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Factsheet

• Dropped out of high school in the 11th grade, but eventually earned her GED.
• Her demo tape was a karaoke-type recording of Anita Baker's "Caught Up in the Rapture" that she made at a mall when she was 17. It wound up in the hands of Uptown Records exec Andre Harrell, who signed her.
• Sean Combs was her musical mentor, helping to produce her 1992 debut album, What's the 411?, and its follow-up, 1994's My Life.
• What's the 411? sold more than two million copies and helped establish what was then termed "New Jack Swing" (a blend of soul and hip-hop).
• Made her acting debut in a 1998 episode of The Jamie Foxx Show.
• In 2004, appeared in the off-Broadway play The Exonerated.
• Started her own record label, Matriarch Records.