Dwele
Photo by Jalylah Burrell
Background information
Birth name	Andwele Gardner
Also known as	Dwele
Born	(1978-02-14) February 14, 1978 (age 34), Detroit, Michigan, United States
Genres	Soul, neo soul, contemporary R&B, jazz
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Years active	2000–present
Labels	Virgin Records (2003-2005) E1 Music, formerly Koch Records (2008-present)
Associated acts	Slum Village, Kanye West, Common, J Dilla
Website	dwele.com

Andwele Gardner (born February 14, 1978),^[1] better known by his stage name Dwele is a soul singer, songwriter and record producer from Detroit, Michigan.

Biography[link]

Gardner was raised on the west side of Detroit in a musical family. He played piano from the age of six, later taking up trumpet, bass and guitar.^[2][3][4] He was deeply affected by the fatal shooting of his father outside his home when he was age ten, later stating "I learned to put my emotions into music; it was my therapy."^[2][5] He cites Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway, Roy Ayers, Miles Davis, and Freddie Hubbard as favorite artists, and took inspiration from hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest, becoming an MC, and working with Slum Village.^[2] Gardner recorded a demo in his bedroom, called, The Rize, and sold it out of the trunk of his car.^[2] He had about 100 copies, which sold out within a week. He caught the ears of local heroes Slum Village and more specifically their world-renowned producer J Dilla.^[4]Slum Village invited Dwele to sing the hook of the song "Tainted" for their album Trinity (Past, Present and Future). It became an instant classic and led to more high profile work with female rapper Bahamadia, the all-star group Lucy Pearl and London's New Sector Movement.^[4] Dwele signed to Virgin Records in 2003, who released his debut album, Subject, which mixed neo soul and hip hop.^[2] In a 2005 review in The Independent, his style was summed up: "Dwele's rooted in vintage soul but isn't stuck in the past, overly reverential or an exercise in pastiche - there's a major hip-hop edge which betrays his original incarnation as a rapper."^[6] A second album, Some Kinda..., followed in 2005.^[2] He then later signed with RT Music Group and KOCH records in March, 2008^[7] He released his fourth album titled, W.ants W.orld W.omen on June 29, 2010. Dwele was featured on the first single off of Kanye West's fifth studio album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The song was entitled "Power" and was leaked on May 28, 2010.^[8]

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Singles[link]

Featured On[link]

-

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Dwele on Twitter
• Dwele - W.ants W.orld W.omen review at Cream

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (August 2011)

Raheem DeVaughn
DeVaughn performing in September 2010
Background information
Birth name	Raheem DeVaughn
Born	May 5, 1975 (age 37) Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Genres	R&B, Neo-soul
Years active	2002–present
Labels	Zomba, Jive

Raheem DeVaughn (born May 5, 1975) is an American singer and songwriter.^[1] His debut album, The Love Experience (2005), reached No. 46 on the Billboard 200 album chart. It featured the singles "Guess Who Loves You More" and "You". His second album Love Behind the Melody was released in January 2008. It features the singles "Woman", and "Customer".

DeVaughn was nominated for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance at the 2008 Grammy Awards for the single "Woman".

Early life[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (August 2010)

DeVaughn was born in Newark, New Jersey on May 5, 1975, the son of jazz cellist Abdul Wadud. He was raised in Maryland (Montgomery and Prince George's counties) by his mother, Imani Smith, a now retired federal worker. He is a cousin of singer Chrisette Michele. His mother states that her son first expressed an affinity towards music in preschool, recalling how whenever the class had musical events, he would conduct them. DeVaughn's love for music solidified during his early teens, when he began to envision his career path. One of his favorite artists was Babyface, and Smith recalls that her son once begged her to visit the Waxie Maxie's record store in the District to buy a promotional picture of the singer. DeVaughn visited his father during the summer, mainly in New Jersey. With his father, DeVaughn attended gigs and experienced his first taste of the life of a working musician.

