Anthony Hamilton
Anthony Hamilton was born in 1971 in Charlotte, North Carolina. He left North Carolina in 1993 and moved to New York City where he signed onto Uptown Records.
During the 1990s, he struggled to make an impact on the industry. He recorded two albums which never saw release. In 1995, he'd recorded an album with Uptown, which they were set to release. However, the company went out of business and the album was lost.
In 1996, he teamed up with MCA and released the album XTC. The album was well reviewed but did not sell well and only had one charting single with "Nobody Else" which reached #63 on the R&B charts.
Anthony Hamilton then joined Soulife, a label comprised of friends from Charlotte. While on the label, he wrote for Donell Jones and Sunshine Anderson, and recorded another album. However, after returning from doing backup vocals on D'Angelo's "Voodoo Tour," Hamilton discovered that Soulife had closed shop.
With another album down the drain, Anthony Hamilton was left looking for a break. That break came in 2002 when he sang with Nappy Roots on the track "Po' Folks." The song won the 2003 Grammy for Best Rap/Sung COllaboration and got Hamilton in touch with Jermaine Dupri.
Dupri signed Hamilton to So So Def and released Comin' From Where I'm From in 2003. The album's title track reached #60 on the R&B charts, and "Charlene," Hamilton's biggest hit, reached #19 on the Hot 100 and #3 on the R&B charts.
In 2005, Anthony Hamilton dug up his unreleased album on Soulife and released it under the name Soulife. During the same year, he released Ain't Nobody Worryin', which had two singles. "Sista Big Bones," reached #51 on the R&B charts, while "Can't Let Go," reached #13 on the R&B charts and #71 on the Hot 100.
Anthony Hamilton released two more singles in 2007, with "Struggle No More," coming from Daddy's Little Girls soundtrack and reaching #32 on the R&B charts, and "Do You Feel Me," coming from the American Gangster soundtrack and reaching #61 on the R&B charts.
Anthony Hamilton has a new album, The Life of a Southern Gentleman, expected for release in 2008.