Demetria McKinney: From the Set to the Booth

After a very successful run on Tyler Perry's House of Payne, actress Demetria McKinney is getting back to her first love, music.

Article by: Kia Farrow

Tyler Perry's House of Payne's award winning actress and R&B singer Demetria McKinney discusses her life after House of Payne, her music. Although she's best known for her role as Janine on the award winning television series Tyler Perry's House of Payne, Demetria has been working as an actress for several years with roles in several stage plays and movies including Daddy's Little Girls and Breaking Up Is Hard To Do. Demetria is now getting back to her first love, music. Music has been a passion of Demetria's since she was a little girl, and now she is ready to show the world that she is not only an award winning actress, but she's an excellent singer as well.

So, now that Tyler Perry's House of Payne has wrapped, are you guys (the cast) still in touch with each other?

We became such a family; everybody is keeping an eye out for each other. We're all happy for each other's success and continunce with our careers. As you know, China and Doc have their own shows. Lance has been everywhere. Cassi and LaVan are doing their things, and I'm moving on and up with music.  So everyone has been really, really supportive of each other's endeavors.

How many seasons did you have with the House of Payne?

Oh my goodness! I want to say 7, we did over 230 episodes.

So now moving on to your music career, how long have you been singing?

Singing has been a passion of mine since I was three. Now mind you, I couldn't really hold a note until I turned 18 (laughs), but I was making people sit down and listen to me sing at family reunions. Y'all were going to pay me twenty five cents. You were going to watch my rendition of I Wanna Dance with Somebody with a pom-pom tied to my hand, and you were going to like it. Music has always been my passion, it was my first love, but acting just took off a bit faster so I'm getting back to the heart of it now.

Since you brought up I Wanna Dance With Somebody, you know we lost an Icon, Whitney Houston. How did that affect you? I'm sure she was one of your influences with getting into music.

She was a huge influence; she was the main influence for me. Even with being in the industry, I don't think it dawned on me that the people I looked up to for so long are people. It didn't dawn on me that they had their own problems, their own situations. That they have their own hurt, their own trials, and they have their own things that they considered to be whims, when it seems like something that really shouldn't even faze them. So when she passed it was a reality check for me. It was [like], 'okay life is short make sure that I do something that will make people remember I was here.' It had the biggest impact, I will never forget her. I will never forget her humanity, I will never forget the beauty of her humanity, and I will never forget the way that she touched me, even now. It really made me want to make sure that I upheld her memory in what I thought she gave me.

When is the album coming out?

The album, prayerfully, will be out in the spring. Every time I say when it's coming out, I'm blessed to get a new job. Each time I wanted to do a release, House of Payne has come back. I just wrapped on the Ricky Smiley show.

Rickey Smiley has a sitcom coming out on TV One and I played his ex-wife. On that, and I also played Deena in Dream Girls (Broadway) in July, which was amazing. So the album should be out in the spring. I've been working very heavily with Musiq Soulchild and Bangladesh. Musiq Soulchild produced 4 songs on the album and co-wrote two songs with me.

Do you have any Artist collaborations on the album?

I do, I have a duet with Musiq Soulchild.

Did you do any writing for the album?

I wrote most of my material. I wrote about 90% of the album.

(Sheen Magazine)