Gerald Levert First Album

[Cinda People]

Leverts first solo album, Private Line, debuted in 1991 and topped the R&B charts. The following year, Gerald and his father, Eddie Levert, topped the R&B charts again with the single, Baby Hold On to Me. Levert recorded a string of albums throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, that contained the hit singles, "Thinkin' About It" (No. 12 Pop) which was released June 23, 1998, "Taking Everything" (No. 11 Pop),[3] "Funny", "Mr. Too Damn Good to You", "U Got That Love", and a remake of R. Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly", along with gospel singer Yolanda Adams. Levert also sang lead vocals in two songs on the 2002 film documentary "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" - the story of the Funk Brothers. Levert performed "Shotgun" and "Reach Out I'll Be There". Levert released his tenth album, Voices, in 2005.

Levert wrote and produced songs for other artists such as Patti LaBelle, Barry White, Stephanie Mills, Anita Baker, Eugene Wilde, Teddy Pendergrass, James Ingram, Freddie Jackson, Chuckii Booker, the Rude Boys, New Edition, Men at Large, The O'Jays, Keith Washington and 1 of the Girls. During the release of Groove On, Levert appeared in the group Black Men United for the hit single "U Will Know" for the Jason's Lyric soundtrack; other members of the group included Keith Sweat, Christopher Williams and Levert's former mentor Joe Little of the Rude Boys. In 1997, Levert teamed up again with fellow singers Keith Sweat and Johnny Gill, to form the supergroup, LSG.[4] The trio released the album Levert-Sweat-Gill the same year, selling over two million copies;[4] it was followed by LSG2 in 2003.

In 1999, Levert sang the chorus on the Chris Rock spoken-word comedy piece, "No Sex (In the Champagne Room)". Levert performed a duet with Teena Marie on the latter's 2004 album La Doa. Levert's last collaborations included Jim Brickman on the song "My Angel", for Brickman's 2006 album entitled Escape and on the song "Real S***" from rapper Styles P's album, Time Is Money. Levert was posthumously featured again on former groupmates Keith Sweat's "Knew It All Along" and Johnny Gill from the singer's Til the Morning album, which was released two days before Levert's fifth anniversary of his death. Levert was also posthumously featured on Keith Sweat's track "Let's Go to Bed" from his 2016 studio album Dress to Impress.

Levert began his acting career as Charles Young, his first appearance on The Jamie Foxx Show for 2 episodes with "Just Don't Do It", that aired on November 5, 1998, and Jamie disapproves of his mother (Jo Marie Payton) because she decided to marry him in the episode. In January 2001, Gerald appears again in the series finale "Always and Forever" when Jamie (Jamie Foxx) and Fancy (Garcelle Beauvais) got married and sang the opening ceremony at the wedding and joined by fellow singers Gladys Knight and Marilyn McCoo (without her husband Billy Davis Jr.). On November 10, 2003 (exactly three years prior to his death), Levert's final acting role that aired during his lifetime was when he appeared in an episode of The Parkers, He played T's father in the episode and comes for a visit to start a new band with T.

On November 10, 2006, Levert was found dead in his bed at his home in Cleveland, Ohio, at age 40[5] Initial reports stated that Levert had died of an apparent heart attack,[6] but the autopsy report conducted by the Cuyahoga County coroner's office concluded that Levert's death was caused by a fatal combination of prescription narcotics and over-the-counter drugs. The drugs in his bloodstream included the narcotic pain relievers Vicodin, Percocet, and Darvocet, the anxiety medication Xanax, and two over-the-counter antihistamines. The autopsy also revealed that Levert had pneumonia. The official cause of death was acute intoxication, and the death was ruled accidental.[7] Following disclosure of Levert's cause of death, a family spokesman stated that all the drugs found in Levert's bloodstream were prescribed to the singer. Levert was taking the pain medication because of chronic pain from a lingering shoulder problem and surgery in 2005 to repair a severed Achilles tendon.[7]

Levert dated singer Miki Howard from 1985 to 1989.[citation needed] In 2003, Levert had a relationship with singer Kandi Burruss.[8] They had no children together. Levert had three children:[with whom?] LeMicah, Camryn, and Carlysia.[9]Carlysia, an aspiring singer, appeared on the MTV series My Super Sweet 16, with her father in 2005. His father is the third cousin of Cleveland Cavaliers basketball player Caris LeVert.[10]

