Ari Lennox

Courtney Shanade Salter, better known by her stage name of Ari Lennox, is an American singer and musician from Washington, D.C., who was the first woman to sign with J. Cole's Dreamville Records record label. The label debuted her first EP titled Pho in October 2016, and she was able to gain recognition. Shea Butter Baby is her debut album. It came out on May 19, 2019. Ari Lennox began uploading her tracks to the Internet in 2012 after she dropped her debut mixtape Five Finger Discount, and her debut EP Ariography in the year 2013. In 2014 Ari Lennox released her own single Bound along with her self-released mixtape Five Finger Discount. Sweat It is featured on Omen's Elephant Eyes album which dropped on July 21 2015. J. Cole had her send her songs for the Dreamville Team later in the year because he was hoping for Rihanna to work with her on some references. She was officially signed to Dreamville Records on 8 December. Backseat was a track she performed alongside Cozz on The Revenge of the Dreamers II collaborative album. On October 21, 2016 her EP Pho was released. Ari Lennox performed the song Change by J. Cole as well as being an opener on The 4 Your Eyez Only Tour 2017 in which she was joined by EarthGang. She also appeared as a guest on two tracks, including the EarthGang's Nothing but the Best song as well as Bas's Icarus. Ari Lennox dropped her first song Whipped Cream on Shea Butter Baby on July 16th. A music video followed then followed by a short video in September. Then, in November, she released two singles, 40 Shades of Choke & Grampa. Then, in November 2013, she dropped No One, and Pedigree. Shea Butter Baby was released as her first single on February 26, 2019 to accompany the album Creed II. Shea Butter Baby was featured with Cole in her Creed II sound track on November 16. In February 2019 the video music for this track debuted. It has had more than 3 million YouTube views in just one week. In December 2018 the singer was a part of The From East Atlanta With Love Tour featuring 6LACK.