Lalah Hathaway

Lalah Hathaway, the virtuosic singer, commands one of R&B’s most richly expressive voices and leaves lasting marks in jazz and hip-hop as well. Her lineage traces to Patti Austin, Phyllis Hyman, Anita Baker, and above all her father, the soul legend Donny Hathaway, whose lower register hers uncannily recalls; nonetheless the singer/songwriter and producer has forged an independent course since the 1990 release of Lalah Hathaway, a refined debut anchored by the number three Billboard R&B/hip-hop hit “Heaven Knows.” Extensive touring plus frequent live and studio support have usually stretched several years between each Hathaway album. A Moment arrived in 1994, then came the Joe Sample collaboration The Song Lives On in 1999, which reached number two on the jazz chart. Outrun the Sky followed in 2004 and scored a number one adult R&B radio hit via its cover of Luther Vandross’ “Forever, For Always, For Love,” after which two further Top Ten R&B/hip-hop albums appeared: Self Portrait in 2008 and Where It All Begins in 2011. Three decades into her career, she captured her first Grammy with the 2013 live recording “Something,” a Snarky Puppy track that spotlighted her rare skill at self-harmonizing. That victory launched four consecutive Grammy ceremonies of wins, including her contributions to Robert Glasper’s “Jesus Children,” renditions of her father’s “Little Ghetto Boy” and Baker’s “Angel,” and the concert album Lalah Hathaway Live released in 2015—the same year her voice enriched Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly. Every Hathaway album stands apart, a point illustrated by the lean, hip-hop-leaning Honestly of 2017 versus the lush, organic VANTABLACK issued in 2024.

Born Eulaulah Donyll Hathaway and named after her parents, she entered the world after Eulaulah Vann and Donny Hathaway met as music majors at Howard University, married in 1967, and relocated to Chicago, where Donny joined Curtis Mayfield’s Curtom label as an in-house writer, arranger, producer, and session musician. Donny launched his solo career with the 1970 album Everything Is Everything; Eulaulah later added her voice to her husband’s backing vocals on sessions for Young-Holt Unlimited and Leroy Hutson. Lalah began piano studies as a child, took lessons at the American Conservatory of Music, composed her first songs in high school, and refined her vocal abilities at Berklee College of Music.

While still a sophomore at Berklee and already credited with a low-profile independent single, Hathaway signed with Virgin Records. Her self-titled debut, issued in October 1990 and produced in sections by Andre Fischer, Angela Winbush, Gary Taylor, Craig T. Cooper, Derek Bramble, and Chuckii Booker, sat between new jack swing and more mature territory, neither as hip-hop-driven as Bell Biv DeVoe nor as pop-oriented as Janet Jackson. The polished set reached number 18 on Billboard’s R&B/hip-hop chart and crossed into the Billboard 200. Lead single “Heaven Knows” broke through at number three R&B/hip-hop, number 89 pop, and number 34 dance; the remaining three singles, among them the number 18 R&B/hip-hop track “Baby Don’t Cry” and the retitled Brenda Russell cover “It’s Somethin’,” also charted. That same year Hathaway supplied background vocals for Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford Marsalis’ update of her father’s holiday classic “This Christmas.”

Between her first and second albums Hathaway strengthened her reputation as a versatile collaborator, fronting B.E.F.’s version of Sly & the Family Stone’s “Family Affair,” Grover Washington, Jr.’s “Love Like This,” Marcus Miller’s “‘Round Midnight” (piano by future partner Joe Sample), Gerald Albright’s “I Surrender,” and sharing lead with the Winans on “It’s Not Heaven If You’re Not There.” She contributed to projects by Chuckii Booker and Walter Beasley; the latter’s Intimacy placed her background vocals beside those of younger sister Kenya, who would appear on many later solo releases. May 1994 brought A Moment, led by Brian Alexander Morgan’s “Let Me Love You,” a number 37 R&B/hip-hop single reminiscent of Morgan’s SWV productions. The album landed near the same chart position, and Hathaway produced or co-produced roughly half the tracks, including her self-penned “So They Say,” the spare closing number. Additional cuts paired her with Booker, Keith Crouch, David Delhomme, and Sami McKinney.

Before her third album, Marcus Miller, Pete Escovedo, Wayman Tisdale, David Sanborn, and Art Porter (with the charting “One More Chance”) numbered among the artists who recruited Hathaway. At the close of the 1990s, Crusaders pianist Joe Sample enlisted her for the co-billed GRP project The Song Lives On, released in April 1999. The album reimagined the mid-1930s pop standard “For All We Know”—already interpreted by Donny Hathaway on Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway—as well as vintage Joe Sample/Will Jennings compositions such as “Street Life” and “One Day I’ll Fly Away,” both first sung by Randy Crawford. It peaked at number two on the jazz chart.

Five more years elapsed before the next solo album. Interim session work included Hiram Bullock’s cover of the Family Stand’s “Ghetto Heaven,” which referenced Donny Hathaway’s “The Ghetto,” Meshell Ndegeocello’s “Earth,” and Take 6’s version of another Donny classic, “Someday We’ll All Be Free.” Hathaway also maintained regular appearances with longtime mentor Marcus Miller, documented on his 2003 double live set The Ozell Tapes: The Official Bootleg. October brought Outrun the Sky, her third solo LP on the Universal-distributed Mesa/BlueMoon label. Produced by Hathaway alongside Mike City, Vivian Sessoms, Rex Rideout, and David Delhomme, the album featured a core sextet anchored by Delhomme and marked her most band-focused recording to date. A tranquil cover of Luther Vandross’ “Forever, For Always, For Love,” first heard on the Forever, For Always, For Luther tribute, topped Billboard’s Adult R&B Airplay chart.

