Ari Lennox

Courtney Shanade Salter, better known as Ari Lennox, is an American artist and performer who hails from Washington, D.C., who was the first woman to be signed to J. Cole's Dreamville Records record label. Dreamville Records released her debut album titled Pho in the month of October of 2016 when she began to get recognition. Her debut studio album Shea Butter Baby was released on May 7 2019. Ari Lennox has been uploading her music since 2012 following the release of her debut mixtape "Five Finger Discount" and her EP Ariography. The year 2014 saw her continue to share her music over the internet including her independently released single Bound. The track Sweat it is featured on Omen's Elephant Eyes album on July 21 2015. J. Cole had her submit her tracks to the Dreamville Team later in the year because he was hoping for Rihanna to collaborate with her on some references. She was officially signed by Dreamville Records on 8 December. Backseat is a song that was written by her and Cozz on the album collaboratively titled Revenge of the Dreamers II. In October of 2016 she dropped her debut EP, Pho. Ari Lennox appeared in J. Cole's Change track, and performed on with the 4 Your Eyez Only Tour 2017. The singer also performed on the songs Nothing but the Best by EarthGang and Icarus with Bas and her labelmates. Ari Lennox, on the 16th of July 2018 she released her debut single "Whipped Cream" from Shea Butter Baby. A music video to accompany it came out on the 5th. The second single she released was called Grampa on the 9th of November. Two singles more were released on the 11th of November with the titles Pedigree and One. Shea Butter Baby is a track that she recorded together with Cole on Creed II's soundtrack on 16 November. It was then released as a standalone single in February 2019, to coincide with the release of her debut album. A music video was released 20 February 2019 in order to accompany the track. Within a time, it was viewed more than 3,000,000 views. As a supporting act she performed in concert with 6LACK during December 2018 on The From East Atlanta With Love Tour.