Static Major
Stephen Garrett ( born November 11, 1974 in Louisville, Kentucky, † February 25, 2008 ) was an American hip -hop and contemporary R & B producer, rapper and singer, best known under the pseudonym Static and Static Major been. He was a member of the R & B trio Playa and worked as a producer and songwriter, among others, for Aaliyah, Ginuwine, Destiny 's Child, Brandy, and JoJo.
Biography
Stephen Ellis Garrett grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, the son of a musical family. He began singing very early in the church choir. There, his sister played piano, his mother was the musical director and his father preached as pastor.
Garrett's first independent musical stop was the trio Playa, which he founded along with Black and Smokey. The three musicians sang in local churches gospel and were later discovered by DeVante Swing, who received them from Rooster Swing Mob. Swing had already discovered artists such as Missy Elliott and Ginuwine. Shortly thereafter, however, the group broke up. Garrett started there for the first time with the songwriting for various other artists of the label. So he wrote the debut single for Ginuwine Pony, which was produced by Timbaland.
With Playa together he brought in 1998 the album Cheers 2 U on Def Soul, a sub- label of Def Jam out. The title song climbed into the Top 40 of the U.S. Billboard singles charts. The album itself reached the Top 100 In 1999, a new album of the band is announced, so far it was, however, not be published. After Garrett for Playa wrote much of the album material, he began to work for Aaliyah. Among the songs he wrote for her, include, among others the hits Are You That Somebody and Try Again. After Aaliyah 2001 in a plane crash was killed, Garrett began working for other artists. Truth Hurts ' Addictive and Brandy's Come as You Are were the next hits of his writing career. Garrett also began producing, at first he collaborated there with the sizes of hip -hop genres such as Timbaland, Dr. Dre and Scott Storch. He also produced artists such as Jamie Foxx and Pretty Ricky. His vocal and Raptalent he showed as a guest musician with David Banner and the rap duo Timbaland & Magoo. In spring 2008, Garrett signed a contract for several solo albums with Blackground Records. The first solo album Suppertime was announced for 2008. The first collaboration and at the same time last publications by Garrett were the singles Lollipop, for which he received a Grammy Award for Best Rap Song and I Got My Lil Wayne.
In February 2008, Garrett died at Baptist Hospital East in Louisville at the age of 33 years due to complications after surgery. The exact cause of his death is not yet clear. He leaves a wife and four children.