Mary Jane Blige is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, 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.
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 vocalist for the R&B group Tony! Toni! Toné!, which he formed with his brother D'Wayne and cousin Timothy Christian Riley in 1986. Along with his groupwork and solo career, he has produced and written songs for other R&B artists, including 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.
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.
More is the third studio album by Canadian R&B recording artist Tamia. It was released by Elektra Records on April 6, 2004 in North America. Created over a period of three years, in which the singer gave birth to her first child, the album, initially titled Still, was bumped from its original August 2003 schedule after Tamia was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and forced to undergo treatment. With the illness in remission, she resumed work on the album later that year and arranged additional recording sessions with producers Poke & Tone, Spanador and R. Kelly to revamp parts of the album which saw her also reteaming with frequent partners such as Jermaine Dupri, Shep Crawford and Mario Winans.
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.
Jake & the Phatman is an American record production and songwriting duo, composed of multi-instrumentalists Glenn Standridge and Robert C. "Bobby" Ozuna Jr. They frequently work in tandem with American singer Raphael Saadiq, with or for whom they often produce songs. From three nominations, the duo won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song at the 45th Annual Grammy Awards for their work on Erykah Badu's 2002 single "Love of My Life ".
American singer Omarion has released five studio albums, three collaborative albums, two extended plays (EPs), one mixtape and thirty singles.
"Can't Go for That" is a song by Canadian recording artist Tamia. It was written by Missy Elliott, Brycyn Evans and Roosevelt "Bink" Harrell for her second studio album A Nu Day (2000), featuring main production from the latter with Elliott and Evans serving as co-producers. Musically, the song includes an interpolation of "I Can't Go For That " as performed by Hall & Oates.
"Wake Up Everybody" is an R&B song written by John Whitehead, Gene McFadden and Victor Carstarphen.
"Missing You" is a song by American singer Mary J. Blige. It was written and produced by Babyface for her third studio album, Share My World (1997). In the United Kingdom, the song was released as the album's third single where it reached number 19 on the UK Singles Chart. "Missing You" features background vocals from singer Shanice and talks about a woman in a dilemma over a relationship with a man that she at first claimed she "wasn't in love" with but then finds herself "thinking about him all the time" and her missing him.
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.
"Ifuleave" is the second single from Musiq Soulchild's fifth studio album, OnMyRadio, his second full-length release on Atlantic Records. The song features R&B singer Mary J. Blige.
"Slow Jams" is a song by American musician Quincy Jones, taken from his studio album Q's Jook Joint (1995). Written and produced by Rod Temperton, vocals for the song were initially recorded by Babyface, Portrait, Barry White and Coko. A remix version, released in 1996 as the album's second single, replaced the latter's vocals with Tamia. A commercial success, it peaked at number 2 on the New Zealand Singles Chart and reached the top 20 on Billboard's Hot R&B Songs chart. The remix version featuring Tamia earned a nomination for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at the 39th Grammy Awards in 1997.
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.
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.
