Musiq, born Taalib Johnson on September 16, 1977 in Philadelphia, PA. He grew up
in Putnam County Georgia but moved back to Philadelphia as a teenager. Musiq, stuck in own ways has always been his own boss.
A bright and talented kid, Musiq found himself fustrated with school and in the 9th grade decided to call it quits. While
his parents were not happy with this decision they told him if he wasn't going to go to school he atleast had to
get a job.He did just that but while he has held many jobs from Burger King to Boston Market as a meat marinater, he has always
defined his own destiny, leaving whenever he felt had had gotten what he wanted out of that particular job.
He released his debut album which was originally his demo,
Aijuswanaseing (read: "I Just Want to Sing"), in
2000, which was well-received by critics and audiences. Musiq did much of his own
songwriting, and most of the record was
produced and co-written by Ivan "Orthodox" Barias and Carvin "Ransum" Haggins, then of the A Touch of Jazz production company headed
by
Jazzy Jeff. The singles "Just Friends (Sunny)", "Love", and "Girl Next Door" received exposure in
America mainly on the more underground music video network,
MTV2, as well as on
BET. His singles also received a good amount of airplay on urban and
urban contemporary radio stations.
In 2002, he released his sophomore album, Juslisen (read: "Just Listen"), as simply Musiq( he dropped the "Soulchild" from his moniker because he said he had not
mastered is craft yet, and thus was not yet 'music's soulchild' ). He had continued urban and MTV2 success with its singles,
"halfcrazy" and "dontchange", the former of which was one of the most played music videos on MTV2 in the summer of 2002 and during the year overall. Both videos also got substantial play during the year on VH1 Soul. The singles had heavily amounts of airplay on both urban and urban contemporary radio sations in 2002. He also gained exposure during that year by opening concerts for Alicia Keys.
In late 2002, Musiq contributed guest vocals to "Break You Off", the first single from The Roots' Phrenology album. Once again, its video got heavy play on MTV2 and VH1 Soul, as well as on MTV Jams.
In 2003, Musiq the singles and videos "forthenight" and "whoknows" from his third LP, Soulstar. "forthenight" was
one of VH1 Soul's most played videos of 2004, and also had a very successful run on American urban radio stations.
