Jacob Taio Cruz, known professionally as Taio Cruz, is a British singer-songwriter, record
producer, occasional rapper and entrepreneur. In 2008, he released his debut album Departure,
which he wrote, arranged and produced himself. It achieved initial success in the United
Kingdom and earned him a MOBO Award nomination. In October 2009, Cruz released his follow-up
album Rokstarr, which includes the number one singles "Break Your Heart" and "Dynamite".
Cruz has collaborated with Kesha and Fabolous on the single "Dirty Picture", as well as
Kylie Minogue and Travie McCoy on his single "Higher". Additionally, Cruz penned and recorded
the song "Telling the World" as the lead single from the soundtrack to the 2011 animated film
Rio. Cruz's third studio album, TY.O, was first released in Germany in December 2011.
In 2012, Cruz co-wrote the David Guetta song "Without You". Cruz will release his fourth
studio album #Black in 2014.
Biography Early life and career beginnings
Cruz was born in London, to a Nigerian father and a Brazilian mother from the state of Minas
Gerais. He attended Bilton Grange, a private prep school in Rugby, Warwickshire, and Christ's
Hospital, a boarding school in Horsham, West Sussex.
Cruz began writing songs when he was 12. His songwriting career began at age 19 as part
of Tricky Stewart's writing collective, RedZone Entertainment. Cruz achieved notability in
2005 when he was awarded a Brit Award for co-writing Will Young's 2004 single, "Your
Game". Cruz is the founder and chief executive of
Rokstarr Music London, which in 2006 released his debut single "I Just Wanna Know". The
single attracted significant attention from radio, and also from music industry insiders,
who were already well aware of the artist's potential; manager Jamie Binns, who began
representing Cruz at this time, later told HitQuarters: "He was a guy that everyone had
earmarked to do damage in the future". Although the single received a reasonable amount of
radio airplay, it did not perform as well as expected in either territory. However,
rather than lose faith in Cruz, the labels were eager to negotiate an album deal, as
by this time they had listened to his other songs and were ever more convinced by his
capability. Cruz's admirers included Island Records's
Darcus Beese and Monte Lipman, who, according to Binns, "both believed 'I Just Wanna Know'
fitted the format on both sides of the Atlantic". In 2006, Cruz signed a split single deal with
Universal Music Group companies, Republic Records and the UK branch of Island Records.
2007–08: Departure
In September 2007, Cruz released his second single "Moving On", which made the top 30
in the UK. In March 2008 his next single, "Come On Girl", featuring Luciana, peaked
at No. 5 on the UK charts. The related album Departure appeared on 17 March and peaked
at No. 17. This was followed by the single "I Can Be", which reached No. 18 in May.
On 18 August, "She's Like a Star" was released, which was a remix of the previous single and
featured American rapper Busta Rhymes and girl-group Sugababes. The remix later appeared
on the Sugababes studio album Catfights & Spotlights, which peaked at No. 20. It was later revealed
that Cruz narrowly missed out on the chance to record the song "Umbrella" which was eventually
recorded by Rihanna and ended up topping charts around the world.
2009–2011: Rokstarr, international breakthrough and The Rokstarr Collection
Cruz was featured on Tinchy Stryder's breakout single "Take Me Back" which peaked at No. 3
in the UK Singles Chart. According to Cruz's official Myspace blog, as of 1 January 2009,
Rokstarr Music London officially changed its name to Rokstarr Entertainment Division and
abbreviated to R.E.D Inc. During 2009, he worked on his follow-up album entitled Rokstarr.
It was released on 12 October through R.E.D Inc./Island Records and is written and produced
by Cruz, with co-writes and co-productions predominantly with UK producer Fraser T Smith.
The album's lead single "Break Your Heart" was released on 14 September and reached number
one in the UK, where it stayed for three weeks. At the 2010 Brit Awards, "Break Your Heart"
was nominated for Best British Single. The success of the song attracted the attention
of David Massey and Daniel Werner from Mercury/Island Def Jam who were excited and aggressive about
releasing "Break Your Heart" in the United States on their label. According to Cruz's
manager Jamie Binns, the relationship with Monte Lipman at Universal Republic had "gone
a bit quiet" by this point and as Taio wanted to be with the label that was most enthusiastic
about his music, a move from Universal Republic to Mercury/Island Def Jam was engineered.
The single reached the top spot in the United States for one week on the Billboard Hot 100.
In an interview with The Guardian, it was stated that "Cruz was clever to have hooked
up with a US rapper Ludacris on his breakthrough hit". In order to introduce Cruz into the
U.S. market, David Massey had suggested that the single feature an American rapper with
chart credibility. The album spawned two other UK singles, "No Other One", and the top-ten
hit "Dirty Picture" featuring American electropop singer Kesha. The album's fourth single titled
"Dynamite" debuted at 26 and peaked at number two on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. At the
2011 Brit Awards, "Dynamite" was nominated for Best British Single, and at the 2011 Billboard
Music Awards the song won three Billboard Awards, including Top Hot 100 Song.
Rokstarr was followed by the compilation album The Rokstarr Collection which includes songs
both from Departure and the international version of Rokstarr. Cruz later released four
versions of his single "Higher"—one featuring Kylie Minogue, one featuring Travie McCoy,
one featuring both, and one with just himself. Cruz has also been featured on the soundtrack
of American reality TV series Jersey Shore. 2011–12: TY.O
In March 2011, Cruz premiered an all-new song called "Telling the World", which was written
by Cruz and Alan Kasiyre for the Rio soundtrack. The track was not featured on any of Cruz's
prior studio albums. On 23 May 2011, Cruz received his first Billboard Award in the
United States. He announced onstage that his third album, entitled Black and Leather, would
be released in the fourth quarter of 2011. In June 2011, Cruz released a collaborative
single, "Little Bad Girl", with French DJ David Guetta and American rapper Ludacris.
