Lalah Hathaway

The virtuosic Lalah Hathaway possesses one of the most richly expressive voices in R&B and continues to make other indelible impressions across jazz and hip-hop. In a stylistic lineage that includes Patti Austin, Phyllis Hyman, Anita Baker, and naturally father Donny Hathaway -- the soul legend to whom her lower register bears an uncanny resemblance -- the singer/songwriter and producer has nonetheless stood on her own since the release of Lalah Hathaway (1990), a sophisticated debut highlighted by the number three Billboard R&B/hip-hop hit "Heaven Knows." Due to extensive touring, and supporting live and studio work, several years have typically separated one Hathaway LP from the next. Her second album, A Moment (1994), was followed by the Joe Sample collaboration The Song Lives On (1999), a number two hit on the jazz chart. Outrun the Sky (2004) yielded a number one adult R&B radio hit with a cover of Luther Vandross' "Forever, For Always, For Love," and was trailed by a pair of Top Ten R&B/hip-hop albums with Self Portrait (2008) and Where It All Begins (2011). Three decades into her career, she won her first Grammy with "Something" (2013), a live recording with Snarky Puppy that displayed her rare ability to self-harmonize. This started a streak of wins spanning four Grammy ceremonies that continued with her performance on Robert Glasper's "Jesus Children," covers of her father's "Little Ghetto Boy" and Baker's "Angel," and her first concert album, Lalah Hathaway Live (2015), released the same year her voice helped elevate the musicality of Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly. All of Hathaway's albums are distinct from one another, exemplified by the contrast between the lean, hip-hop-inspired Honestly (2017) and the lush, organic VANTABLACK (2024).

Born Eulaulah Donyll Hathaway, Lalah Hathway was named after her parents. Eulaulah Vann and Donny Hathaway met at Howard University as music majors. They married in 1967, and Eulaulah gave birth to Lalah the following December, after the Hathaways had moved to Chicago, where Donny had landed at Curtis Mayfield's Curtom label as an in-house writer, arranger, producer, and session musician. Donny emerged as a solo artist with the 1970 release of Everything Is Everything, and Eulaulah would go on to join her husband as a backing vocalist on studio sessions for the likes of Young-Holt Unlimited and Leroy Hutson. Lalah started learning piano as a youngster and took lessons at the American Conservatory of Music. She wrote her first songs in high school, and at Berklee College of Music developed her vocal talent.

During her sophomore year at Berklee, at which point she had a low-profile independent single to her name, Hathaway signed with Virgin Records. In October 1990, she released her self-titled debut album, recorded with production duties split by Andre Fischer, Angela Winbush, Gary Taylor, Craig T. Cooper, Derek Bramble, and Chuckii Booker. Issued in the thick of the new jack swing era but neither as hip-hop as Bell Biv DeVoe nor as pop as Janet Jackson, the mature and polished Lalah Hathaway peaked at number 18 on Billboard's R&B/hip-hop chart and cracked the Billboard 200. Effervescent lead single "Heaven Knows" provided the singer with her breakthrough by reaching number three on the R&B/hip-hop chart (number 89 pop, number 34 dance). Its other three singles, including the number 18 R&B/hip-hop hit "Baby Don't Cry" and a cover of Brenda Russell's "It's Something!" (retitled "It's Somethin'"), all charted as well. Also in 1990, Hathaway sang background on Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford Marsalis' update of her father's holiday standard "This Christmas."

Hathaway built a strong reputation as an all-around collaborator between her first and second albums. She fronted B.E.F.'s cover of Sly & the Family Stone's "Family Affair," Grover Washington, Jr.'s "Love Like This," Marcus Miller's version of "'Round Midnight" (with future collaborator Joe Sample on piano), and Gerald Albright's "I Surrender," and co-fronted the Winans' "It's Not Heaven If You're Not There." Additional contributions were made to albums by Chuckii Booker and Walter Beasley. The latter's Intimacy featured her background work beside that of younger sister Kenya, who would appear on many of her subsequent solo projects. In May 1994, Hathaway returned with A Moment. Led by the Brian Alexander Morgan-produced "Let Me Love You," a number 37 R&B/hip-hop single akin to Morgan's work with SWV, A Moment landed at roughly the same spot on the corresponding album chart. Hathaway either produced or co-produced approximately half of the songs, including the self-written "So They Say," the spare and intimate finale. Other songs paired Hathaway with the likes of Booker, Keith Crouch, David Delhomme, and Sami McKinney.

