Yummy Bingham
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"Yummy" redirects here. For other uses, see Yummy (disambiguation).
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| Background information | ||
| Birth name | Elizabeth T. Wyce Bingham | |
| Born | January 7, 1986 | |
| Origin | Jamaica, Queens, New-York | |
| Genre(s) | R&B | |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, songwriter, record producer | |
| Years active | 2001–present | |
| Label(s) | Arista Records (2001–2004) Cash Money (2004–2004) Motown (2004–present) |
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| Website | YummyBingham.com, YummyMusic.net |
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Elizabeth T. Wyce Bingham a.k.a. Yummy is an American R&B singer, songwriter and music executive. She is a former member of R&B girl group Tha Rayne. She sings soprano with a 4 octave rank. Her very distinctive and high pitched voice caused her to be either loved or hated but never mistaken for anyone else.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Elizabeth "Yummy" Bingham was born on January 7th, 1986 to Dinky Bingham and Patricia Wyce. The godchild of both R&B legends Chaka Khan and New Jack King Aaron Hall, Yummy Bingham has been surrounded by music since her birth. Her father, Dinky Bingham is a noted musician, singer and producer who is responsible for hits from Changing Faces, New Edition, Kylie Minogue and Jaheim.
Her father being always on the road, Yummy grew up with her mother until she was taken away due to allegation of abuses, at 10, and put into her grandparents care, in South Jamaica, Queens (New-York). Because of the living conditions she was under with her mother, and going through custody battles and being pulled left and right by her family, it caused her to become an impulsive type person experiencing a tumultuous few years as a wild child, from 10 to 14. At 15, her father and step-mother got her again. Bingham moved to Dix Hills (New-York), and started to enjoy stability.
[edit] Early career (1998-2001)
Bingham started as the drummer in her church when she was 7 and then sang with the choir. When she was 9, a music teacher noticed her particular voice and enlisted her for a solo in a school concert, but Bingham, who was really shy when it came to perform, only got serious about singing around age 12 when everyone stopped trying to make her sing.
Bingham wrote and recorded her first demo at 12 with her cousin and her father. They shopped the demo for a couple of month, and by the time of 2000, KayGee [from Naughty By Nature] was the only one interested in making something out of her. Around the same time, a producer her father was mentoring, Supa Dave West called her to record a song with De La Soul for the Osmosis Jones movie. It was the beginning of a long series of collaborations establishing Bingham as De La Soul's appointed vocalist.
[edit] Tha' Rayne (2000-2004)
In 2000, KayGee who was interested in Yummy's demo, recruited her for his new girl group, Tha' Rayne and get them signed by Arista in 2001. The group provided vocals for acts such as Boyz II Men, Queen Latifah, Next and Jaheim.
As a member of Tha' Rayne, Bingham did get a taste of the spotlight with the group's highly appearance on Jaheim's hit single "Fabulous" as well as with Tha Rayne's own club bangers "Rock Wit Me" (2002), "No Love" (2002) and the radio friendly "Didn't You Know" (2003), produced by Rich Harrison. Their debut album "Reign Supreme" was expected for a March 2004 release but Arista folded in January and Tha' Rayne split up.
As soon as 2003, besides working with the group, Yummy Bingham started to sometimes strike out from the group to record hooks and background vocals for artists such as De La Soul, Talib Kweli, Black Sheep, Lupe Fiasco, 2pac, Jae Millz or Salt (from Salt-N-Pepa.
[edit] Muzik Park (2004-2006)
After leaving the group in early 2004, Yummy decided to concentrate first on her songwriting skills. She hooked up with producers such as Troy Oliver, Dre & Vidal, The Buchanans, or Jimi Kendrix, collaborating lyrically and vocally to artists like Tarralyn Ramsey, Amerie, Crystal Kay, Philly's Most Wanted, Shawn Kane, Ja Rule or Patti Labelle.
By the same time, she was re-connecting with long-time no see family friend and grammy award winner Rockwilder. They started working together on songs for other artists : Destiny's Child, Mya, Syleena Johnson,Mary J. Blige, JC Chasez or Busta Rhymes to name a few. Rockwilder offered Bingham to become a part of owning his record company Muzik Park, serving there as a signed artist as well as co-CEO, and making her one of the youngest female executive. Soon after, in September 2004, Bingham was signing a solo recording deal with Cash Money/Universal for a very brief experience.
