Lana Michele Moorer, better known by her stage name MC Lyte, is an American rapper. Considered one of the pioneers of female rap, MC Lyte first gained fame in the late 1980s, becoming the first female rapper to release a full solo album with 1988's critically acclaimed Lyte as a Rock. The album spawned the singles "10% Dis" and "Paper Thin".
Bobby Barisford Brown Sr. is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, and dancer. Brown, alongside frequent collaborator Teddy Riley, is noted as one of the pioneers of new jack swing: a fusion of hip hop and R&B. Brown started his career in the R&B and pop group New Edition, from its inception in 1978 until his exit from the group in December 1985.
En Vogue is an American vocal girl group whose original lineup consisted of singers Terry Ellis, Dawn Robinson, Cindy Herron, and Maxine Jones. Formed in Oakland, California, in 1989, En Vogue reached No. 2 on the US Hot 100 with the single "Hold On", taken from their 1990 debut album Born to Sing. The group's 1992 follow-up album Funky Divas reached the top 10 in both the US and UK, and included their second US number two hit "My Lovin' " as well as the US top 10 hits "Giving Him Something He Can Feel" and "Free Your Mind".
New Edition is an American R&B/pop group from the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1978 by singer/rapper Bobby Brown. Their name is taken to mean a new edition of the Jackson 5. The group reached its height of popularity in the 1980s and is considered the blueprint for what would become the modern boy band. The lineup originally consisted of Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, Ronnie DeVoe, Bobby Brown, and Ralph Tresvant. Brown left the group in late 1985 to begin a successful solo career, and they continued as a quartet for one album, before adding Johnny Gill to the lineup in 1987. Early hits included "Candy Girl", "Cool It Now", and "Mr. Telephone Man". Tresvant was the lead singer on most of the songs. In 1990, both Gill and Tresvant released their own solo albums, while the remaining three members formed the trio Bell Biv DeVoe; the group ceased to work together for the first half of the 1990s.
Kina Cosper known simply as Kina, is an American musician, best known for her work with Grammy Award-nominated group Brownstone, and her 2000 solo single "Girl from the Gutter".
"Le Freak" is a 1978 funk-disco song by American R&B band Chic. It was the band's third single and first Billboard Hot 100 and R&B number-one hit song. Along with the tracks "I Want Your Love" and "Chic Cheer", "Le Freak" scored number one on the disco charts for seven weeks. The single achieved sales of 7 million and also scored number seven in the UK Singles Chart.
Ke'Tara Shavon "KeKe" Wyatt is an American singer-songwriter and television personality. After performing in a number of girl bands and working as a songwriter during her teenage years, in 2000 she garnered national attention after her successful collaboration with fellow R&B singer Avant, In 2001 her rendition of "Nothing in This World" led to a nomination for the Best New R&B/Soul/Rap Artist award at the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards. After a number of charting collaborations and solo releases, in 2012 she starred as a cast member in TV One's R&B Divas: Atlanta, which featured the lives of five 1990s chart-topping R&B singers. She was featured in all 3 seasons of the show. She also performed with the group at events such as Essence Music Festival.
Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. (ΣΓΡ) is a historically African American sorority, international collegiate, and non-profit community service organization that was founded on November 12, 1922. The organization was formed as a sorority in 1922, by seven African American women in Indianapolis, Indiana. At its inception, the sorority was created to support Black women pursuing degrees in education. It was incorporated within Indiana in November 1922 as a sorority for school teachers and held their first national conference in 1925. The sorority became a national collegiate sorority on December 30, 1929, when a charter was granted to the Alpha chapter then established at Butler University that year. The sorority was incorporated as a national collegiate sorority in 1930. Sigma Gamma Rho is the only sorority of the four historically African American National Pan-Hellenic Council sororities founded at a predominantly White institution instead of at Howard University. The sorority's slogan is "Greater Service, Greater Progress".
R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks the top R&B and hip hop songs in the United States, based on audience impressions from a panel of radio stations monitored by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems. It was also used in sister publication R&R, which listed the chart as Urban National Airplay. The chart is not the R&B/hip-hop subset of the Hot 100 Airplay chart, but rather uses a separate panel of R&B stations in urban and urban adult contemporary markets. It was the primary airplay component chart of the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart until the issue dated October 20, 2012, when Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs was revamped to include digital sales, streaming, and airplay from all radio formats. The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart encompasses two separate airplay charts, both of which are based on radio spins rather than audience impressions: Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop and Adult R&B Airplay, which measure airplay on urban contemporary and urban adult contemporary stations respectively.
