Cody Chesnutt (stylized as Cody ChesnuTT; born October 21, 1968) is an American R&B and

neo soul Neo soul (sometimes called progressive soul) is a genre of popular music. As a term, it was coined by music industry entrepreneur Kedar Massenburg during the late 1990s to market and describe a style of music that emerged from Soul music, soul ...

musician from

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

Biography

Chesnutt's music blends elements of rock,

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

, soul, hip hop, and

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

. After relocating to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, Chesnutt found work with Death Row records, writing and producing five songs for the male R&B group Six Feet Deep. Chesnutt and his former band, The Crosswalk with James (Jaime) O'Connell, John Maggio and Jay Gordon, had a brief stint with

Hollywood Records Hollywood Records is an American record label owned by the Disney Music Group which focuses on pop, rock, alternative, hip hop and country genres, also specializing in recordings for a more mature audience not suitable for the flagship Wal ...

, but they were later released from the label. The band subsequently broke up and Chesnutt released a double LP in 2002 entitled '' The Headphone Masterpiece'', which was recorded on a 4-track cassette recorder in his bedroom recording studio, which he calls "The Sonic Promiseland". His closest brush with mainstream success came in 2002, when the hip hop group The Roots remade a song from ''The Headphone Masterpiece'', "The Seed", for their album '' Phrenology'', as " The Seed (2.0)". Chesnutt plays

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

and sings

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

on the track, and appears in its

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

, which received heavy airplay on MTV and BET. At the height of his popularity, Chesnutt's backing band consisted of drummer Craig Waters, now with the band The Bellrays, and bassist Aaron Ebensperger. In October 2003, Cody Chesnutt was nominated for the prestigious Shortlist Music Prize, and performed in the ceremony for the prize at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, California. In 2006, Chesnutt appeared in the music documentary '' Dave Chappelle's Block Party'', which was originally recorded in September 2004. The same year, he recorded the track " Boils" for the 4AD records album '' Plague Songs''. On his Myspace announced an upcoming album titled ''The Live Release'', which he has been performing around the world but is yet to be released. In 2007, he performed at the Pop Montreal music festival as one of the headliners. In 2010 he released an EP called ''Black Skin No Value''.Cody ChesnuTT "Keeping It One Hundred" Interview on Soul Jones
souljones.com (2012-10-09). Retrieved on 2012-10-09. Furthermore, he stated in an interview that he would publish his second big album ''Landing On A Hundred'' in 2012.Interview: Cody ChesnuTT « The FADER
Thefader.com (2010-12-07). Retrieved on 2012-10-29. In 2012, Chesnutt performed live on Season 41 episode 06 of the BBC's show '' Later... with Jools Holland''. The three songs performed were "Til I Met Thee", "Under the Spell of the Handout" and "That's Still Mama". In 2020, Chesnutt wrote and performed an original song for the Pixar movie '' Soul'' called "Parting Ways".

Discography

Albums

*2002: '' The Headphone Masterpiece'' *2006: ''The Live Release'' (unpublished) *2010: ''Black Skin No Value'' (EP) *2012: '' Landing On A Hundred'' *2017: ''My Love Divine Degree''

Singles

*2001: "Look Good in Leather" ''("AXE Instinct"-Werbespot (2009))'' *2002: "The World Is Coming" *2002: " The Seed (2.0)" ''(featuring The Roots)'' (UK #33) *2006: "The Last Adam" *2008: "Afrobama" *2010: "Come Back Like Spring" Cody ChesnuTT
Codychesnutt.bandcamp.com (2010-04-19). Retrieved on 2012-10-29.

References

External links

Official Site Cody ChesnuTT
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chesnutt, Cody 1968 births American musicians of Jamaican descent African-American songwriters Singer-songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state) American soul musicians American neo soul singers Living people 21st-century African-American musicians 20th-century African-American musicians