Because Cash Money's checks bounced, Bingham left the label and was signed up by then-Universal's Executive Vice President Sylvia Rhone who really wanted Bingham to help revive her own label : Motown Records (a Universal company). Her street single Come Get It (featuring Jadakiss) popped up first as a mixtape single and a digital single (released May 2005) but it was quickly embraced by the mainstream audiences so Motown give it a video and a radio impact in August 2005. The single turned into a moderate hit in the USA. As soon as October, the song was used in a Pontiac commercial.
The following to "Come Get It" was the originally intended for Destiny's Child song Is It Good To You, produced by Rockwilder. The single was ready to hit the radios in March 2006, but radio DJs didn't picked out the tune, so Motown quickly decided to change the single to One More Chance which impacted US radios on April 24th crashing at #2 Urban Most Added. Soon after, Bingham encountered label problems that caused her to break management agreements with Muzic Park Records. The promotion of the single was halted and the album release was cancelled.
[edit] The First Seed (2006)
Yummy Bingham's single One More Chance beneficed of a good buzz among the Urban UK community, making it staying 5 weeks at #2 on the BBC 1xtra R&B Charts (based on the 12" vinyl sales). It came to the attention of Island Record Group (Motown's parent company in the UK) who selected Bingham for a UK release.
She was introduced to the English audience in late August as one of the new revelations of the 2006 Notting Hill Carnival. During the Carnival, Yummy's Come Get It emerged on different music channels and she showcased the single live at BBC 1Xtra's high profile Carnival Afterparty. The video has been everywhere on the UK music channels but disappeared as quick as it surfaced. When the single hit the stores on October 2nd, the buzz was just going down. Bad distribution and a too early digital UK release (June 12th) made the single only charting #82 on the UK singles charts and #38 on the UK R&B Charts.
Yummy's debut album The First Seed was released in the UK on October 9th, with Muzik Park Record still associated on the project. It is currently unknown when (or whether) the album will be released in the United States. Yummy Bingham is still in part of owning Muzik Park but she's less involved in the label and she's not represented or managed anymore by the company.
[edit] Czar Entertainment (2006-)
Yummy Bingham has started working on her second album. She is also anticipating the release of her second UK single One More Chance in January 2007. The UK 12" promo single has been pressed and distributed November 20, 2006 !
Bingham has signed a new management deal with Czar Entertainement. She is also developing her own entertainment and production company : Sweat Break Entertainment/Sweat Break Muzic.
Yummy is singing the theme song for the new Czar Entertainment's hip hop poker TV show Hip-Hop Hold'em' that premièred October 6th, 2006 scoring an audience of 1.5 million.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
| Year | Cover | Album | Chart positions | |||||||||
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| 2006 |
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First Seed
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| 2003 |
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Reign Supreme by Tha' Rayne
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[edit] Singles
| Year | Cover | Single | Chart positions | |||||||||||
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| US | US R&B | UK | UK R&B | |||||||||||
| 2006 US 2007 UK |
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"One More Chance"
Album: First Seed
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| 2005 US 2006 UK |
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"Come Get It" (featuring Jadakiss)
Album: First Seed
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| 2006 |
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"Is It Good To You"
Album: First Seed
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| 2003 |
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"Didn't You Know" by Tha' Rayne
Album: Reign Supreme
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| 2003 |
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"Much More" De La Soul featuring Yummy
Album: The Grind Date(by De La Soul)
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| 2002 US 2003 UK |
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"Fabulous" Jaheim featuring Tha' Rayne
Album: Still Ghetto (from Jaheim)
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| 2002 |
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"No Love" by Tha' Rayne
Album: Reign Supreme
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"Rock Wit Me" by Tha' Rayne
Album: Reign Supreme
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| 2001 US 2002 UK |
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"Baby Phat" De La Soul featuring Yummy
Album: AOI Bionix (from De La Soul)
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[edit] Collaborations
Yummy Bingham has collaborated to a lot of artist and producers. Credits include background vocals, hooks and lyrics. Yet not all the materials have been released.
Amerie - Ashanti - Beyoncé - Billy Guy - Black Sheep - Boyz II Men - Busta Rhymes - Chaka Khan - Christina Aguilera - Christina Milian - Cory Gunz - Crystal Kay - De La Soul - Destiny's Child - Dr Dre - Faith Evans - Gemini - Jadakiss - Ja Rule - Jae Millz - Jaheim - Jarron - JC Chasez - Kelly Rowland - Keshia Chante - Mary J. Blige - Merlino - Midwikid - Monica - Mos Def - Mya - Next - P. Diddy - Patti Labelle - Philly's Most - Queen Latifah - Ray Cash - Redman - Rob Jackson - Salt (from Salt N Pepa) - Shawn Kane - Shayla G - Spazzout - Syleena Johnson - Natasha Ramos - Talib Kweli
