User:Editorialistic/Ug (r&B

Geoffrey Dias, better known by his stage name UG, is an R&B singer-songwriter/rapper, of Jamaican origin. His first exposure to the music world was through his father, Henley Dias through his three member band ‘The Surroundings” and UG went on to be greatly influenced by his long-time favorite singer Lauryn Hill and the Fugees; so much so that his name UG was taken from the name Fugees. His eclectic blends of sounds are predominantly influenced by hip-hop and contemporary reggae/dancehall.

Early Life UG grew up for most of his life in the inner city communities of Arnett Gardens, more popularly know as Jungle which was also the raising ground for the brothers Budd Locke and Troylocke The Real (a high school scholar who gave up a full scholarship to college to pursue a career in music), a production duo signed to the Amhit Records imprint.

Most of UG’s teenage years was spent helping his mom to raise his younger siblings and going from one recording studio to another, doing demo recording with his then crew which included Zuma, Denair (now also known as Sikili), Wasp and Pickney.

Background

UG was introduced to the Locke brothers by a mutual friend and artist Sikili in the summer of 2005 and almost instantly began recording on the Amhit imprint. In 2006, the Locke brothers re-recorded a song from one of the groups demo cd and titled it The Drive By. The single featured UG, Travis Anomie, Zuma, Kinglish and included sampled vocals from Aston Flex and a sampled melody on the chorus from 213’s “So Fly” which was taken from Monica’s “So Gone”. Though the single was poised to bring main stream attention to the featured artists and there were plans for the video shoot underway, Kinglish, who is featured on the song, had some fallen out with the label and migrated to Sweden. Since then all plans for that single and all other collaboration between UG and Kinglish has been postponed.

Career

To date, UG has released a few underground tracks that have commanded the attention of fellow artist and are rapidly acquiring fans. In 2006, UG caught the ears of Katie Welle who was an A & R executive at the Epic at the time. Katie Welle wanted to see UG live but unfortunately he was overseas with some family emergency and was unable to do any live performance in the US. Though that did not result in a deal with Epic, UG got back in the studio and continued working on hot tracks. Since them he has done collaborations with Wasp, Travis Anomie, Sikili and Ron Kella aka Troylocke the Real.

In late 2008 UG encountered further minor setbacks when he was in a car accident that resulted in a broken leg where his shinbone was severed.

While he is still in recovery, he has wrapped up a five (5) song sampler schedule for release in summer of 2009 while working on his debut album to be release in 2010. Video shoots and video releases for his debut album are scheduled for late 2009 or early 2010. UG is also working on another album to be released in 2010 that will be a collaboration with Travis Anomie, Sikili and other artist.