Unlike most artists who normally have to wait a while before achieving mainstream success, Musiq didn't waste any time. His début album "Aijuswanaseing" (I just wanna sing) went into the Billboard 200 at number four, whilst his following album, "Juslisen" was a number one hit. Both albums received critical acclaim as they gained platinum status, making Musiq a household name after just a few years.
Following a successful couple of albums, Soulchild was inevitably nominated for many prestigious awards. Two of his leading singles from his early discography "Love" and "Halfcrazy" were short-listed for the Best R&B Vocal Performance in consecutive years, whilst "Juslisen" was nominated for Best R&B Album in 2002. Despite not winning the awards, the nominations clearly gave him the encouragement to make better and more soulful music.
Soulchild went on to release two more number one albums in 2007 and 2008 with "Luvanmusiq" and "OnTheRadio". The former album in particular was well received and was awarded with three Grammy nominations.
Having not released a solo album since 2011, Musiq's most recent project was an album entitled '9ine' with Syleena Johnson, although this failed to have any major chart impact. Musiq is now a artist signed to My Block Records following his recent departure from Atlantic Records.
Musiq is first and foremost a rather unique singer. Although you could vaguely describe his music as either being soul or R&B, he encompasses a wide range of genres that make him stylistically different. He has been known to incorporate elements of funk into his music, whilst he also claims he has a "hip hop swagger". To a modern audience, the easiest way to describe him would be a mixture of the soulful singing of Frank Ocean combined with the vocal range and relaxed paced of The Weeknd.
Sometimes the best music comes from those with the biggest divide in them. Those that constantly have a devil and an angel on their shoulder and can’t quite decide which one they want to go with. Donell Jones’ upbringing typifies this since he was born the son of a gospel singer, but early in his adolescence was tempted by the seedy goings-on of the south side of his native Chicago. Fortunately for both him and us, Jones made the right decision to immerse himself in music rather than the gangs he grew up alongside, and made his official debut as a singer-songwriter in 1993.
Shortly afterwards he struck up a friendship with a DJ named Edward “Eddie F” Ferrell, and the two formed a creative partnership with LaFace Records. After “Think Of You”, a song that Jones wrote, was taken and made a hit by some no-hoper called Usher, the higher-ups at LaFace gave Jones the all-clear to record his debut solo album. The album was released in 1996 and “My Heart” was a respectable hit for someone on their debut effort, powered by a hit cover of Stevie Wonder’s 1976 single “Knocks Me Off My Feet” as its lead single.
However, the stars would later align for him with his second record. “Where I Wanna Be” was a bona-fide smash, going platinum within the year and yielding smash hit singles on both sides of the Atlantic. This album made him free to do whatever he wanted to do with his follow up records, and since then his soul inflected R&B has bought him more critical notices than many others with better chart records, but the numbers were never what made Jones special. His sheer songwriting skill and golden voice did that fine, and neither of them have diminished whatsoever during his 20 plus years in show business. Highly recommended.
Ah, Musiq Soulchild; a man so smooth that, on his classic ‘143’, couldn’t just say I love you the traditional way, and instead did it numerically, winning the hearts of countless female admirers and forever changing the way I view the south Manchester bus that shares that number. Musiq - not, you’ll be surprised to learn, his real name - very much made his own lane back in the nineties, with the quirkiness of his R&B and soul crossover represented visually by the bizarre, spaceless approach he used to take to naming his albums; after his debut, Aijuswanaseing, made his name in the U.S., he followed it up with his first number one LP in his homeland, Juslisen. Album number four, Luvanmusiq, hit the top of the charts in America, too, and whilst he’s failed to replicate that level of success on this side of the pond, he hasn’t taken it personally, touring the UK frequently. In early 2009, he played a slew of shows across the country with a full band, but a scheduled return with Avant and Donell Jones in tow in 2010 ended in farce when the promoters failed to pay Musiq’s bus driver and he understandably went on strike, forcing the cancellation of several shows. To be fair, with several backing singers and a brass section amongst the backing that bring Musiq’s songs to life on stage, arranging last-minute transportation would’ve proved impossible; hopefully the experience hasn’t put him off, and he’ll be back with new dates soon.
A quick bit of advice for anybody who looks at the - now hugely-commercial - R&B scene and despairs; find yourself a copy of Donell Jones’ ‘Shorty Got Her Eyes on Me’, sit back, relax and realise that it wasn’t so long ago that that particular genre was awash with genuine soul, rather than the superficial posres that largely populate it nowadays. Jones - like many of his contemporaries, who included the likes of Ginuwine and Joe - is now and has always been the very definition of a smooth, soulful crooner; despite the fact that he’s never really matched up to the success of his 1999 sophomore album Where I Wanna Be - which went platinum in his native U.S. - it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t continue to have plenty to offer. His most recent album, Forever, was dropped last year, and a top twenty chart position in the States proved that he continues to hold some serious commercial sway there. He still tours frequently, too, with his most recent lap of the UK, back in February of 2010, saw him supporting Musiq Soulchild and Avant with quick-fire sets that felt anything but; backed by a full band, he delivered hugely mellow, stripped-down versions of his classics that confirmed him as one of the masters of his craft.