Mateo

R&B singer Mateo, born Iman Jordan, grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. As the grandson of session guitarist Fred Jordan, whose credits include Freddie King and James Brown, he earned a degree from Morehouse College before relocating first to New York and later to Los Angeles, where he launched his recording career. A brief association with MySpace’s label yielded several mixtapes during a tenure that lasted under two years. Krucial Noise then signed him and issued the 2011 mixtape Love & Stadiums. After moving to Interscope, Mateo maintained his partnership with producer Kerry “Krucial” Brothers, resulting in the 2012 mixtape Suite 823. That project was followed in 2013 by the five-track EP We’ve Met Before.