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Faith Renée Evans (born June 10, 1973) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, actress, and author. Born in Florida and raised in New Jersey, Evans relocated to Los Angeles in 1993 for a career in the music business. After working as a backing vocalist for Al B. Sure and Christopher Williams, she became the first female artist to contract with Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs' Bad Boy Entertainment recording company in 1994, for which she collaborated with several label mates such as Mary J. Blige and Carl Thomas and released three platinum-certified studio albums between 1995 and 2001, including Faith (1995), Keep the Faith (1998) and Faithfully (2001).
In 2003, she ended her relationship with the company to sign with Capitol Records. Her first album released on the label, The First Lady (2005) became her highest-charting album at the time, reaching the top of the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts, while the holiday album A Faithful Christmas, released the same year, would become her last release before the company was bought in 2007. Following a longer hiatus, Evans released her fifth album Something About Faith on the independent label Prolific/E1 Music in 2010.
Faith Evans is a former Hawaii state legislator and the first woman to serve as a United States Marshal. Evans, of Hawaiian and Puerto Rican descent, was appointed U.S. Marshal for the District of Hawaii by President Ronald Reagan on August 12, 1982. In 2000, she headed the Puerto Rican Centennial Commission of Hawaii.
Faith is the debut album by American R&B singer Faith Evans, released by Bad Boy Records on August 29, 1995 in the United States. Featuring main production by The Hitmen members Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs and Chucky Thompson, as well as Mark Ledford, Herb Middleton, and Jean-Claude Olivier, among others.
The album, which spawned the gold-certified hits "You Used to Love Me" and "Soon as I Get Home", was certified Platinum by the RIAA in March 1996. Faith contains a cover of the Rose Royce's single "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" featuring Mary J. Blige.
Newly contracted to Bad Boy Records, Evans was consulted by executive producer Combs to contribute backing vocals and writing skills to Mary J. Blige's My Life (1994) and Usher's self-titled debut album (1994) prior to starting work on her debut record album Faith. Producer Chucky Thompson- who helmed most of the album- recalls meeting Evans for the first time by her doing vocal production work on Usher's album. Though she initially was a protégé of Al B. Sure!'s, she eventually signed to Bad Boy and insisted on Thompson producing her entire album after hearing him playing music on the piano in the studio. Thompson said Evans' first single "You Used To Love Me" was originally planned for her labelmates Total, but Evans wrote to the track after hearing the music and it was the first song finished for her album. The second single "Soon As I Get Home" was done to pass the time at the studio because Thompson had a flight to catch later that day. As he was about to leave, he received a call from Combs insisting he record the music Evans heard him play before he got on the plane. Evans later left a message on Thompson's answering machine- which was the song she wrote and recorded. Thompson said the song was finished and he didn't add any other touches to it.