he never even wanted a record deal or to be a star he just wanted to sing along his path to
success though music soul child was battling some personal demons that if not handled correctly
could potentially ruin everything american singer-songwriter talib johnson professionally
known as music soul child or simply music was born in philadelphia pennsylvania when he was a very
young child music developed blindness in one eye from a freak accident he does have some peripheral
vision but the incident severely damaged the retina fans will know that music always wears
dark glasses and the reason wasn't known for years until he finally revealed what really happened
in 2011. when i was mad young my uncle was trying to feed me and i was mad rebellious i
wanted to feed myself and he was like no and he was trying to take the fork away from me
so he was feeding me and i wouldn't let go so his hands slipped and jerked back into my eye
his musical education growing up came from the artist that his father liked to listen to
such as donnie hathaway james brown parliament funkadelic and sly and the family stone in his
youth he built a reputation for being musically gifted which is where he got
the name music after people constantly referred to him as the music boy he would begin getting
attention for his talent around the age of 9 and by 16 he would start writing his own songs
music originally came up with the name soul child and wanted that to be his stage name however since
people were already becoming familiar with the name music he decided that instead of swapping
one name out for the other he would just combine the two he enjoyed blending elements of soul
music with elements of hip-hop music together to create his own sound he explained why in a 2017
interview with revolt.tv just growing up in the hip-hop generation and being raised on
soul music hip-hop soul is an accurate depiction of the type of music that i make i feel like if
you just call it r b you're robbing yourself of the full experience all you're going to look for
are all the r b songs yeah i make r b music but that's not all you're going to get from my music
i'm basically a rapper but i sing music's teenage years were not ideal he dropped out of high school
to pursue his passion left his parents home and ended up homeless for a time he would go around
philly and get in on every open mic night he could while making his rounds music would run into many
other r b and soul artists on the come up as well such as bilal kindred the family soul and
jill scott he eventually made his way over to dj jazzy jeff's recording studio and started laying
down some tracks some of which would end up on his first album even though that wasn't the plan music
wasn't even interested in signing a record deal or putting out an album he just wanted to do his work
pay for his studio time and put out a mixtape on his own little did he know his writers and
producers were going around trying to secure a deal for him ultimately he chose to accept the
blessing that was put before him music signed with deaf soul records in late 1999 at the age of 22.
he released his debut album i just wanna sing in november 2000. that title would start a president
and music would become known for the unique spelling of his album titles he told rolling stone
magazine in 2002 it's almost like how kids spell things when they first learn their abcs it's just
how you hear it how it sounds the album's lead single just friend sunny was released the summer
prior and was also included on the soundtrack to the 2000 comedy film nutty professor two the clums
it became a top 40 hit on the billboard hot 100 and reached number six on the r b hip-hop chart
the album's second single love did even better climbing all the way to number two
on the r b hip-hop chart what many people don't know is that album most likely would have never
happened if music hadn't gotten his life together after a major bout with alcoholism things got so
bad that at one point he had a nervous breakdown and became hospitalized he made a promise to god
that if he got him out of the situation he would put an end to his destructive lifestyle music did
recover and he did keep his promise music success streak continued with his second album just listen
released in may 2002 it debuted at number one on the billboard albums chart and the r b hip-hop
album chart it also went platinum just like his debut he quickly followed up again with the
release of his third album soul star which went gold music then took a break for several years
changed management and record labels from deaf soul to atlantic that's not the whole story though
music ended up at atlantic in a trade of sorts between him and rapper fabulous after one of
deaf souls execs left and finessed away for music to come with him in march 2007 music released his
fourth album and first on his new label love and music two of the three singles released b-u-d-d-y
and teach me did very well on the charts his fifth album on my radio was released the following year
it would be music's first album to not go either platinum or gold that probably
could be attributed to what it delivered the lead single especially called radio
was a complete contrast to the usual sound his fans were accustomed to everywhere
in 2009 music became a father for the first time after the birth of his son with singer camila
williams a member of the r b group 702. early on around the age of 1 the child would be diagnosed
with autism and both music and mila would become advocates for awareness of the disorder
what would be his last album for atlantic music and the magic was released in may
2011. he would go the independent route after putting out this project
music became an author in 2012 when he released his book on love and relationships titled 143
love according to music he summed up his purpose for the book in an interview with okplayer.com my
main objective for this book is simply to give one man's perspective on and his observations of love
but it's not a self-help book it's not some dude who claims he knows all of this stuff about love
that's not what's happening at all anyone out there who reads this will be able to identify
with this simply because these are things that everybody goes through at one point or another
in september 2013 he teamed up with selena johnson and released a duet album titled nine that number
proved to be very significant to the project as the album is a compilation of nine reggae songs
recorded in nine days the purpose of the project was to act as a testament of their varied musical
interests and as a way for both artists to break the boundaries of creativity the following year
music decided it was time to expose a different side of himself in conjunction with this reveal
came a mixtape titled the hustle in july 2014 the hustle it turned out is one of music's alter egos
and the name he would start going by also with the name change mixtape and an ep a year later
he also began donning a black leather crown and covered half of his face with a scarf
fans were confused and annoyed and as a result music would start to receive a lot of backlash
he made the rounds to explain his decision including one brutal interview with new york
radio station power 105.1 morning show the breakfast club where he went back and forth
with charlemagne the god who flat out said that he wasn't interested and didn't respect the change
since people started referring to him as an auto-tuned rapper he maintained that he
didn't want to be seen as a rapper nor was he trying to be one he also admitted in an
interview with thisis50.com that a big part of the motivation for putting out the hustle album
was that he wasn't getting any love anymore as music soul child now what inspired you to do to
the hustle album um because music soul child wasn't getting that many shows as he used to
no more because i'm being popping like that i'm just keeping it real at one point music claimed
that he still considered the change a win even if people didn't understand or agree with it
however the new name and look wouldn't last and he would eventually go back to being music
but not before launching yet another persona the following year named purple wonderlove
again along with the new name came new music in the form of an ep titled the eternal peace
ep also around this time music hustle purple also created his own record label called soul star
music company in april 2016 he released his first independent solo album life on earth the lead
single i do was his best showing in many years peaking at number 11 on the r b hip-hop chart in
2017 music released the single simple things and start over in anticipation for a new album and his
last to date titled feel the real which dropped in september the double disc 24 track album would be
nominated for best r b album at the 2018 grammy awards music also welcomed his second child a
daughter later that year with ex-girlfriend ashley wright the circumstances surrounding the event are
not ones that music has been interested in talking about publicly and when asked he noticeably dodges
the question the only indication of what went wrong can be found on ashley's instagram in a
lengthy heartfelt post in may prior to that she gushed about her love for music and their growing
family which also included ashley's other daughter from a previous relationship in 2018 music became
part of an ensemble when he put together the hip-hop soul group lumi tries the trio
had already collaborated for years so officially forming a group was a no-brainer in february 2020
music released another mixtape titled do it for dilla it's what looks to be the first installment
of a series called the soul brother series the project is inspired by the late legendary producer
j dilla it's a five-track collection of timeless r b songs by the likes of stevie wonder marvin gaye
and michael jackson just to name a few set overproduction inspired by dilla's music 2021
has been a very productive year for music and he shows no signs of slowing down especially since he
had to postpone many plans from the year before he made a surprise appearance in june to participate
in dj cassidy's past the mic the bet after party event he sang his debut hit just friend sunny
alongside numerous other r b and hip-hop icons in november music took to the stage at the 2021
bet soul train music awards in the soul cipher he along with various other artists rock the crowd as
they pay tribute to the 20th anniversary of aaliyah's self-titled third and final album
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