Sleepy Brown

James Brown gave the drummer some, and we loved him for it. 35 years later, future soul icon Sleepy Brown, of Atlanta's famed Dungeon Family, is giving the ladies some. And we love him for it too. "I just wanted to make a record that was smooth and that the ladies could enjoy," says the 30-something singer/songwriter. "I felt like a lot of the R&B out right now was very club oriented, and I wanted to make something that stood out from that." His Purple Ribbon/Virgin Records debut, TK, does just that. With soft, sensual sounds, falsetto crooning, and sensitive, thoughtful lyrics, the album conjures a futuristic feel with a roots Al Green/Marvin Gaye appeal. Exemplifying the LP's refined feel is it's lead single, the Neptunes produced, Pharrell-guested "Margarita." Bouncy bongos, organ hits and hand claps compliment Sleepy's dream-like vocals and Pharrell's infectious chorus, creating vintage pop-soul. It seems finally the man behind the Grammy winning, multi-platinum success of groups like Outkast and TLC will finally have some plaques and awards of his own in the near future. However, Pat "Sleepy" Brown's success is no fly by night affair. Meeting up with the other members of the acclaimed production crew Organized Noize, towards the end of high school, Sleepy, who's father incidentally was a member of the oft-sampled funk group Brick, got his first shot in the industry as one of the members of the slept-on Outkast/Dungeon Fam predecessor Society Of Soul. "That group wasn't really anything planned," he says. "It was just the natural evolution of what we were doing at the time." Their '92 LaFace debut failed to resonate with the pop charts, but it did give them the forum to play LA Reid a demo they'd been working on by a young duo named Outkast. Brown, along with partners Rico Wade and Ray Murray, helped to produce the group's first two multiplatinum LPs, Southernplayalisticaddilacmusic and ATLiens, in their entirety, and as a result shaped the sound of southern hip hop as we know it. In addition to production, Brown provided back up vocals on several tracks. Though Outkast flew from the nest, producing much of their subsequent 3 albums, Brown and co. contributed key tracks to all of them. "You know, everything we do with Outkast is like a family thing," he says. "We just work and keep it organic, it's not about having so many beats on a record or anything." Among Brown's more notable additions are "So Fresh And So Clean", the brilliant second single from Stankonia, and the absolutely mesmerizing "The Way She Moves" which sat atop the pop charts for several weeks thanks in part to Sleepy's addictive chorus. Shortly thereafter, in 2004, Brown signed his first solo deal with Interscope records and made most of an album which was to be called Grown And Sexy (it should be noted that when his album was shelved everyone and their mother bit his title). "I just had creative differences with the execs over there," he explains. "It wasn't really no bad blood, but it was just that they wanted more straight-forward commercial R&B, and I wanted to make something that went against the grain." One year later Brown secured release from the label, and was promptly signed by longtime friend Big Boi, of Outkast fame, to his new Virgin Records distributed label, Purple Ribbon. "With me and Big it's just straight family," he says. "We do business together, but in a lot of ways he's always been like my little brother, even though he's gone on to have all this success. So it's just a beautiful thing that all these years later we can still be working together towards the same goals of making great music." And that is exactly what they've done. Produced mostly by Brown and his Organized Noize brethren, the LP boast work from the Neptunes as well as appearances by Big Boi and Erick Sermon among others. "I just want to bring that real soulful vibe back to the music," he says. "And I think we made something that is just different than anything else that people have heard, even though hopefully, it'll remind them of the records from back in the day." And not only that, it'll remind them what a woman wants.