Roy Davis Jr.'s much-anticipated, all-new full-length album will be released worldwide September 28, 2004 and contains three tracks with Detroit R&B singer Terry Dexter (including “If You Wanna," a Miami Conference pick and Billboard chart hit) as well as appearances from Ayro, Common, Waajeed, and Khalid.
With recent DJ gigs racking-up airmiles between Russia, France, Canada and all over the USA, a steady stream of production work for Warners, and a potential radio show in the works, a newly invigorated Roy Davis Jr. is finally ready to drop his musical “thank you" to the city he grew up in.
Chicago Forever was originally slated for release in the fall of 2003. But Roy Davis Jr. lost his mother, went through a divorce, and moved away from family to Los Angeles. The events from the past two or three years have made this the most difficult album he has ever produced. “I almost lost inspiration, and felt like I was wasting time making music," explains Davis Jr. “But the last thing my Mom had said was “don't you ever stop making your music!" Thinking about her, all the things I have in my life, and my faith has kept me going," he adds.
As if a mother's last words weren't enough motivation to get him in the studio he has also become determined to elevate the current perception of dance music from novelty status back to a genre that's as popular as any other black music, back to the days when Chicago house ruled the dance floor and set him out on his own career.
“The soulless dance music that most people have access to is so commercialized and sugar coated. The best tunes are so often underground now - it's time to take this black music from the hoods of Chicago, Detroit, LA, etc, back over the top," explains Davis Jr. “My approach is to merge aspects of more popular genres like soul and hip hop into my sound because there's a younger generation that may not have grown up on dance music like I did. And it's important to have better songs at varied tempos so the tracks are not always at 127 or 125 bpm."
Prior to the album release two singles have dropped on Ubiquity. Featuring vocals by Ubiquity label mate Jeremy “Ayro" Ellis and another Detroit native Terry Dexter, the latter single spent ten weeks on the Billboard Dance Chart. It's a hugely uplifting dance floor production complete with strings and keys by Tomi (of Babyface fame). Terry Dexter (not to be confused with Julie Dexter or Terry Walker!) has worked with Eric Benet, Jaheim, The Black Eyed Peas and Raphael Saadiq and recently had her acting debut in Focus Features “Deliver Us From Eva" playing the part of Natalie and performing a stirring rendition of “Amazing Grace." The two met years ago when Roy remixed a single for Dexter that ended up going Top 5 at Billboard. The album also features plenty of exclusive unreleased tracks - cameo interlude appearances from Common and Roy's son Caleb, co-production with Platinum Pied Pipers Waajeed, an uplifting gospel tinged “Heavenly Father" a dance floor bound “My Soul is Electric," two unreleased tracks featuring Terry Dexter and a tribute to the Chicago Steppers genre.
Davis Jr. also appeared on Rewind II - producing and singing a cover of Curtis Mayfield's “People Get Ready" - an apt way to start a project inspired by the music of Chicago. Expect a slew of live and DJ dates around the world to follow.
Born in Van Nuys California he moved at the age of 1 to the southern suburbs of Chicago. Apart from 3 years in Tennessee Davis Jr. lived there until his move to Los Angeles in 2003.
He was introduced to dance music by late 1980s legends DJ Pierre, Farley Jackmaster Funk, and Lil' Louis,
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