Shortly before his death, Levert completed work on what would be his final album, In My Songs. The album was released on February 13, 2007.[11] In June 2007, a book Gerald was working to complete entitled, I Got Your Back: A Father and Son Keep it Real About Love, Fatherhood, Family, and Friendship, was released. The book was initially planned as a tie-in for a Levert album of the same name. I Got Your Back explores Gerald and Eddie's father/son relationship, the necessity of male bonding, and the importance of repairing fractured families.[12] Levert was also working on a reality show in which he was losing weight along with 12 of his female fans, who were training with him at his palatial home.[13]

On December 7, 2006, it was announced that Levert, along with Chaka Khan, Yolanda Adams and Carl Thomas were nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best R&B Performance by a Duo Or Group With Vocals for their collaboration on "Everyday (Family Reunion)", a song from the soundtrack of Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion.[14] He was nominated again for the Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance for his single, "In My Songs". At the 50th annual Grammy Awards, it was announced that Levert had won the award for "In My Songs". Levert's brother and former founding LeVert member Sean Levert accepted on his late brother's behalf.On August 17, 2013, in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, Gerald Levert was inducted into the 2013 class of the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame along with the O'Jays.

So, Joe, tell us a little bit about where you come from, man, you, you from Cleveland, you actually grew up here, right? Absolutely. Just from East Cleveland, Ohio. Okay. You were born and raised? Went to Chambers Elementary School. Oh, okay. Okay. Kirk. Okay. Shaw went to a couple other High school is Collinwood.

Junior [00:03:00] Marshall. Little short stays, but I represent East Cleveland Short High school Cardinals. Oh, show. Oh, okay. You know what I mean? So, yeah. But just grew up in, in East Cleveland, man, you know, just a kid at the age of 40 that just knew I wanted to sing and love music.

And just really honed my craft and, you know, I stayed stayed in the house really a lot. Yes. My mom taught me how to use the record player. And I chose to stay in the house instead of play. So, lemme ask you, you had brothers, sisters? Yes, I had siblings, but you know, I let them go outside and play.

And you know, kind of got my gift passed down from him through my mother and my aunt. Okay. And so, you know, I got a piece of that gift, you know, from him and from the, you know, the higher power Uhhuh. [00:04:00] And just been working with it since I was like four annoying, really knowingly knowing that I wanted to be a singer and be in music.

So, so was your family like in the church or any of that stuff that you were singing in church or any of that kind of thing? Yes. I started off singing in church Temple Baptist Church. Where the pastor was Reverend Ae Campbell Jr. Okay. 7,500 Cedar Avenue and you know, south ourselves, the great big family man.

Whoa. Yep. [00:05:00] Around between eight and nine? Yeah. About eight and nine years old. Yep. Wow. Was you scared? No. No. Really? Absolutely not. So you knew this what you was going to do? Oh yeah, absolutely, man. Just as a child, you know, I used to sing and people would look at me like, wow, okay, you sound good.

Frank Sinatra. Is another singer that I love dearly. Gospel wise I, I was listening to James Cleveland back then, but yeah. Vocally, James Moore. And then, you know, I wanna, was listening to commission and the wine, his gospel, and then really took on the John Pke, who he became really great friends.

And Thailand shows and all that stuff. Everything, everything that I can, everything that I can get involved with. So really started off at, at Church Uhhuh and then I got my, my second opportunity outside of church, cuz I sang there consistently. When I got to well, kind of like when I went to Ecla Park Elementary, I had a my first.

You just need to have a great tone, textures and breaths. So, so, so you sung your way through high school? Pretty much. And was you into groups there? Was you a group of guys singing, or you was always Nah, just a solo artist really. You know, just doing all the different talent shows around Cleveland.

Okay. Next I met a guy named Edward Buddy Banks. [00:09:00] Who would become one of my, my one two punch with me with the Rule Boys. I met him at Temple Baptist Church, him singing. And like, man, when this dude opened his mouth, I was like, wow. Wow. Like just blown away. He like, was really great.

I had never heard nobody in person. Right. Other than James Moore. Singing person that was just on a level of a true vocalist. Right. And so I tapped in with him and just was like, Hey man, I want to get with you and I want to sing. You know, I want you to teach me some of the ropes and train me.

So we got together, so we end up putting together a gospel group called Power. Hmm. Which was consisted of buddy Mark Jenkins. A guy named Eric Davis. Okay. And myself. Okay. And we started rehearsing and we went around to different churches singing as a group. Okay. So that was my first group

that I sung, sung with was a group called Power. We actually got a, started off singing at this place called The Your Alternative. Hmm. That was up on kinsman, that a guy named [00:10:00] Sonny Jones. Had opened up. It was a gospel nightclub. Really, his daughter name is PJ PJ Jones. She works at 1 0 7 in 93.

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