He graduated from High Point High School in Beltsville, Maryland, an unincorporated section of Prince George's County. DeVaughn had an epiphany early in his college career at Coppin State University in Baltimore City, when he saw a group of street corner singers and began harmonizing with them. DeVaughn said his focus became music: "Before I knew what was going on, I was... cutting class to write lyrics and record". His focus turned to becoming a professional singer.

Career[link]

DeVaughn in October 2005

DeVaughn took up a job at Tower Records, where while putting price tags on CDs, he began working the D.C. music circuit—performing with various groups, the most prominent of which being Urbanave31, and at venues such as the State of the Union and Bar Nun on U Street NW, all while having CDs of his songs ready at hand. Locally in the DC Metro area he attained relatively quick success, winning local awards and successfully releasing some independent work over the next few years. He won $2,000 from the Washington DC nightclub Bar Nun talent show.^[2] CEO Cliff Jones and partner Jerry Vines, now the singer's longtime manager, met DeVaughn while managing the Baltimore-based quartet Dru Hill and asked him to write a song for the group. DeVaughn ultimately gained the attention of veteran producers DJ Jazzy Jeff (as Rahiem) and Kenny Burns (known as former A&R for Roc-A-Fella Records) and with the help of Jones and Vines they signed a recording contract with Jive Records in 2002.^{[citation needed]}

DeVaughn's first solo single released on a major label was the song entitled "Guess Who Loves You More", his second single was "You". DeVaughn's first Jive Records release "The Love Experience", was acclaimed, selling around 250,000 units.^{[citation needed]} While promoting the album, DeVaughn took to wearing a crown and cape at shows, a ploy to make himself stand out, calling himself the "Underground King." Around this time, DeVaughn also began making appearances at different shows in D.C. with artists such as W. Ellington Felton and Asheru of Unspoken Heard, hiding his face behind a hooded sweatshirt performing under the alias Chronkite. Felton comments that that alter ego was engendered for complicated reasons: "Chronkite represents that part of every artist who started what they're doing singing in front of a mirror as a child with a brush in their hand. At that time, it was based love, the initial attraction that draws you to music. In his business, unfortunately, your passion, your love, your individuality as an artist, can be stripped away the further you get into it."^{[citation needed]}

DeVaughn has been compared to Dwele, Van Hunt, D'Angelo, Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway and Stevie Wonder. DeVaughn has described himself as a "R&B hippie neo-soul rock star," a take on the difficulty media types have classifying him. Although Jive has been thrown considerable weight behind his recent album, DeVaughn doesn't leave promotion duties entirely to his label: "I'm my best marketing tool. I'm building the brand Raheem DeVaughn. I have to do it." He worked on the street to spread the word around, sold mixtapes of unreleased material to build hype, and provided impromptu shows at local venues. In another act of self-promotion, DeVaughn made an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in late January, wearing a shirt that read "Grammy Nominated on the front" and "Love Behind the Melody-- In Stores Now" on the back. He also appeared on the late-night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live, performing "Woman" on January 18, 2008. 1123

His song "Woman" was featured as iTune's single of the week the week of January 27, 2008 and received a nomination for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for the 2008 Grammy Awards.

In 2008, he was featured on T-Pain's song; Reality Show from the album Thr33 Ringz. The song also featured Jay Lyriq and Musiq Soulchild.

His song "You" was featured in the Grand Theft Auto IV video game.

DeVaughn was nominated for "Best R&B Album" in the 2011 Grammy Awards.^[3]

Filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

• BET Awards
  • 2008, Best Male R&B Artist (Nominated)
  • 2008, BETJ Award (Won)
  • 2010, Best Male R&B Artist (Nominated)

• BET J Virtual Awards
  • 2008, Album of the Year: Love Behind the Melody (Won)
  • 2008, Song of the Year: "Woman" (Nominated)
  • 2008, Live Performer of the Year (Nominated)
  • 2008, Male Artist of the Year (Won)

• Grammy Awards
  • 2008, Best Male R&B Vocal Performance "Woman" (Nominated)
  • 2009, Best R&B Song: "Customer" (Nominated)
  • 2011, Best R&B Album "The Love & War Masterpeace" (Nominated)

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Singles[link]

 "Guess Who Love's You More" is featured with samples from Earth, Wind & Fire's "Can't Hide Love".

