Trey Songz was born November the 28, 1984, in Petersburg Virginia. His mother was only 17 when she had him and he was brought up as a military brat by his mother and his stepfather. In his early life Trey didn't have any aspirations to be in the music industry because of his shyness. In an interview he said that "singing wasn't reality for me, until people started noticing I sounded good". Trey only began to notice his voice at the age of 14. He began performing with encouragement by friends and family in high school. He was discovered by his producer Troy Taylor during a talent show in 2000, which led him to a singing contract record with Atlantic records in 2002. Trey graduated from high school in 2002, and he moved to New Jersey to begin recording his debut album, though recording did not actually begin until 2003. Trey is in the R&B, Hip Hop genre.
While still working on the album in 2004, Trey released multiple mix tapes under moniker Prince of Virginia. He finally dropped his first effort "I Gotta Make It" in 2004. Featuring guest appearances from Twista, Aretha Franklin and Juvenile, it climbed to No. 20 on Billboard Hot 200. It was a good chart performance, considering that he was just a new artist back then. Two singles from the album, "Gotta Go" and "Gotta Make It", peaked at No. 11 and 21 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop charts. The album's second and final single, Gotta Go, was released in July 2005 and reached #67 on the Hot 100 and #11 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, becoming even more successful than his debut single in the R&B/urban community and in the mainstream community.
In mid- 2006, Trey began to work on a follow up album to his debut with his long time collaborator Troy Taylor and also employed hit makers Bryan-Michael Cox, Danja, Stargate and R. Kelly to help create the album. Trey aimed for the album to be more mainstream-oriented than his debut album. His second studio album, Trey Day, was released on October 2, 2007. The album reached #11 on the Billboard 200
, selling 73,000 copies in its first week. It has since sold 400,000 records in the US, becoming his second album not to be certified by the RIAA. The album was going to be released on May 8, 2007, but was continually delayed in order for a successful single to precede the album, as the lead single failed to impact charts.
This picture on the left was Trey songs performing "Wonder Woman" on his second album in 2007. Wonder Woman as the lead single on Treys second album which was released in February 2007. However it only reached #54 in the R&B/Hip-Hop song chart and it also failed to have any impact on the Hot 100 because of the singles failure , his second album was delayed from May 2007 to October 2007.
On that same album he had a second single which was ' Cant Help But Wait' and this song was released in August 2007. it was released to promote his album due to his first single not making much impact in the industry. It also helped promote the iconic franchise of Step up the film however this particular song was heard in 'Step Up 2 The Streets'. ' Cant Help But Wait' done very good for its self helping Trey reach the top 20 on the Hot 100 charts and that helped boost his second albums sales.
That same song was also nominated for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance at the 2008 50th Grammy Awards The third single from the album, "Last Time", was released in January 2008 and reached #69 on the Hot 100, and #9 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The fourth and final single from the album, "Missin' You", was released in May 2008, but failed to chart completely. In mid-2008, Songz was nominated for a BET Award for Best Male R&B Artist but did not win the award.
The picture above shows the Nominees for the BET Best R&B male for 2008 an its shows that Trey was nominated but unfortunately did not win.
Towards the end of 2008 Trey began to work on one of his best albums to date 'Ready and Passion, Pain and Pleasure' . He teamed up with Micheal Cox, Sean Garrett, Stargate and Troy Taylor. His 'Ready' album was released on the 31st of August 2009. The album reached #3 on the billboard 200 and sold over 131,000 copies in its first week. The album has since sold over 1,000,000 records in the US, earning a Platinum certification from the RIAA in June 2014, becoming his first Platinum album.
Treys fourth studio album, Passion, Pain & Pleasure, was released on September 14, 2010. Trey began work on the album in early 2010 with Sean Garrett, Troy Taylor and Stargate and has stated that the album will be his most personal to date. The album was completed in July 2010. The album's lead single, "Bottoms Up", featuring female rapper Nicki Minaj, was released on July 27, 2010 and has reached number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming his biggest hit to date. The single has since been certified 3x Platinum. Its video was filmed on July 31, 2010 and is pending release. Trey also filmed the video for the album's second single,
This is a live performance of Trey singing 'Cant Be Friends' in 2012.
Following the success of his 'Passion, Pain and Pleasure' Trey went on to create his Fifth album 'Chapter V' In an interview Trey said the album, which will act as the follow-up to Passion, Pain & Pleasure, is said to be nearing completion. He also carried on to say "It’s my sixth year in the game so I've been here for a while now. You can expect the best me you've ever heard. I don’t have any release dates in mind right now but I’m just making music and enjoying myself in the studio and having fun. When I get to a place where I feel comfortable saying a date or all of that, people will definitely know. I have a few dream collaborations on that album that I want, but they say if you blow out your candle and make a wish you can’t tell people what you ask for or it won’t come true". Chapter 5 became treys first US number-one album.
On the 30 of June Trey released his most recent album which is 'Trigga' where the song 'Smartphones' is from which is the song i am doing form my media project. Trey began recording this album way back in June of 2013 when being interviewed on a radio station. On this album he had collaboration with Nicki Minaj, Ty Dolla $ign, Justin Bieber and Juicy J.
Trey Songz is talented in a wide range of things he has also been in a in few films and documentaries such as:
This is a brief clip of Trey Songz in Baggage Claim
(Trey being interviewed by Larry King June 2014)
Here Trey is just talking about how he has to maintain his image to his 90% female fan base and how if he decides to pick to a woman that his fan don't necessarily like, his fan base will decrease.
(UK interview of Trey Songz May 2011)
This video is a side of Trey that as an audience we make him out to be due to his music and here we can confirm that he is very flirtatious.
