David, Craig 1981–

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Craig David 1981–

Singer

In the summer of 2000, Craig David’s debut recording, Born to Do It, made him an instant celebrity at 19 in his native Britain. The assemblage of dance-oriented R&B songs earned accolades from critics and achieved platinum several times over. The recording’s first single, “Fill Me In,” made David the youngest British male singer to have a No. 1 hit in his country. Journalists called him a talent to watch, praising David’s impressive tenor as well as his song-writing abilities. “David has a genuinely remarkable vocal style, displaying a luxurious tone and athletic flexibility of a kind rarely heard in British pop,” declared music critic Neil McCor-mick of London’s Telegraph newspaper. Not long after Born to Do It was released in the United States, the record made it into the Top 20 on the charts.

Observer journalist Akin Ojumu described David as “that rarest of things: a homegrown soul star.” The young singer is a product of Britain’s multicultural society, born to a white Jewish mother and a Grenadian carpenter in 1981. But the Davids separated not long after their son’s birth, and David was raised by his mother, a sales clerk. They lived in a relatively impoverished area of Southampton, a port city on the English Channel, where David grew up listening to the records of American stars like Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson. He had little knowledge of his father’s previous career as a reggae musician with a group called the Ebony Rockers, but when he himself showed an interest in making music, his father attempted to steer him toward classical guitar. “I loved the guitar, but I wasn’t really feeling these classical songs,” David told Entertainment Weekly writer Rob Brunner. “I wanted to sing.”

Teen DJ Sensation

His chance came one night when he was just 14, at the West Indian social club to which his father belonged, when the DJ handed him the microphone. “I was just kind of harmonizing, singing, ad-libbing,” David recalled in the interview with Brunner. He began MC-ing, or rapping over the songs of others, with the DJ and others, and soon gained a measure of local celebrity. The extracurricular activities often kept him out quite late, but David recalled that his parents were supportive. “I chose my friends carefully, and they knew I had my head on my shoulders,” he said in the Entertainment Weekly interview. “I wasn’t gallivanting around being an idiot.” At home, his bedroom contained an array of instruments

At a Glance…

Born Craig Ashley David on May 5, 1981, in Southampton, England; son of George (a carpenter) and Tina (a sales clerk) David, Education: Attended Southampton City College.

Career: Worked as a disc jockey in Southampton, England, and host of pirate radio show, mid-1990s; signed to Wildstar Records, c. 1999; debut LP, Born to Do It, released in the United Kingdom, 2000, released in the United States, 2001.

Addresses: Record company—Atlantic Records, 9229 Sunset Blvd., 9th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90069-2474.

and turntables, and he began writing songs on his own. Entering a contest at the age of 15, he won first prize with “I’m Ready,” a song recorded by a successful group in the United Kingdom called Damage. He also hosted his own show on a pirate, or unlicenced, radio station.

Though David worked toward an engineering degree at Southampton City College, his career plans took a new turn in 1997 when he struck up a friendship with an older musician, Mark Hill, of Artful Dodger. The band was a well-known “garage” outfit, the term used to denote a style of drum-and-bass, house-music, and R&B elements in the U.K. music scene also called two-step. David worked with Hill in the studio and appeared as a guest vocalist on an Artful Dodger track, “Re-Rewind,” in late 1999. David and Hill also had a minor hit with “What Ya Gonna Do?,” which “caused a storm on the underground scene,” David recalled in the article by Brunner. “Bristol, London, Manchester … we were just amazed. We were these guys from Southampton, and we’d made a record that was getting five-star reviews. It was crazy.” The success led David to a contract with Wildstar Records to record his own songs.

Vaulted to Top of Charts

Produced by his friend Hill, David’s Born to Do It appeared in British record stores in early 2000. Its soulful R&B songs, like “Last Night” and “Follow Me,” appealed to fans, and the first single, “Fill Me In,” about a girl whose budding romance is repeatedly thwarted by her parents, reached No. 1 in April. David was amazed at its success, for he could easily recall the day when he had written it in his bedroom. “Like, in a small confined space writing a song to then be embraced by thousands of people, millions of people, it’s like I can’t believe it,” he enthused in an interview with Carol McDaid of the Observer.

The work won positive accolades from the music press. Ojumu called it “an inoffensive, sunny confection, sprinkled with Spanish guitar touches and accessible lyrics” in the Observer article, while the Telegraph’s McCormick commended its “superbly crafted songs” that proved David’s talent as “a clever lyricist with a knack for concise story-telling and an unerringly melodic sensibility.” McDaid, writing for the Observer, praised the work as possessing “something for everyone: Spanish guitar, tasteful strings, great melodies, storyboard lyrics, two-step basslines and that gorgeous, athletic voice.” David noted that his experiences as a DJ were crucial to his success as a songwriter. “It gave me a really good idea of what works and what doesn’t in terms of structure,” David told another Telegraph writer, Ben Thompson. “Even in the course of a three-and-a-half minute tune, the crowd gets tired, and you have to know how to get them going: do they want to hear the bridge again?”

Achieved International Success

Soon David was a bona-fide celebrity in the United Kingdom, selling out concert arenas and his every move chronicled in the press. In late 2000, the Observer’s Ojumu reviewed a performance in David’s hometown of Southampton, where his popularity had reached massive proportions. During the show, David sang much of Born to Do It, but also performed songs from Usher (“Nice and Slow”) R. Kelly (“Did You Ever Think”)-a choice of covers, Ojumu noted, that “hints at something more interesting in his future. The former is a showy ballad that lets his heartfelt voice soar and the latter gives the audience a rare chance to jump up and down as David raps and stomps across the stage.”

David and his debut LP earned nominations for six “Brit” awards, the United Kingdom’s equivalent to the Grammy but lost in all categories. Still, the record had attracted some notable fans, including Sir Elton John, Macy Gray, Sean “P-Diddy” Combs, and Sisqo, and went on to sell 5 million copies around the world. It was released in the United States on the Atlantic label in the summer of 2001, but David was cognizant of the fact that few male British pop acts had achieved lasting stardom in the North American market. “There are so many great artists here in the U.S.,” David told Los Angeles Times writer Steve Hochman. “It’s a different culture. I feel I have a different approach, being a DJ and rapping in my songs as well as singing.” Again, the record garnered positive critical accolades. David’s voice, noted Entertainment Weekly critic Will Hermes, “slides and skips over sparkling arrangements. Melodies get sketched out by acoustic guitar, harp, or harpsichord; bells and wind chimes up the tinkle factor. And the rhythms bump along, busy but refined, nodding to American R&B scientist Timbaland just as he nods (admittedly or not) to British DJ music.”

“David seems devoid of the egotism that so often accompanies youthful success,” observed McCormick in the Telegraph. Though his daily life and possible romantic links were avidly chronicled in the British press, he rarely gave the tabloids any salacious headlines for bad behavior. “I don’t feel like I’ve achieved anything yet,” he told McCormick. “I’ve got such a long way to go, I don’t want to get caught up in any of the rock and roll kind of lifestyle because these early stages of my career are the most important and to throw it all away by making stupid mistakes is something I’d regret for the rest of my life.”