Appeared on “American Idol” and finished in the top five (2007), which resulted in him participating in the “American Idols” tour. A singer/songwriter, in 2010 he was signed to Cash Money Records, whose current artist roster includes the likes of Drake and Nicki Minaj, among others. Nowadays he has his own record label and his own publishing company. He's hoping to release new music this summer.
"Those are the type of organic situations within the music, songwriting, that you want to happen. You don't want 'em to be forced. You don't want to have to call around and try to get inter-connected with somebody. You want someone to kind of genuinely like a record."
"Before American Idol I was working at a Hooters, working my way up in management, trying to figure out how I can scrap up some dollars to make studio sessions and pay for anything that I could music-wise."
"A year into working with Timbaland, I remember he had asked me, he was about to put out his... first album and he said, 'Hey Chris, would you be interested in being on this album?' And I'm just small ol' me from Virginia, is like, I don't have a deal or anything yet, and I'm sitting here going, 'Wow, one of my favorite producers in the world is asking me to be a part of his album'."
"I tried out three times to make it on Idol. The first two times I tried I didn't make it. I went to Greensboro and I went to New England. And I didn't make it, but I was so bound and determined that, like, the third time's the charm, that I could do it. I ended up going up to New York and giving it one more crack at the whip and I ended up making it through all the processes of the judges and all that stuff and I miraculously made it onto the show from all those thousands of people."
"It was so hard going through those cattle calls of who they would keep and who they wouldn't keep because the amount of people that showed up to those tryouts was ten thousand, ya' know, and you're sitting there going, 'Man, that's a lot of voices around. My odds are like a scratch-off right now'."
"My insight was, 'Hey, I could either sit on the shelf and possibly make Timbaland's album - my favorite producer - or I have this launching platform, which is American Idol, that could put me in front of a fan base that could create longevity for my career possibly."
"My journey's just been, it's been a rollercoaster in this music business."
"It was really cool 'cause just Idol in general to me was a quick 101 to the music business, even the touring."
"The show did provide a lot of opportunities but it didn't provide the direction that I thought that it was gonna give me, so I had to find that direction myself."
"My dad always used to tell me, 'It's not about being in the right place at the right time, it's putting yourself in the right place at the right time'. And I think that's a very key thing to remember in the music business."
"A big thing in music as an artist is to not kind of sacrifice the integrity of you, your brand, your sound."
"Joy and Pain" (feat. Tyga)
"Rear View"
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