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Not that he'd wish
it on anyone, but it was during his ten-year
sentence in prison that Lyfe Jennings developed
his honest sound, thanks to isolation and Erykah
Badu. It was an arson charge that put the Toledo,
Ohio native in prison. His musical aspirations
started in the church choir and grew in the Dotsons,
a teenaged group that Lyfe formed with his brother
and a couple cousins. Prison made his music deeper
according to Lyfe, and when a copy of Erykah
Badu's Baduizm ended up in his cell in 1997,
he was inspired and had the feeling this introspective
edge to his music was worth developing. Two days
after his December 2002 release from prison he
was recording a four-song demo CD. The day after
that he was performing live in a club. He only
had a month of freedom before he was on-stage
at the famous Apollo. He was booed when he walked
on-stage with an acoustic guitar but when the
Apollo audience heard his gritty falsetto and
lyrical songwriting they were swayed. Swayed
to the tune of five amateur night victories in
a row. Lyfe figures he sold a thousand copies
of his four-song demo CD during his Apollo "residency." That
and a ton of calls from promoters and record
label execs on his answering machine back in
Ohio influenced Lyfe to move to New York City
and pursue a major label deal. Columbia had the
right offer and released his debut, Lyfe 268-192
(his inmate number), in August of 2004.
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