1.
Eve (rapper)
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Eve Jihan Jeffers-Cooper is an American rapper and actress from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is also the winner of the Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration in 2002, for the song Let Me Blow Ya Mind. Eve was number 48 on VH1s 50 Greatest Women of the Video Era list and she has also achieved success in fashion, with her clothing line, Fetish. Eve was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Julie Wilch, a publishing company supervisor, and Jerry Jeffers, a chemical plant supervisor. She adopted the name Gangsta in high school as part of a group called EDGP During her early years in Philadelphia. Eves first musical interest was singing and she sang in many choirs and even formed an all-female singing group with a manager. This group covered songs from En Vogue and Color Me Badd, the groups manager suggested that the group should rap after seeing ABC, and Eve stuck with it. She then went on to form a rapping group, after the group split, Eve began working on a solo career under the name Eve of Destruction. Eve has lived in Los Angeles, New York City, in 1999, she was featured on Princes album Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic, and she was to co-star on the eventually cancelled Hot Wit U single from that same album. Eve is featured on the song You Got Me by The Roots, the song won a Grammy Award in 2000, which should have been Eves first. She stated on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in 2009 that she did not receive a Grammy for the track, questlove, from The Roots, had brought his Grammy to the show that night and showed shes not even credited on the award plaque. She also provided vocals on the song Aint Sayin Nothin New from the same album. In the albums notes, she is referred to as Eve of Destruction. Eve first appeared on the Bulworth soundtrack as Eve of Destruction while signed to Dr. Dres Aftermath Entertainment, Billboard Hot 100 peaking at 29. Her 1999 debut, Let There Be Eve, two singles were released from the album, Gotta Man and Love Is Blind featuring Faith Evans. The first one peaked at number 26 on the Billboard Hot 100, in November 1999, Eve featured on Missy Elliotts single Hot Boyz along with Nas, Lil Mo and Q-Tip. The song became a hit, spending 18 weeks at one on the Hot Rap Singles from November 16,1999 to March 7,2000. The follow-up to Ruff Ryders First Lady, Scorpion, was released in 2001 and its first single, Whos That Girl guaranteed the rapper first international success
2.
Contemporary R&B
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Contemporary R&B, also known as simply R&B, is a music genre that combines elements of rhythm and blues, soul, funk, pop, hip hop and dance. The genre features a record production style, drum machine-backed rhythms, an occasional saxophone-laced beat to give a jazz feel. Electronic influences are becoming a trend and the use of hip hop or dance-inspired beats are typical, although the roughness. Contemporary R&B vocalists are often known for their use of melisma, popularized by such as Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, Craig David, Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston. That same year, Teddy Riley began producing R&B recordings that included hip hop influences and this combination of R&B style and hip hop rhythms was termed new jack swing and was applied to artists such as Bobby Brown, Keith Sweat, Al B. Guy, Jodeci and Bell Biv DeVoe, the style became less popular by the end of the 1990s, but later experienced a resurgence. In 1990 Mariah Carey released Vision of Love as her debut single and it was immensely popular peaking at number 1 in many worldwide charts including the Billboard Hot 100, and it propelled Mariahs carrier. The song is said to have popularized the use of melisma. During the mid-1990s, Whitney Houstons The Bodyguard, Original Soundtrack Album sold over 40 million copies becoming the best-selling soundtrack of all time. Janet Jacksons self-titled fifth studio album janet. which came after her historic multimillion-dollar contract with Virgin Records, sold over twenty million copies worldwide. Boyz II Men and Mariah Carey recorded several Billboard Hot 100 No.1 hits, including One Sweet Day, Carey also released a remix of her 1995 single Fantasy, with Ol Dirty Bastard as a feature, a collaboration format that was unheard of at this point. Carey, Boyz II Men and TLC released albums in 1994 and 1995—Daydream, II and CrazySexyCool. In the late 1990s, neo soul, which added 1970s soul influences to the hip hop soul blend, arose, led by such as DAngelo, Erykah Badu. Hill and Missy Elliott further blurred the line between R&B and hip hop by recording both styles, beginning in 1995, the Grammy Awards enacted the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album, with II by Boyz II Men becoming the first recipient. The award was received by TLC for CrazySexyCool in 1996, Tony Rich for Words in 1997, Erykah Badu for Baduizm in 1998. At the end of 1999, Billboard magazine ranked Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson as the first, simultaneously, in the second half of the 1990s, The Neptunes and Timbaland set influential precedence on contemporary R&B and hip hop music. R&B acts such as Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Usher, in 2001, Alicia Keys released Fallin as her debut single. It peaking at one on the Billboard Hot 100, Mainstream Top 40
3.
