Egbert Nathaniel Dawkins III (born 1979 in Orange County, California), better known by the stage name Aloe Blacc, is an American soul singer, rapper and musician. He began his recording career as an MC back in 1995 when he joined up with hip-hop producer Exile to form the mainstay indie rap group Emanon. Aloe released his debut solo album Shine Through on Stonethrow Records in 2006 and followed this up in 2010 with Good Things.
Born - West London, UK Influences - music of the 1960s and 70s including Sam Cooke, Motown (Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, et al), Sly & The Family Stone, Aretha, Otis Redding & the music of Stax, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake, Desmond Dekker, Toots & The Maytals, Jimmy Cliff, etc. Accomplishments:
- written songs for/with Michael Jackson, Dusty Springfield, Eternal, Billy Mann, Color Me Badd, Shaun Escoffery
In Stereo, the 2nd full length from Australian two piece The Blackwater Fever. Recorded at Brisbane’s newly established Borough Studios. Co-produced with artist Skritch (Mary Trembles, Beast Of Bourbon, Tex Perkins’ Dark Horses) In Stereo is a blend of rock n’ roll, blues and soul. Written with honesty, performed with intensity and vigor. Ignoring all cool kid trends and hipster sounds. The Blackwater Fever have produced a potent 2nd album.
A respected session and sideman, British blues pianist and composer Jon Cleary has worked with rock, blues, and soul artists like Bonnie Raitt, D'Angelo, Maria Muldaur, Taj Mahal, and Eric Clapton. Originally a guitarist, Cleary began playing at age five, and started his first band at 15. Raised on blues, jazz, and soul records, his love of new orleans blues and jazz in particular took him across the ocean after he graduated from art school.
Kelendria Trene Rowland (born February 11, 1981) is an American R&B singer, songwriter, dancer, actress, and five-time Grammy award winner who rose to fame as one of the founding members of the very successful R&B girl group Destiny's Child. After a series of commercially successful releases with the group and a worldwide number-one success with rapper Nelly and their Grammy-winning single "Dilemma", Rowland released her debut solo album Simply Deep in 2002.
Frank Ocean (born October 29, 1987) is an American singer/songwriter and member of the gleefully hedonistic hip-hop collective OFWGKTA. He was born Christopher "Lonny" Breaux in New Orleans, Louisiana, and now resides in Beverly Hills. He has helped pen tracks for Justin Bieber, John Legend, Brandy, and Beyonce Knowles over the last few years. In 2011, Ocean released his debut mixtape, Nostalgia, Ultra, for free via his Tumblr.
Mayer Hawthorne grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, just outside of Detroit, and vividly remembers, as a child, driving with his father and tuning the car radio in to the rich soul and jazz history the region provided. “Most of the best music ever made came out of Detroit,” claims the singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, who counts Isaac Hayes, Leroy Hutson, Mike Terry, and Barry White among his influences, but draws the most inspiration from the music of Smokey Robinson, Curtis Mayfield, and the legendary songwriting and production trio of Lamont Dozier...
Musiq Soulchild (born Taalib Johnson on September 16, 1977 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), is an American, neo soul and R&B artist, and was one of the most popular artists on the Def Jam/Def Soul label. Since 2001, he has gone by simply “Musiq”, he dropped the “Soulchild” from his moniker, because he said he had not mastered his craft yet, and thus was not yet “music’s soulchild”. Besides being a successful recording artist, Musiq is notable for his disregard for normal rules of capitalisation, punctuation...