Filed under: Soul/R&B, Exclusive, Mixtape

Dawn Richard has only been in the music industry for a little over five years but she is already a survivor. The world got to know her on 'Making the Band 3,' however, she wasn't just another reality television star craving the spotlight. As Richard puts it, "I wasn't on a reality television trying to be an artist. I was an artist on a reality television show."

Audiences fell in love with her soulful voice and story; the New Orleans native survived the horror of Hurricane Katrina. Dawn had already been to the lowest point so conquering the music industry was the least of her fears. As we all know, Danity Kane dramatically disbanded, but she found a new home in Dirty Money with Kalenna Harper and Sean "Diddy" Combs. Their single 'Coming Home' charted at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. In addition, Dirty Money just announced their 20-city Coming Home tour, which kicks off April 13 in Minneapolis, Minn. Dawn also released her critically acclaimed mixtape, 'The Prelude to a Tell Tale Heart,' which is available for a free download at DawnRichardBlog.com.

In her interview with The BoomBox, Dawn talks the upcoming tour, the legendary Twitter marriage proposal, clears up recent comments that got a former Danity Kane member heated, and gives us the exclusive details on her new video for 'Broken Record.'

The BoomBox: Your mixtape 'The Prelude to a Tell Tale Heart' received great reviews. You recently shot the video for your new song 'Broken Record.' Give us some details on what we can expect.

Dawn Richard: It's extremely raw and I'm really proud of it. I'm dancing, which is something I've been doing longer than I've been singing. My mother had a dancing school and I started dancing when I was two. The video is in two perspectives. I'm singing both of the perspectives, but the second verse is in the male perspective. It gives the males an opportunity to feel like it's not just a male bashing record. You'll see in the video, I work with Luan, who is an amazing choreographer; she started with Rihanna when she did 'Pon de Replay.' I think people will be really proud of the outcome. Look out for the video at the end of March.

The Coming Home tour was just announced. How excited are you to go back on the road?
It's been almost four years since I've been on a huge stage, since Danity Kane did the Christina Aguilera tour. I'm overly excited because this is a different world for me. Danity Kane toured stadiums but, because we were the opener, it was a smaller crowd. We were still trying to touch people who were a little far away. This tour, we are more intimate and of course we are with a huge entity like Diddy. I love music and the passion of what we bring. I want to be up close, I want them to feel the words that we are saying. This is just a perfect tour to do that.