Hip hop music
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It developed as part of hip hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements, MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching with turntables, break dancing, and graffiti writing. Other elements include sampling beats or bass lines from records, while often used to refer solely to rapping, hip hop more properly denotes the practice of the entire subculture. Hip hops early evolution occurred as sampling technology and drum machines became available and affordable. Turntablist techniques such as scratching and beatmatching developed along with the breaks and Jamaican toasting, rapping developed as a vocal style in which the artist speaks or chants along rhythmically with an instrumental or synthesized beat. The Sugarhill Gangs 1979 song Rappers Delight is widely regarded to be the first hip hop record to gain popularity in the mainstream. The 1980s marked the diversification of hip hop as the genre developed more complex styles, prior to the 1980s, hip hop music was largely confined within the United States. However, during the 1980s, it began to spread to scenes in dozens of countries. New school hip hop was the wave of hip hop music, originating in 1983–84 with the early records of Run-D. M. C. The Golden age hip hop period was a period between the mid-1980s and the early 1990s. Notable artists from this era include the Juice Crew, Public Enemy, & Rakim, Boogie Down Productions and KRS-One, EPMD, Slick Rick, Beastie Boys, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, Ultramagnetic MCs, De La Soul, and A Tribe Called Quest. Gangsta rap is a subgenre of hip hop that often focuses on the violent lifestyles, in the West Coast hip hop style, G-funk dominated mainstream hip hop for several years during the 1990s. I. G. In the 1990s, hip hop began to diversify with other regional styles emerging, such as Southern rap, at the same time, hip hop continued to be assimilated into other genres of popular music, examples being Neo soul and nu metal. Hip hop became a pop music genre in the mid-1990s. The popularity of hip hop music continued through the 2000s, with hip hop influences also increasingly finding their way into mainstream pop, the United States also saw the success of regional styles such as crunk, a Southern genre that emphasized the beats and music more than the lyrics. Starting in 2005, sales of hip hop music in the United States began to severely wane, during the mid-2000s, alternative hip hop secured a place in the mainstream, due in part to the crossover success of artists such as OutKast and Kanye West. Creation of the hip hop is often credited to Keith Cowboy, rapper with Grandmaster Flash. However, Lovebug Starski, Keith Cowboy, and DJ Hollywood used the term when the music was known as disco rap. Cowboy later worked the hip hop cadence into a part of his stage performance, the first use of the term in print was in The Village Voice, by Steven Hager, later author of a 1984 history of hip hop
4.
The Roots
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The Roots is an American hip hop group, formed in 1987 by Tariq Black Thought Trotter and Ahmir Questlove Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The Roots are known for a jazzy and eclectic approach to hip-hop featuring live musical instruments, Leonard Hub Hubbard, and Josh Abrams were added to the band. The Roots served as the band on NBCs Late Night with Jimmy Fallon from 2009 to 2014. The Roots work has consistently met with critical acclaim. About. com ranked the band #7 on its list of the 25 Best Hip-Hop Groups of All-Time, the Roots originated in Philadelphia with Ahmir Questlove Thompson and Tariq Black Thought Trotter while they were both attending the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts. They would busk out on the corners with Questlove playing bucket drums. In 1992, they dropped the Square because a local group had claim to the name. Organix was the bands first album, released and sold independently in 1993 and it drew offers from music labels, and the band signed with DGC/Geffen. The Roots first album for DGC, Do You Want More. was released in 1994 and it was a moderate hit among alternative music fans, boosted by the groups appearance at Lollapalooza. The band performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival that year, touring guests, beatboxer Rahzel and producer Scott Storch, joined The Roots. What They Do was also the groups first single to hit the Top 40 of Billboards charts, while continuing on the path of live instrumentation, the albums sound was somewhat darker. The group released Things Fall Apart in 1999 and this was their breakthrough album, peaking at No.4 on the Billboard 200 charts and earning a gold record, signifying U. S. sales of at least 500,000 units. The album was certified platinum in April,2013. Mos Def contributed to the track entitled Double Trouble, the track Act Two features African-Belgian band Zap Mama and Common. The track You Got Me, a duet with R&B singer Erykah Badu and Eve and Jill Scott intended by Black Thought for the unconscious population, peaked at No.39 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. At the 42nd Grammy Awards You Got Me won the award for Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group, steve Huey of the website allmusic. com perceived a strong affinity for the neo-soul movement in the album. First-time cameos on Things Fall Apart for Philadelphia natives Beanie Sigel, after this album, Dice Raw left the collective to record his solo debut album Reclaiming the Dead. In the summer, the performed at the Woodstock 99 concert in New York state
5.
