Federline wants to be taken seriously as rapper

updated 5:50 p.m. ET Nov. 2, 2006

LOS ANGELES - Let’s face it, Kevin Federline is pretty much a walking punchline. But when you meet him in person, surprise: he’s soft-spoken, he looks you in the eye and he seems grounded, if a little out of touch.

Federline — aka K-Fed and Mr. Britney Spears — wants to be taken seriously as a rapper. His debut CD, “Playing With Fire,” is out this week.

The 28-year-old says he’s more than just a tabloid target: He’s a working father of four dedicated to developing himself as an artist.

“That’s like the big transition, how I can get people to relate to that,” Federline says thoughtfully while dragging on a Marlboro Light outside a Hollywood TV studio. “They’re thinking about the family life and K-Fed and all this stuff, he’s living off her and blah, blah, blah. They don’t know that I paid for my own album and I paid my way. I paid my dues to be able to do this.”

Federline took a dance-strewn route to his rap dreams, working as a backup dancer for artists including Pink, Destiny’s Child, ’N Sync and Michael Jackson.

But the Fresno, Calif., native says music “was always in the back of my mind since I was young.” It’s just that breakdancing was big when he was a boy, he explains, so he learned the moves. Then he heard he could make money doing it. The middle child in a family of six, Federline moved to Los Angeles nine years ago to work as a dancer and found success almost immediately.

Love at first sight
He was still dancing — and dating former girlfriend Shar Jackson — when he and Spears fell in love in 2004, something Federline says he “never expected.”

“I was never interested in (her) that way,” he says. “It was always just whatever to me.”

The two first met when Federline was 20 and Spears was 16, he says. When they reconnected a few years later, “it was one of those love-at-first-sight type deals,” he says.

“I’ve been in relationships since I was 13 years old so I know what I want. Her personality and her attitude and all that stuff, it really works. I don’t know how sometimes, but it really works.”

Jackson gave birth to Federline’s son, Kaleb, in July 2004. Spears and Federline wed two months later. (He and Jackson also have a daughter, Kori, 4.)

Their romance seemed to both horrify and amuse the nation. The idea that America’s favorite pop princess would take up with a chain-smoking background dancer who was already in a relationship was grist for plenty of gossip columns; the couple’s wild exploits (some of which were captured for a UPN reality show) just made their relationship more of a target.

Shortly after marrying Spears, Federline turned his attention to making music — seemingly giving credence to critics who claimed he was using Spears to further his own fame.

When his wife got pregnant a few months into their marriage, Federline began building a recording studio in their Malibu mansion. He started working on his album as soon as their son, Sean Preston, was born.

The home studio allowed him to be near the baby while he figured out how to make a record, he says.

“I just wasn’t very familiar with putting songs together. So I took a good seven-month lesson and went on my way after that.”

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