Novel - The Word (2003)

Alonzo Mario Stevenson, was born on 3 September 1981 in Los Angeles, California, and is professionally known as Novel. He comes from a musical family, with his father, William "Mickey" Stevenson, being a Motown singer/songwriter/producer and the label's first A&R executive, and his mother, Melanie Burke, was a background singer for Chaka Khan, as well as being the grandson of soul music pioneer Solomon Burke. After running away from home at age 14, Novel returned to California where his father set up a recording studio for him, and he released the single 'Peach' on Rawkus Records in 2003, with the video for the song featuring Smokey Robinson, who is a longtime family friend, and Novel's godfather. The single garnered some positive reviews, and his debut album 'The Word' was set to be released in 2003, but was ultimately cancelled when Rawkus split from MCA Records, which folded that year. Following this disappointmenr, he turned to songwriting as a career, writing and producing for artists such as Alicia Keys, Beyoncé Knowles, India.Arie, Joss Stone, Kelis, and Leona Lewis. He signed to Dallas Austin's Rowdy Records in 2007 and released the EP 'I Am... (Future Black President)' the following year, and his debut full-length album, 'The Audiobiography', was given an early 2009 release date, but has so far failed to appear. He's released over half a dozen mixtapes since then, so is still getting his music out there to his fans, and if you're one of them and want to hear his cancelled 2003 album 'The Word', then here it is. 

Track listing

01 Intro
02 Her
03 All My Life
04 Interlude
05 Quiera Me
06 Start 2 Fade
07 Trust
08 Interlude
09 Mama Said
10 Preach
11 Interlude
12 U.R. My Forst
13 6 O'Clock Nigga
14 Slow Me
15 Interlude
16 My State Of Loneliness
17 Interlude
18 Velvet Sky
19 Outro