KES | |
---|---|
Birth name | Kesington Kross |
Born | Orange County, California [1] |
Genres | R&B [2] |
Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter record producer |
Labels | Epic Records [3] LaFace Records [4] |
Website | kesingtonkross |
Kesington Kross (better known by his stage name KES) is an American singer-songwriter and Record producer from Los Angeles, California. [3] [5]
KES was born in Orange County, California and grew up in Compton. [1]
The music style of KES has been compared to that of Joel Compass and Frank Ocean, [2] [3] with mixes of rock-n-roll, R&B, and Rave. [5] Vibe compared him to David Bowie, Depeche Mode, Phil Collins, Rick James and Prince, stating that listeners would become "obsessed" with his music. [5]
KES was originally discovered by Babyface during a writing session. [4] He was then introduced to L.A. Reid of Epic Records and signed jointly by Epic and LaFace Records, a label founded by Babyface and Reid in 1989. [4] The signing was the first time in 25 years that Babyface and Reid jointly signed a musician. [4] He released his first EP titled Audio Justice with Epic/LaFace in December 2013. [3]
After 7 is an American R&B group founded in 1987 by brothers Melvin and Kevon Edmonds, and their friend Keith Mitchell. The Edmonds brothers are the older siblings of pop/R&B singer-songwriter and record producer Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, who named the group and helped them get a record deal with Virgin Records in 1988. After 7 released their platinum-selling self-titled debut album in 1989, which spawned three singles "Heat of the Moment", "Ready or Not" and "Can't Stop". "Ready or Not" and "Can't Stop" were No. 1 R&B hits and top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. Their second album Takin' My Time, released in 1992, also went platinum and contained the R&B hit medley "Baby, I'm for Real/Natural High". After 7's Gold-selling 1995 album Reflections was their last album before the group disbanded in 1997. The album included the R&B hit "'Til You Do Me Right. Years later the group resumed touring with Jason Edmonds, son of Melvin Edmonds, replacing his father. Melvin rejoined the group for their successful 2016 comeback album Timeless, which featured 3 adult R&B top 10 hits "Runnin' Out", "I Want You" and "Let Me Know".
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