As R&B entered a renaissance with young, adventurous artists in the 2010s, Maryland-bred singer/songwriter Brent Faiyaz emerged as one of its standard-bearers with his honest lyrics, social media-ready one-liners, and soothing voice. Born Christopher Brent Wood in 1995, he left his Maryland hometown for Charlotte, North Carolina after high school before jetting to L.A. to pursue his musical dreams. There, he seemed to pop up virtually out of nowhere. He self-released music online before singing the silky, gold digger-dismissing chorus for 2016's "Crew," the ubiquitous hit by Goldlink and Shy Glizzy. He also cofounded R&B trio Sonder the same year with Dpat and Atu, a pair of producers who created spacey, atmospheric soundbeds for Faiyaz's musings on the group's moody EP, Into. As he settled into 2017, Faiyaz leaned further into the layered, vulnerable songwriting that powers Sonder's sound and also drives his solo projects. On his debut LP, Sonder's Son, he tells childhood stories over dreamy beats and narrates the coming-of-age growth that followed his move to the West Coast. And by his follow-up 2018 EP, Lost, he's fully preoccupied with his station in life, channeling his fear of being a young Black man in America ("Why'z It So Hard") and the isolation of his success ("Trust"). He delivers sincere, punchy penmanship wrapped in gorgeous melodies and backs it with versatile production—and that's no different on 2020's F**k the World, which swerves between giving in to the fast-paced, hedonistic Hollywood lifestyle and struggling to find meaning in the midst of it. And therein lies the appeal of the R&B Faiyaz is shaping, breathing warmth into the contemporary experience.
