NEW YORK (Top40 Charts/ Capitol Records) - Entering the national Billboard Top 200 album sales chart at No. 4,
Music Line Group/Capitol Records singer-songwriter
J. Holiday sets a new personal chart record in the first week of release of his second studio album, ROUND 2.
Meanwhile, the album's first single and video, the melodic and penetrating 'It's Yours,' continues its winning ways, bulleting solidly into the top 15 of urban-formatted radio playlists nationally. Critical reception of the album has been as strong as the fan reaction: Holiday is 'out to set hearts on fire,' commented an admiring USA Today; Giant Magazine termed the album 'perfectly pitched,' and Billboard called the album a 'must-have.'
The lushly emotional and musically accomplished ROUND 2 follows 22-year old Washington, DC native Holiday's near-platinum debut album BACK OF MY 'LAC, which entered the Billboard Top 200 at No. 5 in October 2007, establishing his first chart record. That album featured the R&B No. 1/Hot 100 No. 5 'Bed,' and the R&B No. 2/Hot 100 Top 20 'Suffocate.' It was also a Grammy Award nominee for Contemporary R&B Album, while garnering nominations for Holiday in the American Music Awards and BET Awards. In the past year, Holiday has toured with R Kelly, Keyshia Cole, Ne-Yo and Trey Songz, and he joined Fat Joe on the radio and club smash 'I Won't Tell.'
Among Holiday's production collaborators on ROUND 2 are 'It's Yours' creators Big Reese and Jasper Cameron of the StreetLove team (with respective credits including Mario, T.I., Pink, Ciara and Christina Aguilera), Jasper (who worked on Lloyd's hits 'You' and 'All Around The World') and the CoStars (whose credits include Teairra Marie's 'Make A Girl Feel').
J's MySpace website, www.myspace.com/jholiday - with over 19.5 million profile views, 375,000 friends, and nearly 39 million total music plays - is populated with pages of photos, music downloads, blog entries, and videos, as well as messages posted to the artist.
In addition to full-length versions of 'Bed,' streamed 7.6 million times, and 'Suffocate,' streamed nearly 10 million times, the site features the ROUND 2 album for streaming in entirety. J's first single, 'It's Yours' from the Round 2 has been streamed 8.5 million times and album favorites, 'Make That Sound' and 'Forever Ain't Enough' have both jumped off to nearly 300,000 streams. Rick Ross joins J. in 'Wrong Lover,' and the compassionate observation 'Homeless' is the artist's first expression of concern in a planned awareness campaign and establishment of a foundation to assist those in need.
Twenty-two year-old singer/songwriter J. Holiday signed to Capitol Records through his association with Corey Green and A&R veteran Anthony 'T.A' Tate of Music Line Group. A preachers' son, raised in the church by a hardworking mother, J. is a classic rhythm and blues storyteller, updating the classic styles of Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, Donny Hathaway, and Al Green with the hard hip-hop of Jay-Z and OutKast, as well as elements of the new R&B vocal-group sound pioneered by Boyz II Men, and Jodeci.
