Line-up

Venue

Toyota Center

1510 Polk Street, 77002, Houston, TX, US

www.houstontoyotacenter.com/

Capacity: 18,300

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Additional details

Doors open: 19:00

Concert in your area for R&B, Funk & Soul, Hip-Hop, and Pop.

Find out more about Hip-Hop and Pop.

Keith Sweat biography

Keith Sweat (born July 22 1961) is an R&B singer originating from Harlem, US, who is well known for being a pioneer of the New Jack Swing genre.

Starting his career at the young age of 14 with the band Jamilah, Keith was clearly musical from very early on in his life. Although this band wasn't very successful on a grand scale, it prepared Keith for his solo career which began in 1984.

After touring night clubs and getting noticed by various record companies, he finally released his début solo album in November 1987 entitled "Make It Last Forever" on Vintertainment/Elektra Records. The biggest hit from his first release "I Want Her" clearly showed influences from New Jack Swing and was nominated for a 1989 Soul Train Song Of The Year Award, whilst simultaneously hitting #1 in the R&B charts.

His next two albums both entered the U.S Music Chart in the top 20, with his second album "I'll Give All My Love to You" coming in at #6. His third release in 1991 "Keep It Comin'", featured R&B legend LL Cool J on one of the hit singles.

Keith has still remained active in the modern era and has won many awards thanks to his contribution to R&B music. In 1997, he was awarded the title of Favorite Male R&B/Soul Artist following the release of his fifth and self-titled album a year before. In 2013, he received the Soultrain Lifetime Achievement Award, clearly showing his massive contribution towards the genre.

Keith Sweat is still known for have a slow and smooth style of music whilst projecting heart felt lyrics. His way of singing perfectly suits R&B music and New Jack Swing.

Dru Hill biography

Dru Hill is an American R&B/ soul/ hip-hop group from Baltimore, Maryland consisting of members Sisqo, Jazz, Nokio and Tao.

Friends since middle school, Tamir Ruffin (aka Nokio) recruited Mark Andres (aka Sisqo) and James Green (aka Big Woody Rock) to join him in a singing group, and they began performing around the Baltimore area; and after a while, Larry Anthony (aka Jazz) joined the group. The group originally would perform gospel music, but made the switch to R&B and in 1996 they caught their big break when they were signed to Island Record’s “Island Black” division.

Immediately after signing the record deal, they started working on their first album. The eponymous album, released in 1996, eventually reached certified gold, and the single “Tell Me” was featured on the soundtrack for the movie “Eddie.” In 1997 the group entered some legal drama, filing a suit to leave their contract with Island Records when their manager was hit on the head by an Island employee, and by the end both sides came to a settlement with Dru Hill still remaining on their contract.

In 1998 the group released their sophomore album, “Enter the Dru” and contained within it was the single “How Deep Is Your Love,” a song that was featured on the soundtrack to the film “Rush Hour.” By the end of the following year, “Enter the Dru” had sold over two million copies; however during their shoot for the music video for Will Smith’s “Wild Wild West,” Woody quit the group to return to his gospel roots, who would eventually be replaced by Def Jam artist, Case.

While working on their next album, “Dru World Order,” Sisqo was simultaneously working on his solo project, and released his debut album, “Unleash The Dragon” in 2000. While his solo album resulted in three fairly successful singles, it also resulted in “Dru World Order” being pushed back and due to conflict between members resulted in the group breaking apart. Luckily, by the end of 2001 the group started to reassemble and “Dru World Order” was finally completed and released in November 2002.

Ginuwine biography

Ginuwine, born- Elgin Baylor Lumpkin- on October 15th 1970, from Texas, America, is an R&B singer-songwriter, dancer, rapper and actor.

R&B artist, Ginuwine became friends with many musicians who were highly regarded in the rap and R&B industry, who subsequently led him on the path to success. These people included the likes of Missy Elliot and Timbaland, these turned out to become his principal collaborators throughout the 1990s.

