I Gotta Make It

Trey Songz is a 20-year-old singer/songwriter who hails from Petersburg, Virginia. Having drawn musical inspiration from a wide variety of contemporary R&B/hip-hop artists, his songs are filled with a passion and a mosaic of his young adult life. Though he is still a "baby" in the game he has cut his teeth writing and collaborating with some of the industries most respected artists and producers including: Juvenile, Twista, Scott Storch, Troy Taylor, Organized Noize, Dre & Vidal, Lil Jon, Track Boyz, Patti LaBelle, Donnell Jones, Gerald Levert, T.I., Omarion, & Obie Trice. His music can best be described as R&B with hip-hop urgency. His debut, I Gotta Make It, is a sexy collection of 17 slow jams and thumping grooves that pay homage to Motown's golden era. The disc not only bridges the stylistic gap between Marvin Gaye and R. Kelly, it warmly introduces hip-hop soul's finest new voice. The thoughts and ideas expressed within the album are not those of your typical 20-year-old. The lyrical ability displayed within the album denotes a sign of a man well beyond his years, mentally and emotionally.

I Gotta Make It opens with A Message from Aretha, an uplifting bit of advice from the soul legend Aretha Franklin. The smooth, catchy single Gotta Make It appears twice here, first as a collaboration between the gently crooning Songz and the lightning-fast rapper Twista, and later as a remix featuring more words of wisdom from Franklin and the steady flow of Juvenile. Other highlights include the charming slow jams I Gotta Go and Kinda Lovin, and the infectiously percussive Just Wanna Cut. Though Songz is just one of many up-and-comers in early-2000s R&B, he downplays swaggering bravado in favor of a more amiable confidence, and this quality makes him a clear standout in the crowd.

Trey Songz has been inconspicuously popping up all over the place in the R&B and hip-hop scene – a solo stint on the Coach Carter soundtrack, a guest vocalist on Trick Daddy’s album and a backup singer for Gerald Levert. All of these small, yet meaningful spots have culminated into his debut album that gives the native Virginian an opportunity to shine on his own. I Gotta Make It is a unique blend of R&B, soul, hip-hop and funk with a mix of Trey Songz' spicy creativity and originality. In comparison with an R&B market that is already over saturated with copycats and imitations, it is an album that eschews a breath of fresh air. Along with his peers John Legend and Anthony Hamilton, Trey Songz's talent may be the saving grace that can reconstruct the industry's definition of R&B.