Ari Lennox

Courtney Shanade Salter (born March 26 1991) better known by her professional title Ari Lennox is an American artist and songwriter hailing who hails from Washington, D.C. She is the first female artist signed to J. Cole's label Dreamville Records. She released her first EP for the label on Oct. 21st, 2016, titled Pho. This is when she was able to begin gaining attention. Shea Butter Baby, her debut studio album was released May 7, 2019. Ari Lennox began uploading her music to the Internet in 2012, after which she debuted her debut mixtape Five Finger Discount, and her debut EP Ariography in 2013. In 2014, she released additional music on the internet including Bound. She was featured in Omen's Elephant Eyes which was released in Sweat It Out on 21 July 2015. Her music circulated around the Dreamville team because J. Cole wanted her to collaborate with him for some possible references for Rihanna. She was officially signed by Dreamville Records on 8 December. Backseat was a track she performed alongside Cozz to record her Revenge of the Dreamers II collaborative album. In the month of October she debuted her debut EP, Pho. Ari Lennox then appeared as the opening performer on behalf of J. Cole on his single Change in the year 2017 and was a part of the 4 Your Eyez Only Tour. In 2018, she was featured in two songs with EarthGang's Nothing but the Best song and Bas' Icarus. The 16th of July, 2018, Ari Lennox released the first single Whipped Cream of her album debut Shea Butter Baby with an accompanying music video that was released on September 5. On the 9th of November she released two additional singles called 40 Shades of Choke and Grampa. She then released on November 13 two new singles called The 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 performed along with Cole as part of the Creed II sound track on November 16. On February 20, 2019 an official music video released to accompany the track. The track has received nearly three million hits on YouTube during its initial week. In December 2018, she was part of her From East Atlanta With Love Tour featuring 6LACK.