Music video
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A music video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. There are also cases where songs are used in tie in marketing campaigns that allow them to more than just a song. Tie ins and merchandising could be used in toys or marketing campaigns for food, although the origins of music videos date back to musical short films that first appeared in the 1920s, they came into prominence in the 1980s when MTV based their format around the medium. Prior to the 1980s, these works were described by terms including illustrated song, filmed insert, promotional film, promotional clip, promotional video, song video. Music videos use a range of styles of contemporary videomaking techniques, including animation, live action filming, documentaries. Some music videos blend different styles, such as animation, music, combining these styles and techniques has become more popular because of the variation it presents to the audience. Many music videos interpret images and scenes from the songs lyrics, other music videos may be without a set concept, being merely a filmed version of the songs live performance. Product placement is a technique in music videos, exemplified by the appearance of the Beats Pill in numerous hip hop videos. In 1894, sheet music publishers Edward B, marks and Joe Stern hired electrician George Thomas and various performers to promote sales of their song The Little Lost Child. Using a magic lantern, Thomas projected a series of images on a screen simultaneous to live performances. This would become a form of entertainment known as the illustrated song. In 1926, with the arrival of many musical short films were produced. Vitaphone shorts featured many bands, vocalists and dancers, early 1930s cartoons featured popular musicians performing their hit songs on-camera in live-action segments during the cartoons. The early animated films by Walt Disney, such as the Silly Symphonies shorts and especially Fantasia, the Warner Brothers cartoons, even today billed as Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, were initially fashioned around specific songs from upcoming Warner Brothers musical films. Live action musical shorts, featuring such performers as Cab Calloway, were also distributed to theaters. Blues singer Bessie Smith appeared in a short film called St. Louis Blues featuring a dramatized performance of the hit song. Numerous other musicians appeared in short musical subjects during this period, soundies, produced and released from 1940 to 1947, were musical films that often included short dance sequences, similar to later music videos
6.
Boxing
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Boxing is a combat sport in which two people wearing protective gloves throw punches at each other for a predetermined set of time in a boxing ring. Amateur boxing is both an Olympic and Commonwealth Games sport and is a fixture in most international games—it also has its own World Championships. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of one- to three-minute intervals called rounds, in the event that both fighters gain equal scores from the judges, the fight is considered a draw. In Olympic boxing, due to the fact that a winner must be declared, in the case of a draw - the judges use technical criteria to choose the most deserving winner of the bout. While people have fought in combat since before the dawn of history. The earliest evidence for fist fighting with any kind of gloves can be found on Minoan Crete, in Ancient Greece boxing was a well developed sport and enjoyed consistent popularity. In Olympic terms, it was first introduced in the 23rd Olympiad,688 B. C, the boxers would wind leather thongs around their hands in order to protect them. There were no rounds and boxers fought until one of them acknowledged defeat or could not continue, weight categories were not used, which meant heavyweights had a tendency to dominate. It was the head of the opponent which was primarily targeted, Boxing was a popular spectator sport in Ancient Rome. In order for the fighters to protect themselves against their opponents they wrapped leather thongs around their fists, eventually harder leather was used and the thong soon became a weapon. The Romans even introduced metal studs to the thongs to make the cestus which then led to a more sinister weapon called the myrmex, Fighting events were held at Roman Amphitheatres. The Roman form of boxing was often a fight until death to please the spectators who gathered at such events, however, especially in later times, purchased slaves and trained combat performers were valuable commodities, and their lives were not given up without due consideration. Often slaves were used against one another in a circle marked on the floor and this is where the term ring came from. In AD393, during the Roman gladiator period, boxing was abolished due to excessive brutality and it was not until the late 17th century that boxing re-surfaced in London. Records of Classical boxing activity disappeared after the fall of the Western Roman Empire when the wearing of weapons became common once again, however, there are detailed records of various fist-fighting sports that were maintained in different cities and provinces of Italy between the 12th and 17th centuries. There was also a sport in ancient Rus called Kulachniy Boy or Fist Fighting, as the wearing of swords became less common, there was renewed interest in fencing with the fists. The sport would later resurface in England during the early 16th century in the form of bare-knuckle boxing sometimes referred to as prizefighting. The first documented account of a fight in England appeared in 1681 in the London Protestant Mercury
7.
