Mtume Profile - Black Beat Magazine, December 1983
Thank you to Instagram user @6chromed_nuts who pointed us to this December 1983 Profile of Mtume in December issue of Black Beat Magazine.
If anyone, maybe @blackbeatmagazine has the 2nd half of this interview (page 58 from the issue) we would love to add it to this transcription which contains this Mtume-ism : "To me, star is rats spelled backwards". The transcription follows ...

The Juicy News From MTUME
by Michael George
A special aura surrounds boxing’s heavyweight championship title. Just ask Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes, or Joe Frazier.
James Mtume is a heavyweight champion in his own right.
Mtume’s two-fisted bare-knuckled attack can't be seen in an 18 x 20-foot ring. His biggest knockouts have come in the recording studio where, over the last five years, he has produced some of contemporary music's biggest hits.
So what better place to interview a musical pugilist than in the “funky,” as Grace Jones (a boxer herself) calls it, ambiance of New York City’s Gleason Gymnasium, one of the boxing world’s most renowned training emporiums. The sound of the bell signals the beginning of another three-minute round. Boxers, young and old, champions and contenders alike go into real and imagined battles. Jumping rope, sparring, hitting bags hanging from the ceiling, grunting and sweating, reaching deeper into themselves to find what it takes to be a winner.
Mtume is in his element. And after watching him go a few rounds with the heavy bag, it’s easy to see how that same aggressiveness and effort has propelled the man and his music to the top of the heavyweight division.
“Boxing represents the same struggles you have in life,” said Mtume, now relaxed in front of his locker. “You have to learn to bob and weave. How to punch and how to duck. You have to know when to sit down and take that one-minute rest. Boxing to me is the epitome of individualism. It’s you in opposition to something else, and that something else just happens to be another human being. Boxing is where I get the energy for my music, it’s relentless.”
Mtume (son of Jimmy Heath of jazz’s Heath Brothers) wears many hats—producer, arranger, composer, and musician. Teamed with close friend, guitarist/songwriter Reggie Lucas, their musical accomplishments include classical award-winning hits like Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway’s “The Closer I Get To You” and “Back Together Again”, Stephanie Mills’ Grammy-winning “Whatcha Gonna Do With My Lovin” and Mills’ “Sweet Sensations”.
Mtume has worked with Phyllis Hyman, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Herbie Hancock, Gary Bartz, Tawatha Agee, Rupert Holmes, Olivia Newton-John, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and many others. His talents as a producer have been heard on 20 albums and over 200 recorded songs.
Not to mention his own band, appropriately called Mtume, which has released three albums. Several members of his band have gone on to produce LPs or form their own groups—Lucas with his group Sunfire and keyboard wizard Hubert Eaves with the hard-hitting D-Train.
Ironically, despite his commercial success and recognition among the insiders of the music business, Mtume maintains a low profile outside the recording studio. And that’s just the way he likes it.
“To me, star is rats spelled backwards. There’s a whole aura to stardom that I find very distasteful because it’s a fake out, especially with a lot of Black acts. What we go for is the glitter and glamour, which is just a flash in the pan. Keeping a low profile helps in terms of my psychological disposition. I think being psychologically healthy will help me to create for a longer [time].”
(Continued on page 58)
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