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...

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...

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...

Basic Black was an R&B quartet from Atlanta, Georgia comprised of Darryl (Denzo) Adams, Walter (Dis Mucho) Scott, Lloyd (Spec) Turner and Kelvin (K.B.) Bradshaw. The group had a sound that was similar to that of Guy, and...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Damage is a British R&B group that formed in the mid 1990s. The quintet was comprised of Andrez Harriott, Jade Jones, Coree Richards, Rahsaan J Bromfield and Noel Simpson and formed while the group was in school.

The group Dama...

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...

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...

Dru Hill was founded by Tamir 'Nokio' Ruffin in Baltimore in 1992. The group consisted of himself, lead singer Mark 'Sisqo' Andrews, Larry 'Jazz' Anthony and James 'Woody' Green. The group got their chance at success in ...

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...

Francisco Javier Bautista Jr., known in music as Frankie J, was born in Tijuana, Mexico in 1978. Frankie J's native language is Spanish, though he moved to San Diego, California at the age of two when his uncle brought him to America.

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...

H-Town formed in Houston, Texas and consists of members Keven 'Dino' Conner, his fraternal twin Shazam and their friend Darryl 'G.I.' Jackson. For a long time, H-Town failed to find a break. They performed all kinds of g...

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 ...

Jonathan 'Jon B' Buck was born in Rhode Island but raised in Pasadena, California. His grandparents owned a record store which guaranteed his immersion in music. He found himself especially listening to The Bee Gees, Ear...

Like many R&B artists, brothers Cedric 'K-Ci' and Joel 'JoJo' Hailey grew up singing in the church. Natives of North Carolina, they met Devante Swing and Mr. Dalvin as teenagers.

The group went to New York where they tried to sel...

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...

Lauryn Hill was born in 1975 in New Jersey. She attended Columbus High School and was an active student, performing in talent shows. She acted in the TV show As The World Turns when sixteen, and had a role in Sister Act ...

Soul musician Link was born in Dallas, Texas where he was active in a cappella groups as a teenager. He was recruited by Darrell Allamby for the group Protege and continued to work with him, even after the group split up...

LSG, short for LeVert, Sweat, Gill was an R&B trio comprised of Gerald LeVert, Keith Sweat and Johnny Gill. The group took three big names in R&B and merged them together into one. In order to get an idea of the impressiveness of the gro...

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,...

Men of Vizion were an urban quintet that came out in the mid-90s. The group formed in Brooklyn, New York at La Guardia High School of Music and Art. Originally, it was a quartet comprised of George Spencer III, Brian Der...

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...

Montell Jordan was born in 1968 in Los Angeles, California. He attended Pepperdine University in California where he received a bachelor's degree in communication and joined Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. He spent seven yea...

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 ...

Next is comprised of R.L. Huggar, and brothers T-Low and Tweety and foremd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. R.L. met the brothers through their uncle who directed a gospel choir.

The group's debut album Rated Next wa...

Nu Flavor formed in Long Beach, California and is comprised of Jacob Ceinceros, Anthony Dacosta, Rico Luna and Frank Pangelinan. The group was signed by Reprise after the label's president Howie Klien heard the group per...

Raheem DeVaughn was born in New Jersey to cellist Abdul Wadud and his mother Imani Smith. He grew up in Maryland where he showed a love for music at an early age. He got his first experience in the musician lifestyle when he'd visit his ...

Robert Lavelle Huggar was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1977 and was known in music by his first and middle initials, RL. He got his start in the R&B industry with the group Next. Next had strong success with their first two albums, ...

Jerome 'Rome' Woods was born in Benton Harbor, Michigan in 1970. As a child he would sing along to his mother's soul records and joined the local church choir. While in high school, he joined an R&B cover group, Fire & I...

Sammie Bush was born in Boynton Beach, Florida in 1987. As a young child, he was exposed to music, largely through the church. His mother had been a professional singer and brought Sammie along when she sang in the church choir.

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...

Special Generation was a quintet that started up as back-up singers for M.C. Hammer. After working with him on several recordings, they were signed to his Bust It Record label.

In 1990, the group released their...

The Chicago based group Subway, was comprised of Eric McNeal, Keith Thomas, Trerail Puckett and Roy Jones. The group was signed to Michael Bivins Motown-distributed label Biv 10. They came out on the scenes in 1995 with ...

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...

The Force M.D.s (with M.D. standing for musical diversity) were comprised of brothers Stevie D., Antoine "T.C.D." Lundy, their uncle, Jessie Lee Daniels and their friends Trisco Pearson and Charles "Mercury" Nelson. The group formed in...

Tracie Spencer was born in 1976 in Waterloo, Iowa. She got her start in 1986 when she won the CBS television show Star Search. In the show, she sang Whitney Houston's 'How Will I Know.'

After winning the contes...