Tamia
July 27, 2008
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Imagine a friendship breathed into life by music. Imagine a message of love unheard of. Now awake to Between Friends, the newest album by Tamia.
Between Friends is an R&B guide to the beauty and dynamics of relationships. Mixing the writing styles of Shep Crawford, the producing finesse of Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins, Tamia’s maturity as an artist and woman resonates in all 12 songs.
For the love-starved man who craves the warmth of a good one, Tamia’s songs ignite flames of hope that romance and love still blooms. Songs like “The Way I Love You”, “Too Grown For That” and “Can’t Get Enough Of You” fuse Tamia’s sinfully smothering vocal abilities with Darkchild’s signature bounce to every beat.
Since her last album, More, Tamia is trying to do it all- being supportive of her husband Grant Hill and his career, mother of four year-old Myla Grace (Myla means merciful taken from the Bible ‘mercy and grace’), and working with charities like Prevent Child Abuse America; Habitat For Humanity; Multiple Sclerosis (MS) awareness in Canada; and, an African American art collection currently touring the US.
Yet, completion of the last album left Tamia wanting, wanting to do more songs, but feeling restricted by record label obligations. Tamia wished to make the decisions about songs - if she felt strongly about it, then it would make the album. As Tamia notes,
“Shep Crawford, who produced “Stranger In My House,” and I, always said that if we ever had time and wanted to have fun, we’d just go into studio and make the music that we wanted to make. We both loved the creative process and creating songs. We loved just hanging out talking about life and having a good time. We went into the studio not thinking that we’d create an album. It came organically. Literally, it was going to be a CD just for us.”
Investing her own money without waiting for anyone to propose a new album, Tamia tinkered and toyed with music she wanted to make. She involved herself in every aspect of this project putting forth an album that truly is, soul.
“I’m always going to be that little 6 year-old singing into her brush with her mom yelling, “Tamia, please stop!” Music is just a part of me-everything that I do, every step that I take. I am still thankful and amazed, because I still see myself as that little girl with a brush.”
Tamia’s big break came when she was featured on Q’s Jook Joint album, with her own solo effort following a few years later. During that time frame, this previously unknown singing sensation received three Grammy nominations: Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for “You’ve Put A Move On My Heart;” Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group with Vocal for “Slow Jams,” which she performed with Babyface and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for her work with Brandy, Gladys Knight and Chaka Khan on the single “Missing You” from the Set It Off soundtrack. To top it all off, the amazing Tamia was also nominated for her fourth Grammy in 1999 for her duet with Eric Benet, the #1 “Spend My Life With You.”
In 2005, Tamia traveled with a full band to South Africa to perform. “It was amazing from the start to finish. “It made everything so much more fun; we went to do a 45-minute show, but ended up doing almost 2 hours. I had a band that loved to play and we just went over there to have one big jam session.
There’s nothing like being on stage and having the crowd singing every word of your song. After 10 years as a recording artist, the experience was still very touching. You never know how your music touches people. This experience rejuvenated me. It energized me to get this new album done.”
Between Friends is the birth of Tamia’s second child. With her growing wisdom in life, love and the music industry, she believes that “there’s a time and place for music like “Drop it like it’s hot!” But, there are also people who want to hear about love and relationships. A lot of songs I do aren’t from personal experience, but the subject matter is universal.”
The future remains a mystery. But from wake to sleep, Tamia is driven by the music box within.
Source: http://tamiaworld.com/about_details.php?page_type=bio
Jill Scott
July 19, 2008
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Born in 1972 in North Philadelphia, Jill Scott grew up in the ghetto with her mom and grandmother. A deeply loved and gifted child, she learned to talk at only eight months and was reading by age four. Always the center of attention, her principal in elementary school described her as a little butterfly.
After running from Jill’s abusive stepfather, mother and child moved in with Jill’s grandmother, with whom she had a very close bond. After a rough but memorable childhood, Scott attended Temple University, studying secondary education. She was planning on becoming a high-school English teacher.