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Website
• Raheem DeVaughn on Myspace
• Raheem DeVaughn at Allmusic
• Raheem DeVaughn interview by Pete Lewis, 'Blues & Soul' May 2010
• Raheem DeVaughn Interview 1/18/10
• Byrd, Shayla (August 16, 2006). "20 Things You Should Know About: Raheem Devaugh". Vibe. Retrieved on January 21, 2008.
• Mitchell, Gail (January 4, 2008). "Raheem Devaughn's 'Love' Revolution". Billboard. Retrieved on January 21, 2008.

Greater Than One is an English electronic music band, founded by husband and wife Michael Wells and Lee Newman in 1985. They released many albums under this name, and also under the names Tricky Disco, GTO, John + Julie, Church of Extacy, Signs of Chaos, T.D.5, Salami Brothers, Killout Squad, Technohead and L.E.D.. Only a few of their singles were commercially successful. Since Newman’s death on 4 August 1995 from cancer, Wells continues to release music under some of these names, and also as The Man and S.O.L.O.

1985: Greater Than One[link]

In 1985, Newman and Wells met at the Royal College of Art in London, formed Greater Than One, and released their first album Kill the Pedagogue on cassette. During the late 1980s they organised art installations and exhibitions accompanied by their own music: "When the whole audience were in, we started a soundtrack ... war sirens and searchlights. This was designed to disorientate the audience, throwing them into an unexpected nightmare. After the shock, Islamic chanting began which then changed to Song For England, during which we came onstage wearing illuminous skull masks...".^[1] They formed their own label Kunst=Kapital and released four further albums under this alias between 1987 and 1990.

1990: First hits[link]

Their first hit single was the trance record "Pure" as GTO on Chrysalis Records, a club hit around Europe, closely followed by "Tricky Disco" as Tricky Disco on Warp records, which peaked at number 14 in the UK Singles Chart in July 1990.^[2]

They used many aliases because, releasing so much material, they feared the press would not write about it all, if they knew it all came from the same band. As Newman said, “if you give them a Tricky Disco one week and then a John and Julie two weeks later and GTO a month later they’ll write about all of it”.^[3] Their aliases also allowed them to release different types of material on different record labels. The single "Double Happiness" as John and Julie appeared on XL Recordings; the 1993 Tip of the Iceberg album as GTO was released on REACT, and the 1995 album Headsex as Technohead appeared on Mokum Records.

1995: Technohead[link]

Headsex contained their biggest hit, I Wanna Be a Hippy. It was accompanied by a video featuring three youths with shaved heads, wearing "Party Animal" t-shirts and carrying inflatable hammers, chasing a hippy on a bicycle around a park in Amsterdam. It reached number 1 in 12 different countries including Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland,^[4] and number 6 in the UK in February 1996.

Two Technohead follow-up singles followed in 1996; "Happy Birthday" reached number 18 in April and the next single "Banana-na-na" peaked at number 64 in October.^[5]

Wells has recorded many singles and three more albums since, including two Tricky Disco singles in February 2007.

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

Greater Than One[link]

• Kill the Pedagogue (1985)
• All the Masters Licked Me (1987)
• Trust (recorded 1987 as the first attempt of All the Masters Licked Me)
• Dance of the Cowards (1988)
• London (1989)
• G-Force (1989)
• Duty + Trust (1991 - recorded 1987/1988)

GTO[link]

• Tip of the Iceberg (1993)

Church of Extacy[link]

• Technohead (1993)

Technohead[link]

• Headsex (1995)

Signs Ov Chaos[link]

• Frankenscience (1996)

The Man[link]

• Phunk Box (1997)

Signs of Chaos[link]

• Departure (1998)

S.O.L.O.[link]

• Out Is In (1999)

Singles[link]

Technohead[link]

References[link]