{ Biography } { Biography }
Other Biography's 
Biography 1
Born and raised in Kansas City, Mo., rapper Solé made her debut as one-half of
amateur rap duo Divine when she was only 15 years old. Solé and friend Shurhea
Mitchell were regulars on the Kansas City talent show circuit, and were even
offered a record deal at 1989's BRE Convention. But Solés father thought the
girls were too young for a recording contract and Solé returned to Kansas City
empty-handed. It would be several years before Solés return to music. In the
interim she went to college, worked for a phone company, ran a spa at a salon,
and even went to beauty school. When Solé decided to pursue music again, she
called on her old friend, rapper Tech N9ne, who let her perform with his group
in LA for several months. Ready to leave the group behind and launch her solo
career, Solé hooked up with producer/manager Chris Stewart in Atlanta, who had
worked with R&B acts like Blaque, Tyrese and Chante Moore. For Solés debut
album, "Skin Deep", she had help from heavy-hitters like Montell Jordan, Goodie
Mob's Big Gipp and Xscape's Kandi Burruss. Skin Deep is slated for a late-1999
on DreamWorks Records.
Biography2
"Quiet" or "Shy" are not words many people would use to describe Solé (So-LAY).
Especially after seeing the steamy video for her hit single "4, 5, 6" and her
impressive turn as a guest host on BET's "Live From L.A." Nonetheless, Solé
confides, "As far as being one-on-one, I'm naturally a shy person." Asked how
she can say this in light of the hardcore, in-your-face performances marking her
live and recorded output, she asserts: "It's like I have a split personality.
I'm generally a sweet person. I think about everybody else before I think about
me, and that's been bad sometimes. But in my music, I'm hard. It's about me.
What you hear on this album is me taking care of me." Early in her relationship
with her record label, an executive asked Solé if she could pull off the
attitude he heard on her demos in a live setting. "That attitude is my
attitude," she replied. "It's just not my only attitude." Elaborating on her
stage skills, the Kansas City, Mo., native attests: "I enjoy getting in front of
people and going crazy. Whenever JT Money and I are getting ready to do a show,
people who don't know me say, 'Oh, you're so cute, you're so pretty.' They think
I'm this little girl who's gonna sing a song. And then I go out there and pow!
I'm just shouting it and sounding like the boys. I do my thing and show out...
then I go offstage. The person onstage is like my alter ego. But it's all me.
There's a lot of different sides to everybody." Produced primarily by Chris
"Tricky" Stewart (JT Money, Tyrese, Blaque), Skin Deep is a showcase for the
many different sides of Solé. Swaggering boasts ("Iy Yi Yi") and bouncy party
tracks ("Ain't Nobody," "Get Up in It") stand toe-to-toe with a vividly imagined
revenge fantasy ("The Story") and what Solé calls "a ghetto love story" ("Our
World"). They ensure there's something for everyone on Skin Deep, but it's the
songs about thorny sexual politics ("4, 5, 6," "It Wasn�t Me," "Tryin� Too
Long") and hard-won self-discovery ("Pain," "4 tha Love of U," "Never Thought
I") that give the album its emotional center. Of the latter, Solé confirms:
"These are stories of things I've gone through, and a lot of them are angry. But
they're things I needed to say. I feel like everybody goes through certain
things in their life because it's how you learn, it's how you get to where you
need to be. Sometimes you say to yourself, 'Did I really have to go through all
that to get here?' But that's what makes you realize, I can do anything."
Biography 3
SOLÉ, Skin Deep, Dreamworks Solé left a lot of people asking "Who Dat?" after
her appearance on JT Money's hit single. And not just because she dropped a
tight verse. But Solé proves on her debut album, Skin Deep, that she's more than
just eye candy. This Kansas City girl has got a solid, slightly raspy delivery
that makes a smooth transition from laying down laid-back calculations on
"Accurate Math" to spitting rapid-fire rage on "Never Thought I." And unlike
Shaq, she's got plenty of hooks -- a couple derived from the chants of "Who Dat"
("Iy Yi Yi" and "Get Up In It") and some just straight R&B, courtesy of sultry
guest appearances by Tamar Braxton on "4 The Love of You" and Kandi from Xscape
on the first single, "4,5,6." Goodie Mob's Big Gipp also lends a hand from down
south and, as with most of the cameos on this disc, complements Solé nicely on
"We've Been Trying Too Long." The production falls in line as well, going beyond
bounce beats while still keepin' your head ringin' throughout the CD. With Skin
Deep, Solé steps in near the top of the class of female MCs.
Biography 4
Solé (Tonya Johnston) Artist/Songwriter: Sole's journey started in Kansas City,
Missouri, where she grew up the lone girl in a family of three children (she's
the middle child). "I was the tomboy," she informs. "I ran with the boys, played
softball, kickball, climbed trees, threw rocks, everything the boys did, I did."
