toronto grown glenn lewis found early success in his hometown and eventually south of the border
as well his debut album made everyone sit up and take notice of this brand new artist who had been
showered with praise from a variety of artists including jill scott music soul child and india re
however it would be more than a decade before his follow-up album released leaving his fans
wondering if they would ever hear from him again let's find out whatever happened to canadian
neo-soul singer-songwriter glenn lewis glennon ricketts jr professionally known as glenn lewis
was born march 13th 1975 the only child to a trinidadian mother and jamaican father he began
to focus on music as his future career in his teens hailed as a young stevie wonder he wrote
his first song at the age of 14 of course for a girl he had a crush on after high school he began
recording demos and performing at nightclubs eventually building a reputation in toronto
it was in his blood since both of his parents were singers his father who glenn is named
after was the lead singer of canadian band crack of dawn that formed in the mid 70s
they have the distinction of being the first black canadian band to sign with a major record label
glenn's parents were always supportive of his pursuit of a career in music
his mother more so since glenn had a very sporadic relationship with his quote rolling stone father
he spoke candidly to thebeshine.com in 2013 about watching what the failure of his father's
career did to him and how it influenced his approach to his own career saying
i saw the disappointment to what he thought the path for his career should have been and how
it affected him he really got down he just sort of shut himself off and kind of shut people out
he had been working so hard and he felt like people were taking advantage of him
i just kind of realized that you really gotta hone in on the business and learn about the business
even with this knowledge in his back pocket glenn would still not be able to escape having similar
experiences as his father in his own career he released a couple of singles back to back in 97
and 98 in canada both of which earned him a juno award nomination his next release would secure him
a lot more than an award it would also get him the attention of american record label
epic records and shortly after that his first record deal world outside my window glenn's
debut album dropped on march 19 2002 the album was reported in toronto and philadelphia a place glenn
has adopted as his second home with producers andre harris and vidal davis the first single
don't you forget it released the year before peaked at number 10 on the billboard hot r b
hip hop songs chart and finally won him his first juno for best r b soul recording
the second single it's not fair was released one month later but it barely cracked the charts
2002 was also the year that he made his acting debut in the film made in manhattan starring
jennifer lopez and ralph fines the song fall again that he performed in the movie
also appeared on the soundtrack just one year later glenn was back for more when he released
a single of the same name in september 2003 back for more also featured canadian rapper
cardinal official it was originally the first single from his unreleased album
also of the same name then glenn took a very long involuntary hiatus
the music business became more about business than music and he was caught in the middle the
back for more album ended up being one of three or four that he recorded over the next decade
that would never see the light of day he never stopped creating although at times he wanted to
in a 2013 interview with online magazine blogcritics.com he spoke about what really
happened saying literally when i debuted was the beginning of the shift in the music game
napster was coming to the surface that started to undermine the business by the time the record
labels figured out what was happening it was too late it was already spiraling out of control
people were reactive as opposed to proactive a lot of the business people that were instrumental in
my first project and supportive of me as an artist had either been let go or had to leave by the time
it came around to do the second project it was a whole different regime when new people come in
they all have their vision of what they think is going to establish them and make them a success
often people don't want to pick up what somebody else was working on because their name is already
attached to it the artist ends up getting lost in the shuffle so sony and i amicably parted ways
it took a while for me to come back because the industry had gone through so many changes
everybody was so scared because they remembered me as this quote the neo-soul guy and neo-soul
wasn't happening anymore regardless of me being a respected artist who was completely
capable more than a decade after his debut his second album titled moment of truth was
finally released in october 2013. only one single was released from the album called can't say love
he did reveal later a major disappointment about the making of the album
due to the process being a very collaborative effort he felt he didn't get to fully
express the space he was in creatively and compromised in areas that he shouldn't have
by the time 2016 rolled around glenn was in a very different headspace regarding his career
he became emotionally exhausted and felt he needed to get back to basics
he initially contemplated the idea of getting into the management side of the industry
but that idea quickly fell by the wayside when he got a call from dj jazzy jeff
he convinced glenn to attend a retreat he had coming up in the past the retreat was exclusive
to only djs and producers but this year he was inviting artists and songwriters as well
glenn decided to go and it ended up turning into the best creative experience of his life based
off of the retreat success jeff was inspired to take it to another level and invite everyone to
do something unprecedented record a complete album in just seven days the following year that album
called chasing goosebumps with the playlist featuring glenn lewis was released the process of
putting that album together was also the catalyst in turning glenn's outlook on the music industry
around the now husband and father went through a dark period of not wanting to watch award shows
listen to music or even sing for a long while however as a result of all his experiences
over the years he now has a new acceptance and appreciation for the lessons learned
on february 12 2019 glenn posted a photo of himself in a recording studio on instagram
with the caption studio vibes i'm coming with something new soon as of the making of this video
no singles or album has been released but judging by the amount of comments on the post
he's got a lot of fans that can't wait to see what he comes out with next thanks for watching
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