Dwele - Greater Than One (album stream)

Pushing himself beyond the generic "neo soul" label, Detroit native Dwele has delivered consistent creativity throughout his decade-plus career. He returns on August 28 with Greater Than One, but you can listen to the record in advance right now.

Hit play below to stream Dwele's forthcoming Greater Than One right now.


Thanks to Exclaim!

The new album follows up 2010's W.ants W.orld W.omen and is preceded by latest single "The Profit," described as "an ode to women around the world."

Adding to an impressive roster of collaborations that has included J. Dilla and Kanye West, Dwele roped in Monica Blair, LaLa Hathaway, Black Milk and J Tait for Greater Than One.

Utilizing his many talents, the Grammy-nominated Dwele wrote and co-produced most of the new album, which arrives at the end of the month via RT Music Group/eOne Music.

By Sarah Murphy for Exclaim!

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Andwele Gardner (born February 14, 1978), better known by his stage name Dwele is a soul singer, songwriter and record producer from Detroit, Michigan.

Biography

Gardner was raised on the west side of Detroit in a musical family. He played piano from the age of six, later taking up trumpet, bass and guitar. He was deeply affected by the fatal shooting of his father outside his home when he was age ten, later stating "I learned to put my emotions into music; it was my therapy." He cites Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway, Roy Ayers, Miles Davis, and Freddie Hubbard as favorite artists, and took inspiration from hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest, becoming an MC, and working with Slum Village.

Gardner recorded a demo in his bedroom, called, The Rize, and sold it out of the trunk of his car. He had about 100 copies, which sold out within a week. He caught the ears of local heroes Slum Village and more specifically their world-renowned producer J Dilla. Slum Village invited Dwele to sing the hook of the song "Tainted" for their album Trinity (Past, Present and Future). It became an instant classic and led to more high profile work with female rapper Bahamadia, the all-star group Lucy Pearl and London's New Sector Movement. Dwele signed to Virgin Records in 2003, who released his debut album, Subject, which mixed neo soul and hip hop.

In a 2005 review in The Independent, his style was summed up: "Dwele's rooted in vintage soul but isn't stuck in the past, overly reverential or an exercise in pastiche - there's a major hip-hop edge which betrays his original incarnation as a rapper." A second album, Some Kinda..., followed in 2005. He then later signed with RT Music Group and KOCH records in March, 2008 He released his fourth album titled, W.ants W.orld W.omen on June 29, 2010.

Dwele was featured on the first single off of Kanye West's fifth studio album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The song is entitled "Power" and was leaked on May 28, 2010.

Dwele released the first single from his forthcoming fifth studio album called "What Profit". The song was written and produced by Mike City - the same producer behind his other singles "I Think I Love U" and "What's Not To Love". The song was released to radio on May 22, 2012.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwele

Links
http://www.dwele.com/
https://www.facebook.com/therealdwele
https://twitter.com/therealdwele
http://www.myspace.com/dwele
http://www.youtube.com/dwele24