|  Marc
Nelson’s strong, musical pedigree tells its own, unarguable
story. He was born and raised in Philadelphia, where he attended
the prestigious Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing
Arts (CAPA). Nelson’s best-kept secret has been that he is
co-founded the now multi-platinum-selling R&B sensation Boyz
II Men while still attending CAPA. Not long after the group (then
a quintet of Nelson, Shawn Stockman, Nathan Morris, Michael McCary
and Wanya Morris) met Michael Bivens of BBD, Nelson left the group
and signed a solo deal with Capitol Records and recorded his debut
album “I Want You.”
Two years later, Nelson
left Philadelphia and moved to Los Angeles to pursue his musical
dreams even further. He began studio work with legendary writer-producer,
Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds on Perri “Pebbles”
Reid’s third album, “Straight From The Heart”
and gained recognition as a songwriter and producer through his
great gift for lyrics and melody. Following the Pebbles project,
Nelson was privileged to be immersed in an amazing amount of session
work with Babyface and when in 1995 Babyface wanted a lead singer
for a new group called Az Yet on his LaFace label, the invitation
to Nelson was irresistible.
Az Yet soon became a
platinum-selling group with their self-titled album, which spawned
two hit singles - “Last Night” and “Hard To Say
I’m Sorry” – and crowned them with Grammy recognition.
In 1998, Columbia Records
signed Nelson to a solo deal and his album, Chocolate Mood, produced
the smash single, “15 Minutes” peaking at #27 in the
Billboard charts.
On January 9, 2007, Nelson
was honored by his peers at SESAC at their third Jazz Awards Luncheon
for his authorship on "It's On Tonight" by Brian Culbertson.
The event honored jazz writers whose works achieved Top 5 status
on the jazz charts from January 1, 2006 through December 31, 2006.
Nelson is also a member
of the newly formed R&B super-group Blayse with fellow R&B
veterans Tony Grant of Az Yet, Gary "Lil G" Jenkins of
Silk and Terrell Phillips of Blackstreet.
In addition writing and
producing his own music, music for other artists and working on
the upcoming cd release with Blayse, Marc has developed a consortium
of fellow lyricists to form Lyric Masters 911. Through Lyric Masters
911, Marc and his associates have pooled their skills to assist
fellow producers and songwriters accentuate new creations with colorful
words and tempos for a broad range of genres allowing artists to
tap into the depth of their talents. Lyric Masters 911 has written
and produced hits for R&B greats such as Freddie Jackson, Charlie
Wilson, Aaron Neville, Toni Braxton, Brandy, Babyface, Jon B., Tamia,
Tyrese, Kevon Edmonds, Keith Washington and many more. |
