The 44th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 27, 2002, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The main recipient was Alicia Keys, winning five Grammys, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year for "Fallin'". U2 won four awards including Record of the Year and Best Rock Album, while opening the show with a performance of "Walk On".
India Arie Simpson, also known as India Arie, is an American singer and songwriter. Her debut album, Acoustic Soul, was released in 2001, and she has since released six more studio albums. Arie has sold over five million records in the US and ten million worldwide, and has won four Grammy Awards from 23 nominations, including Best R&B Album.
Garrett Robin Hamler, known professionally as Sean Garrett, is an American record producer, rapper, singer and songwriter. He was a credited songwriter for a series of commercially successful R&B and hip hop recordings, beginning with Usher's 2004 single "Yeah!". Garrett then co-wrote five other songs which peaked the Billboard Hot 100: "Goodies" for Ciara also in 2004, "Check on It" for Beyoncé and "Run It!" for Chris Brown in 2005, as well as "London Bridge" for Fergie and "Grillz" for Nelly in 2006. Additionally, he's written 17 other singles which peaked on the UK Singles, US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, or Dance Club Songs charts. Throughout his career, Garrett has been nominated for four Grammy Awards.
Goodies is the debut studio album by American singer Ciara. It was released on September 28, 2004, via Jazze Pha's Sho'nuff Records and LaFace Records. After writing songs for several established acts, Ciara's talents were noticed by Jazze Pha, and she began to work on what became Goodies. The album's conception came through the title track, produced by Lil Jon and created as a female crunk counterpart to other singles produced by Lil Jon such as Usher's "Yeah!" and Petey Pablo's "Freek-a-Leek". Ciara worked with additional writers and producers on the album, including Jazze Pha, Bangladesh, R. Kelly, Johntá Austin, Sean Garrett, and Keri Hilson, among others.
Ronald Fair is an American record producer, record executive, musical arranger, recording engineer and conductor. A traditional record producer since 1970, Fair is often credited with orchestral instrumentation in his productions of numerous hit songs. Furthermore, he has discovered and mentored prominent recording artists and led them to commercial breakthroughs—his mentees include Christina Aguilera, Vanessa Carlton, Keyshia Cole, Black Eyed Peas, Fergie, and the Pussycat Dolls. As an executive, Fair has held positions including chairman of Geffen Records, president of A&M Records, and was named the chief creative officer (CCO) of Virgin Records by 2014.
Richard Preston Butler Jr., better known by his stage name Rico Love, is an American record producer, songwriter, singer, and rapper. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, but split his childhood between Milwaukee, Wisconsin and New York City's Harlem neighborhood. He attended Florida A&M and, while visiting Atlanta, Georgia, worked his way into the music industry through connections with singer Usher, who would become one of Butler's frequent collaborators.
The 49th Annual Grammy Awards was a ceremony honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2005, and ending September 30, 2006, in the United States. The awards were handed out on Sunday, February 11, 2007, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The Dixie Chicks were the night's biggest winners winning a total of five awards. Mary J. Blige received the most nominations, with eight. Don Henley was honored as MusiCares Person of the Year two nights prior to the show on February 9, 2007. The show won an Emmy for Outstanding Lighting Direction for VMC Programming.
The Runners are an American electronic and hip hop production duo from Orlando, Florida, consisting of Andrew "Dru Brett" Harr and Jermaine "Mayne Zayne" Jackson. They came together to form the team in 2000, but they have known each other since they were in kindergarten. They both have been influenced their entire lives by producers Timbaland and the Neptunes. Their trademark is an exhale sound effect ringing "Ahhh" at the beginning of their songs.
Jamal Fincher Jones, known professionally as Polow da Don, is an American record producer and rapper from Atlanta, Georgia. He began his career as a recording artist in the late 1990s, leaving college to pursue a rap career with the group Jim Crow. The group signed to Epic Records in 1999, where they released two albums—Crow's Nest (1999) and Right Quick (2001)—before being dropped from the label.
Floyd Nathaniel Hills, professionally known as Danja, is an American record producer and songwriter from Virginia Beach, Virginia. Starting off as a co-producer for Timbaland, he has since worked extensively as a solo producer and received credits on numerous hit singles. Namely, Hills has produced for acts including Britney Spears, Usher, Keri Hilson, T.I., Nelly Furtado, Ciara, Mariah Carey, Madonna, Whitney Houston, Missy Elliott, M.I.A., Justin Timberlake, JoJo, Joe Jonas, Simple Plan, The Clutch, Pink, T-Pain, Diddy, Meek Mill, Björk, Duran Duran and AGNEZ MO.
