112 formed in Atlanta, Georgia and was initially a trio comprised of Daron Jones, Michael Keith and Reginald Finley. While the guys were in high school, they called themselves Forte and performed in talent shows at churc...

In its original form, 702 was comprised of the Grinstead sisters, LeMisha, Irish and Orish. While students at Cheyenne High School in Las Vegas, the girls would go to the lobby of Caesars Palace during boxing matches and...

Aaliyah Haughton was born in 1979 in Brooklyn, New York and was raised in Detroit. Aaliyah, which means “Highest Most Exalted,” was the daughter of Michael and Diane Haughton and was very close to her older brother Rasha...

Aaron Hall was born in 1964 in The Bronx, New York. He first established himself in the music industry as a member of the group Guy. The group was comprised of Hall, Teddy riley and Timmy Gatling and later on, Hall's bro...

Adina Howard was born in 1974 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Prior to her music career, she was living in Mesa Arizona, where she met producers Ray Hunter and Ron Keel. Ray had wanted Adina to become a member of a girl group...

After 7 formed in 1988 and was comprised of brothers Melvin and Kevon Edmonds and Keith Mitchell. The Edmonds brothers are older siblings of Kenneth 'Babyface' Edmonds. Keith Mitchell was actually marketed as the cousin ...

Albert Joseph Brown III, known to the music world as Al B. Sure! was born in 1969 in Boston, Massachusetts. Growing up in Mount Vernon, New York, he made his first musical appearance with a friend on a soundtrack for Ses...

Alicia J. Augello-Cook was born in Harlem, New York in 1981, and is known to the world as Alicia Keys. Her parents are Teresa Augello, a woman of Irish and Italian descent, and Craig Cook, a man of Jamaican heritage. Alicia Keys' parents...

Allure began when Alia Davis, Lalisha McLean and Akissa Mendez were studying at the LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts. The girls wanted to expand their musical experience by forming a group and recruited Linn...

Amerie Rogers was born in 1980 to an African American father and a Korean mother in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. However, she didn't settle long in the town as her father was a warrant officer in the military and the family traveled a lot...

Anita Baker was born in 1958 in Toledo, Ohio. She grew up in Detroit, Michigan where she sang in the choir. At the age of 16, Anita joined a band, Humanity, which included her friends and performed around the city.

Ashanti Shequoiya Douglas was born in 1980 in Glen Cove, New York. Her parents were both active in the arts, with her mother, Tina Douglas, having worked as a dance teacher, and her father, Ken-Kaide Thomas Douglas as a former singer. ...

Myron Avant, known to the music world as Avant, was born on April 26, 1978 in Cleveland, Ohio. He went to the Cleveland School of the Arts where he majored in theater. After graduating in 1995, Avant had his first big success in the mu...

The group Az Yet was created over a long period of time. Shawn Rivera and Dion Allen met in 1990 and decided to form a group in Philadelphia. While in search for quality singers to join their group, the two men stumbled ...

Kenneth 'Babyface' Edmonds was born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1958. He is the 5th in a family of six sons and attended North Central High School.

Babyface got his nickname when playing in a funk band with Boots...

The group BeBe & CeCe Winans is comprised of siblings, Benjamin and Priscilla Winans. The two started as a group when the television show “The PTL Club” asked the two to be background singers on the show. They lived on t...

Bell Biv DeVoe formed from the members Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins and Ronnie DeVoe of the group New Edition. The group began to form after Bobby Brown left New Edition and became a separate entity after the Heart Break t...

Beyonce Giselle Knowles (known as Beyonce in music) was born in Houston, Texas in 1981 to record manager Matthew Knowles and Tina Beyince, a costume designer. Matthew Knowles is African American while Tina is of Creole descent. Beyonce...

After the trio Guy broke up, Teddy Riley began perfecting his production abilities and founded the group Blackstreet. He created the group in 1994, which was comprised of himself, Chauncey 'Black' Hannibal, Levi Little a...

The group Blaque is comprised of Natina Reed (born 1979), Shamari Fears (born 1981) and Brandi Williams (born 1982). The group's name stands for Believing in Life and Achieving a Quest for Unity in Everything, and was or...

Bobby Brown was born in 1969 in Boston, Massachusetts. He started singing with schoolmates Michael Bivins and Ricky Bell in 1980 and eventually, they brought Ralph Tresvant and Ronnie DeVoe into their group. The group be...

The Philadelphia quartet, Boyz II Men also seen as Boyz 2 Men, Boys II Men and Boys 2 Men, formed at the High School of the Creative and Performing Arts in 1988. It star...

Brandy Norwood was born in 1979 in McComb, Mississippi. Her family had strong musical ties as her father, Willie Norwood was a pastor, choir director and former R&B singer and her mother was a cousin of blues singer Bo D...

Brian McKnight was born in Buffalo, New York. He had strong musical roots, singing in the church choir and acting as a bandleader in high school. While in his early teens, he began penning instrumentals. He formed his ow...

Priscilla 'CeCe' Winans was born in 1964 in Detroit, Michigan and was the eighth of ten siblings in the musical Winans family.

