The experience made him a deeply religious child, and he first began singing in his Baptist church. Born of Puerto Rican and Black Caribbean stock, Maxwell suffered the loss of his father (in a plane crash) when he was just three years old. Maxwell was born May 23, 1973, in Brooklyn, New York he adopted his middle name as his stage moniker, keeping his real identity a closely guarded secret out of concern for his family's privacy. What was more, his recurring theme of romantic monogamy set him apart from the vast majority of his bump 'n' grind loverman contemporaries.
Drawing his greatest inspiration from the concept of the R&B auteur (looking to artists like Prince, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, etc.), Maxwell recorded some of the most ambitious R&B of his time, becoming wildly popular and often earning critical raves in the process. Along with fellow founders D'Angelo and Erykah Badu, Maxwell was enormously important in defining and shaping the neo-soul movement that rose to prominence in the latter half of the 1990s.
