Sheree Hicks is an undercover, music industry legend. She is known for her vocal ability, vocal arrangements, and mainly her writing skills. She has been in the industry professionally for over 25 years and has not skipped a beat. She is seasoned, yet fresh and current for soul music. Her personal sound is very smooth, soulful, and soothing to the ear, however; she is one of the most versatile women in the industry. She started out singing in the church in Memphis and later moved to Chicago, where she joined a female trio at age 17. The group was signed to Def Jam under Russell Simmons and later on signed to Universal under Gene Riggins. Her strongest points are writing and vocal arranging. She is constantly called upon by different producers and vocalists to tailor make something especially for them. In the early 90′s, she was known to many as the “go to” girl for background vocals and vocal arrangement sessions. She writes and arranges all genres of music from alternative, to pop and R&B, to gospel and even children’s songs that teach them harmony while learning something new. She can also customize a song to enhance any vocalist, male or female. She has written for Blackstreet with Teddy Riley (Drama), Rapper Heavy D (I’ll Do Anything), C&C Music Factory (I’ll Always Be Around), Terry Dexter (Strayed Away & I Don’t Need You), Nick Loren, and Emily Bell to name a few. She has done tv appearances and sang back up for many artists as well. She performed on the Rosie Odonnell show with Brandy and brother Ray J, Joshua Kadison, Kenny Loggins, Dave Hollister, Charlie Wilson, Jason Weaver, and sang with Christopher Williams on the Robert Townsend Show. She has done performances in Japan and hosted MTV Japan as well, and also has done commercials and soundtracks with Stephanie Mills and Spike Lee. Many of her producer friends respect her because she stays true to the music and her love for it shines through each song she creates. She has had the pleasure of working with an extensive amount of producers, some are award winning, such as Ron Lawrence, Def Jef, Ty Fyffe, Swell, Ms Antoinette Roberson, Rockwilder, Eric Sermon, Redman, Rodney Jerkins, Trackmasters, Mario Winans, Chuckie Madness of the Producers Coalition, Manuel Seal, Darren Lighty, All Star, Clemmons Brothers, Berris Bolton, Trackbrokers, AC Smooth, and Earl Powell. A recent project for her is a song that she worked on for the Obama
Campaign called, “Change.” She was called in to help arrange the vocals and she is also responsible for lead and background vocals performed on the song. Other vocalists on the song include Emoni Wilkins and Slique of Chicago. The remix on the “Change” song was produced by Chicago Grammy award winning house music producer Maurice Joshua, and was played in many clubs. Soon after Sheree began a house music quest and started to record her first songs with Chicago local producer/DJs DJ Sean Ali & Chuck Robertson formerly known as SOL4ORCE.
There immediately became a buzz due to her being a Chicago native having such a different sounding, smooth and melodic voice. Her 1st release was titled Mr DJ produced by Stacy Kidd of Soul Element, soon after she released Sacrifice, Electricity, Guilty, Still Standing, Hypnotic, Magic, Dream Come True, Green Light, Present To Win with RaShaan Houston, Love Is in the Air, and Celebrate, all of which are available on traxsource.com and are chart topping and being played by DJs and internet radio stations around the world. From those releases, she became sought after by the more established producers, from the states as well as other countries. She soon had house music hits under her belt with producers like Chosen Few DJs, Terry Hunter and Mike Dunn, Josh Milan of Honeycomb Music, Beloved Tennant, Jihad Muhammad, Soledrifter, Scott Diaz, Flaviano Lanzi, Audio Jacker, Federico Scavo, Pezzner, Tommy Vee, Luca Guerrieri, Ronn Carrol, Emilio Hernandez, Damond Ramsey, DJ Spen, Funklovers, Vic Lavendar, Marcus Jakes, Chris Nigel, Marcus Knight, Milty Evans, Doc Link, and ofcourse Sean Ali of SOA Music, just to name a few. Sheree is also known for production on may of the songs that she has recently released and is becoming sought after for her expertise in different sounds and what works for other artists as well. Many of her peers call on her to do collaborations, to mix her sound with theirs, most recently, she