When she was placed at a school as a student-teacher, her fellow professors disapproved of her unique method of teaching the kids: she often incorporated singing and melody in order to help with memorization. Due to the negative comments she was receiving, she quit.
Shortly thereafter, a friend helped her in joining a local theater troop. After some hard work, she earned a spot on the Canadian cast of Rent, began to do poetry readings and befriended some big names in the Philly artistic community, included Jeffrey A. Townes (DJ Jazzy Jeff). It was here that Scott’s musical career took off.
Encouraged by Jazzy Jeff and Ahmir-Khalib Thompson (Ahmir “Questolove” Thompson) of the hip-hop group The Roots, Scott wrote several songs in only three days during the summer of 1999. One of them, entitled “You Got Me,” was performed by Erykah Badu and The Roots, and won a Grammy for Best Rap Performance (Duo or Group). A few months later, after Jeff burned 100 demo CDs and marketed the soul singer, Jill Scott signed with the new label Hidden Beach. During this whole process and since then, she collaborated with Will Smith and Common, and worked on soundtracks for Down to Earth (2001), Wild Wild West (1999) and In Too Deep (1999)
Amazingly, she made 50 songs for her debut album and had a lot of trouble trimming it down. Finally, after much deliberation, “Who Is Jill Scott? Words & Sounds, Vol. I” was released in July 2000. It featured music that was youthful enough for the younger generation and soulful enough for those above 40.
Accolades came pouring in for her unique contribution to hip-hop: “Who Is Jill Scott?” was certified platinum, and she received three Grammy nominations (including one for Best New Artist), three NAACP Image rewards and one Soul Train Award for Best Female R&B Album. Her fame carried her on stage as she performed on VH1’s Divas Live with Aretha Franklin; speaking of Aretha, Jill Scott was the 2001 recipient of the Aretha Franklin Award as “Entertainer of the Year” at the Lady of Soul Awards.
Source: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0779325/bio
Amy Winehouse
July 19, 2008
Amy Winehouse |
Much can be said about Amy Winehouse, one of the U.K.’s flagship vocalists during the 2000s. The British press and tabloids seemed to focus on her rowdy behavior and heavy consumption of alcohol, but fans and critics alike embraced her rugged charm, brash sense of humor, and distinctively soulful and jazzy vocals. Her platinum-selling breakthrough album, Frank (2003), elicited comparisons ranging from Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan to Macy Gray and Lauryn Hill. Interestingly enough, despite her strong cockney accent and vernacular, one can often hear aspects of each of those singers’ vocal repertoire in Winehouse’s own voice. Nonetheless, her allure has been her songwriting — almost always deeply personal, but best known for its profanity and brutal candor.
Born to a taxi-driving father and pharmacist mother, Winehouse grew up in the Southgate area of northern London. Her upbringing was surrounded by jazz. Many of the uncles on her mother’s side were professional jazz musicians, and even her paternal grandmother was romantically involved with British jazz legend Ronnie Scott at one time. While at home, she listened to and absorbed her parents’ selection of greats: Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald, and Frank Sinatra among others. However, in her teens, she was drawn to the rebellious spirit of TLC, Salt-N-Pepa, and other American R&B and hip-hop acts of the time.
At the age of 16, after she had been expelled from London’s Sylvia Young Theatre School, she caught her first break when pop singer Tyler James, a schoolmate and close friend, passed on her demo tape to his A&R, who was searching for a jazz vocalist. That opportunity led to her recording contract with Island Records. By the end of 2003, when she was 20 years old, Island had released her debut album, Frank. With contributions from hip-hop producer/keyboardist Salaam Remi, Winehouse’s amalgam of jazz, pop, soul, and hip-hop received rave reviews. The album was nominated for the 2004 Mercury Music Prize as well as two Brit awards, and its lead single, “Stronger Than Me,” won an Ivor Novello Award for Best Contemporary Song.
