Antonique Smith in her video for “Hold Up Wait a Minute (Woo Woo).”
It may have happened before. But it certainly hasn’t happened very often. Antonique Smith has reached a milestone in her career — a Grammy nomination — without ever having released an album.
Her assertive debut single “Hold Up Wait a Minute (Woo Woo)” — one of the most powerful musical tell-offs of recent years — is nominated in the Traditional R&B category in Sunday night’s ceremony. She is currently working on finishing her debut album, but no release date has been set.
The East Orange native, who now lives in Los Angeles, is best known as an actress, having starred in “Rent” on Broadway and as fellow New Jerseyan Faith Evans in the 2009 movie “Notorious” (based on the life of the rapper, The Notorious B.I.G.).
She funded the single with a Kickstarter campaign. Again, maybe that’s not a Grammy first. But it’s certainly a Grammy rarity.
(Update: Smith’s debut EP, Love Is Everything, came out in November 2015)
Below is the single’s Larenz Tate-directed video.
New Jersey celebrated its 350th birthday in 2014. And in the 350 Jersey Songs series, we marked the occasion by posting 350 songs — one a day, from September 2014 to September 2015 — that have something to do with the state, its musical history, or both. To see the entire list, click here.
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