Mainstream Top 40
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Mainstream Top 40 is a 40-song music chart published weekly by Billboard Magazine which ranks the most popular songs being played on a panel of Top 40 radio stations in the United States. The rankings are based on radio airplay detections as measured by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, arbitron refers to the format as contemporary hit radio. The chart debuted in Billboard Magazine in its issued date October 3,1992, both Top 40 charts measured actual monitored airplay from data compiled by Broadcast Data Systems. Both charts were born of then-new BDS electronic monitoring technology as a more objective and this data was also used as the airplay component for Hot 100 tabulations. They returned to the print edition in the August 2,2003, songs on the chart are ranked by the total number of spins detected per week. Songs which gain plays or remain flat from the week will receive a bullet. A song will also receive a bullet if its loss in plays does not exceed the percentage of monitored station downtime for the format. If two songs are tied in total plays, the song with the increase in plays is placed first. Since the introduction of the chart until 2005, songs below No.20 were moved to recurrent after 26 weeks on the chart, in the chart week of December 3,2005, songs below No.20 were moved to recurrent after 20 weeks on the chart. Since the issue dated December 4,2010, songs older than 20 weeks on the chart are moved to recurrent after they drop below No.15 and this chart was often mistaken for and confused with the now discontinued Pop 100 Airplay chart. 12, Mariah Carey - Dreamlover, Taylor Swift - Shake It Off No,13, Taylor Swift featuring Kendrick Lamar - Bad Blood No. 14, Lady Gaga - Born This Way, Justin Timberlake featuring Jay-Z - Suit & Tie No,16, Madonna - Frozen, Britney Spears - Hold It Against Me No. I. The panel is regularly updated, with stations being added or removed sometimes even weekly, as of 2011, Britney Spears holds the record for the longest span between No. 1s at 12 years, seven months and four days between her first No.1 and her latest, katy Perrys Teenage Dream is the first and only album to have 6 singles top the chart. JoJo at age 13, became the youngest solo artist to have a single on the chart with Leave. Three acts have replaced themselves at No,1, Mariah Carey, OutKast and Iggy Azalea - with Azalea being the only one to do so with her first two chart entries. com BDS Top 40/CHR chart
8.
Record producer
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A record producer or music producer oversees and manages the sound recording and production of a band or performers music, which may range from recording one song to recording a lengthy concept album. A producer has many roles during the recording process, the roles of a producer vary. The producer may perform these roles himself, or help select the engineer, the producer may also pay session musicians and engineers and ensure that the entire project is completed within the record companies budget. A record producer or music producer has a broad role in overseeing and managing the recording. Producers also often take on an entrepreneurial role, with responsibility for the budget, schedules, contracts. In the 2010s, the industry has two kinds of producers with different roles, executive producer and music producer. Executive producers oversee project finances while music producers oversee the process of recording songs or albums. In most cases the producer is also a competent arranger, composer. The producer will also liaise with the engineer who concentrates on the technical aspects of recording. Noted producer Phil Ek described his role as the person who creatively guides or directs the process of making a record, indeed, in Bollywood music, the designation actually is music director. The music producers job is to create, shape, and mold a piece of music, at the beginning of record industry, producer role was technically limited to record, in one shot, artists performing live. The role of producers changed progressively over the 1950s and 1960s due to technological developments, the development of multitrack recording caused a major change in the recording process. Before multitracking, all the elements of a song had to be performed simultaneously, all of these singers and musicians had to be assembled in a large studio and the performance had to be recorded. As well, for a song that used 20 instruments, it was no longer necessary to get all the players in the studio at the same time. Examples include the rock sound effects of the 1960s, e. g. playing back the sound of recorded instruments backwards or clanging the tape to produce unique sound effects. These new instruments were electric or electronic, and thus they used instrument amplifiers, new technologies like multitracking changed the goal of recording, A producer could blend together multiple takes and edit together different sections to create the desired sound. For example, in jazz fusion Bandleader-composer Miles Davis album Bitches Brew, producers like Phil Spector and George Martin were soon creating recordings that were, in practical terms, almost impossible to realise in live performance. Producers became creative figures in the studio, other examples of such engineers includes Joe Meek, Teo Macero, Brian Wilson, and Biddu
9.