Following Winehouse’s debut, the accolades and inquiring interviews appeared concurrently in the press with her tempestuous public life. Several times she showed up to her club or TV performances too drunk to sing a whole set. In 2006, her management company finally suggested that she enter rehab for alcohol abuse, but instead, she dumped the company and transcribed the ordeal into the U.K. Top Ten hit “Rehab,” the lead single for her second, critically acclaimed album, Back to Black. Containing evocative productions from Salaam Remi and British DJ/multi-instrumentalist Mark Ronson, the album somewhat abandoned jazz, delving into the sounds of ’50s/’60s-era girl group harmonies, rock & roll, and soul. The fanfare over the release was so great that it started to spill over onto U.S. shores; several rappers and DJs made their own remixes of various songs — not to mention covers by Prince and the Arctic Monkeys.
One month after Winehouse won Best Female Artist at the Brit Awards in February 2007, Universal released Back to Black in the U.S. The LP charted higher than any other American debut by a British female recording artist before it, and it remained in the Top Ten for several months, selling a million copies by the end of that summer. Just as in the U.K., she became the talk of the town, landing on the covers of Rolling Stone and Spin magazines. Not long afterward, though, Winehouse canceled her North American tour. Early reports revealed that she was entering rehab for alcohol and drug addiction, but her new management denied the claims, stating it was due to severe exhaustion. Her erratic behavior kept her and her new husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, constantly in the tabloids and on and off stages on both sides of the Atlantic, but in late 2007 American fans were finally given a chance to hear Winehouse’s early work, with a slightly abbreviated (two songs removed and one added) version of Frank. Cyril Cordor, All Music Guide
Source: http://www.starpulse.com/Music/Winehouse,_Amy/Biography/
Keyshia Cole
July 19, 2008
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Keyshia Cole is the real deal. Like many young people raised in a tough neighborhood, the 21-year-old songstress endured a tumultuous childhood in Oakland, California, and has fought all her life to keep her dream of a music career alive. Now she’s realizing that dream on her own terms with her first album for the A&M label, The Way It Is. It’s been a long road for Keyshia, but it’s her powerful voice– a bell-like instrument whose soaring clarity is topped off with a tantalizing touch of soulful grit — that’s carried her through, not to mention the diminutive singer’s personal combination of sugar, spice, sass and sex appeal, along with a solid-steel spine.
“Being young, you have to be really dedicated to doing it for yourself,” says Keyshia, who co-wrote most of the songs on her new CD and cites artists like Mary J. Blige and Brandy as inspirations. “There’s a lot of trials and tribulations you have to go through to get what you want, especially if you feel like it belongs to you.”
Keyshia’s talent, personality, and faith have won her fans and supporters within the notoriously picky entertainment industry since she was a young girl. While still a pre-teen she convinced then-superstar MC Hammer that he should put her on, and she even got a chance to do some recording with the rap star before she was 12 years old. She also scored sessions singing hooks with other Bay Area artists, including Messy Marv’s “Nubian Queen” remix, which was a regional hit for the rapper, and with Tony Toni Tone’s Dwayne Wiggins, who featured her on his soundtrack for the indie film Me & Mrs. Jones.
Within minutes of catching her boyfriend cheating, Keyshia was in her car driving to Los Angeles in the middle of the night to start a brand-new life. It only took the determined singer a few months of making connections to snag an introduction to A&M Records President Ron Fair, who immediately signed her to her first solo recording deal. For her first album, Keyshia has garnered the support of none other than reigning hip-hop star Kanye West; producer and songwriter DaRon of R&B group 112; rapper Chink Santana, whose gruff stylings have graced hits by Ashanti and The Inc.; and popular producer E-Poppi. She also got a chance this past Spring to collaborate with Eve for her debut single, “Never,” on the Barbershop 2 soundtrack.
So what’s everybody raving about? Check Keyshia’s first single with West, “I Changed My Mind.” The tune is a perfect fit for Keyshia’s longing soprano and her distinct stance as a performer: Like many young women, she’s looking for love, but she’s not so desirous of romance that she’ll sacrifice her own needs. Having been devoted to her man, she quickly realized that he is devoted to himself. What’s a girl to do? She simply changes her mind about being involved and walks away.
