Musiq
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Musiq Soulchild (born Talib Johnson on September 16 1977 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an African American neo soul and R&B artist, one of the most popular artists on the Def Soul label. Since 2001, he has gone by simply Musiq, dropping the "Soulchild" from his moniker. Besides being a successful recording artist, Musiq is notable for his disregard for normal rules of capitalization, punctuation, and spelling, as can be seen by the titles of his singles and his albums.
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Biography
Musiq was born in Philadelphia and grew up with his family--including eight brothers and sisters--in Putnam County, Georgia. He moved back to Philadelphia as a teenager, and began plans for a career in music. He released his debut album, Aijuswanasang (read: "I Just Want to Sing"), in 2000, which was well-received by critics and audiences. Musiq did much of his own songwriting, and most of the record was produced by the A Touch of Jazz production company, headed by Jazzy Jeff. The singles "Just Friends (Sunny)", "Love", and "Girl Next Door" received exposure in America mainly on the more underground music video network, MTV2, as well as on BET. His singles also received moderate airplay on urban and urban contemporary radio stations.
In 2002, he released his sophomore album, Juslisen (read: "Just Listen"), as simply Musiq. He had continued urban and MTV2 success with its singles, "halfcrazy" and "dontchange", the former of which was one of the most played music videos on MTV2 in the summer of 2002 and during the year overall. Both videos also got substantial play during the year on VH1 Soul.
In late 2002, Musiq contributed guest vocals to "Break You Off", the first single from The Roots' Phrenology album. Once again, its video got heavy play on MTV2 and VH1 Soul, as well as on MTV Jams.
Most recently, Musiq has released the singles and videos "forthenight" and "whoknows" from his third LP, Soulstar. "forthenight" has been one of VH1 Soul's most played videos of 2004 so far. It also had a very successful run on American urban radio stations.
Discography
Albums
- 2000: Aijuswanasang
- 2002: Juslisen
- 2003: Soulstar
Singles
- 2000: "Just Friends (Sunny)" (US #31)
- 2000: "Love" (US #24)
- 2001: "Girl Next Door" (US #85)
- 2002: "halfcrazy" (US #16)
- 2002: "dontchange" (US #17)
- 2003: "forthenight" (US #52)
- 2004: "whoknows" (US #65)