Single (music)
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In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record, an album or an EP record. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats, in most cases, a single is a song that is released separately from an album, although it usually also appears on an album. Typically, these are the songs from albums that are released separately for promotional uses such as digital download or commercial radio airplay and are expected to be the most popular, in other cases a recording released as a single may not appear on an album. As digital downloading and audio streaming have become prevalent, it is often possible for every track on an album to also be available separately. Nevertheless, the concept of a single for an album has been retained as an identification of a heavily promoted or more popular song within an album collection. Despite being referred to as a single, singles can include up to as many as three tracks on them. The biggest digital music distributor, iTunes, accepts as many as three tracks less than ten minutes each as a single, as well as popular music player Spotify also following in this trend. Any more than three tracks on a release or longer than thirty minutes in total running time is either an Extended Play or if over six tracks long. The basic specifications of the single were made in the late 19th century. Gramophone discs were manufactured with a range of speeds and in several sizes. By about 1910, however, the 10-inch,78 rpm shellac disc had become the most commonly used format, the inherent technical limitations of the gramophone disc defined the standard format for commercial recordings in the early 20th century.26 rpm. With these factors applied to the 10-inch format, songwriters and performers increasingly tailored their output to fit the new medium, the breakthrough came with Bob Dylans Like a Rolling Stone. Singles have been issued in various formats, including 7-inch, 10-inch, other, less common, formats include singles on digital compact cassette, DVD, and LD, as well as many non-standard sizes of vinyl disc. Some artist release singles on records, a more common in musical subcultures. The most common form of the single is the 45 or 7-inch. The names are derived from its speed,45 rpm. The 7-inch 45 rpm record was released 31 March 1949 by RCA Victor as a smaller, more durable, the first 45 rpm records were monaural, with recordings on both sides of the disc. As stereo recordings became popular in the 1960s, almost all 45 rpm records were produced in stereo by the early 1970s
10.
Jerry Duplessis
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Jerry Wonda Duplessis is a Haitian Grammy Award-winning musical composer and record producer. His first major success was as producer for The Fugees 1996 album The Score and he also played the bass guitar with The Fugees, and band member Wyclef Jean is his cousin. Jerry Wonda Duplessis was born and raised in a suburb of Port-au-Prince, at 14, he began playing the bass. Early influences at this time included Aston Barrett, and James Jamerson, at 16, he was sent to the US and was raised by his father and his aunt who was also Wyclefs mother. The basement of their family home soon became their home studio, from church to some time at the Institute of Audio Research, and gigs wherever he could play, their home studio Booga Basement was opened serving artists near New Jersey. Wyclef, Samuel Pras Michel, and Lauryn Hill would then unite to create a new Caribbean style group ultimately known as The Fugees, Wonda and Wyclef would align to provide production for the group which would be signed by Ruffhouse/Columbia. Label mates at the time would include Cypress Hill and Kris Kross, Jerry Wonda and Wyclef Jeans producing would take off with The Fugees. Their cover of the Roberta Flack classic, Killing Me Softly sung by lead vocalist Lauryn Hill reached No.2 on the Pop charts, co-produced by Wonda, their album The Score would become one of the best-selling hip hop albums of all time gaining worldwide recognition. Wonda would divide his time touring as a bassist and musical director with The Fugees and he attributes his musical success to tailoring each of his productions specifically tailored to a particular artist. “When we are on every song is different, every show is different. “I find out what each artist before delivering the song. ”Several productions ranging from hip hop, pop, r&b, rock, soul. Wonda and Wyclef would make history in 2000, santanas Supernatural single Maria Maria, which Wonda co-produced, held the No.1 chart position for 10 weeks. In 2006, the duo produced Shakiras worldwide hit Hips Dont Lie from album Oral Fixation Vol.2. It became the top selling song of the 21st century and reached No.1 in more than 50 countries, leading Shakira to be the 1st female Colombian singer to top Billboards Hot 100 chart. In 1996, Wonda would co-produce The Fugees All-Star Ali tribute Rumble In The Jungle featuring A Tribe Called Quest, the Warren Beatty film Bulworth includes Wondas Ghetto Superstar performed by Pras Michel, Ol Dirty Bastard and Mýa and How Come by Senegalese singer Youssou NDour & Canibus. Alongside Wyclef and Andrea Guerra, Wonda wrote and produced the theme song Million Voices for the movie Hotel Rwanda, the same song was later nominated for a Grammy Award in 2006. Other film credits include The Manchurian Candidate, Dave Chappelles Block Party, in 2001, Wonda built Platinum Sound Recording Studios in Times Square, NYC. Wonda and Wyclef co-founded non-profit Yéle Haiti providing assistance to Haiti in education, health, environment, “We created Yele Haiti because we are from Haiti, ” said Wonda
11.
