Blu Cantrell (born Tiffany Cobb on October 1, 1976 in Providence,
Rhode Island) is an American R&B singer. She was born into a biracial
family of jazz enthusiasts from Providence, Rhode Island. She and her
five siblings were born of an Italian American mother who is a jazz
singer and an African American father who was a NBA basketball player.
She was raised by her mother.
In 2000, Cantrell was discovered by an A&R executive and began singing
backup for artists such as Puff Daddy, Truth Hurts and Faith Evans.
She released her debut album, So Blu, in 2001. It featured the hit
single "Hit 'Em Up Style (Oops!)", which peaked at #2 on the U.S.
Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. The single earned Blu two Grammy
nominations for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song.
She also was crowned Lady Of Soul of the year 2001 and won American
Music Awards nominations.
In 2003, she released her second album, Bittersweet, which spawned the
single Breathe, a collaboration with Sean Paul, which peaked at #1 for
four weeks in the UK, despite failing to reach the top 50 in the U.S.
Bittersweet didn't perform as well on the charts as her debut album
but did earn Cantrell a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Album and
managed to enter the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart at #8.
Blu has hosted a lot of fashion shows from Los Angeles to New York
City and Atlanta. Blu co-hosted MOBO (Music Of Black Origin) Awards of
2003.
Cantrell was the subject of controversy when photos from a brief
period of work as a nude model for Black Tail magazine in 1995 came to
light. The singer has said to the press: "I have posed nude in the
past and I will in the future, I'm not making porn, porn is when you
do a video of sex. Posing nude is not making porn".
In the fall of 2005, Cantrell's smash #1 Hit "Hit'Em Up Style (Oops!)"
appeared on a Canadian compilation CD entitled "One Hit Wonders". In
the summer of 2005, Cantrell created her own label Baby Blu/Know Music
& a new album entitled Hit Em Up Style : Hits & Clubs Charts was
released. Rumors says she has signed a record deal with Columbia
Records.
Discography
Albums
Year Album
2001 So Blu
2003 Bittersweet
Unofficial albums
Year Album
2005 Hit'Em Up Style: Chart And Club Hits Of Blu Cantrell
Singles
Year Title
2001 "Hit 'Em Up Style (Oops!)"
2001 "Round Up"
2003 "Breathe"
2004 "Make Me Wanna Scream"
2005 "The Cha Cha" (unreleased)