The song was a worldwide smash, topping singles charts across the world. During July and August
2011, a series of unreleased songs, recorded during the album sessions, were leaked to
YouTube. in an interview, Cruz promised a "fun" and "energetic" album, and claimed that
due to the leak, none of the tracks posted on YouTube would be included on the album.
Cruz claimed, "It's a shame really, because one person has spoilt it for all the fans.
They could have had an album packed with 17, 18 tracks, and now, they're only getting eleven
because of one stupid act of tomfooolery." During the interview, Cruz also claimed that
the title of the album had been changed to Troublemaker, after one of the tracks included
on the album. On 4 October 2011, the single "Hangover" was officially released in Germany
and the US, and it was rumoured that a solo version of the song, that features on the
physical release, would be included as a bonus track on the album. However, these rumours
were later quashed. Around October 2011, the album was made available
for pre-order, and as such, the album's final title, TY.O, was revealed. Cruz, via his Twitter
account, made the decision to name the album TY.O after he expressed his annoyance at people
constantly pronouncing his name wrong. The album was first released in Germany on 2 December
2011. It will be released in the UK on 31 December 2012. It was going to release in
the United States on 17 May 2012, but it was released on 31 December 2012, coinciding with
the UK release, but with new tracks, including the U.S. single "Fast Car".
Cruz was scheduled to co-headline Pitbull's Australian leg of Planet Pit World Tour in
August 2012. On 12 August, Cruz performed at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Summer
Olympics in London. The performance at London's Olympic Stadium saw Cruz sing his own song
"Dynamite", and also perform "Written in the Stars" alongside Jessie J and Tinie Tempah.
2013–present: #Black and business ventures In early 2013 a song leaked online titled
"Touch the Sky" which featured electronic artist Deadmau5.
In August 2013, Taio Cruz announced on his Facebook and Twitter account that he would
be releasing a new app. It is called Kewe and is a social media app for iOS, where people
can interact and keep up with what Taio Cruz is doing. It launched on August 18, 2013.
Kewe plans to release an android version early 2014
On November 24, 2013, Taio Cruz announced his fourth studio album, #Black via his Instagram,
Facebook, and Twitter pages, and said that it would release in the first quarter of 2014,
with the first single to be released by the end of 2013. As of September 2014, #Black
is yet to be released and has no scheduled release date.
Writing and production Cruz has written songs on albums by Cheryl
Cole, JLS, The Saturdays, The Wanted and David Guetta. Cruz wrote and featured on Tinchy
Stryder's hit single "Take Me Back". Pop rock band McFly recorded "Shine a Light" which
not only features, but was also penned and produced by Cruz for their fifth studio album.
2011 will see him writing for Justin Bieber's next album. Jennifer Lopez's 2011 single "I'm
Into You", featuring Lil Wayne, is also penned by Cruz. He also contributed significantly
to David Guetta's fifth album Nothing but the Beat, penning two of his hit singles "Without
You", featuring Usher and "Little Bad Girl", featuring Cruz and Ludacris. He has also written
"Mechanics of the Heart" for Cheryl Cole's Hit album: A Million Lights.
Other ventures RXTR/Rokstarr brand
On 1 September 2009, Cruz launched the brand Rokstarr, a fashion and accessories brand
which has a focus on sunglasses. Speaking in October to R&B writer Pete Lewis, Cruz
stated, "There's a load of US celebrities that are all rocking the sunglasses already—Kid
Cudi, Justin Timberlake, Kanye West...Then in the UK we have The Saturdays, JLS, Daniel
Merriweather—who've all been twittering and writing on their blogs how much they love
them. So yeah, it's definitely my new album 'Rokstarr' and the fashion brand that are
my two main focuses at the moment." Meanwhile, speaking again to Lewis in April
2010, Cruz revealed: "We're currently looking to expand the brand and possibly go into things
like watches. I've also got a new subsidiary of Rokstarr called 'Rok By Rokstarr'. And
we've just started doing things like jeans and T-shirts, and stuff that more of the fans
of Taio Cruz can buy. Because with Rokstarr in itself being so expensive, a lot of the
kids out there who want to buy Rokstarr things can't. So we're bringing in stuff that's a
little bit more High Street and more affordable." In 2012 the brand was renamed to RXTR, a backronym
for Riots and Twelve Rebels. The new name came along with new products in the form of
watches which were immediately stocked at Selfridges flagship store on Oxford Street
in London. In the same year the first Menswear and Womenswear
collections were launched at http:RXTR.com. Philanthropy
Cruz Filmed a PSA with Little Kids Rock, a national nonprofit that works to restore and
revitalize music education in disadvantaged U.S. public schools. Through Cruz’s encouragement
for music education, the gift of music is possible in children’s lives.
Discography
Departure Rokstarr
TY.O #Black
Writer discography Awards and nominations
References
External links Taio Cruz at the Internet Movie Database
Taio Cruz on justRHYMES.com Lewis, Pete. Taio Cruz interview at BluesandSoul.com,
February 2008 Taio Cruz at Billboard.com