Musiq

Musiq Soulchild (born Talib Johnson on September 16 1977 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an African American neo soul and R&B artist, one of the most popular artists on the Def Soul label. Since 2001, he has gone by simply

Musiq Soulchild (born Talib Johnson on September 16 1977 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an African American neo soul and R&B artist, one of the most popular artists on the Def Soul label. Since 2001, he has gone by simply Musiq, dropping the "Soulchild" from his moniker. Besides being a successful recording artist, Musiq is notable for his disregard for normal rules of capitalization, punctuation, and spelling, as can be seen by the titles of his singles and his albums.

Musiq was born in Philadelphia and grew up with his family--including eight brothers and sisters--in Putnam County, Georgia. He moved back to Philadelphia as a teenager, and began plans for a career in music. He released his debut album, 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 by 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 moderate airplay on urban and urban contemporary radio stations.