“Success can be a dangerous drug,” he says. “The public likes generic more than they like to admit,” he says, “so that’s what I gave them-I gave them sexual singles and they ate it up.” Nevertheless, the album has racked up awards as well as record sales, garnering a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary R&B Album and winning the 2010 BET Award for Best Male R&B Artist. Songz willingly admits that on Ready, he sacrificed originality for commercial success. 3 on the Billboard album charts and flooded radio airwaves with a whopping six hit singles: “I Need a Girl,” “Successful,” “LOL Smiley Face,” “I Invented Sex,” “Say Aah” and “Neighbors Know My Name.” Songz also retooled his musical style, ditching the soulful love ballads that marked his early albums in favor of hyper-sexualized, club-ready hip-hop tracks. He worked out intensively (developing the chiseled abs and muscular frame he flaunts, shirtless, on the album cover), chopped off his braids, and traded his baggy jeans and sneakers for tailored pants and button-down shirts. Then in 2009, hoping to achieve more crossover appeal and national recognition with his third album, Ready, Songz completely reinvented his image and sound. 11 on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Male Vocal Performance. The album featured Songz’s first hit single, “Can’t Help But Wait,” which reached No. In 2007, Songz released his second album, Trey Day, which peaked at No. “It’s funny, but the only man in my life who has actually done what he said he was gonna do is the one I raised.” “When he finally saw it, he ran up and down the stairs like a little kid, because we had never had a house,” his mother once recalled.
Always devoted to his family, Songz used his newfound wealth to fulfill a childhood promise to buy his mother a new home. The album was a moderate success, selling 395,000 copies and peaking at No. Two years later, he released his first album, I Gotta Make It. In 2003, Songz signed a record deal with Atlantic Records, receiving a $100,000 advance. When Songz graduated from high school, he moved in full-time with Taylor in New Jersey, hoping to make a career in music. To maintain his musical interests during the school year, Songz and some of his friends formed a vocal group called All Night Productions that performed at local parties and events.
The pair agreed that Songz should finish high school, so the singer spent his summers in New Jersey working on music with Taylor. She didn’t have to worry, though Songz’s performance-his first before a large audience-was a success, a precursor to his future success in the music business.Ī year later, at the age of 15, Songz met New Jersey-based music producer Troy Taylor. His mother showed her support by attending the event, bringing along a 20-person cheering section. His mother once recalled, “He’s familiar with the Temptations, Donny Hathaway, Otis Redding, Prince, Michael Jackson, because that’s what we were listening to growing up.” In his youth, Songz loved singing his favorite songs in the shower, but never imagined he could turn singing into a career.Īt his friends’ insistence, Songz signed up to sing at the Appomattox Regional Governor’s School Talent Show in Petersburg in 1998. I didn’t really get into singing until I came back.”Īlthough Songz’s family did not have extra money to spend on music lessons, the radio was constantly playing at home and in the car. “Those were the years I basically found Trey Songz. “When I came back, that’s when I really found out who I was,” the singer once recalled. The family returned to Petersburg when Songz was 14 years old, and he began his freshman year at Petersburg High School soon after. The young Songz spent the next seven years traveling around the country, as his stepfather was stationed to different military bases. When Songz was 7 years old, his mother, April Tucker, married a member of the U.S. Singer-songwriter Trey Songz was born Tremaine Aldon Neverson on November 28, 1984, in Petersburg, Virginia, a small town just south of Richmond.
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