A Song for You
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A Song for You is a song written and originally recorded by rock singer and pianist Leon Russell for his first solo album Leon Russell, which was released in 1970 on Shelter Records. A slow, pained plea for forgiveness and understanding from an estranged lover and it has been performed and recorded by an array of artists, spanning many musical genres. Elton John has called the song an American classic, one of the first versions of the song that brought it broader attention was by Andy Williams, whose single peaked at #29 on the adult contemporary chart and #82 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1971. Ray Charles recorded a version that earned him the 1993 Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, peggy Lee on her 1972 album Norma Deloris Egstrom from Jamestown, North Dakota. Elkie Brooks on her 2012 album Powerless, michael Bublé, covered the song on his 2005 album Its Time. Carpenters, not released as a single, it served as the song for the duos 1972 album A Song for You. Ray Charles, He recorded a poignant version of the song on his 1993 album My World, released as a single, it reached #4 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles, and won him a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. Charles also performed the song at New Yorks Beacon Theatre on April 9,2003, Leon Russell sang the first verse, Willie Nelson sang the second verse, and Charles sang the remainder of the song in this unforgettable performance. Nelson, who stood nearby during Charles performance, was moved to tears, Donny Hathaway covered the song on his 1971 album Donny Hathaway. Cher on her 1972 album Foxy Lady, the duo performed a live rendition at the ceremony that year. Whitney Houston, on her 2009 album I Look to You, jaye P. Morgan, the 1950s chanteuse had her final Billboard chart song in 1971 with this tune. Willie Nelson, on his 1973 album Shotgun Willie and he also performed it in the 1980 movie Honeysuckle Rose, and it appears on the movies soundtrack. Simply Red, on the 2005 album Simplified and released as part of a double A-side single in January 2006, donna Summer, often sang this as the encore during tours from 1977 to 1979, and again in 1983. Temptations, also not released as a single, it served as the song for the groups 1974 album A Song for You. Zakk Wylde, Performed a rendition at the November 19,2009, elliott Yamin, performed the song in both his audition for American Idol and in one of his final performances. It was also named number three in Entertainment Weeklys 10 all-time best American Idol performances, the song is also on Yamins debut album. Amy Winehouse, on her posthumous compilation album Lioness, Hidden Treasures released on 2 December 2011, aretha Franklin, on her 1974 album Let Me In Your Life. Natalie Cole, on her 1999 album Snowfall on the Sahara and this version performed by Herbie Hancock features singer Christina Aguilera
12.
City High (album)
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City High is the debut and only album by R&B trio City High. It was released on May 22,2001, the group began as Pardlo signing on as a solo artist. However, soon Pardlos high school friend Toby, and the producers decided that it should be a group featured in the album. Soon after the group began to work on the album. In order to out, the producers decided to add a female member. They chose Ortiz, a schoolmate from Pardlo and Tobys high school, during production, all three members did writing on the songs. The trio focused on trying to make lyrics that told a story, a large amount of the songs are based on real-life experiences the trio has experienced, such as What Would You Do. What Would You Do. was featured on the soundtrack to the 1999 film Life, however, it was not formally released until 2001. This helped with the sale of the album once it was released, the group disbanded in 2003, failing to release another album, despite their debuts success. The album received favorable reviews. Allmusics Jon Azpiri noted it stands as an impressive debut and that alone makes this classy album stand out from the crowd. Q magazine said that few have managed to capture the original Fugee spirit like City High, City Highs debut album did excellently on the charts debuting at #34 on the Billboard 200 and was certified Gold by the RIAA months later. The first single What Would You Do. reached number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100, the single was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance By A Duo or Group. Was the leading single off the album and it peaked at number eight on the U. S. Billboard Hot 100, Number One on Hot Rap Singles, Number 13 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks and number three on the UK Singles Chart. It still remains the most successful single by the group to date, caramel was the second single by the group. Although not as successful as their first, it managed to peak at nine on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks. City High Anthem was intended to be the single by the group, however it was unsuccessful
