Ari Lennox

Courtney Shanade Salter, better popularly known as Ari Lennox, is an American musician and singer from Washington, D.C., who was the first female to sign with J. Cole's Dreamville Records record label. The first single, Pho on October 21, 2016 was released on Dreamville Records. Her career began to grow in notoriety. The album that she released as her debut album Shea Butter Baby was released on May 7, 2019. Ari Lennox started uploading music to the internet in 2012 when she launched her mixtape debut Five Finger Discount, and her debut EP Ariography in the year 2013. Ari Lennox continued to upload her music on the internet in 2014, with the release of her independent single Bound. In July of 2015, she sung on Omen's album Elephant Eyes on the track Sweat It Out. J. Cole, who was a part of the Dreamville crew at the time was interested in having her create Rihanna in reference to Rihanna. She officially was signed to Dreamville Records on 8 December. Backseat was a track she recorded together with Cozz in her Revenge of the Dreamers II collaboration album. Then, in October 2016 she dropped her debut EP, Pho. Ari Lennox appeared in J. Cole's Change song. She also performed at the opening of the 4 Your Eyez Only Tour 2017. She also appeared in two tracks, including EarthGang's Nothing but the Best song as well as Bas' Icarus. On July 16, 2018, Ari Lennox released the first single Whipped Cream from her debut album Shea Butter Baby with an accompanying music video that was released on the 5th of September. In November, she released the singles 40 Shades of Choke & Grampa. And on the 13th of November she debuted two more singles titled One and Pdigree. One and Pdigree. Later, she was featured on the Creed II soundtrack with Cole on a track titled Shea Butter Baby on November 16th. She released the single on February 26, 2019 for her debut album the same title. The music video premiered on February 20, 2019 to go along with the track. Within a matter of a week it was watched by more than 3,000,000 people. In December 2018 she was part of the From East Atlanta With Love Tour with 6LACK.