The USA Today did a piece on Sleepy Brown. They named him as one of the "Artists on the Verge". Cool piece about a cool brotha. Really looking forward to his album.



The way Sleepy moves
By Steve Jones, USA TODAY
The buzz: Patrick "Sleepy" Brown, the smooth crooner in the dark shades paired with Outkast's Big Boi on The Way You Move, is making his own moves into the mainstream. Single I Can't Wait, from the Barbershop 2 soundtrack, is No. 14 on the Airplay Monitor R&B chart and No. 22 in the rhythmic top 40, and his new album, For the Grown and Sexy, is due June 1.


Patiently waiting: All the attention may be new, but Brown himself is hardly a newcomer. As part of the hitmaking production team Organized Noize, he has been a member of Atlanta's Dungeon Family collective of R&B/hip-hop artists, musicians and producers — which includes Outkast and the Goodie Mob — for the past decade. In fact, he was on Outkast's very first hit, 1994's Players Ball. He also was part of quintet Society of Soul, who released Brainchild in 1996, and he issued a solo album, The Vinyl Room, in 1999.

The way things moved: Brown's solo project already was in the works when Outkast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below came out last fall, with The Way You Move becoming its first hit. "Big Boi was actually going to give me that song for my album," says Brown. "But once (then-Arista president Antonio "L.A." Reid) heard the song, everything changed. I had been working on my project for about a year and a half, but I didn't have a deal yet." He signed with DreamWorks, later bought out by Interscope.

Behind-the-scenes star: Brown has been leaving his imprint on popular music for years with Organized Noize partners Rico Wade and Ray Murray. He has had a hand in hits by TLC, En Vogue, Ludacris and Outkast. He says he will keep producing even as his solo career takes off. "I was just waiting for my time to come. Now the window has come, I'm climbing through it."

A mature sound: The laid-back Brown says he takes his cue from the smooth crooners of the 1970s: Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, Barry White, Isaac Hayes. It's the kind of music he thinks a lot of hip-hop fans are waiting for. "Everybody is getting older and things are getting more sophisticated. It's no longer all about the jerseys. Brothers are keeping it hip-hop with suit jackets and nice shirts. The fact that it's moving to a whole new level is cool and something I want to tap into. I see a time coming when people want to be a little more adult and a little more stylish."

He's called "Sleepy" because ... "I was a big fan of Big Daddy Kane, and he always looked like he was asleep. So I was like, 'What could be cooler than that?' So I decided to call myself Sleepy because that stood for the coolest of the cool for me."

Stepping into the limelight: Though he has spent most of his career behind the scenes, Brown has always seen himself on stage. "I grew up watching my dad do that. He (saxophonist/vocalist Jimmy Brown) was in a band in the '70s called Brick (Dazz, Ain't Gonna Hurt Nobody). So for me, it's like doing what my dad did. I've always wanted it, so I'm cool with it."

His dad was in Brick??? Gotta find one of those old albums to see what he looks like!

NuPwr319 said:

I was tripping on that too. I pulled out my one of my old Brick albums after that. His pops was a horn player. Sleepy comes from good roots.

Well I will be damned ! I didn't even realize he was the same Patrick Brown from Organized Noize...

I love the OutKast, Organized Noize and Dungeon Family to death, but Sleepy Brown sounds a damn mess.