Faith Evans November 24, 2012

Faith Evans started her rise singing backup and writing songs for artists like Hi-Five, Mary J. Blige, Pebbles, Al B. Sure! and Usher. Her work on Blige's 1994 effort 'My Life' caught the attention of Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, who signed her to his Bad Boy label. Evans released her debut album, 'Faith' in 1995 which went platinum on the strength of the singles 'You Used to Love Me' and 'Soon as I Get Home.' She married Chistopher "Biggie" Smalls, better known as Notorious B.I.G. that same year, losing him in March 1997, when he was shot and killed by associates of rapper 2Pac (Tupac Shakur). A grief-stricken Evans was prominently featured on the Puff Daddy tribute single 'I'll Be Missing You,' which with its cribbed Police hook zoomed to the top of the charts and became one of the year's biggest hits. Evans followed up with 1998's 'Keep the Faith' and 2001's, 'Faithfully.' Evans moved to Capitol in 2005 for 'The First Lady.'