Keyshia easily admits that the song reflects her romantic philosophy. “That song was actually about being focused and dedicated to what you want and what you’re trying to be. It’s about the things you’re trying to accomplish in life and dealing with somebody, a significant other, who comes in between that, especially with their ways. I want to be an example for young girls in following your goals and dreams and making it happen and checking him out later if you have to.”
A twist on that philosophy is on display in “I Should’ve Cheated,” which was crafted by DuRon, a producer whose songs Keyshia admired so much she chased him down in Atlanta to work with him. On the track, Keyshia sings of being a devoted girlfriend who is constantly accused of cheating by her man. It seems that two can play that game, and Keyshia has no trouble letting Mr. Suspicious know what’s up. “That song has a lot of emotion, because I feel every girl and every guy can relate to that,” she says. “If somebody is doing you wrong or saying that you’re doing something and you’re being the best that you can be in the relationship, then you get home and they’re like ‘Where you been?’ “Well, where I could have been is …’ Don’t start! It could get real ugly.”
At the same time, Keyshia’s songcraft reveals that the plucky artist isn’t afraid to let a man know she’s interested. On the flowing “We Could Be,” she fearlessly lays out all a former friendship could blossom into. On the mid-tempo “Down N Dirty,” she has no trouble expressing what she’d like to do, while on the spare, deep groove “Talk To Me,” co-written by singer Mya, Keyshia lets a guy know that his seeming disinterest is just a front. And Chink Santana lends his gritty rhyming skills to “Situations,” another love song with a twist.
On the feel-good, old-school-styled ballad “Love,” Keyshia’s powerful vocal intensifies a straight-ahead plea to the object of her affection, who’s involved with someone else. It was a real-life situation that compelled Keyshia, who admits ballads are not her favorite style, to come up with the lyrics to “Love” in five minutes flat. At a Malibu restaurant, she spied the same guy who years earlier had told her he wasn’t interested in a committed relationship with her dining with his girlfriend. “So I was looking at the girl and I was like, ‘What is it about her? You know, like seriously, what are you thinking?’” Keyshia remembers. “And I just wrote about it, it came out really quick.” She immediately headed into the studio with producer Greg Curtis: “After I wrote the song, I went to the studio about 4 in the morning, and by 5 or 6 I was done with the song and that’s what you hear.”
Ms. Cole even applies her keep-it-real aesthetic to the tune “You’ve Changed,” in which she takes on none other than Jay-Z for the lyrics to his tune “Song Cry.” The tune is from the point of view of a neglected wife who’s had enough.
The realities surrounding where she was raised and the hurdles she overcame are never far from her mind. She says she recorded the tune “Streets Is A Mothafucka” because the lyrics reflected some true-to-life scenarios, including crime, drugs, and the hustles that come with survival. “It’s just different things that we see in the ‘hood that we never see in Hollywood. I liked the contents of the song, because I felt like no girls talked about it,” she says.
A self-described “hard worker” who can sometimes be “goofy” and “fun” yet says she would never kiss a guy she doesn’t know for a video, Keyshia is passionate about providing inspiration to young girls, and young people in general, who come from troubled backgrounds. “I want to be an example for young people, especially growing up in the ‘hood, because it’s already hard enough to not be focused, not to be trying, to be doing something,” she says, adding that hope and faith and holding on to a dream can carry anyone far. The tattoo on her right shoulder — a cross, a heart, and a star– truly reflects her belief that goals can be realized, despite the circumstances. “It’s really possible,” she says with a grin. And those are her thoughts — just the way it is.
Source: http://www.keyshiacole.com/bio/
Top 10, “I Love Soul Sisters”
April 19, 2008
The staff of www.Soulsummer.com tackled the task of constructing a list of today’s top 10 soul sisters, a chart we call “I LOVE SOUL SISTERS TOP 10”. After several days of combat and heart felt emotional warfare, we decided that the task at hand could be a lot less emotional and chaotic if we treated it as business and apply guidelines for our selections.
The sexy chick, decent actress with sexy legs simply couldn’t qualify for having nice legs. The smooth skin honey without much vocal skill, the sister with the body of a goddess on TRL every other day and the sister who can dance but can’t blow simply could not make the cut. The voices and music had to be amazing…simple enough…right?