Still Da Baddest is the fourth studio album by American rapper Trina. It was released on April 1, 2008, by Slip-n-Slide, EMI and DP Entertainment. The album was preceded by the lead single, "Single Again" on November 6, 2007. Following the poor chart performance, "I Got a Thang for You" featuring Keyshia Cole, was released as the album's second single. The album's third and final single "Look Back at Me" featuring Killer Mike, which was produced by Hard Hat Productions, became a regional hit club record and accompanied by a music video.
Mama Jan Smith is an American singer, songwriter, vocal coach and Grammy-nominated music producer from Atlanta, Georgia, who founded Jan Smith Studios.
Heaven Sent is a song recorded by American singer Keyshia Cole. It was written by Cole, Jason Farmer, Alex Francis, and Lamont Wilson for her second studio album Just like You (2007), while production was overseen by Francis and Farmer with additional credit by Ron Fair. The ballad was released as the album's fourth and final single in March 2008. "Heaven Sent" became cole's third chart topper on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and earned two Grammy Award nominations for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song. An accompanying music video was shot in Hawaii and is based on the poem "Footprints."
RedZone Entertainment is an Atlanta-based, music-production entity. Redzone's discography includes collaborations with many artists, producers, and composers of note, and is responsible for over 25 million records sold. RedZone Entertainment has produced acts such as P!nk, Britney Spears, Celine Dion, Mary J. Blige, Usher, Ciara, Sting, Rihanna, and Justin Bieber.
Charles T. Harmon, better known as Chuck Harmony, is an American music producer, musician, songwriter and entrepreneur, based in Nashville, Tennessee. He is a three-time Grammy Award nominee, and won a 2011 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Song for Fantasia’s "Bittersweet".
D'wayne Patrice Wiggins is an American singer, guitarist, and record producer best known as the founding member of the 1990s soul/R&B group Tony! Toni! Toné!
Paul Dawson, best known as Ghost Kid, formally known as Hot Sauce or Hollywood Hot Sauce, is an American music producer and songwriter based in Los Angeles, California. In short, Paul has written, produced and/or co-produced singles including Rihanna's "As Real As You and Me", Ariana Grande's "Hands on Me", Young Jeezy's "Shady Life", Robin Thicke's "Sex Therapy", New Boyz's "Spot Right There", and Usher's "Hot Tottie".
Joseph Alonzo "Lonny" Bereal Jr. is an American R&B singer, songwriter, and record producer. In 2011, he released his debut single "Favor" as a duet with singer Kelly Rowland, for whom he was originally a backing vocalist. Despite the songs commercial underperformance, Bereal would heavily co-write material for other R&B singers including Ariana Grande, Keri Hilson, Tank, Omarion, Jamie Foxx and Chris Brown—the latter of whom most extensively since 2007. In 2018, he executive produced Snoop Dogg's gospel album Bible of Love in March of that year. He was also a member of Busta Rhymes's Flipmode Squad.
Jared Lee Gosselin is an American record producer from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Gosselin got his start in the entertainment industry when the city was at its hip-hop height. Gosselin produced tracks for former Eminem affiliate, the late Proof of D12. Through that relationship, Gosselin met and worked with a number of Michigan hip-hop artists before turning his sights to the west coast. After a chance meeting with actor/director Forest Whitaker, Gosselin began to contribute music to a number of films, soundtracks, and more. He was then introduced to Macy Gray and officially moved to Los Angeles to help Gray work on her album in 2003. He has since contributed music to artists such as Gray, JoJo, The PussyCat Dolls, Christina Millian, Kane Brown, Swae Lee, Ghostface Killah, Neon Trees, the Netflix series, Carmen Sandiego and a number of high-profile brands including Go Pro, ESPN X Games, and Under Armour.
Ken Lewis is an American record producer, mixing engineer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist based in New York City. He has been nominated by name for his contributions to 7 Grammy-nominated projects including on Eminem's Recovery, Kanye West's The College Dropout, FUN.'s Some Nights, and others. He has also contributed production, songwriting, engineering, arranging and/or instrumentation and vocals to numerous gold, platinum, and diamond records including Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars' "Uptown Funk", Lil Wayne and Drake's "Believe Me", and Kanye West and Jamie Foxx's "Gold Digger". He is the creator of two web-based instructional platforms: Audio School Online and Music School Online. Lewis is also half the production team, Katalyst, with Brent Kolatalo.