Timbaland and Ginuwine worked well together and this was made evident through Ginuwine's first single, titled "Pony". It showcased his charming and smooth vocals together with Timbaland's original production flair. Interestingly, "Pony" proved to be a hit and was used in the film, 2007’s Wild Hogs, and also used in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV in 2008.

However, after the success of Ginuwine’s second album, the duo grew apart. Much to the enjoyment of producers R. Kelly, who helped Ginuwine from then, producing hit after hit.

Ginuwine has achieved great success, this was proved in 2001 when he had a number-four hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with the single "Differences", which also peaked at number-one on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart. Just a year later however, the musician’s parents both passed away. This encouraged him to write and produce more sombre songs from the heart, such as , “Two Reasons I Cry".

Live reviews

Quite why Keith Sweat chose to adopt that particular moniker remains a mystery to me, because I doubt he ever breaks one; he’s one of the smoothest men on the planet. He’s so much more, too, than an R&B singer; he’s a genuine pioneer of new jack swing, with early records like Make It Last Forever and I’ll Give All My Love to You amongst the classics of the genre. As time has gone by, and the lines between new jack swing stylings and traditional R&B have become more and more blurred, he’s continued to prove a commercially-viable proposition, with every album he made up until 1998’s Still in the Game going platinum in the U.S. Since then, he’s continued to record and tour, and still charts strongly; in an acknowledgement of the scene’s changing sensibilities, too, he featured T-Pain on a track on his most recent album, In the Morning. Shortly before that record dropped, he toured the UK, packing out clubs across the country with an expansive live lineup that included live drums and an array of backing singers. The setlists spanned his entire career, with a particular focus on his mid-nineties material, and the shows themselves proved that Sweat retains a cult fanbase on theis side of the Atlantic.

Report

Joeg_67

Dru Hill are probably best known, with the benefit of hindsight, for having launched the solo career of Sisqo, a man who went from global stardom in the early noughties with the frankly classic likes of ‘The Thong Song’ to ultimately being reduced, just a few years later, to appearing on Celebrity Big Brother in the UK and demonstrating classic signs of ‘small man syndrome’ by defending his height by claiming that he’s “taller when he stands on his wallet”. Regardless, to dismiss Dru Hill as merely some vehicle for Sisqo’s own music would be totally criminal, given that they’ve had three platinum albums of their own and a slew of chart hits, including the Redman-featuring ‘How Deep Is Your Love’. They’ve never officially split, either, despite the fact that their sound is pretty rooted in that late-noughties style of R&B; they continue to tour after eschewing their classic three-part harmony structure on fourth album InDRUpendence Day. Their U.S. shows, though, have had them on top harmonising form, skipping Sisqo’s solo work for classic cuts from the Dru back catalogue; they’ve yet to reach the UK, but should have a nostalgia-heavy audience waiting for them once they do.

Report

Joeg_67

Is there a classic R&B banger that says the nineties quite like Ginuwine’s ‘Pony’. The beat, lyrics and delivery are all smoother than smooth, and made all the more remarkable by the fact that they’re coming from a man born Elgin Baylor Lumpkin, which sounds like a name more befitting some kind of elfin children’s character than an impossibly debonair ladies’ man. Even if he’s struggled to scale the same heights as he found himself at in the nineties in the years since, he’s still plugged away throughout the noughties, releasing new records and touring the UK several times, most notably on a joint jaunt with fellow smooth operator Joe. In fact, it was the collaborative nature of his tours that would ultimately lead to his latest project; last year, he dropped the record Three Kings, as one-third of TGT alongside Tyrese and Tank, who hail from that same nineties scene and go a way back (Tyrese was best man at Ginuwine’s wedding). They toured the UK last year, too, performing their new cuts as well as delving into their own solo catalogues to delight female audiences across the land. They’re likely to be back before long - Ginuwine has been a regular fixture on these shores for a while - but in the meantime, check out Three Kings from some genuinely superb harmonisation.

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Joeg_67