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...

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 ...

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...

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.

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...

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...

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...

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...

Michael 'D'Angelo' Archer was born in 1974 in Richmond, Virginia. He released his debut album, Brown Sugar, in 1995. The album slowly generated sales, only proving popular after the hit single 'Lady' began receiving a lo...

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 ...

Andwele Gardner, known as Dwele to the music world, was born in Detroit, Michigan. At the age of ten, Dwele's life was hit hard when his father was murdered outside of his home, and Dwele turned to songwriting. He briefly attended Wayne ...

Gerald LeVert was born in 1966 in Cleveland, Ohio and was part of a family with rich musical background. His father, Eddie LeVert Sr.'s success constantly loomed over the family as he was the lead singer in the O'Jays.

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...

Hi-Five formed in 1990 in Waco, Texas and was comprised of members Tony Thompson, Roderick Clark, marcus Sanders, Russell Neal, and Toriano Easley. They were signed to Jive Records who helped them release their first alb...

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...

Joe Thomas grew up in Opelika, Alabama and was the son of two preachers. He grew up singing in the choir, playing guitar and eeven directing the choir at his church.

Because of his roots in the church, Joe was in...

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...

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...

Keith Washington rose to fame in the early 1990s with his first LP, Make Time for Love. Released in 1991, the album went gold and featured the #1 R&B hit'Kissing You.'The album featured three more singles 'Are You Still ...

Kevon Edmonds was born in Indianapolis, Indiana and is the brother of famous producer/songwriter/singer Kenneth 'Babyface' Edmonds. Growing up, Kevon Edmonds shied away from the church choir, preferring to sing for his o...

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,...

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...

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...

Mint Condition formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the late 1980s. Comprised of members singer Stokley Wiliams, bassist Ricky Kinchen, guitarist Homer O'Dell, pianist Larry Waddell and keyboardist Jeffrey Allen, the grou...

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 ...

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 ...

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...

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.

Eunique Mack, Darnell Chavis and Danielle Stokes performed on the streets of New York in the early 1990s. The production team of Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis overheard the guys and helped them get established. The bassist Robert Anderson join...

Take 6 slowly took shape throughout the early to mid 1980s. It first began when Claude McKnight formed an a capella quartet, The Gentlemen's Estate Quartet, at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama in 1980. The group be...

Tevin Campbell was born in 1976 in Dallas, Texas. He first appeared on the scene in the hit single 'Tommorow (A Better You Better Me)' which was released in 1989 and reached #1 on the R&B charts in 1990. The single was t...

TLC formed in 1991 and was originally called 2nd Nature. The group originated in Atlanta, Georgia and was originally comprised of Tionne 'T-Boz' Watkins, Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes and Crystal Jones.

In 1991, Jones ...

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.

Troop formed in the late 80s in Pasadena, California. The group is comprised of childhood friends Steve russell, Allen McNeil, John Harreld, Rodney Benford and Reggie Warren. They got their first break into the industry ...

U.N.V. or, Universal Nubian Voices, was a male quartet that came onto the scene in 1993 out of Lansing, Michigan with their debut album, Something's Goin On. The group was comprised of brothers John Pow...