Brian McKnight 1969–

Vocalist

College Scandal

Three Arduous Years

Change in Direction

Selected discography

Sources

Critics have compared Brian McKnight to classic soul singers of a bygone era. His smooth vocal stylings and talent for writing and producing a stirring piece of music—and one devoid of even a hint of the risqué—have earned him a devoted, largely female fan base. Yet McKnight works hard to earn new admirers as well: for his 1997 record Anytime, he expanded his horizons by working with some notable figures in rap music, with a not surprising success.

McKnight was born and lived his first eight years in Buffalo, New York, where he learned to sing while sitting on the lap of his mother. Religion was an important part of the McKnight family heritage, with several generations of Seventh-Day Adventists behind McKnight’s era; his grandfather had been minister of music for a congregation, while his mother played the piano and sang alto in the gospel choir of Buffalo’s Emanuel Temple. The youngest of four boys, McKnight became the junior member of an α capello gospel quartet with his three elder siblings. All were serious about music, and as a youngster McKnight was heavily influenced by their tastes, which ranged from the Mighty Clouds of Joy to Gino Vannelli.

When he was eight, the McKnights the McKnights moved to Orlando, Florida, and he grew into an avid and able athlete as a teen. He was a member of the football, basketball, and track teams, and even dreamed of turning pro. Yet music became more of a lure, especially after he took up the trumpet and found inspiration in the career of horn prodigy Wynton Marsalis; he was also a great admirer of the music of Stevie Wonder. He had also learned to play the piano by ear, and was a solid jazz pianist by the time he was in his teens. “Church music thrilled me, but jazz stimulated my mind,” McKnight recalled in a biography issued by his record company. By the time he finished high school, he had formed a band without his mother’s knowledge and was playing in bars.

College Scandal

In 1987, McKnight headed to Huntsville, Alabama to attend Oakwood College, a strict Christian institution that his brother Claude also attended. Yet around that same time, Claude McKnight and his gospel group Take 6 were signed to a record label, and the role-model

At a Glance…

Born June 5, 1969, in Buffalo, NY; divorced; two children. Education: Oakwood Coll., c. 1987-89. I Religion: Seventh-Day Adventist.

Career: Signed with Mercury Records, 1989; Albums: Brian McKnight, 1992, I Remember You, 1995; Anytime, 1997.

Addresses: Office —do Polygram Records, 825 Eight Ave., New York, NY 10019.

brother abandoned his studies to record in Nashville. During his own time in Huntsville, the younger McKnight made the acquaintance of a local producer named Brandon Barnes and his Sound Cell studios, and the two began working together on musical projects; from him McKnight learned the studio production wizardry he would later put to use in his own recording career. Then, in March of his sophomore year, McKnight was expelled from college for violating Oakwood’s strict rules regarding dormitory visitors; both he and his girlfriend had to leave. Incensed, his mother ordered him back home to Orlando, but he begged to stay on until June so that he could work with Barnes; McKnight told her he would come home if he did not win a record deal by then.

The setback fueled him. Working with Barnes, he wrote and recorded dozens of songs, sometimes at the rate of three a day. He then shopped his demos to record companies, and Mercury/Polygram recognized the raw talent and signed him. Yet executives at the label did not immediately let McKnight loose in the studio, instead forcing him to develop his singing and songwriting talents. “I was 19,” McKnight confessed in his record company biography. “And arrogant. You couldn’t tell me anything; couldn’t tell me how to sing or what to write. Man, I knew it all. I had a lot of growing up to do— as a person and artist,” he admitted, and praised the executive who signed him, Ed Eckstine, for his patience.

