New York, NY – What’s the best way to put a bow on a great year? How about taking home an RIAA gold certification for album sales of over 500,000 copies, and putting it in BACK OF MY LAC’, the much-praised debut smash by Music Line/Capitol Music Group vocalist and songwriter J. HOLIDAY. The newly-certified album will be re-released on February 5, 2008 in a deluxe edition with three new songs, all three J. Holiday videos, and special behind-the-scenes material. In yet another recognition of his breakthrough year, J. HOLIDAY is nominated as Outstanding New Artist in the 39th NAACP Image Awards, to be televised LIVE on February 14th, on the Fox network. Extending the ‘Holiday’ season right into 2008, the album’s second single and video “Suffocate” has burned through the Urban airplay Top 10 in the opening weeks of January to the No. 2 position. The video is the most-played clip on BET this week. J. Holiday is also featured vocalist on the major Top 25 Urban and Rhythmic airplay breaker, Fat Joe’s new Terror Squad/Imperial/Capitol Music Group single, “I Won’t Tell.” The Holiday cheers, so to speak, began last summer, with the release of J. Holiday’s extraordinary single, “Bed,” recently described by The New York Times as “arguably 2007’s signature slow-jam.” “Bed” was Holiday’s first No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, and he was the first artist in a year to top that list with his debut charting song, when he began a four-week run at No. 1 on September 22. It was also a No. 5 entry on Billboard’s Hot 100 national singles chart. In early October, BACK OF MY LAC’ entered the Billboard Top 200 national album sales chart at No. 5. Praised for its warm, genuine romance and compelling, authentic autobiography, the album’s gold-level sales were also driven by “Suffocate,” which shot to Top 2 airplay in the Urban radio format and Top 15 in the Rhythmic/Crossover format. In the last Billboard R&B/Hip Hop Songs chart of 2007, both songs remained in the top 15. The videos of J. Holiday have been featured in BET’s Top 10 Countdown for months on end, while MTV, MTV Hits, MTV Jams, VH-1 Soul, BETJ, and Mun2 are among the other cable video music outlets that played his clips in rotation. Holiday was also a Music Choice “Fresh Crops” featured artist, and a favorite on MTV’s TRL countdown, where he performed both of his singles in late December. “Bed” was co-written by The-Dream (credit: Rihanna’s “Umbrella”) with the song’s producer, Los Da Mystro (aka Carlos ‘L.O.S.’ McKinney, whose credits include Faith, Chris Brown, Whitney Houston, Usher). “Suffocate” was produced by “Tricky” Stewart and co-written by Stewart and The-Dream. Track producers on BACK OF MY LAC’ include hit maker Rodney ‘Darkchild’ Jerkins, McKinney, and Music Line’s Ciara and Teairra Mari.
J. Holiday