american singer songwriter dancer and actor genuine gave us chart-topping hits sexy dance
moves and some very chiseled abs to admire while he was logging hours in the studio and tearing up
the stage the things he was forced to deal with in his personal life brought a lot of drama tragedy
and sadness his way there was even a time where everything became so overwhelming that he thought
the only way to cope with it all was to take his own life elgin baylor lumpkin better known
by his stage name genuine was born in washington dc he's named after nba legend elgin baylor who is
also a dc native as a self-proclaimed independent person he left his parents home at the age of 16
and began running the streets he would end up getting his feet wet in the music business
as a member of a go-go group in his hometown before moving on to becoming a member of the swing
mob collective the swing mob collective sometimes referred to as the basement crew was a rochester
new york-based music compound founded by devonte swing one fourth of popular 90s r b group jodeci
he sought out talented artists and producers from across the country and brought them all
together to cultivate their talents in a boot camp-like environment the move would prove to be
life-changing when he met rapper melissa missy elliott singer-songwriter steven static major
garrett and producer timothy timbaland mosley they would all go on to play major roles in
genuine's career after swing mob folded they all continued working together on different projects
one of which was genuine's 1996 debut album genuine the bachelor his first single pony written
by genuine static and timbaland exploded in the summer of 96 and made genuine a household name
years later genuine would reveal that he actually begged him for the beat after he heard it for the
first time two years prior to the release of the track tim had plans to use it as an interlude on a
jodeci album genuine was blown away by how amazing it sounded and asked to have it pony peaked at
number six on the billboard hot 100 and has gone on to be used in various pop culture arenas it was
used in the video game grand theft auto 4 in 2008 and in 2012 it was featured in a striptease dance
performed by actor channing tatum in the comedy drama film magic mike his second album 100 genuine
dropped three years later and featured the hit singles same old g so anxious and none
of your friends business after the release his friendship and business partnership with timbaland
fell apart he also had a falling out with r b singer aaliyah and still harbors regrets
to this day over not patching things up before her untimely death on august 25 2001. genuine
would experience some major highs and major lows in his personal life around this time
both of his parents passed away within one year of each other his father took his own life and
his mother succumbed to her battle with cancer drinking hennessy and popping ecstasy pills daily
became his go-to coping mechanism genuine struggled with grief and depression so severely he
too thought of ending it all and even made several failed attempts he received counseling from his
pastor and went on to commit his life to the lord several years later he still continues to struggle
with depression but is able to manage it with medication and maintaining a strong connection to
his faith he recorded the song two reasons i cry about the death of his parents on his next album
called the life released in 2001. to this day he has never listened to the song in its entirety
because it makes him too emotional on a high note his girlfriend at the time rapper soleil gave
birth to their first child together a daughter it was actually the birth of his daughter that
motivated genuine to begin his journey of healing he would pour all his heart and soul into his
third and most personal album today this time around genuine proved all the naysayers wrong
who believe that he needed timbaland to make a hit record with the top five hit track differences
about the positive impact his girlfriend and their daughter made in his life genuine's fifth album
back to the basics was released in november 2005. at the time he was at odds with his label and as
a result the album didn't get much promotion or put up very good numbers two years later
something strange happened an album with genuine's name on it was released but it wasn't his album
it was an unauthorized project that included only three of his songs
apparently from stolen masters plus songs by other artists he spoke against the unofficial
release on his myspace page and through youtube genuine's sixth studio album titled a man's
thoughts was released in june 2009 a highlight of the project was his reunion with timbaland
who he hadn't worked with in 10 years shortly after the release however
genuine would feel compelled to finally speak out about his true feelings towards tim after
he stood ginny wine up at a music video shoot he claimed that tim received fifty
thousand dollars to appear in his video for the song get involved but he never showed up
genuine considers himself a professional so he never wanted to speak ill of him and even after
their falling out years ago he continued to give tim the benefit of the doubt every time he made
promises that he didn't keep more drama associated with the album came up over the filming of yet
another music video after genuine tapped actress lisa ray mccoy to appear in his
video for the song last chance sources claimed to have witnessed the two kissing over dinner
at a restaurant around the time of filming naturally his wife was not happy to hear this
and it caused major problems in their relationship later genuine spoke to sister to sister magazine
