“But a couple months from then, he asked me to be a part of the label.”

“I was afraid that he didn’t even like me or that I wasn’t cool enough,” says Lennox, adding that she wasn’t the “Aaliyah type” that Cole wanted for his Dreamville Records. In fact, the singer-songwriter was sure she hadn’t hit it off at all with Cole. Cole recruited her to lay down reference vocals on some demos for Rihanna. Lennox got her big break when rapper and producer J. “It made me the little soul child I am,” she says. Inspired by a wide range of “legendary people,” including Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, Lennox honed her skills playing DC open mikes at places such as Bohemian Caverns. On the LP, Lennox mesmerizes with a voice that evokes Erykah Badu - “I guess I can’t help the twang,” she says - and a vibe that is both sultry and chill. and I wanted, like, an English-rock-star-sounding name.”īut the Washington, DC, native’s music is all smooth R&B on “ Shea Butter Baby,” her debut album, which was released in May.

“I was really digging the character Mary Lennox,” she says. ”Īctually, it was 1993’s “The Secret Garden,” one of her favorite movies growing up, that inspired the Lennox handle. But after adopting her professional moniker, she realized, “Oh snap, there’s the legendary Annie Lennox!”Ĭredit her dad for schooling Lennox on just who the Eurythmics diva was: “I knew the music - I’d heard it - but I wasn’t familiar with her. “There are people who think it was because of Annie, but it wasn’t,” says Lennox, 28, who was born Courtney Salter. Cole protégée - whose tour will headline Bowery Ballroom on Wednesday - didn’t even know that a certain Annie had already made that last name famous in the music world. For breakout neo-soul songstress Ari Lennox, there were no “sweet dreams” involved when she came up with her stage name.

Erykah badu annie