Not so fast, the personalities in the SS office rival a den of lawyers so the technicalities came into play. The skinny graphics guys popped off with; “what about the pop chick, she is popular but is she technically soul”…good question; SoulSummer.com defines soul as “heartfelt R&B influenced music laced with significant emotions, quality story telling and delivered by voices that are undeniably divine”… see Arthea Franklin.
The Production Guy had his two cents…”what about country girls? Like Faith Hill she is soulful?” The editorial guys shouts, “ dude…Faith Hill is as far from R&B music as Whitney is to a comeback”… The quiet, tech girl added to the argument; “Which brings us to another point; can Whitney qualify for the top 10 since we’re dealing with “today’s” soul sisters, you know ones who are actually active in the music business?
GOOD POINT, a bit harsh to single out Bobby’s ex wife but they are correct…no yesterday stars without current hits.
After two full days of back forth, I laid down the selection constitution; “ok people, we are selecting by the following parameters:
• Must be active with an album less than two years old
• Must have an amazing voice (by anyone standards)
• Music must possess R&B influence
• Consistent body of work (more than one album to her credit)
The debate went on for a few more intense days so we decided the only way to be fair is to continue with our top ten series…next up “Top 10 soul sisters of the future” and “Soul sisters of all times”…submit your picks and please let us know your thoughts on our “I love soul sister top 10”…Peace & Love, The office manager
Here is the TOP 10
1. Mary J Blige: (the original soul sister of the hip-hop generation; now she is the modern day Aretha Franklin)
2. India Arie: (consistent, soulful, fearless and original-our #2 pick simply because Mary at the #2 spot in blasphemy)
3. Erykah Badu: (a true artists, #1 on the creative baby names top 10…)
4. Tamia (Amazing voice, underrated… ME, Stranger, in My House, Put a Move… perfect example of a rule #2..AMAZING VOICE)
5. Alicia Keys (beautiful voice and has knack for great songs…plus AK is sexy as hell…#1 on the SEXY SOUL SISTER chart)
6. Keisha Coles (raw and heart felt, The Mary J for the 18 year olds, did we mention ghetto as hell? That is why we love her…)
7. Amy Winehouse (Honest artists, unique singer and songwriter, crazy as hell!!! Gaining a few lbs wouldn’t hurt her far below average sexy rating!)
8. Jill Scott (a poet, hated that she got divorce but maybe it resulted in another great album…)
9. Angie Stone (We need more of Angie, the voice is undeniable…Angie is the slept on!!!!)
10. Mariah Carey (most controversial pick but she can sing her ass off (not there was much to start with)…a tad bit vain but her voice won her the #10 position)
Perhaps many of you will argue Beyonce Carter should have held down a spot in the count down but come on people, B makes me wanna dance and pat weaves not delve into my inner, tumultuous being and cry like a heart broken teenager…now Mary! She made me cry on several drunken occasions… Lauryn Hill was another one we battled with but ultimately she had an album out in some years…too bad she is top-5 material for sure.
Mariah Carey
April 19, 2008
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The best-selling female performer of the 1990s, Mariah Carey rose to superstardom on the strength of her stunning five-octave voice; an elastic talent who moved easily from
glossy ballads to hip-hop-inspired dance-pop, she earned frequent comparison to rivals Whitney Houston and Celine Dion, but did them both one better by composing all of her own material. Born in Long Island, NY, on March 27, 1970, Carey moved to New York City at the age of 17 — just one day after graduating high school — to pursue a music career; there she befriended keyboardist Ben Margulies, with whom she began writing songs. Her big break came as a backing vocalist on a studio session with dance-pop singer Brenda K. Starr, who handed Carey’s demo tape to Columbia Records head Tommy Mottola at a party. According to legend, Mottola listened to the tape in his limo while driving home that same evening, and was so immediately struck by Carey’s talent that he doubled back to the party to track her down.
