“Then & Now” is a celebrity series highlighting legacy acts in hip-hop, R&B and beyond with fresh reflections on the hit songs that once soundtracked our lives.
Lloyd has a unique position in R&B. With over 15 years in the game, the singer-songwriter is well aware of how broad his fan base is and how his sound is appreciated by his peers. “I’m the youngest cat at the old school R&B show now,” he shared in VIBE’s Then And Now series about performances with legends like Keith Sweat. Co-signs from singers like Sweat and praise from artists like Drake, Lil Wayne and Childish Gambino have only made fans curious about the singer’s pen and creative process.
But nostalgia or hip-hop edge hasn’t boxed the singer-songwriter in. Lloyd started his year with the City Girls-assisted single “Caramel” and a slot on B2K’s widely successful Millennium Tour. His latest album Tru was adored by critics and spawned his massive comeback single of the same name. Released in 2016, “Tru” had a slow burn on the R&B charts and recently reached over 100 million views on YouTube.
The fabric of Llyod’s R&B style carried enchanting patterns. By refusing to limit himself, he’s continued to be relevant to this day. He’s taking his musical talents and fresh acting chops to TVOne for their new film, The Bobby Debarge Story, airing this month. The film will highlight Debarge’s infamous career in soul with Lloyd taking on the role of Gregory Williams, the founding member of Switch.
“R&B is the DNA of different music,” Lloyd said. “I don’t go into music with a genre kind of mentality. I just listen to the soul, the message and the flow. You can find R&B in everything. For people to think it ever lacked staying power or that it was dead [were wrong]. It was just changing faces. Sometimes, exceptional rhythm and blues acts get overshadowed or under-appreciated and now, there’s definitely a light that is shown on a lot of different people.”
Check out Then & Now with Lloyd above.
