Originally a background singer for Ginuwine and Aaliyah, Tank launched his solo career in 2001, going on to earn five Number 1 hits on the Adult R&B Songs chart during the next two decades. He was born as "Durrell Artaze Babbs" in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on January 1, 1976. Signed by Aaliyah to the artist's own Blackground Records, he released Force of Nature in 2001, debuting at Number 1 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and Number 7 on the Billboard 200. The album went gold, propelled by singles like "Maybe I Deserve" and "Slowly." One Man followed in 2002, with the Grammy-nominated Sex, Love & Pain appearing in 2007. Sex, Love & Pain gave Tank his second chart-topping release on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, while the single "Please Don't Go" sat at Number 1 on the Adult R&B chart for more than a month. Tank returned to the top of both charts with 2012's This is How I Feel and its most successful single, "Next Breath." Five years later, the single "When We" reached Number 1 on Adult R&B Songs and became the chart's most successful song of 2017, followed in 2019 by another chart-topper, "Dirty." Tank's tenth album, R&B Money, was scheduled for release in 2022, one year after the album's first two singles — the Number 1 hit "Can't Let It Show" and the Number 6 hit "I Deserve" — continued his streak of Top 10 successes.