and stated that there was nothing going on between him and lisa ray he did admit that another issue
was that he wasn't honest with his wife in the first place about hiring her which he regrets
when pressed about why he chose not to reveal that information he only said it was a long story
in 2007 genuine formed a group with tank and tyrese named tgt their grammy-nominated debut
album three kings was finally released in 2013. during the promo tour for the album
the group gave a very memorable performance on the long island new york based television station
wlny's morning show the couch fans noticed right away genuine's incessant blinking
he would later attribute his behavior to the early morning hour and having consumed
a five-hour energy drink prior to the show by 2015 it was revealed that they had officially broken up
after tyrese made a sense-deleted post on social media saying that he and tank were moving on drama
between the men had already been brewing since their album came out two years prior they even
had to cut their tour short over genuine allegedly showing up incoherent to gigs and interviews so
it seemed the obvious decision was to hang it up in 2009 genuine along with his wife and a friend
started their own organization called spruce which stands for special people requiring unique
care equally it's a kansas city-based organization that grants the mentally and physically disabled
rental homes and social and career development workshops their goal is to bring more awareness
to this silent community in addition to his philanthropic work the music still kept coming
genuine's seven studio album elgin was released in 2011. acting has also been another art that
genuine has dabbled in on and off for years he's appeared in various stage plays as well as the
big screen he secured roles in the films joanna mann honey and chocolate city he also appeared on
the small screen on a few shows including the upn series half and half and militia in 2014 genuine
got tangled in a lawsuit with his ex-manager and executive producer of his debut album related to
back royalties his lawyer also admitted that he was close to filing for bankruptcy in a deposition
genuine described his former manager as someone who was hard to work with and contributed little
to his first album the federal court judge sided with genuine and stated the singer didn't owe him
anything genuine married rapper tanya johnston better known by her stage name soleil in 2003
they have two daughters together he also has five other children with four different women
he now has a total of nine children including two stepchildren sadly one of those children from
a previous relationship blasted her father on twitter in 2012 when she was a teenager
for being a deadbeat after nearly 15 years together genuine and soleil divorced in 2015
after a two-year separation the reason was multiple incidents of infidelity on genuine's part
that he admitted in january 2018 genuine entered the uk reality show celebrity big brother
he set the internet on fire when he refused a kiss from india willoughby a fellow housemate
and trans woman on live tv the situation occurred after she asked him whether or
not he would date a trans woman genuine answered no and for some unknown reason
india decided that was the perfect time to go in for a kiss some people felt that genuine's
actions made him come off as transphobic he may not have appreciated india's advances but he
didn't have a problem starting a relationship with another housemate model presenter dj and
former reality tv star ashley james also that year he starred in the bravo reality tv series
your husband is cheating on us over the last several years genuine's fans continued
to question him about whether or not tgt would ever get back together and record another album
he answered that question as well as what led to the breakup in a 2018 interview with new york's
power 105.1 radio morning show the breakfast club now let's go to music for a second let's do it
tgt what's so funny about that uh you saying it that's just funny nah we're not i mean i'm not
messing with that no more you know what i'm saying it's a wrap not gonna happen anymore he also
revealed that in the beginning tyrese received more money than him and tang genuine believes that
was due to tyrese believing that his successful track record with movies warranted the bigger cut
interestingly the idea for the group was genuine he was on a plane with tank and brought up the
idea of putting together a super group his first choice for the third member wasn't even tyrese
it was fellow r b singer abode unfortunately avant wasn't available since he was about to drop his
own album even though genuine wasn't happy about the financial split he eventually agreed to do
it but made it clear that things would need to be equal the next time around however when
it was time to negotiate terms for their next project tyrese once again wanted more money it
was at that time that genuine decided to walk away so far 2021 has been very good to genuine
in june in celebration of black music month he was honored with the urban icon award by black
music honors he also continues to perform and tour regularly even though he did announce back in 2014
that he'd released an album the following year and he'd also be reuniting with timberland for
the project no album ever manifested and it's now been 10 years since his last solo album
recently in a youtube live interview with actor and comedian michael collier he did
mention that he was going back into the studio and he hoped to have new material out in 2022
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