And I

"And I" is a song written by American R&B singer Ciara, and produced by Adonis Shropshire for Ciara's first album, Goodies (2004). It was released as the album's fourth and final single on August 30, 2005 (see 2005 in music) in North America.

The song was originally the third choice for the fourth single. Ciara has mentioned in an interview that "Thug Style", "Hotline" or "Pick up the Phone" would be the fourth single, but when Ciara suggested "And I" to executives at her previous record label LaFace, they were unhappy because they wanted "Next to You" to be the fourth single.

Chart performance

At the time of the U.S. release of "And I", Ciara's collaboration with Bow Wow, "Like You", and her collaboration with Missy Elliott, "Lose Control", were at the height of their popularity. "And I" peaked at 96 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and 27 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart, which were poor positions compared to those attained by the first three singles from the album Goodies. It was not released outside North America because of this, and it is Ciara's least successful single.

Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey (born March 27, 1969 or 1970) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. She rose to prominence after the release of the first single taken from her eponymous debut album in 1990, "Vision of Love". More than two decades later, Rolling Stone defined the song as an influence on "virtually every other female R&B singer since the nineties". Mariah Carey produced four chart-topping singles in the US and began what would become a string of commercially successful albums which solidified the singer as Columbia's highest selling act. Carey and Boyz II Men spent a record sixteen weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 with "One Sweet Day", which remains the longest-running number-one song in US chart history. Following a contemptuous divorce from Sony Music head Tommy Mottola, Carey adopted a new image and traversed towards R&B with the release of Butterfly (1997). In 1998, she was honored as the world's best-selling recording artist of the 1990s at the World Music Awards and subsequently named the best-selling female artist of the millennium in 2000.

Mobb Deep

Mobb Deep is an American hip hop duo from Queensbridge, Queens, New York, United States that consists of Havoc and Prodigy. The duo is "one of the most critically acclaimed hardcore East Coast Hip-Hop groups." The group is best known for its dark, hardcore delivery as exemplified by their hit track "Shook Ones (Part II)." Mobb Deep has become one of the most successful rap duos in hip hop, having sold over three million records.

Two of their albums have been critical successes, The Infamous (1995) and Hell on Earth (1996). The group briefly disbanded in 2012 but has since reunited.

Biography

Origins

Havoc and Prodigy met at the High School of Art and Design in New York City. Originally dubbing themselves the Poetical Prophets, the duo later changed its name to Mobb Deep to "reflect their reputation on the streets." Before the group's career beginnings, a fifteen-year-old Prodigy was featured on the classic movie soundtrack to Boyz n the Hood on Hi-Five's track "Too Young". In 1993, when Havoc and Prodigy were nineteen, they released their debut album, Juvenile Hell which was promoted by the single "Peer Pressure." The album sold poorly and eventually met with harsh reviews that dismissed the duo as just another hardcore group with little to distinguish it from the rest of the hip-hop world, despite production by DJ Premier and Large Professor. In 1993 Havoc made a guest appearance on the critically acclaimed Black Moon album Enta Da Stage on a song titled "U Da Man." In 1994 the duo released a single titled "Shook Ones Part 1".

Sean Combs

Sean John Combs (born November 4, 1969), also known by his stage names Puff Daddy, Puffy, Diddy, and P. Diddy, is an American rapper, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. Combs was born in Harlem and grew up in Mount Vernon, New York. He worked as a talent director at Uptown Records before founding Bad Boy Records in 1993. He released his debut album No Way Out in 1997, which has been certified seven times platinum and was followed by successful albums such as Forever (1999), The Saga Continues... (2001) and Press Play (2006). In 2009 Combs formed the musical group Diddy – Dirty Money and released the critically well-reviewed and commercially successful album Last Train to Paris (2010).

Combs has won two Grammy Awards and two MTV Video Music Awards, and is the producer of MTV's Making the Band. His non-music business ventures include the clothing lines Sean John and "Sean by Sean Combs" – for which he earned a Council of Fashion Designers of America award – a movie production company, and two restaurants. In 2015 Forbes estimated Combs' net worth at $735 million.