Marcus Miller, Pete Escovedo, Wayman Tisdale, David Sanborn, and Art Porter (the charting "One More Chance") account for only some of the musicians who sought Hathaway before she released her third album. At the tail end of the '90s, the Crusaders' Joe Sample brought her along for the co-billed GRP date The Song Lives On. Issued in April 1999, The Song Lives On reinterpreted the mid-'30s pop song "For All We Know" -- performed by Donny Hathaway on Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway -- and vintage Joe Sample/Will Jennings originals like "Street Life" and "One Day I'll Fly Away," both of which were originally voiced by Randy Crawford. The Song Lives On reached number two on the jazz chart.

Yet another five years passed before Hathaway delivered her next album. Session highlights during the interim included Hiram Bullock's cover of the Family Stand's "Ghetto Heaven" -- which threw in a reference to Donny Hathaway's "The Ghetto" -- Meshell Ndegeocello's "Earth," and Take 6's cover of "Someday We'll All Be Free," another Donny Hathaway classic. Meanwhile, Donny's daughter continued to regularly perform with early mentor Marcus Miller, heard across much of the bassist's double live album The Ozell Tapes: The Official Bootleg, released in 2003. The following October brought Outrun the Sky, the third Lalah Hathaway solo LP, recorded for the Universal-distributed Mesa/BlueMoon imprint. Produced by Hathaway with the likes of Mike City, Vivian Sessoms, Rex Rideout, and David Delhomme, Outrun the Sky featured Hathaway backed by a core sextet that included Delhomme, and as a consequence was the singer's most band-oriented album to that point. A tranquil cover of Luther Vandross' "Forever, For Always, For Love" -- which originally appeared on the Forever, For Always, For Luther tribute compilation -- topped Billboard's Adult R&B Airplay chart.

Hathaway's next two albums helped revitalize the legendary Stax label. Self Portrait, the first of the pair, was preceded by several years of outside collaborations with a mix of past and relatively new associates including Marcus Miller, Meshell Ndegeocello, Mike City, and Mindi Abair. Unified and predominantly mellow, Self Portrait entered the R&B/hip-hop chart at number six in June 2008 and also gave the singer another Billboard 200 placement at number 63. The singles "Let Go" and "That Was Then" -- two of the six songs produced by Rex Rideout, they were co-written respectively with Rahsaan Patterson and former Family Stand member Sandra St. Victor -- received heavy rotation at urban adult contemporary radio. "That Was Then" also earned Hathaway her first Grammy nomination (for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance). The second Stax offering, the more rhythmically muscular Where It All Begins, arrived three years later and gave Hathaway her highest Billboard 200 entry (at number 32) and her third Top Ten R&B/hip-hop placement. It saw her add the likes of Dre & Vidal, Phil Ramone, and JR Hutson (son of Leroy Hutson) to her crew of production associates. Hathaway covered William Peterkin's "You Were Meant for Me," originally recorded by her father, and scored another adult R&B hit with "If You Want To," a thumping collaboration with Patterson, Terrence Lilly, and Jonathan Richmond. Additionally, "I'm Coming Back," a ballad Gary Taylor had written and produced for Vesta Williams, was given a sensitive makeover with Hathaway joined by Rachelle Ferrell, another influence.

During and immediately following her time with Stax, Hathaway's supporting roles continued apace. Over the course of the late 2000s extending into 2010, she most notably appeared on Kirk Whalum's The Gospel According to Jazz, Chapter III and Everything Is Everything: The Music of Donny Hathaway. The former was highlighted by "He's Been Just That Good," which was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Gospel Performance. For the latter, Hathaway sang "You Had to Know," a deep Donny Hathaway-Leroy Hutson composition previously recorded by Cold Blood and Zulema. Contemporaneous albums from Eric Roberson, George Benson, and Natalie Stewart likewise featured Hathaway's voice. Hathaway's profile as a versatile featured artist continued to rise throughout 2012 with her voice heard on three Grammy-winning albums: Robert Glasper's Black Radio, Esperanza Spalding's Radio Music Society, and Frank Ocean's Channel Orange.

