Melissa EXPOSED

"Exposed" is the title of Melissa's forthcoming fourth LP. Over the course of one whirlwind 48-hour period last week, Melissa displayed almost superhuman stamina, working on the video for her upcoming "No Player" single until six in the morning, sleeping a few hours and spending most of the day meeting and greeting the troops from her label, JIVE Records. She then sat for interviews for six hours, during which she changed outfits four times.

Around midnight, as her crew began to get the hollowed-eye look of the living dead, Williams decided she wanted to go to a recording studio to finish a song that she wrote with longtime producer Dallas Austin. She started laying down tracks at two in the morning, just a few hours before she had to drive out to another set to finish shooting the "No Player" video. Did we mention she was about to continue the route to the 2nd leg of her US 'All I Am' tour only a few days later?

"What month is this?" Melissa wondered aloud earlier that evening as she lounged in barely-there Daisy Duke jean shorts and a bedazzled checkered-style bikini top near a personal pool at the ritzy Beverly Hills Hotel. A stylist primped her hair while Melissa tried to answer the 297 messages backed up on her constantly chiming two-way pager. "Yesterday I saw these people dressed up, and I thought it was Halloween. I got so excited."

After only over a year in the spotlight and more than 20 million albums sold worldwide, you'd think Melissa would relax and slow down a bit to come back next year with something else, but no, she's popping out albums, singles, videos and even films quickly.

"I'm loving this, I love what I do," she said, flicking a wrist heavy with gold chains and a "Melissa" charm."This album is really autobiographical," she said, however, taking a last sip of her water. "I'm calling it Exposed, because the album exposes me in no other way that my previous albums have, it exposes my feelings, it exposes who I am, it's just taking it one step further than 'All I Am'."

The album, which Melissa continues to tweak and reshape, will drop on August 14 and is slated to feature at least a dozen songs co-written and produced by Melissa herself. Although she was unwilling to divulge details about the album yet, one song Melissa did talk about is the first single, the uptempo electronic Pop/R&B number "No Player." "It's like a 2K1 'No Scrubs', but it's not bashing guys in general, it's basically letting those guys who wanna be 'players' and 'pimps' to save it for someone who will actually buy their game, cause I won't, and a lot of women won't."

Another standout track on the album is "Some Kind Of Wonderful," which also has a touch of electric guitar and early 80's R&B flare. The dreamy hypnotic song was produced by Rockwilder and Williams.