Ginuwine

Ginuwine is one of the leading hip-hop and R&B performers who rose to fame in the nineties. He was born Elgin Baylor Lumpkin in Washington on October 15, 1975. In his teens, Elgin grew deeply fond of the music by Michael Jackson and Prince. Aged twelve, he already was performing on the stage as a member of the Finesse Five outfit. Later, Elgin joined a band called Physical Wonder and started imitating Michael Jackson’s stage image and performances. Although the young man’s were solely associated with music, he also studied at college to be protected from bad luck. In 1996, Lumpkin took up the Ginuwine pseudonym. His biggest step on the way to glory was meeting the established producer Timbaland after relocating to New York. Their first joint job was the song titled Pony that helped the young artist reach an agreement with Sony’s 550 Music.

Guided by the experienced Timbaland, Ginuwine prepared in 1996 his debut studio album, Ginuwine...The Bachelor. Pony was a sensational R&B chart-topper while the whole record earned the double-platinum certificate. Within the following year, numerous musical TV channels together with radio stations played heavily some other compositions from this release, Tell Me Do U Wanna, I'll Do Anything/I'm Sorry, Holler, and Only When Ur Lonely. The success of this effort made Ginuwine a new graven image for a huge female following and provided Timbaland with a long list of performers willing to enter partnership with him. In 1998, Ginuwine toured a lot and recorded the track Same Ol' G for the comedy Dr. Doolittle. At the same time approximately, he made his acting debut playing a minor part in an episode of the Martial Law series.

1999 saw Ginuwine issue his sophomore long player, 100 Ginuwine. Again with Timbaland, he did not let his fans down. The record went fifth in the pop-charts and featured the smashing hit So Anxious that did much to bring the album platinum sales. Among the other tracks one should mention the cover of Michael Jackson’s song She's Out of My Life. Afterwards, the singer entered a hard period in his life. Within several months, he was forced to go though the loss of his father who committed suicide and that of his mother who died of cancer. Despite these tragic events, Ginuwine pulled his strength together and managed to work on. In 2001, he released his third full-length studio record called The Life. There two songs from the album picked to be issued as singles, the title track and the ballad Difference that remained the artist’s most popular hit so far.

In 2002, Ginuwine acted as a singer in the basketball movie Juwanna Mann, which became his first appearance on the big screen. Around the same time, police, by accident, came across a Minnesota citizen who pretended to be the famous artist and by doing so had extracted much money and signed big business contracts. The singer’s following studio works, The Senior (2003), and Back II da Basics (2005), were not as good as his earlier efforts, yet continued to sell well thank to his achievements. Having delivered the 2007 album under the title I Apologize, Ginuwine parted ways with Sony and signed moved to Warner Bros. Once again in one team with Timbaland, he prepared in 2009 another studio album, A Man's Thoughts.