Marques Houston Biography

news-detailsSince only a kid, Marques Houston has been pushing his luck in Hollywood as a child star and a raunchy singer before he finally succeeded in making a transition as a mature musician. Title of the new album says it all; through 'Veteran' he tried to show people how he had stepped into a larger phase of life. Released on March 20, the 11 tracks album told everyday stories such as relationships, break-ups and love songs, something that he missed in the previous two albums. The first single 'Favorite Girl' was released in 2006 prior the album and the second single 'Circle' will be released in April 2007. He hoped to gain attention from his fans through this one since it is claimed his 'personal' song.

Born on August 4, 1981 in LA, California to the couple Michael and Carolyn Houston, Marques Barrett Houston inherited the African and Mexican blood. As a kid, he had been dreaming big of becoming a celebrity and thus with his childhood mates Jerome "Romeo" Jones and Don "Half Pint" Santos, he formed the band Immature. It was not some cheesy band that rubbed off after sometime, but these kids were pretty determined to make it through to Hollywood. Unfortunately, in the early of the career as a band, Immature had to lose one of its members, Don, due to his parents' demand to quit. Houston as the vanguard of the band quickly found a replacement. Kelton "LDB" Kessee was recruited as the third member who was about to see the first taste of success from the band. Starting by hooking up with Afro-American producer Chris Stokes and signing a deal with Virgin Records, the band released debut single 'On Our Worst Behavior' on September 22, 1992. It received a moderate reception but the band still managed to produce 3 more albums as Immature.

Marques, during this time explored his acting talent by lending his voice to the character Kahill in 'Bebe's Kids' (1992). The next year, while concentrating on his music career, he also appeared as a guest star along with the other two Immature members in TV series 'A Different World' for two episodes. Only in 1994 that Marques garnered a more memorable role as Roger Evans on the TV series 'Sister, Sister' but he dropped from it due to a real life situation that he could not missed. First, the last days of her mother who suffered from cancer and second, the opportunity to fly away with his own show together with Immature.

In 1995, he wrote a song titled 'Please Don't Go' to encourage his mother in battling with the disease. It was featured in Immature's album 'We Got It' but two years later his mother gave up to the deadly cancer, making him a grieving young boy. However, this did not stop him from releasing Immature's fourth album and landing a comedy role in 'Good Burger'. Meanwhile, his band was going through a tremendous change that included the breaking of their voice and the psychology status that they were now 'mature' boys. That was why in 1998 the band changed its name to IMx. This band would then release two albums 'Introducing IMx' (1999) and self titled album in 2001 before dissolving in 2002 due to different pursuit of careers. Marques who had been showing signs of going solo since 2002, had no trouble establishing it. He had frequently sung with Omarion and B2K members even before IMx parted ways. He was indeed the first member of Immature to release solo album. Though the single 'Clubbin'' entered UK Top 20 and the album received the back up from notable Jermaine Dupri, 'MH' failed to get a big success. As an album, it only sold 476,122 copies, a number that was no comparison to Immature's album sale. Refusing to give up he promoted his solo flag through the Scream Tours with B2K, Nick Cannon and young rapper Bow Wow.

In the meantime, he also juggled between his role as a musician and an actor. Getting some lights on him, he was signed to role in 'You Got Served' (2004) and 'Fat Albert' (2004). He even enrolled in 'One on One' spin off series titled 'Cuts' that allowed him to appear alongside actress Shannon Elizabeth. His relationship with Omarion meanwhile was getting closer as they both were featured in the movie 'Somebody Help Me' (2007). At age 24, Marques started to open up about himself. His sophomore album 'Naked' contained the song 'All Because of You' that went successful. The same case happened to the track 'Naked', but with a different perspective of 'success'. In the transition of finding his self-identity, Marques' 'Naked' video became a controversy for its explicit scenes. Black Entertainment Television and MTV refused to air the video. Eventually BET agreed to air it after going through an editing process. Not wanting the same case to happen again, in 2007 Marques was back with a more mature record 'Veteran'. When it was released on March 28, 2007 the album was sold more than 70,000 copies, sending it to the fifth position on Billboard Hot 200. Ending the year 2007, Marques starred in a horror flick 'Somebody Help Me' that saw him reuniting with Omarion.