Montell Jordan Biography
3 December 1968, Los Angeles, California, USA. Montell Jordan made a huge impact in both the US and UK charts in 1995 with the runaway success of his Def Jam Records' single "This Is How We Do It". Utilising a sample from Slick Rick, this celebration of life in South Central, Los Angeles, struck a chord with both hip-hop fans and modern R&B audiences. Within weeks of release it entered the US R&B Top 10 and then the pop charts, preceding a debut album of the same title. This included several B.B. King samples and a guest rap from Coolio on the excellent "Payback". The lyrics also diverged somewhat from typical Californian swing subjects - "Daddy's Home" addressing the importance of black fatherhood in the ghettos. He attributes his development in an otherwise hostile environment to the rare presence of both a father and mother as he grew up. Rather than running with the gangs in the "South Central 'hood", Jordan attended both church and school regularly, eventually graduating from Pepperdine University in Malibu with a degree in Organisational Communication. However, his growing interest in music eventually diverted him from a projected career in law. Jordan has built on the success of This Is How We Do It with a series of stylish urban R&B collections. The title track to Let's Ride, featuring No Limit Records stars Master P and Silkk The Shocker, reached US number 6 in April 1998. The follow-up, "I Can Do That", broke into the Top 20 in September. Jordan returned to the charts in November 1999 with Get It On ... Tonite, the title track of which became a Top 5 single the following March.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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