Book Review: Faith Evans: Keep the Faith

So I read Faith Evans entire new book "Keep the Faith" and to tell you the truth it was interesting. The book recaps on Faith's childhood, being born in Lakeland, FL, about 45 minutes from Tampa, FL and how she never knew her dad. Faith was basically raised in Newark, NJ, by some folks she called her grandparents but she was not actually born in Newark as the book leaf suggests.

Faith chronicles her early life with a married man and a local drug dealer that beat her up on the regular and recounts multiple abortions. Faith eventually graduates from high school and gets a full scholarship to a local University. Faith then commits statutory rape when she finds out that the man she has brief sexual encounters with in the studio is underage and has knocked her up, she drops out of college and this leads her to L.A. with her underage lover (that promises to marry and take care of her) the baby daddy basically is too young to commit so Faith returns home to get her ish together. Faith has the baby, a girl she calls Chyna. After she returned back to Newark, she meets AL B Sure and Christopher Williams who jump off her career. She eventually auditions briefly for Puffy and he advances her some money to be on his label "Bad Boy" and the rest is history.

As far as Tupac and Biggie are concerned: Biggie basically married Faith after a brief dating period that included her driving him back and forth from Newark to Brooklyn (Biggie did not have a drivers licence and basically always rode shot gun) to hang out with him and his crew on the front steps of his mom's apt. The crew smoked illegal drugs, drank alcohol and kicked it until finally one day after about two months of dating, Big/Faith decide to get married. They do so at a local courthouse and Faith credits herself as the person that discovered Jacob the Jeweler, when she places her wedding ring on hold at a local jeweler for Big to purchase for the wedding ceremony. Faith wants her readers to know that Big was not famous when she met him and she was more financially straight then he and that she really did love him and money was not her motivation for marrying Big.

As far as Tupac is concerned, Faith places Tupac on the scene and makes it seem as if he just popped up one day and asked her to lay down her vocals on a track. Tupac picks Faith up one day in his drop top and takes her to Death Row records. Faith seems astonished to find out that Tupac actually was employed by Death Row, she meets Suge on entry and then does her work on the track. Faith charges Tupac $25,000 for work on the track and she never receives payment. She attempts to collect the debt by first visiting him and he basically berates her and she leaves. Her third attempt also ends in Tupac setting her up for her money and she then decides to call it a loss. Astonishingly, Tupac is shot while visiting a studio where Big is inside and his crew is waiting in the lobby. Tupac is immediately taken to jail after his release from the hospital and serves time while stewing about being set-up.

After Tupac's release from jail, Big and Tupac go back and forth about Faith in records and magazine interviews but Faith maintains that Big and Tupac were cool and that she never slept with him. Tupac is later killed.

Faith also recounts how she would hang out with Mary J Blige and Misa (Puffy's first baby mama), Usher, Missy, 112, Redman other musical artists and producers, up and coming. Faith also recounts how MJB basically got mad and stop speaking to her for no apparent reason and the real reason is unbeknown st to Faith, but a track that her and MJB worked on for Faith's album had to rerecorded without Mary's vocals.

Faith also recounts countless times she catches Big cheating with randoms, and the likes of Lil Kim and Charlie Baltimore whom she calls Tiffany in the book. Faith finds it in herself to always make a point of showing up to her husband Big's hotel where he is cheating and kick the a** of whomever he is cheating with, Faith not only did this to Big, this was her regular M.O. for all the men she dated. Big admits to Faith every time he is cheating and is really open and honest, either Faith did not care Big was cheating or she was really dumb.

Finally, Faith talks about Big's death and how she was at the club where he was murdered and how the entire day she avoided him because of a previous argument that they had. On the day Big was murdered, Big arrives at the airport with a friend to pick-up a lady that Faith had just gotten off the same plane with, he asks to see their new born son CJ and the woman takes CJ over to the car and Big plays with CJ for a minute and then Big tells the woman to tell Faith that he wants to see CJ later. Faith avoids Big the entire night, she has the chance to speak to him when he pulls up beside her in a car she is riding in but she hides in the back, then later at the club where Big is later murdered she avoids talking to him after Lil Cease invites her over to chill with them.

The club is let out early due to the fire marshall and overcrowding and as soon as Faith leaves she hears shots being fired and this was actually Big being murdered. She continues to another party only to be led to a hospital where she sees Puffy and others in the waiting room. Faith is not allowed to see Big and finds out from a doctor that Big has passed.

Faith then plans the funeral with Mrs. Wallace and eventually has to identify Big's body. Faith, Mrs. Wallace and Jan (Big's first baby mama) go to the coroner's office to identify the body but the coroner did not let them view the body he bought out Polaroids (Faith notes that Big looked like he was fighting for his life in the pics and that it looked like the pics were taken immediately after Big died), Mrs. Wallace insists she wants to see her son, but it is not permitted. Faith and Mrs. Wallace head back home but before they do they prepare to have Bigs body flown from L.A. to NY. They purchase a $15,000 casket and later learn once they get the body back to NY that the casket is too small for Big. They purchase another casket. Faith notices when she views the body for the first time that Big has a huge scar on his forehead and decides to get Big a fedora to cover the scar and to dress him in an all white suit. She also wants his body to be covered during visitation and the funeral to keep people from touching all over Big.

At the funeral Faith recalls that the loudest person at the funeral was Lil Kim, and Mrs. Wallace insists that if she keep being loud that she would have to go. MJB ushers Lil Kim to the casket to view the body and walks her back to her seat where MJB looks right through Faith but speaks to everyone else seated on her row "WOW". Faith sings at the funeral even though she was not on program and Big is later cremated.

Once the funeral was over Faith started dating her now husband Todd and ended up pregnant again. This will make her third child. Meanwhile, she has to settle whatever was left from Big's estate so Faith and Mrs. Wallace visit a lawyer who tells Faith that the estate will be divided, 50 (Faith)/25 (CJ)/25(Tyanna, Big's first child) since Faith was Big's estranged wife (Faith had not been living with Big for some time, although Faith makes it seem as if they kept in constant contact and were still having unprotected sex). Faith got upset and left the meeting when she walks in with Mrs. Wallace and several people are there including Big's old lawyer's, etc. She later discloses that Big's estate was in disarray and when she went to account for his assets she noticed that one of his vehicles was missing. Charlie Baltimore had the vehicle and insisted that Big had given it to her, Charlie Baltimore aka Tiffany (Tiffany was the main side chick in Faith's mind that Big left her for. Her name was constantly bought up in the book and she was constantly with Big. Tiffany had gotten pregnant and Big said he made her have an abortion). Faith had the dealership tow the vehicle back to Big's estate and that was the end of that.

Faith ends the book with Puff releasing her from "Bad Boy" at her request. She also mentions that she saw MJB out and about one day and they had left the past in the past. There was also mention about the arrest of her and her husband when drugs were found in a vehicle that she had earlier let friends "use". Faith insists the drugs were not hers. Faith had a second child from Todd and the couple have a home in the Atl. So I guess all is well in Evansville.

Overall, I feel the book could have been longer and the same timeline was mentioned over and over with different stories being introduced. I feel that there were inconsistencies in the book and that there was actually more juice that could have been given to the reader. I think this book was for Faith to clear her name and set the record straight. I think time could have been better spent with a magazine interview, which could have provided question and answer. I still don't have a clear understanding of Faith and her marriage to Big or her relationship with Tupac. There are still questions in my head about how Puffy/Bad Boy and Suge/Death Row Records could have contributed to Big and Tupac's death.

You know you have to read the book to get the rest.