After signing to Columbia, Carey entered the studio to begin work on her 1990 self-titled debut LP; the heavily promoted album was a chart-topping smash, launching no less than four number one singles: “Vision of Love,” “Love Takes Time,” “Someday,” and “I Don’t Wanna Cry.” Her overnight success earned Grammy awards as Best New Artist and Best Female Vocalist, and expectations were high for Carey’s follow-up, 1991’s Emotions. The album did not disappoint, as the title track reached number one — a record fifth consecutive chart-topper — while both “Can’t Let Go” and “Make It Happen” landed in the Top Five. Carey’s next release was 1992’s MTV Unplugged EP, which generated a number one cover of the Jackson 5’s “I’ll Be There.” Featured on the track was backup singer Trey Lorenz, whose appearance immediately helped him land a recording contract of his own.
In June 1993, Carey wed Mottola — some two decades her senior — in a headline-grabbing ceremony; months later she released her third full-length effort, Music Box, her best-selling record to date. Two more singles, “Dreamlover” and “Hero,” reached the top spot on the charts. Carey’s first tour followed and was widely panned by critics; undaunted, she resurfaced in 1994 with a holiday release titled Merry Christmas, scoring a seasonal smash with “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” 1995’s Daydream reflected a new artistic maturity; the first single, “Fantasy,” debuted at number one, making Carey the first female artist and just the second performer ever to accomplish the feat. The follow-up, “One Sweet Day” — a collaboration with Boyz II Men — repeated the trick, and remained lodged at the top of the charts for a record 16 weeks.
After separating from Mottola, Carey returned in 1997 with Butterfly, another staggering success and her most hip-hop-flavored recording to date. #1’s — a collection featuring her 13 previous chart-topping singles as well as “The Prince of Egypt (When You Believe),” a duet with Whitney Houston effectively pairing the two most successful female recording artists in pop history — followed late the next year. With “Heartbreaker,” the first single from her 1999 album Rainbow, Carey became the first artist to top the charts in each year of the 1990s; the record also pushed her ahead of the Beatles as the artist with the most cumulative weeks spent atop the Hot 100 singles chart.
However, the early 2000s weren’t as kind to Carey. After signing an 80-million-dollar deal in 2001 with Virgin — the biggest record contract ever — she experienced a very public personal and professional meltdown that included rambling; suicidal messages on her website; an appearance on TRL where, clad only in a T-shirt, she handed out Popsicles to the audience; and last but not least, the poorly received movie Glitter and its attendant soundtrack (which was also her Virgin Records debut). Both the film and the album did poorly critically as well as commercially, with Glitter making just under four million dollars in its total U.S. gross and the soundtrack struggling to make gold sales. Following these setbacks, Virgin and Carey parted ways early in 2002, with the label paying her 28 million dollars. That spring, she found a new home with Island/Def Jam, where she set up her own label, MonarC Music. In December, she released her ninth album, Charmbracelet, which failed to become a success. Although she took nearly three years for a follow-up, Carey found a hit with 2005’s chart-topping The Emancipation of Mimi, her most successful record in years. Released by Island Records, the album climbed to multi-platinum status and earned Carey a Grammy Award, thus restoring her status as a megastar in the R&B arena. Two weeks before the release of her subsequent album, E=MC², Carey scored her eighteenth number-one hit with “Touch My Body”, a feat that pushed her into second place (past Elvis, no less) amongst all aritsts with the most chart-topping singles. The well-timed accomplished also increased the public’s appetite for E=MC², which arrived in April 2008. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
Source: http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/carey_mariah/bio.jhtml
Angie Stone
April 19, 2008
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A singer, a self-taught keyboardist, and a prolific songwriter, Angie Stone’s first claim to fame was being the lead vocalist on Vertical Hold’s smooth urban dance track “Seems You’re Much Too Busy.” An R&B Top 40 hit during the summer of 1993, it eventually led to a solo career, and her debut album Black Diamond was issued in 1999 by Arista. In six years, Stone had definitely gained an old-school, autobiographical vibe, exemplified by her hit ballad “No More Rain (In This Cloud),” which has samples from Gladys Knight and the Pips’ “Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye).” Contributors included Lenny Kravitz and former Tribe Called Quest member Ali Shaheed Muhammad as producers, and Stone’s ex-boyfriend D’Angelo as a vocal guest on “Everyday.”
