b. Los Angeles, California, USA. Montell Jordan made a huge impact in both the US and UK charts in 1995 with the runaway success of his Def Jam Records' single "This Is How We Do It". Utilising a sample from Slick Rick, this celebration of life in South Central, Los Angeles, struck a chord with both hip-hop fans and modern R&B audiences. Within weeks of release it entered the US R&B Top 10 and then the pop charts, preceding a debut album of the same title. This included several B.B. King samples and a guest rap from Coolio on the excellent "Payback". The lyrics also diverged somewhat from typical Californian swing subjects - "Daddy's Home" addressing the importance of black fatherhood in the ghettos. He attributes his development in an otherwise hostile environment to the rare presence of both a father and mother as he grew up. Rather than running with the gangs in the "South Central 'hood", Jordan attended both church and school regularly, eventually graduating from Pepperdine University in Malibu with a degree in Organisational Communication. However, his growing interest in music eventually diverted him from a projected career in law. Jordan has built on the success of This Is How We Do It with a series of stylish urban R&B collections. The title track to Let's Ride, featuring No Limit Records star Master P, reached US number 2 in April 1998. The follow-up, "I Can Do That", broke into the Top 20 in September. Jordan returned to the charts in November 1999 with Get It On ... Tonite, the title track of which became a Top 5 single the following March. His self-titled album released in early 2002. He then left Def Jam Records, releasing his next album Life After Def in late 2003, under In The Paint records.
Sound Files (MP3) This Is How We Do It - from the album This Is How We Do It Somethin' 4 Da Honeyz - from the album This Is How We Do It I Like (w/Slick Rick) - from the album More... *Get It On Tonite - from the album Get It On...Tonite Let's Ride (w/Master P & Silkk the Shocker) - from the album Let's Ride *Supa Star - from the album Life After Def Get It On Tonite (Remix - w/LL Cool J) NB: MP3s with a * next to it indicates that it is located on another server. Reason being is because these MP3s exceed 5 MB and Geocities (the web host for this site) will not accept MP3s over 5 MB. These MP3s are located under the server Angelfire. So in order to download MP3s that are under this server, you must left click once on the name of the MP3 that you want to download, which will take you onto a different page (because it is on a different server, and Geocities do not allow direct links to files located on other servers) and then either left click (if you want to download the MP3 but do not want to save it) or right click, then "Save Target As..." (if you want to the save the MP3) on the name of the MP3 that you want to listen to. Easy as... |
This Is How We Do It Released: 1995 Label: Def Jam |
More... Released: 1996 Label: Def Jam |
Let's Ride Released: 1998 Label: Def Jam |
Get It On...Tonite Released: 1999 Label: Def Soul |
Montell Jordan Released: 2002 Label: Def Soul |
Life After Def Released: 2003 Label: In The Paint |