If it wasn't clear enough that Hathaway was on a roll in the third decade of her career, repeated proof was made with Grammy wins in four consecutive years. First, she and Snarky Puppy won Best R&B Performance for the awe-inspiring "Something" -- another update of Brenda Russell's "It's Something!" -- recorded for the band's Family Dinner, Vol. 1. Hathaway, Glasper, and Malcolm-Jamal Warner then took the award for Best Traditional R&B Performance with their version of Stevie Wonder's "Jesus Children of America," the finale of Glasper's Black Radio 2. Next, Hathaway won Best Traditional R&B Performance with her 2015 single "Little Ghetto Boy," revisiting the Come Back Charleston Blue soundtrack highlight her father premiered on his 1972 album Live. The father-daughter parallels continued later in 2015 with the self-released Lalah Hathaway Live, recorded at Los Angeles' Troubadour, where the elder Hathaway cut Live. The previously issued studio version of "Little Ghetto Boy" led off Lalah Hathaway Live, and gave way to a setlist that drew from the entirety of Hathaway's career and incorporated an Adult R&B Songs-topping, Grammy-winning version of Anita Baker's "Angel." At the same ceremony "Angel" took the award for Best Traditional R&B Performance, Lalah Hathaway Live won Best R&B Album -- beating out Terrace Martin's Velvet Portraits, to which Hathaway contributed the lead on "Oakland."

Amid those recordings and accolades, Hathaway was featured on another round of jazz and R&B duets with the likes of Dianne Reeves, Al Jarreau, Ruben Studdard, and Kenny Lattimore. Moreover, she was brought to a much wider hip-hop audience through Kendrick Lamar. Although beatmakers had sampled her music -- and Big Boi memorably name-checked her on OutKast's "D.E.E.P." -- Hathaway otherwise didn't have much of a hip-hop connection until Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly. The second half of that album featured Hathaway's vocals on "Momma," "Complexion (A Zulu Love)," and "The Blacker the Berry," the first of which also sampled "On Your Own" (off Self Portrait). A few months after To Pimp a Butterfly debuted at the top of the Billboard 200, Hathaway appeared beside another MC, Common, on Nina Revisited: A Tribute to Nina Simone. The hip-hop links continued in early 2016 when Hathaway released a different version of "Little Ghetto Boy," titled "Ghetto Boy," featuring production from To Pimp a Butterfly producer Terrace Martin and a guest verse from Snoop Dogg.

For her second release through her Hathaway Entertainment label, Hathaway teamed with another Velvet Portraits contributor, Tiffany Gouché. The two wrote and produced Honestly, a concise album with a pared-down, primarily electronic sound that integrated trap-styled productions and video game music, and featured Lecrae on "Don't Give Up." Released in October 2017, the album hit number nine on Billboard's independent chart. At the following Grammy ceremony, Honestly was up for Best R&B Album, and its aching "Y O Y" was nominated for Best R&B Performance. Additionally, Hathaway had duetted with Charlie Wilson on the Gap Band legend's "Made for Love," which was nominated for Best Traditional R&B Performance. During the latter part of the 2010s and into the early 2020s, Hathaway recorded with the likes of Esperanza Spalding, José James, Boney James, Robert Glasper, and Tank and the Bangas. She was also behind the occasional single, such as "Show Me Your Soul" (recorded with Glasper for the documentary Mr. Soul!), "Now" (with Juan Winans), and an update of her father's "This Christmas," and made time to accept an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music. In June 2024, Hathaway offered VANTABLACK, a proud, feel-good album with a title that essentially means "the blackest black," named after a shade of chemical coating. Her ninth overall album, VANTABLACK was made in collaboration with fellow writer and producer Phil Beaudreau. It featured guests ranging from Michael McDonald to Willow, and appearances from Gerald Albright, MC Lyte, Common, Phonte, and Rapsody. ~ Andy Kellman