When Musiq Soulchild (birth name: Taalib Johnson) was growing up making music in Philadelphia, his aspirations did not feature a major record label.

“I wasn’t even planning to sign a deal,” he said in a phone interview. “I was planning on just recording records – pressing up CDs and selling them myself. That was pretty much the plan.

“I’d heard a lot of stories about artists going through what they were going through with record labels,” Soulchild said. “I mean – I didn’t really know anything from anything. But I was thinking about my music not being respected and appreciated and having to compromise my integrity in order to make a dollar.”

But Def Jam President Kevin Liles, who’d fallen hard for Soulchild’s demos, proved very persuasive.

“I guess everybody around me was doing their best to make me feel comfortable,” he says.

Soulchild said he wasn’t in a position to turn down a blessing like that.

“I had nothing to my name,” he said. “I was homeless, essentially – depending on the kindness of strangers.”

The result was that Soulchild made a big splash in 2000 with his first single, “Just Friends (Sunny)” and with a debut album, “Aijuswanaseing (I Just Want to Sing).”

He was hailed by some as heir to a possibly endangered tradition of sweet soul balladeering and, by extension, as a presumed protector of that tradition.

Musiq Soulchild performs Feb. 12 at the Embassy Theatre

Soulchild released three subsequent albums in the “Aijuswanaseing” vein. They were all well received and lucrative but Soulchild began to feel restless.

“Everybody’s point of reference for me became this crooner or love man or romantic guy,” he said in a phone interview. “And that never fit me. That’s not even my personality.”

Indeed, it was Soulchild’s diversity that made his musical reputation in Philly. He could beat-box, freestyle, scat sing and perform credible street corner doo-wop.

In a 2000 profile in the Philadelphia Daily News, a 22-year-old Soulchild expressed a fear of being pigeonholed.

“The world is my focus,” he said. “It’s not just the ghetto. It’s not just the suburbs. It’s not just soul or hip-hop music. It’s not just pop, blues or jazz. The whole world is my focus.”

Soulchild’s desire to experiment with his hits in concert rather than mimic them hasn’t sat well with some fans.

“People expect a typical R&B show,” he said. “And I do the singles – do the hits – but I like to try different iterations. I may rock out on one and do a jazz version of another and a straight out remake of something. And people get this look on their faces sometimes. Because it doesn’t sound like it did on the radio.”

The debut of Soulchild’s rap alter ego named The Husel in 2014 also met with a lot of pushback.

Soulchild said he welcomes criticism. He listens to what sounds relevant to him and casts the rest aside.

It wasn’t always that way. He said it used to upset him more when he learned that someone wasn’t pleased with something he’d done.

Based on a preponderance of the anecdotal evidence, it might be safe to conclude that sudden fame isn’t so much a mixed blessing as it is a mixed curse. In the early days of Soulchild’s career, people used to tell him how well he was handling everything. But he said he really wasn’t handling everything well at all.

“I wasn’t really ready or prepared,” he said. “I wasn’t accustomed to that amount of attention. When you don’t have much going on in your life, nobody really cares. You have to beg for attention. Suddenly it was coming at me in a way I’d never experienced.”

He said it was really difficult at first for him to handle people recognizing him and coming up to him on the street.

“My shoulders would get tight,” he said. “Because people don’t walk up on you like in Philly.”

Soulchild wasn’t much of a drinker then, but people started buying him free drinks and it became a problem, he said. He’s been sober for a while now.

These days, Soulchild said he’s committed to “refocusing people’s expectation about who I am and what I have to offer.”

He is gratified to be so widely identified as an R&B artist, but he hopes to become known as more “R&B adjacent.”

To that end, Soulchild is launching his own record label called Soulstar Music Company. It will be a venue where his various personas can play, including one that no one has heard yet: Purple Wondaluv.

Asked what sort of music Purple Wondaluv makes, Soulchild gave an expected response: New Age.

“The sound comes from an idea I had,” he said. “‘What would it sound like if you sort of mashed together Bob Marley and Sade?’”

Soulchild said he intends the music to be calming and relaxing.

“With Purple Wondaluv, I don’t plan on making love songs or songs about romance,” he said. “The songs will be about general compassion. Not only for other people, but also for yourself.

He likens Purple Wondaluv songs to self-help books. Soulchild wants to use Purple Wondaluv to convey to listeners what he has learned about coping with some of the more difficult aspects of life.

“Without being self-righteous about it,” he said. “My idea is, ‘Here’s how I felt and here’s how it helped me and maybe it will help you if you go through it.’”

All future feats and forays will be kept separate from each other, Soulchild said. The only persona audiences should expect to see at a Musiq Soulchild show is Musiq Soulchild.

Soulchild said he isn’t afraid to fail.

“Being an artist is about learning to walk in your artistic confidence,” he said. “I may not know anything. I may not always know what I am doing. But I will always know what I am capable of.”