Ari Lennox

Courtney Shanade Salter, better called Ari Lennox, is an American singer and musician born in Washington, D.C., who was the first female to join J. Cole's Dreamville Records record label. The first album she released with the label on October 21 2016 titled Pho where she started to gain fame. Shea Butter Baby her debut studio album came out on May 7th 2019. Ari Lennox started uploading music on the internet in 2012 after she dropped her mixtape debut Five Finger Discount, and her debut EP Ariography in 2013. In 2014 she continued to release her music on the internet, including her self launched single Bound. She was featured in Omen's Elephant Eyes and from Sweat It Out, on the 21st of July in 2015. J. Cole, who was part of the Dreamville crew back then, wanted to have her work on Rihanna references. On December 8 it was revealed that she had officially signed by Dreamville Records. Backseat is a song that she co-wrote with Cozz to record the collaboration album Revenge of the Dreamers II. On October 21, 2016 the debut EP of Ari Lennox was released under the name Pho. Ari Lennox then appeared as the opening performer on behalf of J. Cole on his single Change in 2017. She also performed on 4 Your Eyez Only Tour. In 2018, Ari Lennox appeared on two tracks with EarthGang and EarthGang, on Nothing but the Best, and Bas on Icarus. Ari Lennox debuted her first single, Shea Butter Baby, Whipped Cream on July 16, 2018, which was released on July 16th, 2018. A music video was followed by a music video in September. The 9th of November saw her release two additional singles titled 40 Shades of Choke and Grampa. The 13th of November, she released two more singles called The No One as well as Pedigree. Then she appeared on the Creed II soundtrack with Cole on the track Shea Butter Baby on November 16 and released as a single in February 2019 to accompany her debut album with the same title. A music video was released on February 20, 2019 in conjunction with the song. Within the first period of a week, the video had more than 3,000,000 views. In December of 2018 the singer was a part of The From East Atlanta With Love Tour that featured 6LACK.