Give Or Take

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He still harbored a deep attachment to the R&B his mother played around the house when he was growing up — classics from Anita Baker and Sade, and other artists who made vocal acrobatics sound easy. “I was associating being an artist with being a vocalist that could sing all types of riffs and runs and belt,” Giveon says. Sinatra, in contrast, “wasn’t going over the top with being a powerhouse vocalist. He had that tone, and that carried you through the song.” Music Direct reserves the right to change the terms of this promotion or discontinue this offer at any time. Music Direct reserves the right to select the carrier and ship method within the terms of this offer. At a time when much of the singing in R&B mimics the cadences and delivery of hip-hop, Giveon’s tone immediately set him apart. When Antonio Dixon, a veteran songwriter-producer who’s worked with Beyoncé and Toni Braxton, first heard Giveon, he thought he was listening to a record played at the wrong speed. “I love his voice now,” adds Dixon, who co-wrote “For Tonight.”“It’s got a richness to it; it’s really warm.” It wasn’t until the end of high school that he attended a program at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles and “gained confidence and comfort” with his voice after someone encouraged him to listen to Frank Sinatra’s rendition of “Fly Me to the Moon.” Until that moment, Giveon recalls, “I hadn’t heard anyone that sounded like me.”

That was his most engaged post on Insta,” says Gebrelul, who also manages A-list producers like Boi-1da, Jahaan Sweet, and Sevn Thomas, and considers Drake a “good friend.”“I felt bad telling him to delete it,” Gebrelul continues, “but I’m like, ‘Trust me.'” Unknown to Giveon, his manager had sent the “Chicago Freestyle” snippet to Drake, and the superstar had expressed interest in using the clip in one of his own songs.

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