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Nick Cannon Knows You Have Questions and He's Working Out the Answers in His Personal New Music

In an exclusive interview with E! News, Nick Cannon opened up about the therapeutic power of music, putting his true self on display, having a lot of kids and working so damn hard for them.

By Natalie Finn Feb 04, 2022 1:00 PMTags

You're forgiven if you've wondered at some point—maybe this week, even—just what is Nick Cannon's deal, exactly?

And that's alright, he's aware that he's prompted a few hot takes in his day.

But while the famously busy 41-year-old tends to candidly face his headlines with humor and self-deprecation—on his eponymous VH1 talk show, he shared some of the more amusing tweets people came up with in response to the recent news that he's about to become a dad for the eighth time—at the center of all the noise is a guy who's still just trying to figure it out.

"Honestly, just life," Cannon told E! News in an exclusive interview ahead of the Feb. 18 release of his new mixtape, Raw N B: The Explicit Tape, when asked what compelled him to get back into the studio. "I mean, my life has been a roller coaster."

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A wild ride that lately has thrown him for a few extra loops.

After a Jan. 30 baby shower sighting, Cannon—who also mentioned in October that he was giving celibacy a tryconfirmed on his talk show that he was expecting a child with Bre Tiesi. The news that neither had planned to share yet came less than two months after he and Alyssa Scott lost their son Zen, who was born last August, to brain cancer. And on Thursday's show, Cannon apologized for any pain or confusion he may have caused by discussing all of it at the same time earlier in the week.

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"It's definitely a struggle to even process," Cannon told E! of the inexplicable experience of mourning a baby with one person while also having new life to celebrate with another. "It's difficult for me to process daily, and music has been the outlet for that."

Incidentally, while The Explicit Tape "is really just my raw feelings," he finished it awhile back, so it'll be his next album, which he's hoping to put out this summer, that will more deeply reflect what he's gone through over the last six months. "I would say," Cannon noted, "there's been a lot of growth."

And "to really cry out for my soul on a lot of these records," he said, "it really has been a therapeutic process for me."

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On the mixtape, Cannon shared, there's "a lot of machismo, it's a lot of… male aggression." He gave a little laugh, as if at a distant memory. "And that sense of like, 'I am who I am,' and an unapologetic manner, and it has a sex appeal to it that's purposeful. But my album is a little bit more introspective."

While he's the "ladies man speaking out and pleading my case" on the mixtape, on the album he's more of the thoughtful, reflective father.

"But I think in order for me to get there," Cannon said, "I have to come here first, too, because [these various sides] are all me—and that's the beauty of music, is you get to express yourself. So I could say, all of the questions that may have been asked about [me], you know, 'Who is he?' and 'Why does he move the way that he does?'—[The Explicit Tape] is probably the answer to all of that."

The album then is more about the aftermath of his actions, he said, "having to deal with it and say, 'Alright, well, a lot of this pain is self-inflicted.'"

"When I say, 'Yo, this is the gospel of a broken soul,'" Cannon noted, quoting a previous synopsis of the mixtape, "to me it's like, 'Yeah, I know I'm toxic, and I'm trying to deal with it!'"

"That's the beauty of music," he observed. "I can have a full conversation this way."

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The ubiquitous artist first made his name as a young star on Nickelodeon's All That and the host of MTV's Wild 'N Out before going on to a sprawling career that has included hosting a daily radio show and hit TV competitions like America's Got Talent and now The Masked Singer, starring on sitcoms and in films ranging from the teen classic Drumline to Spike Lee's Chi-Raq, doing stand-up and authoring a children's book.

(And if you're wondering if a memoir is forthcoming, don't clear a space on your shelf just yet. "There's many chapters in the Book of Nick Cannon and every one of them is interesting—and it's still going!" he explained as to why that's not in the works. "I feel like it's still the beginning of the book, crazy stuff hasn't even happened yet!")

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But since music is so often his refuge, Cannon is grateful that it isn't his day job, that ever since his 2003 self-titled debut album he's primarily been able to drop songs and spoken-word projects when the mood strikes and the timing is right. Which it certainly is for him right now.

"I make music because I love it, because it's a passion," he shared. "You know, hopefully, it's received well, but I'm doing this for me."

Asked if he was able to work as hard as he does because he has so many irons in the fire, he cracked, "I work so hard 'cause I got a lot of kids!"

More seriously, he added, "I think I'm a workaholic. I think the world knows that. People say I'm the hardest working man in showbiz, but I want to be the smartest working man in showbiz. I want to be able to continue to create an empire that, when I'm done with the drive or wanting to constantly be working, everybody and everything will be sufficiently self-sustained in that sense of where, you know, I can kick my feet up and say 'Job well done. I did my best.' That's the goal. Like I always say, you gotta keep cooking while the pot is hot. And it drives me, I feel like I'm in the zeitgeist of everything that I'm supposed to be doing as an artist. And I love it. It doesn't feel like work to me. That's the thing, when it starts to feel like work, it's probably lost."

