popular, I was like, “Okay, this is dope.” I also like that era of music. I wanted to be able to merge those two lanes and bring it all [together] as one. That was my goal with this album and I think we did a really good job with that.
After you dropped “Admit It,” you referred to yourself as a rookie again. What was it about that release that took you back to your early days?
I felt like in this climate, I am a rookie, because I don’t do music for this generation. I’ve done music for my generation, and you have to be able to flip that switch. With this album, I don’t want to be stuck in that time warp. I want to be a rookie. Even though I’m a veteran in the game, where we are [with] music right now, I’m a newcomer.
Would you consider this to be the reintroduction of Marques Houston?
Absolutely. I would definitely say it’s a reintroduction, but also, it could be a finale. You just never know when you’re an artist. I’ve retired so many times, but you just never know.
When do you feel the most alive?
When I feel the most alive is when I get home from work. My daughter—every time I come home, she rushes to the door, says “Daddy,” and jumps in my arms. My wife gives me a kiss and asks, “How was your day?” That’s when I feel most alive, because that’s the home life I never thought I would have. Being an entertainer, you never think that you’re really going to have that. The fact that I have that is what makes me so alive.
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