Listen to Bobby Valentino on Batanga

Bobby Valentino was born Bobby Wilson on February 27, 1982 in Jackson, Mississippi. He was raised in Atlanta, Georgia. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California.

He is the R & B singer who first entered the music scene in 1996 with the now-defunct youth quartet Mista. Some years after Mista disbanded, Valentino enrolled in Clark-Atlanta University where he majored in Mass Communications, graduating in 2004 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

The Boyz II Men-styled group had a hit in 1996 with the single "Blackberry Molasses" but the album didn't follow in the same success and despite a second album being produced by Tim & Bob it was never released.

Due to management issues the group decided to split and the members decided to go their separate ways. Despite the short-lived success of the group Bobby still believes it wasn't a bad experience but a "learning experience".

After graduating from University in 2003, Bobby decided to focus on music again and, armed with three albums of demos, he set out to pursue his music career dream. The demos reached Poon Daddy who then forwarded them onto Ludacris and Shaka Zulu and "the rest is history" as Bobby says.

Bobby Valentino (nicknamed "Valentino" because he was due to be born on Valentines day), under the label Disturbing Tha Peace (DTP), then collaborated with production team Tim & Bob on his current album "Disturbing Tha Peace Presents...Bobby Valentino" which includes the number 1 smash hit "Slow Down" as well as "Tell Me" and "Give me a chance" which features Ludacris.

He is currently signed with Def Soul music imprint and is a member of Ludacris' Disturbing Tha Peace clique. His first single from his "Slow Down" is the first single from his self-titled debut album, and has received much radio and TV airplay.