Her following two albums helped revive the storied Stax label. Self Portrait, the first, followed years of outside work with returning and newer associates including Marcus Miller, Meshell Ndegeocello, Mike City, and Mindi Abair. The cohesive, largely mellow collection debuted at number six on the R&B/hip-hop chart and number 63 on the Billboard 200 in June 2008. Singles “Let Go” and “That Was Then”—two of six Rex Rideout productions, co-written respectively with Rahsaan Patterson and former Family Stand member Sandra St. Victor—received strong urban adult contemporary airplay. “That Was Then” also earned Hathaway her first Grammy nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. Three years later the more rhythmically assertive Where It All Begins gave her career-high Billboard 200 placement at number 32 and a third Top Ten R&B/hip-hop showing. New production partners Dre & Vidal, Phil Ramone, and JR Hutson joined her circle. She covered William Peterkin’s “You Were Meant for Me,” originally cut by her father, and scored another adult R&B hit with the thumping “If You Want To,” a collaboration with Patterson, Terrence Lilly, and Jonathan Richmond. Gary Taylor’s ballad “I’m Coming Back,” previously produced for Vesta Williams, received a sensitive reinterpretation with Hathaway joined by fellow influence Rachelle Ferrell.

Throughout and after her Stax tenure, Hathaway sustained a busy schedule of supporting roles. From the late 2000s into 2010 she appeared on Kirk Whalum’s The Gospel According to Jazz, Chapter III and Everything Is Everything: The Music of Donny Hathaway; the former contained “He’s Been Just That Good,” nominated for a Grammy in Best Gospel Performance, while the latter featured her on the deep Donny Hathaway–Leroy Hutson composition “You Had to Know,” earlier recorded by Cold Blood and Zulema. Albums by Eric Roberson, George Benson, and Natalie Stewart also showcased her voice. Her profile as a versatile guest rose further in 2012 across three Grammy-winning projects: Robert Glasper’s Black Radio, Esperanza Spalding’s Radio Music Society, and Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange.

Clear evidence of Hathaway’s momentum in the third decade of her career arrived with Grammy wins across four straight years. She and Snarky Puppy took Best R&B Performance for the striking “Something,” another Brenda Russell update recorded for Family Dinner, Vol. 1. Hathaway, Glasper, and Malcolm-Jamal Warner then earned Best Traditional R&B Performance for their Stevie Wonder rendition “Jesus Children of America,” closing Glasper’s Black Radio 2. She next won Best Traditional R&B Performance for the 2015 single “Little Ghetto Boy,” revisiting the Come Back Charleston Blue soundtrack piece her father introduced on his 1972 album Live. Later that year she issued the self-released Lalah Hathaway Live, taped at Los Angeles’ Troubadour—the same venue where Donny Hathaway recorded his own Live. The studio version of “Little Ghetto Boy” opened the set, which spanned her career and included an Adult R&B Songs-topping, Grammy-winning reading of Anita Baker’s “Angel.” At the same ceremony Lalah Hathaway Live captured Best R&B Album, prevailing over Terrace Martin’s Velvet Portraits, to which Hathaway contributed the lead vocal on “Oakland.”

During these recordings and honors she added jazz and R&B duets with Dianne Reeves, Al Jarreau, Ruben Studdard, and Kenny Lattimore. Kendrick Lamar brought her to a broader hip-hop audience; although producers had sampled her work and Big Boi name-checked her on OutKast’s “D.E.E.P.,” Hathaway’s connection deepened on To Pimp a Butterfly. Her vocals appear on “Momma,” “Complexion (A Zulu Love),” and “The Blacker the Berry,” the first also sampling “On Your Own” from Self Portrait. Months after that album topped the Billboard 200, she joined Common on Nina Revisited: A Tribute to Nina Simone. Early 2016 saw another “Little Ghetto Boy” variant, “Ghetto Boy,” produced by Terrace Martin with a Snoop Dogg verse.

For her second Hathaway Entertainment release she collaborated with fellow Velvet Portraits contributor Tiffany Gouché. Together they wrote and produced the concise, pared-down, primarily electronic Honestly, incorporating trap-styled beats and video-game textures while featuring Lecrae on “Don’t Give Up.” Issued in October 2017, the album reached number nine on Billboard’s independent chart. At the next Grammy ceremony Honestly contended for Best R&B Album and its aching “Y O Y” for Best R&B Performance; she also duetted with Charlie Wilson on the Gap Band legend’s “Made for Love,” nominated for Best Traditional R&B Performance. Through the late 2010s and early 2020s she recorded with Esperanza Spalding, José James, Boney James, Robert Glasper, and Tank and the Bangas, released occasional singles such as “Show Me Your Soul” (with Glasper for the Mr. Soul! documentary), “Now” (with Juan Winans), and a fresh take on her father’s “This Christmas,” and accepted an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music. June 2024 brought VANTABLACK, a proud, feel-good ninth album whose title nods to “the blackest black,” a chemical-coating shade. Made with writer-producer Phil Beaudreau, it includes guests from Michael McDonald to Willow alongside Gerald Albright, MC Lyte, Common, Phonte, and Rapsody.