Cody Chesnutt (stylized as Cody ChesnuTT; born October 21, 1968) is an American R&B and

neo soul Neo soul (sometimes called progressive soul) is a genre of popular music. As a term, it was coined by music industry entrepreneur Kedar Massenburg during the late 1990s to market and describe a style of music that emerged from soul and con ...

musician from

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

Biography

Chesnutt's music blends elements of rock,

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the mi ...

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest att ...

, hip hop, and

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the ...

. After relocating to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

, Chesnutt found work with Death Row records, writing and producing five songs for the male R&B group Six Feet Deep. Chesnutt and his former band, The Crosswalk with James (Jaime) O'Connell, John Maggio and Jay Gordon, had a brief stint with

Hollywood Records Hollywood Records is an American record label of the Disney Music Group. The label focuses in pop, rock, alternative, hip hop, and country genres, as well as specializing in mature recordings not suitable for the flagship Walt Disney Records ...

, but they were later released from the label. The band subsequently broke up and Chesnutt released a

double LP A double album (or double record) is an audio album that spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically either records or compact disc. A double album is usually, though not always, released as such because the recording i ...

in 2002 entitled '' The Headphone Masterpiece'', which was recorded on a 4-track cassette recorder in his bedroom recording studio, which he calls "The Sonic Promiseland". His closest brush with mainstream success came in 2002, when the hip hop group

The Roots The Roots are an American hip hop band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The Roots serve as the house band on NBC's ''The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy F ...

remade a song from ''The Headphone Masterpiece'', "The Seed", for their album ''

Phrenology Phrenology () is a pseudoscience which involves the measurement of bumps on the skull to predict mental traits.Wihe, J. V. (2002). "Science and Pseudoscience: A Primer in Critical Thinking." In ''Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience'', pp. 195–203. C ...

'', as " The Seed (2.0)". Chesnutt plays

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 string ...

and sings

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

on the track, and appears in its

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devic ...

, which received heavy airplay on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

and

BET Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los ...

. At the height of his popularity, Chesnutt's backing band consisted of drummer Craig Waters, now with the band

The Bellrays The Bellrays (also capitalized as The BellRays) is an American rock group that combines garage rock and punk with soul music, founded in Riverside, California in 1990 by vocalist Lisa Kekaula and guitarist Bob Vennum. They have been with several ...

, and bassist Aaron Ebensperger. In October 2003, Cody Chesnutt was nominated for the prestigious

Shortlist Music Prize The Shortlist Music Prize, stylized as (shôrt–lĭst), was an annual music award for the best album released in the United States that had sold fewer than 500,000 copies at the time of nomination. First given as a cash prize in 2001 under ...

, and performed in the ceremony for the prize at the

Wiltern Theatre The Pellissier Building and adjoining Wiltern Theatre is a 12-story, Art Deco landmark at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue in Los Angeles, California. The entire complex is commonly referred to as the Wiltern Center. Clad in a ...

in Los Angeles, California. In 2006, Chesnutt appeared in the music documentary '' Dave Chappelle's Block Party'', which was originally recorded in September 2004. The same year, he recorded the track " Boils" for the 4AD records album ''

Plague Songs ''Plague Songs'' is an album of songs about the ten Plagues of Egypt described in the Book of Exodus performed by various artists. The songs were originally commissioned by the British arts organisation Artangel for its project The Margate Exod ...

''. On his Myspace announced an upcoming album titled ''The Live Release'', which he has been performing around the world but is yet to be released. In 2007, he performed at the

Pop Montreal POP Montreal is an annual music festival occurring in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in the early fall, usually at the end of September or the beginning of October. More than 400 bands are scheduled to play in more than 50 venues across the city, most ...

music festival as one of the headliners. In 2010 he released an EP called ''Black Skin No Value''.Cody ChesnuTT "Keeping It One Hundred" Interview on Soul Jones
souljones.com (2012-10-09). Retrieved on 2012-10-09. Furthermore, he stated in an interview that he would publish his second big album ''Landing On A Hundred'' in 2012.Interview: Cody ChesnuTT « The FADER
Thefader.com (2010-12-07). Retrieved on 2012-10-29. In 2012, Chesnutt performed live on Season 41 episode 06 of the BBC's show '' Later... with Jools Holland''. The three songs performed were "Til I Met Thee", "Under the Spell of the Handout" and "That's Still Mama". In 2020, Chesnutt wrote and performed an original song for the Pixar movie ''

Soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest att ...

'' called "Parting Ways".

Discography

Albums

*2002: '' The Headphone Masterpiece'' *2006: ''The Live Release'' (unpublished) *2010: ''Black Skin No Value'' (EP) *2012: '' Landing On A Hundred'' *2017: ''My Love Divine Degree''

Singles

* 2001: Look Good in Leather ''("AXE Instinct"-Werbespot (2009))'' *2002: "The World Is Coming" *2002: " The Seed (2.0)" ''(featuring

)'' (UK #33) *2006: "The Last Adam" *2008: "Afrobama" *2010: "Come Back Like Spring" Cody ChesnuTT
Codychesnutt.bandcamp.com (2010-04-19). Retrieved on 2012-10-29.

References

External links

Official Site Cody ChesnuTT
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chesnutt, Cody 1968 births American musicians of Jamaican descent African-American songwriters Singer-songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state) American soul musicians American neo soul singers Living people 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people