CeCe teamed up with her brother BeBe for the family's most commercially successful ...

Changing Faces is comprised of Cassandra Lucas of East Harlem, New York and Charisse Rose of Bronx, New York. The two girls met one another while studying at New York's Music and Art High School. Even so, the girls went ...

Chante Moore was born in 1967 in San Francisco, California. Her father was a gospel minister and so Moore spent a lot of time singing in the church.

In high school, Moore decided she wanted to be a singer after...

Christopher Maurice Brown was bron in 1989 in Tappahannock, Virginia to Joyce Hawkins and Clinton Brown. Known to the music world as Chris Brown, Chris didn't realize he had vocal talents until he was eleven. Until then, he'd largely foc...

Troy Christopher Williams was born in 1967 in The Bronx, New York. Signed to Uptown Records, Williams first appeared on the scene in the late 1980s.

In 1989, Williams released his first album, Adventures in Par...

Dave Hollister, cousin of music act K-Ci and JoJo, started developing fame as a musician in the early 1990s. Some of his biggest early appearances were with 2Pac on tracks like 'Brenda's Got A Baby.'

His next b...

Tahu Jessica Aponte, Deemi, was born in 1980 in Brooklyn, New York. A Puerto Rican American, Deemi started building up her musical drive when at 7, she won a neighborhood talent show singing Whitney Houston’s “Greatest L...

The group Destiny's Child has changed immensely over the years, beginning as a duo, eventualy becoming a quartet and later shrinking back down to a trio. The group formed in 1990 in Houston, Texas. It initially was compr...

Donnell Jones was the son of a pastor and spent a lot of his childhood acting out in church. At eleven, his mother bought him a keyboard and he taught himself to play. With his father's influence as a gospel singer, Jone...

Eldra Patrick 'El' DeBarge was born in 1961 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

El was part of a musically rich family which was discovered by Jermaine Jackson and signed to Motown. The group, known as DeBarge, had seve...

En Vogue formed in 1988 in Oakland, California. The members of the group were former Miss Black California Cindy Herron, Maxine Jones, Dawn Robinson and Terry Ellis. The group formed when producers denzil Foster and Thom...

Eric Benet Jordan was born in 1966 in Wisconsin. His mother's maiden name is his middle name. Growing up, Benet was immersed in music as his father loved classical music and shared the experience with his son.

...

Erica 'Erykah Badu' Wright was born in 1971 in Texas. Badu was a dance student at Booker T. Washington High in Dallas where she received the nickname “MC Apples” and was a member of a freestyle female rap duo.

...

Faith Renee Evans was born in 1973 in Lakeland, Florida. Her father left the family when she was very young and so Evans was raised by her mother and aunt in Newark, New Jersey. Her mother was eighteen w...

At the front of the New Jack movement was the group, Guy, who appeared on the scenes in 1987. The first incarnation of the group was made up of Aaron Hall and Timmy Gatling, both students at HBCU Virginia State Universit...

Immature was created by record producer Chris Stokes. Its members were Marques 'Batman' Houston, Jerome 'Young Rome' Jones, and Kelton 'LDB' Kessee. All three of the group's members were born in 1981 and are native of Lo...

The trio Intro was comprised of lead singer Kenny Greene, Jeff Sanders and Clinton 'Buddy' Wike. The group's name is actually an acronym, standing for Innovative New Talent Reaching Out.

When the group released...

Jagged Edge formed in Atlanta, Georgia. The group is comprised of identical twins Brandon and Brian Casey, Kyle Norman and Richard Wingo, who was added by recommendation of Kandi Burruss of Xscape. Kandi took the group's...

Janet Damita Jo Jackson was born in 1966 in Gary, Indiana. She was the youngest of nine children to Katherine Esther and Joseph Walter Jackson and was raised in Encino, California. Her brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael ...

Jesse Powell was born in 1971 in Gary, Indiana. He grew up honing his musical abilities by singing with his family and in local talent shows. In 1993, Powell met producer Carl Roland in Kansas City and they traveled to L...

The bad boy group Jodeci was made up of two sets of brothers: Cedric 'K-Ci' and Joel 'Jo Jo' Hailey and Dalvin and Donald 'DeVante Swing' DeGrate. All four members of the group had strong ties with the Pentecostal church...

Johnny Gill was born on May 22, 1966 in Washington, D.C. The son of a minister, Gill sang in a family gospel group at the age of five.

Gill began his solo career in 1983 when his friend, Stacy Lattisaw convince...

Keith Sweat was born in 1961 in Harlem, New York. In 1975, Sweat got his start in music with a Harlem band called 'Jamilah.' The group toured the Tri-State area and helped hone Sweat's singing abilities.

Signed...

Keyshia Miesha Cole was born in 1981 in Oakland, California. Her mother was African-American and her father was Italian-American. However, Keyshia's father is dead and her mother suffered a drug addiction that forced Keyshia to be adopte...

Luther Vandross Jr. was born in 1951 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York. When Vandross was eight, his father died of diabetes. At thirteen, Vandross and his family moved to the Bronx. At roughly the same time,...

