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Billy Lawrence (born May 3, 1972, in Boca Raton, FL) is an American R&B/soul singer-songwriter, record producer and arranger.
In 1992, Lawrence made her start in the music industry as a background singer for Jamaican singer Jimmy Cliff. Not long after she was signed to Eastwest Records when she recorded her debut One Might Say in 1994.
The album was a mixture of R&B, soul, rock, contemporary jazz, and newjack-hiphop. She was also featured on the song "Freedom" on Mario Van Peebles' Panther soundtrack in 1995.
In 1997, Lawrence had the first single and music video from the platinum soundtrack to the film Set It Off with the song "Come On" that featured female rapper MC Lyte. Elektra Entertainment released Lawrence's second album Paradise. She was then featured on label-mate Rampage’s debut single "Take It to the Streets". She went on to tour with Busta Rhymes, Rampage and the Flipmode Squad. She made a cameo on Rampage’s video for his second single "We Getz Down" with 702. She also released a non-album track as a maxi-single called "Up & Down" which sampled the disco song "The Glow of Love" by Change featuring Luther Vandross as a second single.
After Paradise, Lawrence was featured on the debut album of rapper Mase, Harlem World which had multi-platinum success. Along with her brother Kyra Lawrence she wrote and sang background on Jennifer Lopez's debut album On the 6. She also wrote and sang background for Mariah Carey’s group Allure. Charli Baltimore recruited Lawrence to be on her debut album Cold as Ice on the song "Pull the Alarm". The album was never released. Lawrence also was at the helm of the album from Lisa “Left Eye” Lopez's group Blaque. In 1999 Hinda Hicks covered Lawrence’s "Truly" from her debut album One Might Say, and released it as a single from her album Hinda.
In 1999, Lawrence worked with R&B band TLC on their studio album FanMail alongside Dallas Austin. She wrote four songs for TLC out of 40 that were recorded during the album making phase. None of Lawrence's songs made the final cut of the album. Lawrence was also recording for her next album Too Many Times for Elektra Entertainment during this time. Too Many Times featured producers Poke & Tone, Trackmasters, Darrell "Delite” Allamby, Dallas Austin, SoulShock and Organized Noise. Lawrence wrote or co-wrote eight out of the 11 songs. She also produced or co-produced five songs. The first single was going to be the title track which featured TLC. A remix of the title track was also recorded with Left Eye (Lisa Lopez) and Busta Rhymes. Lawrence also remade Anita Baker's "Fairy Tales". The album was set for a November release date, but was pushed back until eventually Elektra Entertainment was bought out by new owners Warner Music Group and the album was shelved.
After leaving the label, Lawrence signed with Epic Records, and she wrote and sung background on two songs for label mate, Mandy Moore on her debut album. Moore's debut single "Candy" had Lawrence on background vocals.
The domain billylawrence.com was purchased by Epic Records but is not in use by Lawrence.
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