Monday, December 3, 2007

DAMON THOMAS

Damon Thomas

Damon Thomas is Kim Kardashian's ex-husband. Not a lot

of people know that, but it's true:

A little known fact about Kim Kardashian is that she has

been married before. She use to be married to record

producer Damon Thomas. The two were married for four

years before splitting in 2004.

Damon Thomas might not be famous for that but he's

reawsonably well known as a music producer:

Courtesy:
http://timworstall.typepad.com/timworstall/

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Damon Thomas

Some people seem destined to do certain things. Damon

Thomas, one-half of the multi-platinum production duo the

Underdogs, seemed destined to spend his life making

music. Thomas, a Kansas City native and pianist since

age five, has been a songwriter most of his life, showing

glimpses of his talent even at an early age. He knew it too.

In fact, when his mother gave him the choice of recording

equipment or a car for his 16th birthday, he instantly

jumped on the equipment and has never looked back. By

age 18, he had moved out to Los Angeles, and working on

a variety of projects, hoping to catch a break.

Mainstream work came knocking on his door with work on

Brandy's self-titled debut album, and Damon found himself

co-writing "I'm Yours" for the 4x platinum set. A year later,

he began working with recording artist and super-producer

Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, and continued to develop

his musical abilities as a songwriter as one of Face's

writing partners.

The payoff was a series of Top Ten songwriting

collaborations, including "These Are The Times" by Dru

Hill, "Most Girls" by Pink and "Never Gonna Let You Go"

by Faith Evans, which peaked at #1 on Billboard's Hot

R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart in 1999. He also sat at the

boards for an array of artists from Gladys Knight to 2Pac,

and was in fact the last producer to work with 2Pac before

his death in 1996.

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Despite all of his success, he soon felt that moving onto

other projects was the next step, and in 2001 he called

fellow camp writer Harvey Mason, Jr. about working

together on a track. The two had met a few years earlier

when Damon approached Rodney Jerkins' Darkchild

Entertainment team about working on a track together,

and he remembered Mason's work for the likes of Toni

Braxton and Brian McKnight. Mason too was ready to step

out from being a camp writer, so Thomas proposed a

collaboration. The finished product was 2001's "I Like

Them Girls," the lead single from Tyrese's 2000 Watts

album.

What had originally been planned as a single collaboration

soon became a songwriting machine, as the duo of

Thomas and Mason began working with a clientele that

included pop sensations B2K and Stacie Orrico, and R&B

veteran Brian McKnight. Their songs soon enough caught

the eye of BMG North America CEO Clive Davis, who at

the time had left his position at Arista Records to start his

own label, J Records. He enlisted the Underdogs to

contribute a track to the J's first artist, Olivia, and that was

the first in a series of projects for Davis' imprint. In 2002,

Tyrese signed with J, and the Underdogs ended up

contributing over half of the tracks for his gold-certified I

Wanna Go There album. That year, Davis, who had just

finished showcasing Alicia Keys to the world, introduced

his newest prodigy, 15-year old Mario, and when it came

time to produce Mario's debut, he called on-who else-

Thomas and Mason. They offered up three tracks, and

Mario's self-titled album went gold.

2003 was the Underdogs' biggest year yet with the

addition of their high-profile work with first-season

American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson, and they contributed

two songs to the double-platinum debut. When Ruben

Studdard won the second season, Thomas found himself

working with a familiar face-Babyface, that is-on Ruben's

first single, "Flying Without Wings," which was produced

by Face and the Underdogs. After that hit Top Ten status,

the Underdogs had repeat success with "Sorry 2004,"

which pushed the album to double-platinum status.

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The year ended with Thomas' first-ever Grammy

nomination, for Album of the Year, with the Underdogs

having worked on Justin Timberlake's nominated debut

Justified. Though Outkast eventually won the award, the

nomination was a great way to cap a year the Underdogs

hope to eclipse in 2004.

Thomas and his partner have logged studio time with

familiar faces Tyrese, Mario, and Studdard, while working

on new projects by Donnell Jones, Omarion, Avant,

Marques Houston, and Craig David. Also in the works are

tracks for industry veterans Charlie Wilson, Toni Braxton,

Babyface, and the Backstreet Boys and emerging stars

Houston, JoJo, and American Idol's third-season winner

Fantasia. If that wasn't enough, the Underdogs recently

signed an exclusive label deal with Davis' J Records, and

are working on the debut release of their first artist, Luke &

Q, while continuing to take on projects from a who's who

list of pop and urban music's finest. It seems like Damon's

decisions have been paying off, ever since his mother's

original proposal.

Courtesy
http://www.emimusicpub.com/worldwide/artist_profile/dam

on-thomas_profile.html

Thanks for being

interested...


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