think back to the summer of 2003 if you're a party music lover wherever you were or whatever
you were doing worldwide you were definitely jamming to lumidee the then teenager's career
and life blew up overnight with her debut hit but just as quickly as the flame was lit
it extinguished like it never happened when her follow-up projects nowhere near matched
its predecessor let's find out whatever happened to american rapper singer songwriter lumidee
lumidee cedeno was born in east harlem new york also known as spanish harlem on october 13
1984. she was named after her father's sister luminado who had passed away he decided to go with
lumi and her mother added the d when her parents could no longer care for her and her siblings
they all went to live with their grandparents she began singing and rapping one year later at
the age of 12. her early musical influences were madonna salt and peppa and especially mary j blige
music would actually be lumi d's savior when she started developing some serious health issues
she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at the age of 14. as she spent more time
at home dealing with the disorder she discovered and honed her talent for writing
after graduating high school she collaborated with a local neighborhood producer
named dj ted smooth to record her debut single and biggest hit today never leave you oh oh
released in may 2003 it rose to number three on the billboard hot 100. it also reached the top
10 in over a dozen countries and number one in several european countries the dancehall
vibe track was co-written by rappers fabulous and busta rhymes who were also featured on the remax
it was originally released on dj ted smooth's independent record labels straight phase
but due to the success of the track many other labels started offering deals
to both lumidee and ted smooth eventually lumid eesigned with universal records where she released
her debut album titled almost famous one month later unfortunately while her star was rising her
relationship with dj ted smooth was plummeting in a 2014 interview with this is 50 radio
lumidee spoke about it saying we fell out almost immediately he was kind of like a big brother for
me even before the music thing he see me grow up in the neighborhood as soon as we got this big
sudden thing i feel like this was his shot too i felt like it was almost like a battle like he was
battling me and i'm just like help me i'm here i'm your artist it was a weird situation it got really
ugly a huge factor for never leave you gaining the popularity that it did was due to the use of the
already widely popular diwali riddim by then up and coming dancehall producer steven lenke marsden
it was one of the most internationally successful dancehall rhythms of all time
garnering hits for many other artists such as wayne wonder bounty killer and sean paul
however since never leave you was an r b song by an r b singer club djs and urban radio stations
immediately took notice of this unique factor and started playing it heavily and regularly
mixing it in with the other songs on the rhythm around the same time queensbred twins nina sky
burst onto the music scene with their own dancehall ridden lace track it only seemed natural
that two new york-based latinas doing similar music would come together to support one another
but that didn't happen lumidee says that the girls didn't want to be compared to her
and went out of their way to bash her publicly
in the years to follow she would reflect about how overwhelming all the success was for her
she confessed that it was too fast and she wasn't prepared for all the craziness
after the success of her debut single especially outside of the country lumidee went on tour
overseas and stayed out of the mainstream music industry in the u.s for the next several years
she continued her career in belgium germany france and the netherlands releasing multiple
mixed tapes during that time she also left universal which was no skin off her nose
since she claims the deal she had with them wasn't good anyway and signed with german label mach 1.
in 2006 lumid used the biggest sporting event in the world to release another international
hit song dance a track featuring a sample of whitney houston's i wanna dance with somebody was
released on the fifa world cup album soundtrack it became a club hit all over europe lumedy's
sophomore album unexpected was released in the spring of 2007 under tvt records just before
the release she spoke to everyurbanthing.com about the process of creating the album saying
this time around i got to do an album the first time around the world heard my demo
that's basically what it was i had a really big song which landed me the deal and they wanted an
album in two weeks i had to mix down my demo and that's what came out as my album this time you're
getting to hear my process through the years and the different emotions i've been going through
the first single she's like the wind a cover of the patrick swayze pens soft rock ballad from
the film dirty dancing dropped the same month in the us and europe as to be expected this
single plus the other two to follow from the album did much better overseas than in the us
the success in the us lumi d hoped to have again being signed to an american label didn't last long
tvt closed its doors in 2008. most artists would feel lost and frustrated but
lumidee did a smart thing back in 2003 when she first got in the music game she created her own
label logee music entertainment something that she could call her own and fall back on just in case
things fell apart so when they did she was more than happy to take advantage of her safety net
by 2010 she would become a mom the year prior continue working on her craft and
release a couple of mixtapes on her own label there was also word that she was working on a
full-length album which was set to be released sometime that year but ultimately didn't happen
over the next decade lumidee continued writing recording performing and releasing her music
through multiple mixtapes and digital singles in december 2019 she finally released her first
christmas song called sleigh ride while doing promotion for the single she mentioned that she
had a complete album ready to go minus the title and it would definitely be dropping in early 2020
it didn't as of the making of this video there hasn't been any official word as to what happened
but we can possibly speculate the worldwide pandemic may have had something to do with it
hopefully lumidee fans will be able to experience her official third album soon thanks for watching
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