Mary Jane Blige is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Often referred to as the "Queen of Hip-Hop Soul" and "Queen of R&B", Blige has won nine Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, four American Music Awards, twelve NAACP Image Awards, and twelve Billboard Music Awards, including the Billboard Icon Award. She has been nominated for three Golden Globe Awards and two Academy Awards, including one for her supporting role in the film Mudbound (2017) and another for its original song "Mighty River", becoming the first person nominated for acting and songwriting in the same year.
The 39th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 26, 1997, at Madison Square Garden, New York City. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. Babyface was the night's biggest winner, with 3 awards. Celine Dion, Toni Braxton, Sheryl Crow, and The Fugees won two awards. Celine Dion for "Best Pop Album" and "Album of the Year" and Toni Braxton for "Best Female R&B Vocal Performance" and "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance". The show was hosted by Ellen Degeneres who also performed the opening with Shawn Colvin, Bonnie Rait, and Chaka Khan.
John David Jackson, better known by his stage name Fabolous, is an American rapper. Raised in Brooklyn, he first gained recognition for his ability upon performing live on DJ Clue's Hot 97 radio show. Jackson then signed to Clue's record label Desert Storm Records, in a joint venture with Elektra Records. He rose to further prominence with his debut studio album Ghetto Fabolous (2001), which spawned the hit singles "Can't Deny It" and "Young'n ." Adopting a further commercially-oriented approach, his second album, Street Dreams (2003), was supported by the singles "Can't Let You Go" and "Into You" —both of which peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100.
Kenneth Brian Edmonds, better known by his stage name Babyface, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. He has written and produced over 26 number-one R&B hits throughout his career and has won 13 Grammy Awards. He was ranked number 20 on NME's 50 of The Greatest Producers Ever list.
Jason Terrance Phillips, better known by his stage name Jadakiss, is an American rapper from Yonkers, New York. He began his career in the 1990s and formed the hip hop trio the Lox alongside Styles P and Sheek Louch in 1994. The group signed with Puff Daddy's Bad Boy Records, an imprint of Arista Records to release their debut studio album, Money, Power & Respect (1998); their second album, We Are the Streets (2000) was released by Ruff Ryders Entertainment, an imprint of Interscope Records. Both peaked within the top five of the Billboard 200 and yielded critical praise; their two subsequent albums, Filthy America... It's Beautiful (2013) and Living Off Xperience (2020) were both released by Jay-Z's Roc Nation and met with continued praise.
Raphael Saadiq is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He rose to fame as a member of the multiplatinum group Tony! Toni! Toné! In addition to his solo and group career, he has also produced songs for such artists as Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Stevie Wonder, Beyoncé, Total, Joss Stone, D'Angelo, TLC, En Vogue, Kelis, Mary J. Blige, Ledisi, Whitney Houston, Solange Knowles and John Legend. Music critic Robert Christgau has called Saadiq the "preeminent R&B artist of the '90s".
The Underdogs are an American R&B/pop production duo composed of Harvey Mason Jr. and Damon Thomas.
Jason's Lyric (The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack to Doug McHenry's 1994 film Jason's Lyric. It was released on September 27, 1994, via Mercury Records. It spawned three singles: "If You Think You're Lonely Now", a cover of the Bobby Womack hit by Jodeci lead singer K-Ci, "Crazy Love" by Brian McKnight, and "U Will Know", a major collaboration from male R&B singers comprising Black Men United (BMU), written by future neo soul artist D'Angelo.
Roosevelt Harrell III, known professionally as Bink, is an American hip hop producer from Norfolk, Virginia, who is noted for his work with Roc-A-Fella Records artists. His most high-profile work has been Jay-Z's critically acclaimed album The Blueprint, for which he produced three tracks. He is sometimes credited as Bink! or Bink Dog. In 2011, Bink and American-reggae artist Atiba finished a collaborative album titled Foreigner. A release date for the project has yet to be announced.
Complex Simplicity is the debut studio album by American singer Teedra Moses. It was released on August 10, 2004, by TVT Records. The album was produced largely by Paul Poli, with additional production from Raphael Saadiq and Lil Jon.
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.
American singer Omarion has released five studio albums, three collaborative albums, two extended plays (EPs), one mixtape and thirty singles.
"Wake Up Everybody" is an R&B song written by John Whitehead, Gene McFadden and Victor Carstarphen.
Carvin & Ivan are a production duo from Philadelphia consisting of producers and songwriters Ivan "Orthodox" Barias and Carvin "Ransum" Haggins. Initially starting out as solo hip hop artists, Haggins and Barias moved into production and songwriting. They have written and produced songs for Jazmine Sullivan, Jill Scott, Faith Evans, Musiq Soulchild, Justin Timberlake, Mario, Chris Brown, Ledisi, Raheem DeVaughn, Keyshia Cole, Jaheim, Estelle, Floetry, Skillz, Ace Hood, Rick Ross and others.
The Source Presents: Hip Hop Hits, Volume 8 is the eighth annual music compilation album to be contributed by The Source magazine. Released June 29, 2004, and distributed by Image Entertainment, Hip Hop Hits Volume 8 features sixteen hip hop and rap hits. It went to number 43 on the Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart and number 45 on the Billboard 200 album chart. It is also one of only two Hip Hop Hits albums to be released in the same year; Volume 9 was released six months later.
The 3rd BET Awards took place at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, California on June 24, 2003. The awards recognized Americans in music, acting, sports, and other fields of entertainment over the past year. Comedian Mo'Nique hosted the event for the first time.
The 5th BET Awards took place at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, California on June 28, 2005. The awards recognized Americans in music, acting, sports, and other fields of entertainment over the past year. Actors Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith hosted the event for the first time.
Ivan Barias is part of the Philadelphia production duo Carvin & Ivan. Initially starting out as a solo hip hop artist, he moved into production and songwriting. He has written and produced songs for artists including Jazmine Sullivan, Jill Scott, Musiq Soulchild, Justin Timberlake, Mario, Chris Brown, Ledisi, Raheem DeVaughn, Keyshia Cole, Jaheim, Estelle, Floetry, Skillz, Ace Hood, and Rick Ross.
Paul Boutin is a French-born American music mixer, audio engineer and a long-time collaborator with producer/songwriter/artist Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds.
"Time's Up" is a song by American rapper Jadakiss, released on April 20, 2004, as the lead single from his second studio album Kiss of Death (2004). The song features American singer Nate Dogg and was produced by Scott Storch. Lyrically, the song sees Jadakiss rapping about his journey to becoming a rapper in the industry.