And although her mother and grandmother had both been singers (gospel and jazz,
respectively), it was hip-hop that the boys were into and Solč expressed some of
her earliest creativity by rhyming. Her commanding presence made an impact on JT
Money's "Who Dat", Billboard's Rap Song of the Year in 2000. That performance
led to a solo album Skin Deep which was produced primarily by Chris "Tricky"
Stewart. Additional production for her first album, Skin Deep, was provided by
Rashad Smith, Focus, Mr. Raja, Big Trev, Chuckey Charles and KD. It also
featured guest performers JT Money, Montell Jordan, Goodie Mobs Big Gipp,
Xscape's Kandi Barruss, Tek9, Tamar, Mr. Raja, Miss Toi, Bobbi Bosselina. LoE,
O., Reg Raw, Jason. Weaver all took turns at the mic. These high-wattage
contributors notwithstanding, the point of view defining Skin Deep was Solč's
and Solč's alone, from the repeated chants of "Yi Yi" (a nod to the rapper's
Native American heritage) to her fearless confrontation of the past. In the
summer of 2001 Sole' single "4,5,6" won ASCAP's Female Rap Song of the Year.
Sole's second album has been slated for release later this year and we look
forward to more hits and banging tracks from this award winning rap diva.
Biography 5
Wearing cut-off jeans, a baby tee, flip-flops, and no makeup, Solé looks a
convincing 16 in person, though the ferocious female MC who guests on J.T.
Money's hit "Who Dat" is actually 10 years older. As if her natural beauty isn't
enough, DreamWorks Records has gone the extra mile to accentuate her appeal. The
label's provocative marketing campaign features the Kansas City, Mo. native
dipped in platinum-colored paint, posing in more than a few arousing positions.
The irony of the matter is that Solé's debut is entitled Skin Deep, as in the
cliché "Beauty is only..." The former tomboy who used to battle boys on the
school bus at age 10 says she's not just a pretty face. "I would walk into a
room and they would say, 'She raps?' and they'd laugh," Solé recalls, "like
another so-called quote-unquote 'pretty girl,' not knowing that I've been doing
this a lot longer than them." Solé's teen years consisted of forming a female
rap duo, doing a ton of local shows, and even winning trips to the respected
music BRE (Black Radio Exclusive) conference. But when she got pregnant after
high school, her plans to attend Howard University and to actively pursue a rap
career were put on the back burner. Add relationship problems with the father of
her two daughters and Solé was enduring serious depression. Fortunately, after
six years of relegating her rapping to her household, she decided to resume her
pursuit of a record deal. She credits her daughters as inspiration. "It put me
in a position to be able to take care of my girls," Solé explains of her
transformation in 1997, "and let them see that you don't have to be dependent on
somebody. They look at me like, 'Mommy takes care of us. Mommy gets us this.' I
had to think about them going to college and not having to struggle." Within a
year, Tricky, a producer from Solé's hometown, called her to Atlanta to add a
verse to J.T. Money's formative "Who Dat." After recording her rap in June of
1998, Solé says the song laid dormant for nearly a year before it was released
by Dallas Austin's Free World Records, which is distributed by Priority Records.
But the song, popular for its repetitive Indian chant "Iy Yi Yi Yi Yi Yi,"
generated a strong buzz. Things worked out so well that J.T. returned the favor,
appearing on Solé's first single, "4, 5, 6," a seemingly perfect setup for Skin
Deep. Though the album strives for more R&B radio-friendly offerings than, say,
Eve's, Solé's distinctive husky, deep voice continues to hush those who claim
that she's too pretty to pull off a credible rap. "I've always had this low,
deep voice that I always used to hate, but it works." Sometimes, though, folks
have a hard time believing that Little Miss Pretty is the true face behind the
voice. "Last night somebody came up to be saying, 'I thought you was going to be
this big fat girl,' and I've heard that more than once," Solé says with a laugh,
"That's just like one of the stupidest things. I understand, though. I look at
people and assume stuff too. People look at me and assume a lot of things, and
most of the time they're way off."
Biography 6
Most rappers need some sort of a gimmick when they leave the gate; after all,
how are we supposed to distinguish one mediocre talent from another? Sole, the
latest entry in the female rhyme champion sweepstakes, introduces her novel hook
early on: She's rap's version of Pocahontas. That's what Sole says on the
opening "Spell My Name Right" (what, we were going to spell it S-O-L-E-I-L?),
and, from there, the slender-looking, braided beauty relentlessly hammers the
point home by dropping rhyme after innocuously angry rhyme about her sexy looks
and how she's the toughest Cherokee Indian in the world. It's a tired posture
that loses its flavor after the first 30 seconds of her formulaic debut. Why
female rappers insist on trying to be harder than even their hardest male
counterparts - Sole is constantly "ringing shots" -- is beyond question. Sole
may have the skills, but clouded by her cultural gimmickry and determined
contrivance, we'll never know