Lyfe Jennings

Going from a 10-year prison bid, to five consecutive Amateur Night at the Apollo victories, to a major label record deal, Lyfe knows all about overcoming adversity. On his debut solo album (named after his inmate number), the Toledo-born crooner pours his heart out on wax, delivering real-life songs of struggle set to mellow acoustic guitars and shimmery R&B beats.

Jennings spent ten years behind bars, so it's perhaps little surprise that most of the songs
on his debut are eloquent in their depiction of struggle. His scratchy, nimble voice has
elements of Curtis Mayfield and D'Angelo, and 268-192 is structured as a song cycle, with
spoken interludes between tracks. They cohere the grim narrative, in which he goes from
loving a woman and her children ("She Got Kids") to grappling with cuckoldry ("H... More >