Robert Lavelle Huggar, better known by his initials RL, is an American singer and songwriter who gained fame as the lead singer of the R&B group

Next NeXT, Inc. (later NeXT Computer, Inc. and NeXT Software, Inc.) was an American technology company headquartered in Redwood City, California that specialized in computer workstations for higher education and business markets, and later develope ...

Early life

Robert Lavelle Huggar was born in

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

Fronted by Huggar and brothers Terry Brown and Raphael Brown, Next was introduced to producer and DJ artist

KayGee Keir Lamont Gist (born September 15, 1969), professionally known by his stage name KayGee, is an American DJ and record producer from East Orange, New Jersey, best known as a member of hip hop trio Naughty by Nature. He has won a Grammy Award ...

from Naughty by Nature. Subsequently, they signed with KayGee's newly formed Divine Mill record label, which, at the time, was distributed through

Arista Records Arista Records ( ) is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was previously a division of Bertelsmann Music G ...

Solo work

RL first distinguished himself outside of Next with his duet with

Deborah Cox Deborah Cox (born July 13, 1974) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer. Born and raised in Toronto, she began performing on television commercials at age 12, and entered various talent shows in her teenage years before ...

on the song "We Can't Be Friends" as well as other feature projects. RL followed up that effort with "The Best Man I Can Be", the super-group track from ''The Best Man'' movie soundtrack which also featured

Ginuwine Elgin Baylor Lumpkin (born October 15, 1970), better known by his stage name Ginuwine ( ), is an American R&B singer. He began his career as a member of the musical collective Swing Mob in the early 1990s. As a solo act, he signed with Epic R ...

, Tyrese and

Case Case or CASE may refer to: Instances * Instantiation (disambiguation), a realization of a concept, theme, or design * Special case, an instance that differs in a certain way from others of the type Containers * Case (goods), a package of relate ...

. By the time RL's soulful "Good Love" (from ''The Brothers'' movie soundtrack) and his hook to

2Pac Tupac Amaru Shakur (; born Lesane Parish Crooks; June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), also known by his stage names 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper and actor, regarded as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all tim ...

's ''Until the end of Time'' were released, he had created an artistic persona distinct and separate from

. ''RL: Ements'' is RL's debut solo project and was released on

J Records J Records was an American record label owned and operated by Bertelsmann Music Group until it was transferred to Sony Music Entertainment when they acquired all of BMG's record labels in late 2008 at the end of their merger. It was distribut ...

. It spawned the singles "Got Me a Model" (featuring

Erick Sermon Erick Sermon (born November 25, 1968) is an American rapper and producer. He is best known as one-third—alongside PMD & DJ Scratch—of 1980s/1990s hip hop group EPMD and for his production work. Early life Erick Sermon was born on November ...

) and "Good Man".

Personal life

Huggar has a son, Charles, with his first wife. In October 2017, he married Lena Danielle. Their daughter was born in January 2018.

Discography

Albums

Singles

As songwriter

Other notable songwriting credits

References

External links

Official website
20th-century African-American male singers 20th-century American male singers 20th-century American singers American contemporary R&B singers Living people Singers from Minneapolis 21st-century American singers 21st-century American male singers 21st-century African-American male singers Year of birth missing (living people) Washburn High School (Minnesota) alumni {{US-RnB-singer-stub