Ari Lennox

Courtney Shanade Salter, also known as Ari Lennox, a Washington, D.C.-based American singer/songwriter, was signed by the label's debut female singer with Dreamville Records by J. Cole. In October 2016 Ari Lennox debuted her EP Pho. This was the moment that she received recognition. Shea Butter Baby her debut album was released on May 7, 2019. Ari Lennox began uploading her music online in the year 2012 when she launched her first mixtape Five Finger Discount, and her debut EP Ariography in 2013. She continued to upload her songs online throughout 2014 and released her own single Bound. On July 21 2015 she appeared on Omen's album Elephant Eyes with the track Sweat It Out. In the following year, her music circulated around the Dreamville group as J. Cole wanted her to join him in creating some possible references for Rihanna. She was officially signed by Dreamville Records on 8 December. Backseat is a song that she co-wrote with Cozz on the album collaboratively titled Revenge of the Dreamers II. On the 21st of October in 2016, the EP Pho debuted. Ari Lennox later appeared on J. Cole's hit song Change and was an opening act for the 4 Your Eyez Only Tour in 2017. In 2018, she performed as a guest performer on two songs, with EarthGang's Nothing but the Best song as well as Bas's Icarus. Ari Lennox's first album Shea Butter Baby was released on 16 July 2018. The first single, Whipped Cream, from the album came out September 5, 2018 with the music video. On the 9th of November, she released another two singles titled 40 Shades of Choke (and Grampa). On November 13, she released two additional singles titled The No One and Pdigree. Shea Butter Baby is a track she sang together with Cole for Creed II's soundtrack on the 16th of November. The track was released as a standalone single in February 2019 to coincide with her debut album. A music video was released 20 February 2019 in order to go along with the track. Within a week, it had over 3,000,000 views. In December 2018 she was performing as a support act on the From East Atlanta With Love Tour in conjunction with 6LACK.