Thomas’ career catapulted whilst he was performing around New York City, singing at open mic nights. He was fortunate enough to be at a performance attended by Sean Combs, who decided to take a chance on Carl Thomas, signing him to Bad Boy Entertainment in 1997. He released the single “I Wish” on February 15th 2000. It became a number-one in the R&B single charts, spending six weeks at the top spot. It also reached number 20 in the Billboard Hot 100 charts. The single created enough buzz for his debut album, “Emotional” to take off, which was released on April 18th 2000.
The album made it to number 8 on the Billboard 200 and number 2 on the R&B chart. It was shortly after, certified Platinum, and featured more singled such as “Summer Rain” which made it to the top spot of the R&B charts and number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100.
“Let’s Talk About It”, Carl Thomas’ sophomore album released on March 23rd 2004, made it to number 4 in the Billboard 200 and number 2 in the R&B Chart, despite the singles not quite reaching the chart positions that his previous singles had. In 2006, Thomas featured alongside Hussein Fatal and Papoose on “Dumpin” on the “Pac’s Life” album. Thomas managed a Grammy Award nomination for the soundtrack category with the song “Everyday (Family Reunion)”.
Thomas’ third installment, “So Much Better”, released on May 30th 2007 made it to number 25 on the Billboard 200. It also reached number 2 in the R&B chart.
In 2011, he released an album called “Conquer” that reached number 21 in the R&B charts.
So apparently, open mic nights aren’t just for aspiring poets and milquetoast singer songwriters anymore. Well, it’s rich to say they’re not like that anymore, since Aurora, Illinoise native Carl Thomas was signed to Sean Combs’ record label after being spotted at an open mic night way back in 1997. While he might not have been the commercial smash that P Diddy saw (only one of his singles went into the top forty, although he did far better with his album sales), Thomas is stilk writing, recording and especially performing to this day. For many, he’ll be a revelation, an artist with far more to offer than history seems to say and the best way to experience this is in his live show. Even if one was only going to hear Summer Rain and his other early classics they’ll be pleased to hear that he can still sing like an angel thirteen years after his time in the spotlight. Special mention must also go to his surprisingly large backing band, the brass section especially giving his shows a delectable touch of class. The truth is that however an artist is discovered, you don’t work with the likes of Snoop Dogg, Diddy and Jay Z and you don’t feature on a posthumous record from Tupac godamn Shakur without being some measure of the real deal. Want to be sure that he is though? Check him out live as soon as possible.