Gerald Maxwell Rivera, known mononymously as Maxwell, is an American singer-songwriter and record producer. He rose to prominence following the release of his debut studio album Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite (1996), which received widespread acclaim and spawned the hit singles "Ascension " and "Sumthin' Sumthin'". Through the album and its follow ups, Maxwell has been credited—alongside Lauryn Hill, D'Angelo, and Erykah Badu—with popularizing neo soul for mainstream audiences in the late 1990s.
Monifa Carter, also known as Monifah, is an American R&B singer. She is best known for her association with the late rapper Heavy D and her music from the mid-1990s, including "I Miss You ", "You" and "Touch It", which was released in 1998. She starred on TV One's reality show R&B Divas: Atlanta. She is also known for her single "You Don't Have to Love Me".
Durrell Artaze Babbs, better known by his stage name Tank, is an American R&B singer, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a backing vocalist for R&B singers Aaliyah and Ginuwine, and signed a recording contract with the former's record label, Blackground Records as a performing act in 1998. His 2001 single, "Maybe I Deserve" peaked within the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 and led his debut studio album, Force of Nature (2001). It peaked within the top ten of the Billboard 200, while his second album, One Man (2002), peaked within the top 20 and was met with mixed critical reception.
Still Climbing is the second and final studio album released by American R&B trio Brownstone. It was released by MJJ Music and the Work Group on June 23, 1997 in the United States. The album contains the second line-up of the group after the departure of original member Monica Doby. She was replaced by Kina Cosper, whose first and only appearance was on this album before departing for a solo career in 2000. Still Climbing features the singles "5 Miles to Empty" and "Kiss and Tell" as well as "In the Game of Love" which originally appeared on the soundtrack to the 1996 film The First Wives Club.
Nicci Gilbert is an American R&B singer. She is mainly known for being the lead vocalist of an American female R&B girl-group Brownstone who rose to fame in the mid 1990s best known for their 1995 hit single "If You Love Me", which was nominated for a Best R&B Performance Grammy Award. "Grapevyne" and "Pass the Lovin'" also brought them some success, as well as their rendition of "I Can't Tell You Why", a song originally recorded by The Eagles.
"If You Love Me" is a song by American R&B group Brownstone, released on October 24, 1994, by MJJ Music and Epic Records. It is the second single from their debut album, From the Bottom Up (1995). The song was written by Gordon Chambers, Nichole Gilbert, and Dave Hall, and features a sample from "Spellbound" (1990) by American rapper K-Solo. "If You Love Me" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1996 but lost to "Creep" by TLC.
The ESSENCE Festival of Culture is the largest African-American culture and music event in the US. The annual music festival started in 1995 in New Orleans, Louisiana to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Essence magazine. The festival features artists simultaneously performing on a main stage as well as four standing-room only stages.
Carsten Schack and better known by his stage name Soulshock is a Danish record producer and songwriter.
Charmayne Maxena Maxwell, professionally known as Maxee, was a Guyana-born American singer and songwriter. In the mid-1990s, Maxwell came to prominence as a member of the female R&B trio Brownstone.
I Told You is the debut studio album by Canadian rapper Tory Lanez. It was released on August 19, 2016, through Mad Love Records and Interscope Records. Recording sessions took place from 2015 to 2016. The production on the album was contributed by Lanez, alongside several other record producers such as Benny Blanco, Cashmere Cat, Frank Dukes, DJ Dahi, Pop Wansel and Noah Breakfast, among others.
Starbomb is an American musical comedy group composed of Dan Avidan and Brian Wecht of musical comedy duo Ninja Sex Party together with Flash animator and Internet personality Arin Hanson and "space rock masters" TWRP, a Canadian music group known for collaborations with NSP. The songs of Starbomb consist of video game parodies; Avidan provides sung vocals, Hanson provides rapping vocals, and Wecht performs instruments. All three are also known as a part of YouTube Let's Play web series Game Grumps.