Three Arduous Years

McKnight’s debut album finally arrived in 1992. The self-titled LP hit No. 17 on the Billboard charts, and featured the single “One Last Cry.” The record went gold, and critics praised McKnight’s smooth, understated manner that distanced him greatly from the raunch of many other young R&B singers; People reviewer Jeremy Helligar characterized it as a “Moet-and-Brie style.” The success led to collaboration with actress/singer Vanessa Williams, and their duet single, “Love Is,” emerged as a Top Five hit and was featured on the soundtrack to the Fox-TV drama Beverly Hills 90210

McKnight’s rising star brought him an invitation to produce a Christmas album for the group Boyz II Men. He also kept up a disciplined schedule of songwriting and recording. For his follow-up, 1995’s I Remember You, the singer wrote 14 of its 15 tracks. The album reached No. 4 on the Billboard charts and featured the singles “Still in Love” and “(Keep It On the) Down Low.” In a Rolling Stone review, writer Richard Torres lamented the passing of the old-school soul singer who seduced, not shocked, and hailed McKnight as a throwback to this style. “McKnight revels in being a hopeless romantic who fervently believes in the healing power of love,” Torres wrote, and compared him to Smoky Robinson. Torres found I Remember You rife with “impassioned singing and understated arrangements with enough jazz and gospel flavoring to prevent clogging of the arteries.”

Change in Direction

McKnight, already a heartthrob, was able to seduce more fans with the videos for I Remember You, which were linked together thematically around a “cliffhanger” type of plot that featured McKnight in the role of a stylish secret agent/Lothario. Yet McKnight felt pulled in still other directions; he was eager to explore new territory, and the label was acquiescent. “I got tired of people thinking I was 36 when I was 26,” McKnight explained to Washington Post reporter Geoffrey Himes. “… People think I’m older because I like Armani suits and don’t wear my pants sagging down to my knees. But that’s just the way I like to dress.” McKnight asked some well-placed friends in the music industry to help him out for his 1997 release Anytime. They included Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs, who produced the first single, “You Should Be Mine”; another industry comrade, rapper Mase, guested on the track. Mary J. Blige cowrote “Hold Me” with McKnight, and much of the production work was undertaken by the renowned Trackmasterz team. “It was a double-edged sword,” McKnight admitted to Billboard writer J. R. Reynolds. “I found it very different to be recording and having other people tell me what they wanted. At the same time, hearing what they laid down really made me step up on what I did on my own.”

McKnight’s foray into uncharted territory was a success. Ebony’s Lynn Norment called the record “hot and cool and eclectic,” while other critics lauded it for revealing McKnight’s range of talents. One example is the moving, orchestral gospel track “When the Chariot Comes,” a song McKnight wrote for Anytime, and one inspired by a funeral he attended with his mother. “A lot of us assume we’re going to wake up tomorrow, but you go to a funeral and you realize that you have to live each day like it’s your last,” McKnight told Himes in the Washing-ton Post “I just tried to capture the way people responded at the service.” Still other professional triumphs occurred for McKnight in 1997: he recorded a song with Jamaican reggae artist Diana King that became the title track to the acclaimed film about Muhammad Ali, When We Were Kings; for an NBA at 50 compilation, he covered a classic track from one of his idols, Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours).”

McKnight also spends time in the studio with brother Claude’s Take 6, writing and producing tracks for them. He is divorced and the father of two children. For recreation, he plays basketball, but is more likely to spend most of his free time in the studio. “The music I write and the songs I sing must first move me,” McKnight explained in his press biography. “The sentiments must be real, the melodies must be magic. I want to create moods everyone can feel. Records don’t need to be perfect, but they do need character.”

Selected discography

Brian McKnight, Mercury 1992.

I Remember You, Mercury, 1995.

Anytime, Mercury, 1997.

Sources

Periodicals

Billboard, April 29, 1995, pp. 44; November 18, 1995, p. 100; August 2, 1997, pp. 27-28.

Black Collegian, September/October 1992, p. 52.

Ebony, November 1997.

Ebony Male, October 1995.

People, August 21, 1995, pp. 24-25.

Rolling Stone, September 21, 1995, pp. 83-84.

Washington Post, January 9, 1998; Page N15.

Other

Additional information for this profile was provided by McKnight’s record label at its Internet site at http://www.polygram.com, and on a fan site at http://www.infomatch.com/~winst/index.htlml

—Carol Brennan