Tank

Tank has never attained widespread superstardom, yet the vocalist, tunesmith, and beatmaker has remained distinctive since entering the scene at the dawn of the 2000s by consistently championing a brand of mainstream R&B anchored in gospel and soul traditions. Far from being confined to a narrow lane, he placed four separate projects inside the Billboard 200’s uppermost tier: his introductory long-player Force of Nature from 2001, the Grammy-nominated Sex Love & Pain in 2007, This Is How I Feel in 2012, and Three Kings in 2013, the last of these arriving as a member of the TGT trio alongside Tyrese and Ginuwine. Urban adult contemporary outlets have championed him for years, sending multiple singles to the summit of the Adult R&B chart, a run that stretches from “Please Don’t Go” in 2007 through “Can’t Let It Show” in 2021. Sustained visibility has also stemmed from his behind-the-scenes contributions, often aiding emerging vocalists. Two of his most prominent songwriting or guest turns—Pleasure P’s Top Five R&B/hip-hop single “Under” and Chris Brown’s “Take My Time”—each earned Grammy nods in R&B categories. His tenth studio album, R&B Money, arrived in 2022, with the single “Before We Get Started” following in 2024.

Born Durrell Babbs in Milwaukee, he later relocated to Clinton, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C., where an early fascination with music took hold. As a youngster he honed his voice inside the local church, with his cousin serving as choir director. During adolescence he pursued athletics alongside music and weighed the possibility of college football, yet ultimately committed to singing and secured a spot as a background vocalist on tours with Aaliyah and Ginuwine. Additional openings soon materialized, most prominently with Dave Hollister, whose 2000 album Chicago ’85…The Movie credits Tank on multiple compositions.

A deal with Blackground Records yielded the solo debut Force of Nature in 2001; the project topped Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Albums list (reaching number seven on the all-genre chart) and produced two singles, one of them the Top 40 entry “Maybe I Deserve.” One Man followed in 2002 and nearly matched that commercial showing, generating the singles “One Man” and “Let Me Live,” climbing to number five on the R&B/hip-hop tally and number 20 overall. Throughout and beyond this rise he remained active as a writer and producer, lending work to high-ranking releases by Blackground labelmate Aaliyah plus Dave Hollister, Brian McKnight, Fantasia, Marques Houston, Jamie Foxx, Monica, and Kelly Rowland. The volume of outside demand created a five-year gap before the next solo effort, yet Sex Love & Pain in 2007 debuted at number one on the R&B/hip-hop chart (number two overall) and received a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Album; its lead single “Please Don’t Go,” his first Adult R&B Songs chart-topper, earned a nod for Best R&B Male Vocal Performance.

The same year he co-wrote Pleasure P’s Top Five R&B/hip-hop hit “Under” and appeared on Chris Brown’s “Take My Time”—both further Grammy-nominated recordings—Tank shifted from Blackground to Atlantic. His initial Atlantic release, Now or Never in 2010, featured Brown on “Foreplay” and included the Adult R&B hit “Emergency” that peaked at number seven. The two singers collaborated again on “Lonely,” which appeared on This Is How I Feel in 2012, Tank’s third project to reach the R&B/hip-hop summit. TGT’s Three Kings in 2013 matched that success and became his second Grammy-nominated album. From that point through the close of the decade he issued material at an accelerated pace, delivering four albums in six years: Stronger in 2014 and Sex Love & Pain II in 2016 both entered the R&B/hip-hop chart at number one, while Savage in 2017 and Elevation in 2019 reflected ongoing adjustments to prevailing mainstream R&B currents. Early in the next decade came the EPs While You Wait and Worth the Wait, both in 2020, followed by the 2021 single “Can’t Let It Show,” another Adult R&B Songs number one. His tenth studio album, R&B Money, surfaced in August 2022. In 2024 the singer returned with the Fabolous-assisted ballad “Before We Get Started” and the T-Rell collaboration “Toxic.”