User:RBDowing/sandbox/Aloe Blaac Edit

Aloe Blacc, born Egbert Nathaniel Dawkins III, is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, and musician. He is best known for his platinum single, I Need A Dollar, and for co-writing and performing vocals on Avicii's Wake Me Up, which charted at #1 in 102 countries.

Early life and education
Blacc was born in Southern California's Orange County to Panamanian parents. Growing up in Laguna Hills, he began playing a rented trumpet in third grade. When it made more sense to buy the instrument, Blacc had what he later described as a "very specific moment" in his evolution as a musician. "It forced me to be serious about it. I couldn’t just do it to get out of the class room," he said in a 2010 interview. His exposure to LL Cool J in fourth grade was equally significant. "It wasn’t too far off from the trumpet moment...I had a Hip Hop moment and a musician moment."

Blacc attended the University of Southern California, and graduated 2001. He worked briefly in the corporate sector.

Career
In 1995, Blacc teamed with hip hop producer Exile and formed Emanon -- 'no name' backwards -- which was inspired by the title of a Dizzy Gillespie song. With break-beat loops and jazz samples, Emanon became a mainstay of the indie rap underground, and released their first mixtape in 1996, followed by the EP Acid 9 in 1999. They subsequently released three albums, Steps Through Time (2001), Imaginary Friends (2002), and The Waiting Room (2005). A fourth album, Bird's Eye View, was recorded but never released. While Emanon was was Blacc's primary project during this time period, he additionally toured and recorded with the members of the collective Lootback. Blacc launched his career as a solo artist in 2003, releasing two EPs, and signing to Stone's Throw Records in 2006, after label head Chris Mank (known as Peanut Butter Wolf) heard Blacc and immediately offered him a contract for the 2006 full-length Shine Through. Blaac had by then become more focused on songwriting, a change inspired in part by his social consciousness. "I was uncomfortable with the state of Hip Hop being largely about the expression of ego. I wondered how I could be more crafty at writing songs in the form of a rap that actually expressed more than ego, style and finesse," he stated. "I figured I would educate myself to learn more about songwriting and apply that later to hip hop."

Shine Through, Blacc's first full-length album, was released in 2006, and received significant media attention in the U.S. and abroad. Pitchfork wrote that Shine Through had "flashes of keen musical interpolation" and signaled "some sort of greatness,", NPR named the the track "Nascimento" as song of the day, and Absolute Punk noted that Shine Through flows beautifully from one track to the next, infusing old-school funk and soul with a modern essence that makes it incredibly unique

In 2010, Blacc released Good Things. A commercial success, Good Things was certified gold in the UK, France, Germany and Australia, among other countries, and ultimately hit double platinum sales. The single I Need A Dollar, which was used as the theme song to the HBO series How To Make It in America, reached 1 million in sales in 2013; two additional singles, "Loving You Is Killing Me" and "Green Lights" became European hits as well. Good Things was praised by the media, receiving positive reviews in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Spin, NME and Entertainment Weekly, among others. Shortly after the release of the record, Blacc signed with Simon Fuller's XIX Management.

In 2013, Blacc co-wrote the song "Wake Me Up" with Swedish DJ Avicii. With Blaac on vocals, the song reached #1 in 103 countries and became the fasting selling single in the UK, selling 267,000 copies in its first week. In September of that year, Blacc signed with Interscope Records and released an EP,  also titled "Wake Me Up." The four-track EP included the songs "Love is the Answer," "Can You Do This," and "Ticking Bomb," as well as an acoustic version of "Wake Me Up." In October 2013, Blaac released a video for the track, Blacc collaborating with the immigrant rights group, National Day Laborer Organizing Network, the abc* Foundation's Healing Power of Music Initiative, director Alex Rivera, and a cast of actors including Hareth Andrade, a leader in the immigrant youth movement working to stop her own father's deportation, Agustin Chiprez Alvarez, a Los Angeles day laborer, and Margarita Reyes who was deported with her mother as a child despite being born in the US.

Blaac's Interscope/XIX debut, Lift Your Spirit, will be released in 2014, and will feature production by Pharrell, DJ Khalil, and Harold Lilly, among others.

Philanthropy
Blacc is actively involved in Malaria No More. The charity's mission is to end malaria deaths, through "engaging leaders, rallying the public, and delivering life-saving tools and education to families across Africa."

Awards

 * 2012 Brit Award - Best International Male Soul Artist (nomination)
 * 2012 Brit Award - Best International Breakthrough Act (nomination)
 * 2011 Soul Train Awards - Centric Award (nomination)
 * 2011 Worker's Voice Award

Notable Appearances
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 * Glastonbury Festival
 * Lollapalooza Festival
 * iTunes Music Festival
 * Montreaux Jazz Festival
 * Zermatt Unplugged Festival
 * The Falls Music & Arts Festival
 * Super Rock Festival
 * North Coast Music Festival

Television appearances

 * Dancing with the Stars (2013)
 * Frost Over the World (2012)
 * Hootenanny with The Grand Scheme (2011, 2012)
 * Conan (2011)
 * The Graham Norton Show (2011)
 * Lorraine (2011)
 * Strictly Come Dancing(2011)
 * ''Andrew Marr (2011)
 * Later... with Jools Holland (2010)
 * Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (2010)

Solo Studio albums

 * Shine Through (2006)
 * Good Things (2010)

Solo EPs

 * Wake Me Up (2013)
 * The Aloe Blacc EP 2: Me and My Music (2004)
 * The Aloe Blacc EP (2003)

With Emanon

 * Acid 9 (1999)
 * Steps Through Time (2001)
 * Imaginary Friends (2002)
 * Anon & On (2002)
 * The Waiting Room (2005)
 * Bird's Eye View

With Roseaux

 * Roseaux (2012) (All 11 tracks feature vocals of Aloe Blacc)

With Cradle

 * Bee – Open Your Mind (2009) LP

With The Grand Scheme

 * "Dark End Of The Street" from the Carhartt: Dark End Of The Street Compilation (2010)
 * "Green Lights Grand Scheme Remix" from the UK Sony/Epic Single Release (2011)

With Joel Van Dijk

 * "I Got The Blues" Rolling Stones Cover - Mojo: Sticky Soul Fingers Compilation (2011)
 * "Ain't No Sunshine" Bill Withers Cover - Joel Van Dijk: A Kind of Blues (2012)