R&B crooner Trey Songz is the golden voice behind some of the hottest club hits and romantic ballads to hit the airwaves in the last few years, but despite making his way into mainstream music the 27-year-old singer remains one of the best kept secrets of the hip hop community. Find out more about Trey Songz in his Kidzworld bio!
Shy Child
Tremaine “Trey” Aldon Neverson was born Petersburg, Virginia, but moved around a lot as a child because his mom, April Tucker, married a man in the military when Trey was 7 years old. Because of his shyness Trey never even dreamed of being a professional singer as a kid.
"Singing wasn't a reality for me, until other people started noticing I sounded good," said Trey.
But when his family moved back to Petersburg in time for his freshman year of high school, Trey started to discover that he had talent, and that it might be worth singing somewhere other than in the shower!
"When I came back, that's when I really found out who I was," Trey remembered. "Those were the years I basically found Trey Songz. I didn't really get into singing until I came back."
When Trey performed at Petersburg talent show (at the insistence of his friends) he blew the competition away, and just a year later was meeting with music producer Troy Taylor in New Jersey. Before launching his career though, Trey wanted to finish high school, so he formed a musical group with some friends called All Night Productions to perform at parties and events, and would work on his music with Taylor on the side until he graduated.
I Gotta Make It
After high school Trey moved to New Jersey to continue working with Taylor, and in 2003 he inked a deal with Atlantic records and just two years after released his first album I Gotta Make It, which reached Number 20 on the Billboard charts. The first thing Trey set out to do with his newfound success was to fulfill a childhood promise to his mother and buy her a house!
"When he finally saw it, he ran up and down the stairs like a little kid, because we had never had a house," said April (Trey’s mom).
Trey went back to the studio and his next album Trey Day did better than the last, peaking at Number 11 on the charts and his first hit single “Can’t Help But Wait” was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Male Vocal Performance.
Reinvention and Ready
After his Grammy nod Trey got serious about commercial success and decided to revamp his look and sound to appeal to a wider range of listeners and viewers. He traded in baggy jeans and braids for slick designer duds and hit the gym and steered away from penning heartfelt romantic ballads and started making up tempo tracks to dance to on his album Ready, which reached Number 3 on the charts and won him a 2010 BET Award for Best Male R&B Artist and a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Album. He release
Fame isn’t the only thing that matters to Trey, he also wanted to give back to his community by founding the Songz For Peace Foundation that aims to curb violence in youth.
Trey released his Inevitable EP last fall and is preparing to release a new album this year called Chapter V, and touring to promote it.
Have Your Say
Do you like Trey Songz? Let us know in the comments section below!
