Jazmine Sullivan

Jazmine was a Philadelphia native, was born and raised there. Pam, Jazmine's mother was once a backing singer of Philadelphia International Records. As a child her father was appointed to be the city's Historic Strawberry Mansion curator. The family then moved into this historical building. The 2005 graduate of Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts where she was the vocal music instructor. Sullivan played the contralto singer for the choir for children and later, a few more years later, she performed in the adults choir. Sullivan was not exposed to secular music at first. "I started singing solos in the church, and someone asked me to commit to a gospel record when I was eleven. But I wasn't ready to go through with it," she says. "Then McDonald's offered a competition to children from major cities. It gave me the opportunity to perform Accept the Grace of God on Showtime Apollo. The audience was extremely enthusiastic." Stevie Wonder sang her part at his 13th birthday. Sullivan was 15 when she was signed for the first time to Jive Records. She was signed to Jive Records when she was fifteen. She produced an entire album. The album did not see release. Sullivan was ultimately dropped from the label. Missy Elliott was her producer for several tracks that were on their debut album. One of them was "Backstabbers" which is a buzz track written by Timbaland composed by Elliott.