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As for those many kids he mentioned...

Cannon is also dad to 10-year-old twins Monroe and Moroccan with ex-wife Mariah Carey, son Golden, 4, and daughter Powerful Queen, 13 months, with Brittany Bell, and 7-month-old twins Zion Mixolydian and Zillion Heir with Abby De La Rosa.

"I love, love all my children, like unconditional love," Cannon said, "[and I ] have great respect and honor for all of their mothers, because I know I'm a lot to deal with."

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He smiled, one of several good-natured acknowledgments during our Zoom conversation that his actions have wreaked some havoc. Or, as he put it, "There's definitely some very fascinating aspects to my life." 

But that's part of why he's so fired up about his new songs coming out, "because one thing about music that's different from my show or when you hear me speak about [my life]—I'm turned on in those moments, I'm up here [gestures above], I'm on the highest frequency of trying to entertain. But music is darkness in the studio, I'm writing, I'm reflecting, I'm crying. I'm perfecting."

With this music, "I'm being more open and vulnerable than I've ever been. So I think through this, people will actually get a chance to understand me more—because I know I'm difficult to understand, I know I'm unorthodox in many manners, I know I'm not ordinary or typical by any means. So the way I move is going to be questionable, but I always say, 'Don't charge it to my heart.' I'm trying to come from a place of love."

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Cannon is also singing again, a skill he didn't flaunt during his years trying to build cred as a rapper and which he's still sweetly nervous about showing off despite all of the other creative endeavors he's so enthusiastically leaned into over the years. (And if you guessed he barely sleeps, you're right. Once he's home for the night, after a workout and reading bedtime stories to his kids he might settle in with a book and a mug of tea, crank up a documentary and snooze for two or three hours—his doctor would prefer he get six—before he's up at 4:30 a.m., starting his day with prayer and meditation, to do it all over again.)

"On one hand it's a dream come true," Cannon, who grew up in the church singing gospel and loving the R&B stylings of Donny Hathaway, Marvin Gaye ("the embodiment of the perfect artist") and Stevie Wonder, said of embracing his roots. "On the other, it's scary as s--t because this is really my biggest insecurity as an entertainer."

But "I've matured, and since God has blessed me with gifts [of musicianship and artistic freedom], why not share them? Why not utilize this?" he reasoned. "It was gonna help me get through difficult times. I mean, when you're in front of cameras 24/7 and you've got to put on a smile to do all that, you've got to have an outlet to be your authentic self. And music is that for me, especially singing and songwriting."

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Moreover, as much as he may talk about his life on TV or the radio, there's something different about delivering his message through music, whether he's laying down tracks to release publicly or just to get something off his chest. (Yes, there is a private archive that may never be heard by outside ears.) 

People can hear what he says, Cannon explained, but with music, listeners are "paying attention to the feeling, they're paying attention to the passion, they're paying attention to what you convey. There's a difference between what you say and what you convey."

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The Explicit Tape (which does include several NSFW titles) features collaborations with the likes of Jacquees, Chris Brown, K. Michelle and longtime friend Brandy, whom Cannon gave a glowing shout-out to on his talk show after her radiant performance of the national anthem at the NFC Championship Game last weekend.

He's particularly proud of their track together, called "F.A.I.T.H.F.U.L." She has "the most amazing tone," Cannon raved. "And to be able to have grown up with this person...We're literally having a best friend conversation [in the song]. She's giving me s--t. She's telling me that, 'Yo, [you] need to grow up' and all of this, but I'm like, 'I couldn't have done it without you!'"

"It's such a dynamic record," Cannon continued, comparing the track's duet chemistry to classic duos like Hathaway and Roberta Flack, or Gaye and Tammi Terrell. "You feel like those people really knew each other and really loved each other. So that's the record with Brandy that I'm excited about."

And he's also so excited about his new music—the single "Weekend Girl" drops Feb.4—simply because he loves making it. Asked what he wanted to do in his career that he hadn't done yet, he said, "Here we are."

"I try not to get too caught up in what people say or what are people going to think," he explained, "but I'm human, I'm an artist, I'm sensitive. That's probably one of the reasons why I've never jumped out there with my musicianship or my singing ability."

But, he concluded, "I go back to saying it's therapeutic—once I step out of the booth, once I create a song, I feel like a better person, I feel like I've grown from it. It's helping me, whether people hear it or not, so at least now I'm opening up and I'm sharing."

Raw N B: The Explicit Tape is due out Friday, Feb. 18.