Ari Lennox

Courtney Shanade Salter, aka Ari Lennox, was born in Washington, D.C. on April 26th, 1991. She is an American artist and songwriter, as well as the first artist to be signed by J. Cole to his record label Dreamville Records. The first album she released for the label on Oct. 21 2016 with the title Pho. It was then that she started to gain fame. Her debut studio album Shea Butter Baby was released on May 7, 2019. Ari Lennox began uploading her music to the Internet in 2012 after she dropped her debut mixtape Five Finger Discount, and her debut EP Ariography in 2013. Ari Lennox continued to post her music on the internet, including her independent single Bound. She was featured in Omen's Elephant Eyes as well as on Sweat It Out July 21st the 21st of July, 2015. J. Cole was interested in her talents and was keen to work with Rihanna. The announcement that she would sign with Dreamville Records was made on the 8th of December. Backseat is a track that she recorded together with Cozz in the Revenge of the Dreamers II collaborative album. On October 21 2016 she released her debut EP called Pho. Ari Lennox then appeared as the opening performer for J. Cole on his track Change in 2017 and also was a part of the 4 Your Eyez Only Tour. in 2018, the singer-songwriter performed on two tracks with EarthGang, on Nothing but the Best, and Bas, on Icarus. Ari Lennox, on the 16th of July in 2018 was the first artist to release her single "Whipped Cream" from Shea Butter Baby. The music video was released on September 5th. In November, she dropped two singles, 40 Shades of Choke & Grampa. Two more singles were released by her on 11/13 with the titles Pedigree and One. She was featured with Cole in her Creed II Soundtrack on Shea Butter Baby the 16th of November 16, and then she released the song as a solo single on her first album. The track was accompanied by an accompanying music video that debuted that was released on February 20, 2019, and it surpassed the milestone of 3 million views via YouTube in its first seven days. She was the supporting act for 6LACK in their From East Atlanta With Love Tour in December of 2018.