Ari Lennox

Courtney Shanade Salter, better popularly known as Ari Lennox, is an American artist and performer from Washington, D.C., who was the first female to sign with J. Cole's Dreamville Records record label. On the 21st of October, 2016, she released Pho which was her first EP released on the Dreamville Records label. The album was released when she began to gain recognition. Shea Butter Baby is her debut album. It came out in May 2019. Ari Lennox began uploading her music to the internet in 2012 after she dropped her first mixtape, Five Finger Discount, and her debut EP Ariography in 2013. She continued to make music available on the web including her self launched single Bound. In the year 2015, she was featured in Omen's Elephant Eyes Album, performing the song Sweat it out on the 21st of July. J. Cole, who was a member of the Dreamville team at the time and wanted her to perform on Rihanna in reference to Rihanna. The 8th of December was the day she announced that she was signed to Dreamville Records. She made an appearance on the joint album Revenge of the Dreamers II which featured the track Backseat alongside Cozz. The singer released Pho, her debut EP on October 21st, 2016. Ari Lennox appeared in J. Cole's Change song. She also performed at the opening of with the 4 Your Eyez Only Tour 2017. In 2018 she went on to guest feature in two songs featuring her labelmates EarthGang with Nothing but the Best and Bas on Icarus. Ari Lennox's debut album Shea Butter Baby was released on July 16, 2018. The debut single, called Whipped Cream of the album came out October 5, 2018, with a music video. In November, she dropped two additional singles called 40 Shades of Choke and Grampa. Then, on November 13 she debuted two more singles, titled the No One as well as Pdigree. Then she appeared as a guest on the Creed II soundtrack with Cole on the track Shea Butter Baby on November 16, and it was released as a single on February 26, 2019 for her debut album the same name. The track was supported by an accompanying music video that debuted in February 20, 2019, and surpassed 3 million views via YouTube within just a week. In December of 2018 she performed on The From East Atlanta With Love Tour that featured 6LACK.