ShockHound

b. Vineland, New Jersey, USA. A competent but somewhat uninspiring mid-90s addition to the long list of Mercury Records R&B divas, Gina Thompson made her debut with Nobody Does It Better in 1996. In keeping with the times, the first single to be taken from it, "The Things That You Do", was remixed by Sean "Puffy" Combs, and featured de rigueur hip-hop beats alongside rap stanzas courtesy of a pre-fame Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott. A 15-song collection, it was produced in New York by Rodney Jerkins, with Thompson co-writing "several" of the tracks. Typically, Thompson first came to singing through the church, and she is still managed by the Rev. Fred Jerkins. In an attempt to distinguish Thompson in a market saturated with female R&B singers, Mercury sought to emphasize the singer's "funkier fashion image" by placing her in fashion shoots for teen magazines - which hardly masked the lack of originality evident in her records.
Thompson followed Elliott to Elektra Records for her second album, If You Only Knew, which was released at the end of 1999. Despite the presence of the by now famous Elliott (on the single "Ya Di Ya") and guest stars Montell Jordan and Beanie Sigel, the album failed to generate much sales interest.
DISCOGRAPHY: Nobody Does It Better (Mercury 1996)***, If You Only Knew (Elektra 1999)***.

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