Faith Evans

Faith Evans is an R&B/soul singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress from Newark, New Jersey. She got her big break from one time boyfriend, Kiyamma Griffin. Kiyamma got Evans her first gig as a session singer with Al B. Sure. Eventually she caught the ear of Sean "Puffy" Combs who signed her to his fledgling label Bad Boy Records. It was at Bad Boy that she would meet rapper The Notorious B.I.G. (born Christopher George Latore Wallace) a.k.a. Biggie Smalls, and marry him just ten days later in September 1994. She released her debut album Faith in 1995 which failed to make an impact, however it was released a year later with the title Faith Evans and included a cover of the Rose Royce hit "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" featuring the vocals of Mary J. Blige. This time the album achieved platinum status. In 1997 less than 6 months after the birth of their son Evans', husband Wallace was gunned down in L.A., as a result of an East-West coast rapper rivalry. Although the couple had been separated at the time, Evans was devastated and fell into a deep depression.

A year later friend/producer and label boss Sean Combs pulled Evans out of her gloom when he suggested they make a tribute record to Smalls. They shared the vocals for the No.1 hit single "I'll Be Missing You". After this Evans was able to move on to her next solo project, the platinum selling album Keep the Faith (1998). And in 2001 she released her final album on Bad Boy, Faithfully it was also her third platinum certified album in a row. In 2005 she released her first album on new label Capitol Records, titled The First Lady, it was her first album not to include her name as part of the title and it was also her first album not to achieve platinum status. Currently Evans is recording a new album which is due out sometime in 2008.