Lloyd Biography
Lloyd Harlin Polite Jnr., 3 January 1986, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Polite, who grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, was singing from an early age. His precocious vocal talents resulted in an offer to join the teen pop group N-Toon, a unit assembled in 1996 by Joyce Irby of 80s soulsters Klymaxx. N-Toon never made much of a commercial impact and split up not long after releasing 2000's Toon Time. Leaving his teen pop past behind him, Polite then began remarketing himself as an R&B artist. He was talent-spotted by L.A. Reid who recommended him to Murder Inc. boss Irv Gotti. A contract with Gotti's rebranded The Inc. label ensued, and the company enjoyed immediate commercial success when they teamed Polite (now known simply as Lloyd) with labelmate Ashanti on "Southside". This sensuous ballad reached the R&B Top 20 in early 2004 and also broke into the mainstream Top 30. An album of the same name followed later in the year, but the rather formulaic production did little to convince listeners that Lloyd was much more than a lightweight pretender to R. Kelly's urban crooner throne.
The singer subsequently guested on singles by 8Ball And MJG ("Forever") and Ja Rule ("Caught Up"). Of more note was his collaboration with rapper Lil Wayne, "You", which topped the R&B charts and rose into the US Top 10 at the start of 2007. Street Love, the singer's second album, followed in March.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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