Bryan-Michael Cox facts for kids

Bryan-Michael Paul Cox (born December 1, 1977) is a talented American record producer and songwriter. He is famous for creating hit songs for many popular artists. Some of these include Usher, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, and Toni Braxton.

Bryan-Michael Cox has produced many well-known songs. These include "Be Without You" for Mary J. Blige and "Burn" for Usher. He also worked on "Confessions Part II" and "U Got It Bad" for Usher. For Mariah Carey, he produced "Shake It Off" and "I Stay In Love".

While in high school in Texas, Cox met singer Beyoncé. He started producing songs for Destiny's Child even before they signed with Columbia Records. In 2000, Cox moved to Atlanta to focus on his music career. There, he teamed up with Jermaine Dupri and became a key talent for Dupri's So So Def Recordings label.

Cox achieved a Guinness World Record for having songs on the music charts for over five years in a row. This broke the record previously held by The Beatles. In 2009, Bryan-Michael Cox was honored by being added to the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. This was for his amazing contributions to music.

Early Life and Musical Beginnings

Bryan-Michael Cox shared that his mother loved music. She would often buy music instead of food when he was young. He said, "My mom would buy music instead of food when I was little. We would spend her entire pay check at the record store." He knew he wanted to make music when he was just seven years old. He had even written his first song at age six. Later, he went to Houston's Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. This school is known for its focus on arts.

In high school, Cox met Beyoncé when he was a senior and she was a freshman. He recorded his very first demo tape with her. They didn't work together again until about seven years later. That's when Bryan produced a song on Destiny's Child's album, Destiny Fulfilled. But it was the early encouragement from Mathew Knowles (Beyoncé's father and manager) that made Bryan want to work in the music industry.

Cox explained his move to Atlanta. "Back then there was three choices if you wanted to be in the music industry, live in New York, LA, or Atlanta." He chose to go to Clark Atlanta University because his mom wanted him to go to college. He picked Clark because it was in Atlanta, where he wanted to start his music career.

A Career in Music Production

Starting Out: 1994–1999

Bryan-Michael Cox began his career as an intern at Noontime Records in Atlanta, Georgia. An intern learns by helping out in a company. He was discovered by his manager, Chris Hicks. Hicks was a partner at Noontime. Cox's first two hit songs as a producer were "Get Gone" and "Creep Inn." These were for the R&B group Ideal.

Big Hits: 2000–2005

Cox helped create songs for Lil Bow Wow's first album, Beware of Dog. He wrote the song "Puppy Love". He also worked on the music for the movie Big Momma's House. He contributed to Jagged Edge's second album, J.E. Heartbreak. He helped with songs like "He Can't Love U" and "Let's Get Married". He also worked with Tamar Braxton on her first album, Tamar. He co-wrote and produced "Get None" with his music partner, Jermaine Dupri. He also helped write and produce "Just Be a Man About It" for Toni Braxton's album, The Heat.

Cox worked with Usher on his album Confessions. He co-wrote and co-produced the number-one songs "Burn" and "Confessions Part II". Confessions won the Best Contemporary R&B Album award at the 2005 Grammys. This album has sold over 20 million copies around the world. He also worked with Mariah Carey again on her 2005 album, The Emancipation of Mimi. This album included hits like "Shake It Off" and "Don't Forget About Us". "Don't Forget About Us" was nominated for two Grammy Awards.

He wrote "Say Goodbye" for Chris Brown's first album. He also co-wrote "Be Without You" for Mary J. Blige's album, The Breakthrough. This song was very successful. It won Best R&B Song and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards.

Continuing Success: 2006–2009

In 2006, Cox co-wrote "Shortie Like Mine" for Bow Wow's album, The Price of Fame. He worked with Johntá Austin to co-write "Stay Down" for Mary J. Blige's album, Growing Pains in 2007. Cox also co-wrote "Last Time" for Trey Songz's album, Trey Day. He produced and co-wrote "Circles" for Marques Houston's album, Veteran. In 2008, he wrote five songs for the group Day26's first album. This included the song "Since You've Been Gone".

Recent Work: 2010–Present

In 2010, Bryan-Michael Cox co-wrote and produced "Never Let You Go". This was a single for Justin Bieber's first studio album, My World 2.0. For Mariah Carey, he co-wrote and co-produced "Oh Santa!" with Jermaine Dupri and Carey herself. This song was for her Christmas album, Merry Christmas II You. He also contributed to Usher's Grammy award-winning album, Raymond vs Raymond. In the same year, Cox co-produced "Love All Over Me" for Monica's album, Still Standing. He worked on Love and War for Tamar Braxton in 2013. He also worked with Johntá Austin on songs for R. Kelly's album, The Buffet, and on Views for Drake. Cox also co-wrote on Free TC for Ty Dolla Sign.

Bryan-Michael Cox's Legacy

Bryan-Michael Cox has worked closely with his music mentor, Jermaine Dupri. He has achieved amazing success in the music world. He has had 35 number-one hit songs. He has also received 12 Grammy Award nominations and won nine of them. He has had 20 songs in the top ten. He even broke the record previously held by the Beatles for the most consecutive number-one hits on the Billboard charts.

Billboard magazine named Cox one of the "Top 10 Producers of the Decade." He is also on Billboard's "Hot R&B Song of the Decade List," "Hot 100 Songs of the Decade List," and "Top 200 Albums of the Decade List." As mentioned before, he was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2009. He has also won the Billboard Songwriter of the Year Award and the SESAC Songwriter of the Year Award for six years in a row. These awards show how important his work has been in music.

See also

In Spanish: Bryan-Michael Cox para niños