Taylor was born in the Bronx, New York, his father a sound system DJ. He has also hosted All Muscle with Funkmaster Flex and Funkmaster Flex Car Wars on ESPN, as well as Fast Machines with Funkmaster Flex. He is returning to MTV in 2010 with Full Throttle.

He is also host of the Funkmaster Flex Custom Car and Bike Shoe Tour.

Controversy

2Pac

Discography

Singles

Production

1997

Yvette Michele - My Dream

1998

Video game appearances

References

External links

Category:American DJs Category:Hip hop DJs Category:Mixtape DJs Category:New York City nightlife Category:People from the Bronx Category:Def Jam Recordings artists Category:Loud Records artists Category:E1 Music artists Category:1968 births Category:Living people

Amerie Mi Marie Rogers (born January 12, 1981 in Fitchburg, Massachusetts), known professionally as Amerie (also stylized as Ameriie), is a two time Grammy-nominated American singer, songwriter, producer and actress. She debuted in 2002 with the album All I Have, primarily co-written and produced by Rich Harrison, releasing her debut hit single "Why Don't We Fall In Love" and "Talkin' to Me". In 2005, Amerie released her sophomore effort featuring the hit "1 Thing", the lead single from her second album, Touch, which introduced elements of D.C.'s go-go, and became her biggest hit to date. The last single released from Touch was the self-titled "Touch", which became an international hit in other countries. Her junior effort Because I Love It would become an international only release in 2007. Amerie released her fourth studio album titled In Love & War on November 3, 2009. The singles released were "Why R U", "Heard 'Em All" "Pretty Brown" featuring Trey Songz, and "More than Love" featuring Fabolous. She has sold over 6 million albums worldwide.

Early life

Amerie describes her parents as conservative, protective, traditional Christians. Growing up, she and her sister were forbidden to leave the house or use the phone on school days. Amerie enrolled at Georgetown University to study literature, and was in Navy ROTC: “I was in the Navy ROTC. My dad didn’t force me into it or anything. I joined so I could afford an education.” She quit ROTC after her sophomore year, and graduated with a BA degree in English and Fine Arts minor in design.

Amerie's first language is Korean; however, after the family left Korea, Amerie's mother made a conscious effort to limit the use of Korean with her daughters out of fear that it would impede their development of English proficiency. In an interview with KoreAm Journal, Amerie stated that she is now only "conversational" in the Korean language and speaks it at home with her mother, Angela, and extended Korean family members.

Music career

2002–05: All I Have and Touch

In late 2005, Amerie released Touch's second single, "Touch", and was featured alongside Fat Joe on "I Don't Care", the lead single of Ricky Martin's album Life. Though the latter one entered the top twenty in several European countries and Australia, Touch's title track failed to reprise the success of "1 Thing"—it did not enter the Billboard Hot 100 (it peaked at number ninety-five on the Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart), and reached number nineteen on the UK Singles Chart. "Talkin' About", the third single, was released only for promo.

Amerie's third album, Because I Love It, was her first album not to feature writing and production from her long-time collaborator, friend, and producer Rich Harrison. Other producers—such as Bryan-Michael Cox, The Buchanans, Len Nicholson; were enlisted to work with Amerie. "Take Control", which was co-produced by Mike Caren, Amerie and Nicholson and co-written by Amerie and Cee-Lo Green, was the first single from the album and was released in the U.S. in late 2006. It failed to chart on the Hot 100, reaching the lower half of the Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Songs Chart. Though, the single gave Amerie her second Top 10 hit in the UK.

Because I Love It was released in Europe in May 2007 and was scheduled to be released in the U.S. in 2007 (the release of the album made the Blender magazine list of "25 Reasons to Love '07", ranking nineteenth), but its release date was pushed back numerous times due to the ever changing climate at Sony music with Rick Rubin coming in. Amerie and her management team held Sony from releasing her LP domestically; it is available only as an import and through a limited release of the album in U.S. Wal-Mart stores. Allmusic described the album as "enthuastic", "unwavering", and being able to "lasso each song, whether it requires salt, sugar, heartache, delight, or any combination thereof".

In early 2007, it was reported that Korean pop sensation Se7en would collaborate with Amerie on the album. She has stated several times in interviews that she has been very eager to work with Korean pop/R&B; singers, being a fan of K-pop herself. It was later reported that the re-worked version of "Take Control" would be featured on the Asian editions of the album Because I Love It. A limited amount of promotional albums that were released in Japan and Korea in late April include the remix featuring Se7en. There was also talk of Amerie releasing a remix of "Crush" as the album's third single. But an official release never came through.

In late 2007, Amerie accepted an offer to appear in advertisement celebrating the 10th anniversary of the world's second largest cable provider, AXN as they had previously bought the rights to her single Gotta Work for an estimated £800,000 for usage in their ad campaign. She was paid an additional £500,000 for actually appearing in the commercial which was broadcast to just under a billion viewers across Asia (Brunei, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Taiwan, South Korea and Vietnam).

2008–09: In Love & War

The album featured production from The Buchanans, Warryn Campbell, Bryan-Michael Cox, Sean Garrett, Eric Hudson, Jim Jonsin, Jonas Jeberg, Karma, Rico Love, M-Phazes, Teddy Riley, and TrackNova. Rich Harrison did not make any contributions because he has been busy with his new group Richgirl, although Amerie hoped to work with him on her fifth album. Ameriie announced that her first single off the album was "Why R U", produced by Ameriie & The Buchanans. The song appeared online the week of May 4, 2009 and received rave reviews. The dual second singles are "Heard 'Em All"

Amerie landed her first acting role as Mia Thompson in the 2004 Forest Whitaker directed romantic comedy First Daughter alongside Katie Holmes, Michael Keaton, Lela Rochon, and Marc Blucas.

Filmography