Jamie Foxx

In addition to his acclaimed work as an actor and comedian, Jamie Foxx is a multi-platinum, Grammy-winning R&B singer who specializes in slow jams -- indeed, the seductive type of R&B ballads he sings about in Twista's Kanye West-produced "Slow Jamz." Foxx broke through as a comedic actor on In Living Color, and just after that television series ended, he hit the upper half of the Billboard 200 with Peep This (1994), his debut. The chart-topping success of "Slow Jamz" and another Kanye West collaboration, "Gold Digger" -- along with an Academy Award-winning role in the Ray Charles biopic Ray -- gave Foxx a second musical wind that led to Unpredictable (2005) and Intuition (2008) each producing a platinum Top Ten pop hit, namely "Unpredictable" and "Blame It." The latter song also crowned the R&B/hip-hop chart, as did the Drake-assisted "Fall for Your Type," off Foxx's subsequent Best Night of My Life (2010). Apart from the occasional featured appearance and soundtrack contribution, Foxx kept music to the side after the release of Hollywood: A Story of a Dozen Roses (2015), his fourth Top Ten album. He returned in the mid-2020s with a cover of Bill Withers' "Grandma's Hands" and a ballad entitled "Somebody."

Foxx, born Eric Marlon Bishop, Jr., simultaneously developed his comedic, acting, and musical skills while growing up in Terrell, Texas. He played piano and led choir in his Baptist church, and went on to study composition and classical music while attending college in San Diego. In July 1994, after he established himself on In Living Color, Foxx released his debut album, Peep This, on Fox Records, an offshoot of 20th Century Fox. Despite a low profile and minimal radio presence, the album -- which saw Foxx pitched somewhere between Brian McKnight and Jodeci in terms of approach and sound -- scaled up to number 12 on Billboard's R&B/hip-hop chart and crossed into the Billboard 200 at number 78. The singles "Infatuation" and "Experiment" became his first charting singles, with the former cracking the Hot 100.

Until the release of Twista's "Slow Jamz" single in late 2003, it seemed as if Foxx's music making was merely a one-off -- something to get out of his system. The humorous hit topped the Billboard Hot 100 and reignited Foxx's affair with the music business. It also helped set the stage for his second album, released through J Records in December 2005, after he picked up an Academy Award for his lead role in the Ray Charles biopic Ray. Upon release, Unpredictable duked it out for the number one position on the Billboard 200 with Mary J. Blige's The Breakthrough. Foxx's album, featuring collaborations with Timbaland and Babyface, among many others, reached number one and eventually went platinum. The title track, as well as "DJ Play a Love Song," were Top Ten R&B/hip-hop hits.

As time allowed, the actor returned to music. Intuition, released in December 2008, was another highly collaborative set that included productions from Timbaland, Just Blaze, "Tricky" Stewart, and the-Dream. "Just Like Me" and "She Got Her Own" went Top Ten R&B/hip-hop, but the third single, "Blame It," featuring T-Pain, eclipsed them all, reaching the top of the chart and winning a Grammy for Best R&B Performance. The Drake collaboration "Fall for Your Top" became Foxx's second number one R&B single in February 2011, and led Best Night of My Life, Foxx's guest-loaded fourth album and lone effort for RCA. Hollywood: A Story of a Dozen Roses, Foxx's fifth album, arrived in May 2015 and was similarly star-studded with appearances from the likes of Chris Brown, Wale, Pharrell Williams, and Fabolous. It was Foxx's fourth consecutive Top Ten album. Later in 2015, Foxx was heard singing on the chorus of Ariana Grande's "Focus," and over the next ten years, he continued making select guest appearances on songs by artists ranging from Barbra Streisand to Pop Smoke to Solomun. In 2022, he partnered with J Young MDK and Sam Pounds to record "BUD (Mowing Down Vamps)" for his film Day Shift, and he also performed two original holiday songs for Hip Hop Family Christmas Wedding, which he executive-produced. Foxx covered Bill Withers' "Grandma's Hands" in 2025, and in 2026 issued his own "Somebody." ~ Andy Kellman