Ari Lennox

Courtney Shanade Salter, born April 26, 1991 and professionally referred to as Ari Lennox, hails from Washington, D.C. and was the first female signing to J. Cole's Dreamville Records label. The label released her first EP titled Pho in October 2016, and she was able to gain recognition. Her first album Shea Butter Baby was released on May 7, 2019. Ari Lennox started uploading music to the Internet in 2012, when she released her mixtape debut Five Finger Discount, and her debut EP Ariography in 2013. The singer continued uploading her songs online throughout 2014, which included the self-released single Bound. The track Sweat it is included on Omen's Elephant Eyes album which dropped on July 21st, 2015. J. Cole, who was part of the Dreamville team at the time was interested in having her perform on Rihanna reference. She officially was signed to Dreamville Records on 8 December. The singer appeared on the joint album Revenge of the Dreamers II in the track Backseat featuring Cozz. She released Pho, her debut EP, on October 21 in 2016. Ari Lennox later appeared on J. Cole's track Change and also performed as the opening act for the 4 Your Eyez Only Tour in the year 2017. Also, she was featured on the tracks Nothing but the Best by EarthGang and Icarus with Bas the label's co-founders. Ari Lennox debuted her first single, Shea Butter Baby, Whipped Cream on July 16, 2018. A music video was followed by a music video in September. On the 9th of November she dropped two more singles: the 40 Shades of Choke as well as Grampa. In November 2013 she dropped No One and Pedigree. The singer appeared alongside Cole on The Creed II Soundtrack on Shea Butter Baby, on November 16th, and released the song in a solo version on her first album. In February of 2019, a music clip was made available for the track. The track has received nearly 3 million hits on YouTube within its debut week. In December 2018 she was an opening act for The From East Atlanta With Love Tour in conjunction with 6LACK.