Musiq Soulchild et Kindred the Family Soul

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.

Kindred the Family Soul consists of the married couple Fatin Dantzler and Aja Graydon, who really put emphasis on the family in their namesake. The duo were discovered when their record label saw them performing at the Black Lily Film & Music Festival in Philadelphia. They are considered to be members of the neo soul movement that includes artists such as Jill Scott.

In February 2003 the couple released their debut album 'Surrender to Love' on the Hidden Beach label and it includes the singles 'Far Away' and 'Stars' which both appeared on the US R & B charts. Their fourth album 'Love Has No Recession' appeared at #90 on the US Billboard chart and they have had a string of R & B single chart appearances over their career, the peak remains 'Where Would I Be' which reached #41 in 2006. Their discography currently stands at five albums, with their latest 'A Couple Friends' being released in 2014 and features the singles 'Everybody's Hustling' and 'A Couple Friends', the latter is a collaboration with Valerie Simpson.

The duo have also enjoyed critical success through their career, in 2004 they were nominated for a Soul Train Music Award for Best R&B/Soul Album for their debut and in 2006 they also scooped a BET award.