Starting his career at the young age of 14 with the band Jamilah, Keith was clearly musical from very early on in his life. Although this band wasn't very successful on a grand scale, it prepared Keith for his solo career which began in 1984.
After touring night clubs and getting noticed by various record companies, he finally released his début solo album in November 1987 entitled "Make It Last Forever" on Vintertainment/Elektra Records. The biggest hit from his first release "I Want Her" clearly showed influences from New Jack Swing and was nominated for a 1989 Soul Train Song Of The Year Award, whilst simultaneously hitting #1 in the R&B charts.
His next two albums both entered the U.S Music Chart in the top 20, with his second album "I'll Give All My Love to You" coming in at #6. His third release in 1991 "Keep It Comin'", featured R&B legend LL Cool J on one of the hit singles.
Keith has still remained active in the modern era and has won many awards thanks to his contribution to R&B music. In 1997, he was awarded the title of Favorite Male R&B/Soul Artist following the release of his fifth and self-titled album a year before. In 2013, he received the Soultrain Lifetime Achievement Award, clearly showing his massive contribution towards the genre.
Keith Sweat is still known for have a slow and smooth style of music whilst projecting heart felt lyrics. His way of singing perfectly suits R&B music and New Jack Swing.
Quite why Keith Sweat chose to adopt that particular moniker remains a mystery to me, because I doubt he ever breaks one; he’s one of the smoothest men on the planet. He’s so much more, too, than an R&B singer; he’s a genuine pioneer of new jack swing, with early records like Make It Last Forever and I’ll Give All My Love to You amongst the classics of the genre. As time has gone by, and the lines between new jack swing stylings and traditional R&B have become more and more blurred, he’s continued to prove a commercially-viable proposition, with every album he made up until 1998’s Still in the Game going platinum in the U.S. Since then, he’s continued to record and tour, and still charts strongly; in an acknowledgement of the scene’s changing sensibilities, too, he featured T-Pain on a track on his most recent album, In the Morning. Shortly before that record dropped, he toured the UK, packing out clubs across the country with an expansive live lineup that included live drums and an array of backing singers. The setlists spanned his entire career, with a particular focus on his mid-nineties material, and the shows themselves proved that Sweat retains a cult fanbase on theis side of the Atlantic.