Mariah Carey was born in Long Island, New York to the former opera singer Patricia Hickey and Alfred Roy Carey. Her mother is Irish American and her father is of African-American and Venezuelan descent. The third and you...

Mary J Blige was born in 1971 in the Bronx, New York. Mary's father left her family when she was only four years old, leaving her, her sister and their mother to fend for themselves. The family moved to Yonkers a few yea...

Maxwell is an R&B neo-soul singer who was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1973. Maxwell is actually the singer's middle name, but he has kept his first and last name private in order to protect his family. His father died ...

Michael Joseph Jackson was born in 1958 in Gary, Indiana. As the seventh child in the Jackson family, Michael endured a great deal of abuse as a child. His father, Joseph would demand constant music rehearsals from the children and would...

Monica Denise Arnold was born on October 24, 1980 in Atlanta. As a child, Monica sang in church like her mother.

Despite her young age, Monica came to prominence at fourteen in the year 1995 when producer Dall...

Shaffer Chimere Smith, known to the world as Ne-Yo, was born in 1982 in Camden, Arkansas. His parents were African American and Chinese American.

Ne-Yo became a strong force in R&B music starting in the late 1990s when he began...

New Edition started in 1978 and originally comprised of Bobby Brown, Michael Bivins and Ricky Bell. The guys lived in the Orchard Park housing projects in Boston, Massachusetts. The group met a local manager named Brook ...

Robert Sylvester Kelly was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1967. He was the eldest of four children and lived in the Southside Projects. In high school, Kelly performed in talent shows and had his dreams reinforced by a high school music te...

Helen Folasade Adu, known as Sade (pronounced shar-day), was born in January 1959 in Ibadan, Nigeria. Her father, Bisi Adu, was a Nigerian lecturer in economics and her mother, Anee Hayes, was an English nurse. When Sa...

The group Shai was formed by students at Howard University in Washington D.C. Three of its members, Marc Gay, Carl Martin and Darnell Van Rensalier were members of the fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha and the fourth was a good...

Shirley Murdock started her career as a gospel singer in her birthplace, Toledo, Ohio. Her career started changing direction however as singer Roger Troutman hired Murdock as a backing singer for his family's band, Zapp....

Silk came out on the scene in 1992 and is comprised of members Timothy Cameron, Jimmy Gates Jr., Jonathen Rasboro, Gary Jenkins and Gary Glenn. The popular singer, Keith Sweat had been the one to discover the group.

Soul For Real formed in 1992 and was comprised of brothers Brian, Chris, Dre, and Jason Dalyrimple. Despite the time of the group's formation, the brothers had grown up singing together in church their entire life.

Stephanie Mills was born on March 22, 1957 in Brooklyn, New York. Her music career got off to an early start as Mills starred in plays and won Amateur Night at the Apollo by the time she was 11.

In 1973, Mills ...

SWV, or Sisters With Voices formed in 1990 as a group of three school friends. The group consisted of members Cheryl 'Coko' Gamble-Clemons (born 1974), Tamara 'Taj' Johnson-George (1974) and Leanne 'Lele...

Tamia Washington-Hill was born in 1975 in Ontario, Canada. At the age of six, she began singing in church and by ten, had signed up to take vocal lessons. She aspired to be a vocal coach but during a chance trip to Los A...

Toni Braxton was born in 1966 in Severn, Maryland. She is the oldest of six children and went to Glen Burnie High School. Her father was a clergyman, and as such, Braxton's first experience was singing with a church choi...

Tony! Toni! Tone! formed in Oakland, California and was composed of D'Wayne Wiggins on lead vocals and guitar, his brother Raphael Wiggins (Rapael Saadiq) on lead vocals and bass and cousin Timothy Christian on drums.

Total was an R&B trio comprised of members JaKima Raynor, Keisha Spivey and Pamela Long. The group was a part of Sean 'Puffy' Combs Bad Boy Records.

The groups first work together was backing Notorious B.I.G. T...

Tyrese Gibson was born in Los Angeles, California. He started his trek to stardom at the age of 14 when he won a talent show. He then appeared in a Coca-Cola advertisement, bringing him closer to the public eye. At 17, h...

Usher Raymond IV was born in 1978 to parents Usher Raymond III and Jonetta Patton in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Raised by his mother, he moved to Atlanta Georgia as a child. Getting his start in the church choir, Usher bega...

Whitney Houston was born in 1963 in New Jersey. Her mother, first cousin (Dionne Warwick) and godmother (Aretha Franklin) were all established Gospel/R&B/Soul singers. At the age of eleven, Houston began performing as a ...

Brooklyn singer, Will Downing, was born in 1963 and appeared on the scenes in the early 1980s. Singing with Arthur Baker's group, Wally Jump Junior, Downing then used Baker as a producer when he was signed to Island Reco...

The group Xscape formed in the early 1990s and was composed of sisters LaTocha 'Meatball' (born in 1973) and Tamika 'Juicy' (1975) Scott, as well as Kandi Burruss (1976) and Tameka 'Tiny' Cottle (1975). The Scott sister'...