Chicago pop artist Reggie Benjamin brings a world of experience to the music scene, literally. His first single, “Hurry Up” bolted to the top five of the overseas dance charts in over 24 countries, mere weeks after its 2001 release.  Hurry Up’s success was soon trumped by Reggie’s follow-up release, “Ride,” which made it to the top three in 30 countries before coming full circle in the U.S., entering the Billboard Breakout Dance Charts at number four in 2004.  But his world did not begin there …

Reggie’s parents came to North America from Andhra Pradesh, India.  They spent several years in Toronto, Canada, before moving their family to Chicago in the late ‘70s, where Reggie has since been pursuing the path of entertainment – a path that began with Elvis Presley.  Reggie’s father, a Christian pastor, was particularly fond of the King’s gospel work.  “My parents always listened to Elvis’s gospel music and watched his movies,” says Reggie, who took not only to singing, but to dancing and the overall power of multifaceted performance.  He began doing Elvis impersonations when he was 8 years old.  “I was performing live for friends and relatives for money,” he says, recalling a show he did while visiting family in Washington D.C.  “I got all my cousins together and charged them a $1.00 admission fee.  That day, I made $51.”  From then on, he performed whenever and wherever he could.  

The ‘80s were an ideal time for pop fans to come of age in the Midwest.  Artists like Prince were bursting onto the scene in Minneapolis with new sounds and sleek moves that would soon create their own, unstoppable genre.  The world was starting to revisit Detroit’s Motown sound and the strong foundation of Chicago’s rhythm and blues was also finding new forms of _expression, not to mention translators.  “I remember watching Michael Jackson on the Motown 25^th Anniversary Special when he introduced the Moonwalk,” Reggie recalls.  “I would not sleep until I perfected that.”  Song and dance were becoming synonymous in popular music and culture.  Reggie was a sponge, soaking it all in.  

At Lyons Township High School, he started the R&B/pop Reggie Benjamin Band with friends Michael Hurd and Al Chancey.  The effort was shelved when he began attending Chicago’s Columbia College and College du Page where he studied jazz and received degrees in Music Voice and Business Communications.  

While in school, Reggie stayed true to his artistic goals and landed an internship at the suburban Chicago Tanglewood Studio where he befriended budding producers and remix masters Maurice Joshua, Eric “E Smoove” Miller and Steve Hurley – all of whom would go on to receive multiple Grammy nominations for their work with such artists as Michael Jackson, Prince, Stevie Wonder and Britney Spears.  (Maurice Joshua won a 2004 Grammy for his work on Beyonce’s “Crazy In Love” remix with Jay Z.)  Taking what he learned, Reggie reconnected with former band mate Michael Hurd and old friend Mark Shayatovich to establish Club 2X Records and put his own music dream into action.  The group then called upon Joshua and E Smoove who co-produced “Hurry Up” and “Ride.” 

The collective talent and hip, crisp sound of “Hurry Up” spoke for itself over the airwaves and in the overseas dance clubs but Reggie’s business instincts decided to kick it up a notch before releasing the song in his native India. 

“India is a very conservative country,” says Reggie.  “I was wondering how I could be different.” His answer came in the shape of the Playboy mansion, where he and his partners decided they should shoot a video to accompany “Hurry Up” on its debut journey.  “For four months, I called Playboy to ask if we could film at the mansion.”  Every ‘no’ he got, he responded by changing the question and went from shooting at the mansion, to the driveway, to outside the gates. Reggie’s persistence paid off when Hugh Hefner not only let him shoot the video, but let him shoot it with his pick of Playmates.  The video did exactly what they hoped it would do in India: It stirred up controversy and turned Reggie into the country’s newest pop sensation, paving the way for the success of his second single, “Ride.” 

With the crossover boom of Bollywood and the much-anticipated Indian American invasion of Hollywood, Reggie Benjamin is perfectly poised to hit the big time right here at home.  He is being heralded as the first Indian pop artist to hit the Billboard charts and has become a featured point of interest with publications ranging from Billboard magazine to the internationally distributed Indian Reporter, to his hometown Chicago-Sun Times.  His new album, also co-produced with Maurice Joshua and E Smoove on Club 2X Records, is slated for release this spring.  

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