Miguel

Miguel Jontel Pimentel was a San Pedro, Los Angeles native born to a Mexican father and an African American mother. His parents divorced while he was young and Miguel submerged himself in music. "I remember [my father] sitting me down and telling me I had to be the man of the house. And at that point I kind of shut down," he said. "We had just started doing poetry in school and I started writing poetry and the poetry became song."

His father, although not a musician, possessed a lot of music instruments in the house. Miguel decided in his teens that he would be a recording artist but the road to perfection was hard-earned. "I would go to meetings and I would be doing this music as this kid who looks like he's half-Asian and black, his name is Miguel, but he sings. Like, who are you?" he told the Boombox. "This was before the Latin market was even something people were paying attention to here in the States."

Miguel was once signed to an indie label Black Ice but he wanted more. He wrote his own songs and crafted "Sure Thing" when he was at the lowest point of his life. He was at the time without a recording contract, no girlfriend and had to make a living selling extended car warranty's. His manager at that time submitted "Sure Thing" and some other songs to music producer Mark Pitts. After a meeting, Miguel got his big break by being signed to Jive Records in 2007.

Miguel spent the next few years working for the albums of Usher, Musiq Soulchild and Asher Roth. Through Pitts and the label, he was introduced to J. Cole who would later contribute raps to his debut single "All I Want Is You". Long story short, Miguel dropped his first album also titled "All I Want Is You" in November 2010. It slowly climbed the Hot 200 chart to number 37 after the release of second single "Sure Thing".

In 2011, Jive Records was shut down and many of its artists including Miguel were absorbed by RCA. He began working on his next album, "Kaleidoscope Dream", and then released it under the label in October 2012. The record was a success both commercially and critically. It debuted at No. 3 on Billboard 200 and earned rave reviews from music critics. The runaway hit track, "Adorn", received regular radio and video play before winning a Grammy for Best R&B song at the 2013 Grammy Awards.

Miguel started teasing a new album in December 2014, when he dropped three brand new songs including "NWA.", "Hollywood Dreams" and "Coffee". The latter was then confirmed as the lead single off his "Wildheart" LP, which is scheduled to arrive on June 30. The song also spawned a remix by Wale.