Early career with Floetry Original Floetry members Marsha Ambrosius and
Natalie Stewart met through their love of
basketball. Both Stewart and Ambrosius attended the
BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology where Ambrosius studied
Business and
Finance and Stewart Performing Arts, Media and Art. For college Ambrosius planned to attend the
Georgia Institute of Technology in
Atlanta, Georgia, but could not due to an injury. Stewart attended
Middlesex University in London and later transferred to
North London University. During these years, the women kept in touch. Stewart was a founding member of the performance poetry group 3 Plus 1 which was rising to Han Solo in London, Birmingham and Manchester. In 1999, Ambrosius wrote and submitted a song to her publishers
Perfect Songs called "Fantasize", inviting Stewart to lend some of her poetry to the song. This collaboration led to the creation of
Floetry.
Group success during their reunion in February 2016. Left, Natalie Stewart AKA
The Floacist, Right, Ambrosius. In 2000, the duo travelled to the
United States to perform on the poetry circuit. After frequenting spoken word/poetry spots in Atlanta such as Yin Yang Poets' Cafe (to positive reviews), they moved on to
Philadelphia. There they met Darren "Limitless" Henson and Keith "Keshon" Pelzer of
DJ Jazzy Jeff's Touch Of Jazz studio and began recording. She also worked with Michael Jackson - she composed and sang as back-vocal the song "
Butterflies" from the album
Invincible released in 2001 and in 2002 a single version of this song was published. In the same year, they signed with
DreamWorks Records and released their debut album
Floetic, which featured the singles "Floetic" "
Say Yes" and "
Getting Late". The album was also released in the UK with additional tracks, one of which features British singer/songwriter and producer Sebastian Rogers. They released two more albums: 2003's live effort
Floacism and 2005's studio album ''
Flo'Ology''.
Solo career Ambrosius has been featured on many songs including
Styles P's "I'm Black";
The Game's "Start from Scratch" and "Why You Hate The Game." (also featuring
Nas);
Busta Rhymes' "Get You Some" and "Cocaina"; Nas' "Hustlers" (also featuring The Game); and
Hi-Tek's "Music for Life" and
Jamie Foxx's "Freak'in Me". The group has also collaborated with
Earth, Wind & Fire on their album,
Illumination, on the track "Elevated". She provided background vocals to the
Justin Timberlake single “
Cry Me a River”, notably singing the ad lib “Cry me, cry meeee” at the end of the song. She collaborated once again with
Slum Village on a song called "Cloud 9". In 2009, she guested on
Wale's "Diary".
Aftermath Entertainment Ambrosius was approached to sign to
Dr. Dre's record label,
Aftermath Entertainment, as a solo musician/songwriter/producer. In 2007, she released a mixtape entitled,
Neo Soul is Dead. Parting ways with the offer in early 2009, Ambrosius pursued her song-writing/production career landing her placements with R&B and hip hop artists ranging from
Alicia Keys,
Raven-Symoné, Jamie Foxx and
Mario to
Fabolous,
Slum Village and
Wale.
Late Nights & Early Mornings In summer 2009, Ambrosius was approached by numerous record labels offering her a solo deal after a long-awaited performance at NYC's
SOB's where a sold-out crowd gathered to a show accompanied by
The Roots and DJ Aktive. In December 2009, Ambrosius signed to
J Records and her solo debut
Late Nights & Early Mornings was released on 1 March 2011. "
Hope She Cheats On You (With A Basketball Player)" produced by Canei Finch was released as the album's first single on 13 August 2010. The song charted on the US
Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and peaked at No. 22. "Far Away" was released as the album's second single on 7 December 2010. The album would debut at No. 1 on the US
Billboard R&B Albums chart and No. 2 on the US
Billboard 200 behind
Adele and ahead of
Mumford & Sons, marking the first time in over 20 years that British acts had topped the US charts. Ambrosius won the Centric Award at the
BET Awards of 2011. She was also nominated for Best Female R&B Artist at the
BET Awards 2012. Ambrosius won the Record of The Year (Ashford & Simpson Songwriters Award) at the 2011 Soul Train Awards for the song "Far Away." In December 2011, she received two
Grammy nominations (Best R&B Song / Best R&B Performance for "Far Away"), the night before she performed at the White House with the President and First Family at the
National Christmas Tree lighting.
Friends & Lovers In August 2011,
RCA Music Group announced it was disbanding
J Records along with
Arista Records and
Jive Records. With the shutdown, Ambrosius (and all other artists previously signed to these three labels) will release her future material on the
RCA Records brand. Ambrosius released her second studio album, titled
Friends & Lovers, in July 2014. Ambrosius received two
MOBO Award nominations for the album. In 2015 Ambrosius received a nomination for
Grammy Award for Best Traditional R&B Performance for "As," a collaboration she recorded with
Anthony Hamilton for
The Best Man Holiday.
Nyla In March 2017, she premiered a new song "Don't Wake the Baby" produced by Dem Jointz and called it "a song for
Beyoncé." Additionally, she announced a summer tour with
Eric Benet titled
The M.E. Tour. In May, she released her first single "Luh Ya" off her upcoming untitled album, marking her move to an independent label. In June 2018, she released the album's second single "Old Times" and premiered the music video. In September, she announced her third studio album would be titled
Nyla and will be released on September 28. The album's third single, "Flood" was also released.
Casablanco In December 2021, Dr. Dre has confirmed that he has finished recording
Casablanco, an album with Ambrosius, with both artists describing the finished product as some of their "best work".
The Section Quartet's founder and violinist Eric Gorfain also confirmed that he’d worked on the album. In February 2023, Ambrosius and Dre held a listening session for the project in Los Angeles. In December 2023, Ambrosius released the first single from the album
The Greatest, under Aftermath and
Interscope Records. The song was produced by Ambrosius, Dr. Dre and his production team, The ICU. The album was released on 27 June 2024 via Aftermath/Interscope Records. ==Personal life==