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It topped Billboard's Independent Albums chart, went Top Five R&B/hip-hop, and debuted at number 15 on the Billboard 200. After a five-year hiatus from recording, during which she penned the African American Literary Award-winning memoir Keep the Faith, Evans released Something About Faith on her own Prolific label, with distribution from eOne. It would be her last Bad Boy album, ending a fruitful association, yet her next move with Capitol, The First Lady, missed the top spot of the Billboard 200 by one position in 2005. It also produced hit singles in "You Gets No Love" and "I Love You," and her duet with Carl Thomas on "Can't Believe" was nominated for a Grammy. In 2001, Evans released her third album, Faithfully, a more uptempo recording that received some of her strongest reviews. In 1997, following the murder of Biggie, the grief-stricken Evans co-wrote and was featured on the tribute single "I'll Be Missing You," which became one of that year's biggest hits, topping the pop and R&B/hip-hop charts and eventually winning a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.Įvans' sophomore effort, Keep the Faith, followed in 1998 and spun off several R&B hits over the next year, including "Love Like This," "All Night Long," and the Babyface-produced R&B/hip-hop number one "Never Gonna Let You Go." In the meantime, she worked with Aaron Hall, Tevin Campbell, and DMX, among others, and also made guest appearances on two 1999 hits, Whitney Houston's "Heartbreak Hotel" and Eric Benét's cover of Toto and Cheryl Lynn's "Georgy Porgy." She eventually married record executive Todd Russaw, who took an active role in helping manage her career. She also contributed to the soundtracks for Waiting to Exhale, High School High, and The Preacher's Wife. Next came the Top 25 pop, Top Five R&B/hip-hop singles "You Used to Love Me" and "Soon as I Get Home," which propelled Faith, Evans' debut album, to platinum status.Īs Evans' solo career was in ascent across 19, her work appeared on numerous high-profile projects, including material from Teddy Thompson, Pebbles, Total, Monifah, Color Me Badd, Horace Brown, A Tribe Called Quest, Case, 112, and Soul for Real. First was the "Stay with Me" remix of "One More Chance," a number two pop, number one R&B/hip-hop hit headlined by the Notorious B.I.G., who Evans married the previous year. She hadn't aspired to become an artist, but struck a deal, and in 1995 was behind some of Bad Boy's biggest hits. While working on Usher, for which she co-wrote six tracks and sang backup, Evans was offered a Bad Boy contract by Sean "Puffy" Combs. Sure!, Hi-Five, Christopher Williams, Usher, and Mary J. From 1992 through 1994, she wrote songs and/or sang backup for Al B. After one year, she left the Bronx campus to put her jazz and classical training to use in the field of contemporary R&B. A high-school honor student, she performed in her school's musical productions and earned a scholarship to Fordham University. Every few years through the next decade, she added to her discography with another set of rich, adult-oriented R&B, including Something About Faith, released in 2010 on her own Prolific label, and the 2017 album The King & I, consisting of duets with Biggie.īorn in Lakeland, Florida, Faith Evans grew up in Newark, New Jersey, where she began singing in church at the age of two. Recordings from Evans became less frequent after she scored a fourth hit with the 2005 Capitol release The First Lady, which topped the R&B/hip-hop chart and was another gold-seller. Evans' run with Bad Boy also included the Biggie tribute "I'll Be Missing You," a number one pop hit in 1997 and subsequent Grammy winner in the category of Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. During that year, she released Faith, her first of three platinum or gold albums for the Bad Boy label, and hit the upper reaches of the pop and R&B/hip-hop charts with the plush trifecta of "One More Chance," "You Used to Love Me," and "Soon as I Get Home," the first of which was a collaboration with husband the Notorious B.I.G. A distinctively graceful voice in contemporary R&B, Faith Evans worked behind the scenes as a background vocalist and songwriter prior to breaking through as an artist in 1995.