Any real R&B lover absolutely adores Anita Baker. Her voice was pure and soulful, depicting the divine love people spend a lifetime chasing. She made it feel simple and spiritual. “I love you just because… just because I do,” she sang plainly but strongly on “Just Because”. Baker’s music is timeless due to her powerhouse vocals that soar on classics like “Sweet Love. The fact that her voice sounded so strong ten years into her career meant she could’ve thrived for much longer, releasing albums every couple of years to widespread acclaim.
But after her 1994 album Rhythm of Love, she slowed down significantly. Six years flew by before she even thought about returning to the studio. By that point, the industry Anita Baker once dominated had radically changed. Her next album, My Everything, wouldn’t come out until September 2004 on Blue Note Records. Then, she released a Christmas album the following year. Afterward, Baker would tour here and there, but otherwise it was radio silence.
The “Angel” crooner threw a couple of singles out into the world, but an album never came. So why did she stop? Why did Baker take so long between albums after such an incredible stretch of music in the 80s and 90s? Aside from label drama that she battled until 2021, her family ultimately came first.
Anita Baker Put Her Family Ahead of Her Music Career
In an interview with Essence, Baker admitted she never intended to vanish the way that she did. However, family always came first. From her elders getting sick to supporting her husband and kids, time quickly passed by. But she didn’t regret a single thing.
“Life had decided where I was going to be by putting the infirmities and my children and my marriage in front of me. These are choices I made, and they had to be dealt with,” Anita Baker told the publication. “I think there’s no sacrifice too great for family, whether it’s career, singing, whatever. And I, apparently, was willing to sacrifice pretty much anything.”
Even when she tried to record, something would come up. Her aunt would be sick in the hospital, and all her kids knew was Anita Baker, the mom, not the star R&B singer. A studio at the house or not, juggling all these things became too unreasonable.
“So I set up a studio at home. My producer would be flying in, and we’d be in the middle of something, and I would get a call from the hospital, and I’d have to go. And then I’d come back, and I’d try to get back to the place where we were writing this beautiful love song. And then it’s three o’clock, the kids come home from school, and they’re like, ‘Mommy, this is what happened today… What are we going to eat?’ That’s all they understood, and they should have that. The two—my life and my music—would not coexist. They simply would not,” Anita Baker said.
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