Early life
Dozier was born in Los Angeles, California, and was introduced to music at a young age. His father, Lamont Dozier (1941 – 2022), who was best known as a member of the Motown songwriting and production team, Holland–Dozier–Holland and mother, film executive Barbara Ullman, [2] encouraged Dozier to follow his passion for music early in life. At the age of four, Dozier started playing the drums and composing music on the piano.
Early career
At the age of seven, Dozier co-wrote and composed the song "I Cry for You" for Ben E. King which appeared on the album Save the Last Dance for Me [3] and on Lamont Dozier's album Going Back to My Roots (The Anthology). [4] In 1993 at the age of thirteen Dozier, also known as Lil' Beau in the hip-hop and DJ world, was signed by Irving Azoff to a record deal with Giant Records. [5] During his time on Giant Records he was featured as an artist and producer on records with west coast rappers Snoop Dogg, Xzibit, Kurupt, Daz Dillinger, Ice-T, King T and Tha Alkaholiks. [6] Dozier was featured on Bad Azz's records "Tha Last Time" and "Too Many Choices". [6] He was also featured as an artist on C-Style Presents 19th Street LBC Compilation on a song he produced called "Paper Chase" as well as producing The 19 Street Records' "Straight Outta Cali" compilation [7] which featured Snoop Dogg, Kurupt, Daz Dillinger, Nate Dogg, Jayo Felony, Tha Dogg Pound, MC Eiht, Crooked I, Bad Azz, Tray Deee, and the group The Dove Shack.
Producing and artist development
In 1999, Dozier established Beautown Entertainment [8] and began developing artists in the pop music and R&B genres. He wrote and produced records for artists including Christina Milian, The Backstreet Boys, B2K, Boyz To Men, Blaque, Tynisha Keli, Nivea, 3LW, Tiffany Evans, PYT, JC Chasez, Samantha Jade, and Nikki Flores. [9]
Dozier composed and produced the single "Anything" for pop music artist JoJo [7] and "Lie About Us" for Nicole Scherzinger of The Pussycat Dolls. Dozier also wrote and produced the number one single "Kryptonite" for Australian Idol winner Guy Sebastian. [10] He wrote Joss Stone's single "Spoiled" and also produced two Gap Commercials featuring a cover of "Night Time is the Right Time", and an orchestra rendition of The Beach Boys' "God Only Knows". [7] He also produced the theme song for The Fantastic Four written by Pink. [11]
Dozier also collaborated with Ron Fair on his act Prima J [12] and produced the Much Music Award-winning single for Girlicious. [9] Beau Co-wrote "Why Ask Why" for Vanessa Hudgens with Dr. Luke. [13] Dozier also produced and co-wrote "Yesterday" for the Pussycat Dolls' Ashley Roberts. Dozier collaborated with the Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson on songs for the British pop singer Sir Cliff Richard's album Soulicious. [14] Dozier also produced the Disney Music Award-winning song, "Me and My Girls", by Fifth Harmony. [15] and produced the song "I Wish I Didn't Know" for recording artist Nelly.
In 2011, American Idol hired Dozier as Consulting Producer to develop pop music artists for the show. He also taught a class at University of Southern California [16] on music, creativity and technology.
He continued to work with chart topping artists and producers such as Beyoncé, [17] Jennifer Lopez, [18] Jhené Aiko, Bonnie McKee, Dr. Luke, Nasri Atweh, Julian Bunetta, Fifth Harmony, Phillip Phillips and Jessica Sanchez.