Stone, a native of Columbia, SC, began singing gospel music at a young age at First Nazareth Baptist Church. Her father, a member of a local gospel quartet, would take his only child to see performances by gospel artists such as the Singing Angels and the Gospel Keynotes. During her youth, she wrote poetry, played sports, and, after high-school graduation, was offered college basketball scholarships. While working dead-end jobs, Stone began saving money to record her own demos at a local studio called PAW. She joined Gwendolyn Chisolm and Cheryl Cook in the rap trio the Sequence, who recorded hits for Joe and Sylvia Robinson’s Sugarhill label — “Funk You Up,” a remake of Parliament’s hit “Tear the Roof Off the Sucker” called “Funky Sound (Tear the Roof Off),” and “I Don’t Need Your Love (Part One).” Soon after, Stone was working with futuristic rappers Mantronix and rocker Lenny Kravitz and formed the neo-soul trio Vertical Hold, who first charted with the Criminal single “Summertime.” Besides “Seems You’re Much Too Busy,” the group’s self-titled A&M album spawned another charting single, “ASAP.” She moved to J-Records in 2001 for her second record, Mahogany Soul, and the record cracked the Top 40 thanks to the pop/R&B hit “Brotha.” Three years later, her third record Stone Love became her biggest hit, with a number 14 placing. The Art of Love & War, released in 2007, was her first number one album on the R&B/Hip Hop chart. ~ Ed Hogan, All Music Guide
Source: http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/stone_angie/bio.jhtml
Alicia Keys
April 19, 2008
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Alicia Keys helped redefine the term “overnight sensation” when her 2001 debut effort, Songs in A Minor, sold more than 50,000 copies during its first day of release. Mixing R&B songcraft with a sultry dose of neo-soul, the album went on to move more than ten million units worldwide, officially establishing the young Alicia Keys (who was only 19 during the recording process) as an international star. Although she shared the charts with such R&B contemporaries as Destiny’s Child, Keys’ talents distinguished her as a different sort of diva, one who played a variety of instruments and penned the vast majority of her songs without outside help. The Diary of Alicia Keys solidified her popularity two years later, and Alicia Keys spent the rest of the decade refining her now-signature sound. Alicia Augello Cook was born in Harlem in early 1981. Raised by her Italian-American mother, she enrolled in classical piano lessons at the age of seven and began writing songs four years later. An education at the Professional Performance Arts School helped hone her vocal skills, and Alicia graduated at the age of 16 as the class valedictorian. Two Columbias loomed on the immediate horizon: Columbia University and Columbia Records, both of whom had extended offers to the talented student/musician. Although she attempted to make both options work, Alicia found it difficult to juggle the two commitments and chose to focus exclusively on her music career. Assuming the stage name of Alicia Keys, she began to work with Columbia and contributed a song to the Men in Black soundtrack, but disputes with the label resulted in her contract’s termination. Keys bounced back by aligning herself with Clive Davis, the president of Arista Records, but work on her debut album stalled when Davis was ousted from the company in 2000. Davis soon formed his own label, J Records, and welcomed Keys back into the fold with an aggressive publicity campaign (including an influential appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show). Songs in A Minor was then released in June 2001 and debuted at the top of the charts, eventually netting five Grammys and platinum certifications in ten different countries. Released in 2003, The Diary of Alicia Keys enjoyed similar Grammy-certified success, and Keys released a book of poetry the following year. A live CD/DVD package, Unplugged, arrived in 2005 and followed Keys’ two previous releases to the top of the charts, even if it failed to win any of the four Grammys for which it was nominated. Alicia Keys then entered the acting world, starring in both Smokin’ Aces and The Nanny Diaries in 2007, before issuing the pop-influenced As I Am later that year. ~ Andrew Leahey, All Music Guide
Source: http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/bio/index.jsp?pid=433721
Erykah Badu
April 19, 2008
Erykah Badu
India Arie
April 19, 2008
India Arie
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