''True to Myself'' is the debut album of R&B singer

Eric Benét Eric Benét Jordan (born October 15, 1967) is an American R&B/neo soul singer-songwriter and actor, who has received a total of four Grammy nominations to date for his musical work. Biography Early life Benét was born on October 15, 1966 ...

. It was released by on

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

on September 24, 1996 in the United States.Amazon.com
/ref> It was his first outing as a solo artist after the dissolution of his former group Benét, which he formed with his sister Lisa Jordan and cousin George Nash, Jr. Benét received his deal with Warner Bros. Records from former

EMI Records EMI Records (formerly EMI Records Ltd.) is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British flagship label by the music company of the same name in 1972, and launched in January 1973 as the succ ...

executive Alison Ball-Gabriel after corporate shakeups caused his former group to be dropped by the record label. Benet produced most of his debut with Demonté Posey and George Nash, Jr., both of whom would work with him on his later recordings. In 1995, he released the song "Let's Stay Together", which originally appeared on the

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

of the 1996

Martin Lawrence Martin Fitzgerald LawrenceStated in interview on ''Inside the Actors Studio'' (born April 16, 1965) is an American comedian and actor. He came to fame during the 1990s, establishing a Hollywood career as a leading actor. He got his start playin ...

film ''

A Thin Line Between Love and Hate ''A Thin Line Between Love and Hate'' is a 1996 American comedy thriller film. It tells the story of Darnell Wright (Martin Lawrence), a ladies' man who finds himself stalked by one of his obsessed lovers: Brandi (Lynn Whitfield), an attractive ...

''. The music video to the song was directed by

Charles Stone III Charles Stone III (born 1966) is an American film director. He is best known for ''Drumline'' starring Nick Cannon, '' Mr. 3000'' starring Bernie Mac, and '' Paid in Full''. Stone directed the video to " What They Do" by The Roots, featuring t ...

. The second single released from ''True to Myself'' was the

McG The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as "The 'G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hem ...

directed "Spiritual Thang". The album's biggest hit was the third single "Femininity", which was directed by a then-unknown

Francis Lawrence Francis Lawrence (born March 26, 1971) is an Austrian-born American filmmaker and producer. After establishing himself as a director of music videos and commercials, Lawrence made his feature-length directorial debut with the superhero thrille ...

. "Femininity" also featured an appearance from then-unknown rapper

Tiye Phoenix Polyrhythm Addicts is a hip hop group composed of DJ Spinna, Mr Complex, Shabaam Sahdeeq, and Tiye Phoenix. The lineup on its first album included Apani B, but she was replaced by Phoenix when the group reunited in 2007. Polyrhythm Addicts ...

, who played a pregnant woman in the music video. The title track was the fourth and final single released from the album with a video directed by

Joseph Kahn Joseph Kahn may refer to: *Joseph Kahn (director) (born 1972), a film and music video director *Joseph Kahn (journalist) (born 1964), American journalist * Joseph Kahn (shipping executive) (1916–1979), American businessman See also *Joseph Hahn ...

Critical reception

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

editor Leo Stanley called found that "the album suffers from inconsistent material which prevents it from being a thoroughly impressive debut. As it stands, ''True'' to Myself is merely an appealing, promising collection of soul that usually straddles the line between classic and urban soul quite skillfully."

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes.Eric Benet - True To Myself (CD liner notes). Warner Bros. Records. 46270-2 Performers and musicians * George Nash, Jr. –

Guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

Drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

Clavinet The Clavinet is an electrically amplified clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds by a rubber pad striking a point on a tension ...

* Demonte Posey –

Keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

, Drums,

Melodica The melodica is a handheld free-reed instrument similar to a pump organ or harmonica. It features a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. The keyboard usual ...

* Mark Lomax – Drums * Warren Crawford –

Bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

* Rio – Bass * Skeeta – Bass, Guitar * Gumby – Guitar * Eric "Kenya" Baker – Guitar * Christian Warren – Keyboards, Drums,

Fender Rhodes The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, th ...

Piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

* Curtis "Sauce" Wilson – Drums * Roger Troutman – Keyboards, Bass, Guitar,

Vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder was ...

* Tyrone W. Griffin –

Trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

* Fernando Harkless –

Saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

* Steve Baxter –

Trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

* Barbara "Bobbi" Schneider –

Violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

* Paul Gminder –

Cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

* Eric Benét, Lisa Jordan-Weathers –

Background vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are used ...

* Alison Ball-Gabriel –

Executive Producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights o ...

Recording engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, ...

– Eric Benét, Demonte Posey and George Nash, Jr., Roger Troutman, Hilary Bercovici, Skeeta * Mixing: Eric Benét, Demonte Posey and George Nash, Jr., Kevin "K.D." Davis, Roger Troutman, Hilary Bercovici, Skeeta * Mastering:

Brian Gardner Brian Knapp Gardner, also known as Brian "Big Bass" Gardner, is an American mastering engineer. He has worked on a number of recordings since the mid-1960s, including classic rock, funk, disco, alternative rock, R&B, hip hop, pop punk and dance- ...

* Brad Hitz –

Photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

* Terry Robertson, Stephen Walker – Art Direction * Stephen Walker – Design

Charts

Release history

References

{{Eric Benét 1996 debut albums Eric Benét albums Warner Records albums Funk albums by American artists