Jon B.

Few R&B voices of the mid-1990s carried the mix of silk and songcraft that Jonathan David Buck brought to his records. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, and raised in Altadena, California, he grew up in a musical family: his father was a music professor, his mother a concert pianist, and his siblings played violin and cello. Buck began as a songwriter, and the neo soul movement of the late nineties, with Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu and D'Angelo, is the sound he has said influenced him most.

His debut, Bonafide (1995), yielded 'Pretty Girl' and 'Someone to Love', featuring Babyface, the latter reaching the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 and earning a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. Cool Relax (1997) followed with 'Are U Still Down', featuring Tupac Shakur, and 'They Don't Know', and was certified platinum by the RIAA. Pleasures U Like (2001) reached the top ten of the Billboard 200. Beyond his own records, he wrote for After 7, Toni Braxton, Michael Jackson and Color Me Badd, and in 2023 a new collaboration with Tank was announced.