


He had continued urban and MTV2 success with its singles, ?halfcrazy? and ?dontchange?, the former of which was one of the most played music videos on MTV2 in the summer of 2002 and during the year overall. In 2002, he released his sophomore album, ?'Juslisen'' (read: ?Just Listen?), as simply ?'Musiq'?. His singles also received a good amount of airplay on urban and urban contemporary radio stations. The singles ?Just Friends (Sunny)?, ?Love?, and ?Girl Next Door? received exposure in America mainly on the more underground music video network, MTV2, as well as on BET. Musiq did much of his own songwriting, and most of the record was produced and co-written by Ivan ?Orthodox? Barias and Carvin ?Ransum? Haggins, then of the A Touch of Jazz production company headed by Jazzy Jeff, now of Karma Productions.

He released his debut album, ?'Aijuswanaseing'' (read: ?I Just Want to Sing?), in 2000, which was well-received by critics and audiences. As a teenager, he began plans for a career in music. Musiq Soulchild was born and raised in Philadelphia and grew up with his family?including eight brothers and sister]. Besides being a successful recording artist, Musiq is notable for his disregard for normal rules of capitalisation, punctuation. Since 2001, he has gone by simply ?Musiq?, he dropped the ?Soulchild? from his moniker, because he said he had not mastered his craft yet, and thus was not yet ?music's soulchild?. Musiq Soulchild (born Taalib Johnson on Septemin Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), is an American, neo soul and R&B artist, and was one of the most popular artists on the Def Jam/Def Soul label.