has become a dynamic duo with Marc Evans of Baltimore, who is a staple in the house music community.Other collaborations include artist like Mike City, also of the R&B world, he has written songs such as Carl Thomas’ I Wish, Avery Sunshine’s Heard It All Before and Brandy’s Full Moon, other collaborations are with the legenday, Dajae, RaShaan Houston, Jon Pierce, El Boogie, Lester Jay, and Marck Jamz of Norway. Sheree is extremely innovative as it relates to her craft. She now has vocal packs that created a frenzy among producers who want to sample her vocals to create music of their own with her voice. Many of those creations become chart toppers and its nothing to see her work more than one time in the top 100. She is now in the process of starting her own house music label to be in more control of her own musical destiny, as well as be a safe haven for other up and coming artists eventually. Her new label called “Chic Soul Music,” (pronounced SHEEK) is something that she has worked tirelessly with a small, dedicated team of like minded individuals behind her, day in and day out, to ensure that she gives the best of everything for her fans and patrons. The best production, musicians, the best mixing and mastering, the best lyrics, arrangements, vocal performances, artwork, visuals, videos, you name it. Sheree Hicks considers this the biggest project of her career and believes it is taking her to another level of professionalism in music. Her first release on Chic Soul Music called Keeping My Composure dominated Traxsource and was played on WBLS by DJs like Louie Vega and Charles Dixon on a weekly basis! Produced by Chicago/Baltimore’s own DJ Brian Pope, who has outdone himself on music production and remixes are to be determined.
As of lately, Chic Soul Music has found its way to becoming a solid, soulful House Music label. The follow-up release called “Your Warning” with Sean Ali of SOA, quickly soared to the Top 100 charts. To give fans and supporters of CSM even more, Sheree collaborated with DJ and Producers Beloved, Sean Ali and Brian Pope to create the “Love Language” album. Sheree celebrated the release of her album as well as the start of her new label by throwing a huge bash, which was the talked about among the House Music community worldwide. The “Love Language album hit number 3 on the Top 100 soulful albums on Traxsource. On the “Love Language” album Sheree and Brian Pope, did a classic Phyllis Hyman cover tune called “Living All Alone”. It has been said by many that Phyllis has smiled down upon this rendition of her song. The song was noticed by DJ Spen and Gary Hudgins, who created a remix that has taken it to the next level. Sheree and CSM’s fan base continues to expand, because she consistently creates the perfect music collaborations. Currently there are two new releases circulating. One is titled “Let Love In” produced by David Anthony and Bennett Holland on Quantize Records. The other called “No Place Like Home” produced by Funinori of Japan with the Wipe the Needle remix by Lee Gomez on Making Moves Records. Both songs are doing very well on the charts currently holding places in the top 25. Her last release for 2016 called “Royal Love produced by Sean Ali and VeniGrette on Chic Soul Music’s label is sure to follow suit, complete with a music video to further paint the picture for her fans.
You can find her doing performances at various venues, such as the HIV AIDS awareness benefit, hosted by Cyon Flare at Hydrate where she performed along with the legendary Linda Clifford, Carla Prather, Dajae, and RaShaan Houston. She is often called upon in Baltimore where she performs live with Marc Evans, She performed at the Shrine in her hometown of Chicago and tore the house down. Sheree has an extensive catalog and has written in just about every genre of music, from R&B, to Hip-Hop, to Pop, Techno and House Music & Gospel. She has been a registered writer/author with BMI for over 20 years and has had many published works throughout her career. Currently, she is being called upon by many producers to help shape some of their artist and to create a new sound that is different and refreshing to the ear. Sheree Hicks, new owner and CEO of Chic Soul Music, likes working with producers and writers who ride the same wavelength and If the chemistry is right, it makes for some beautiful and memorable music.
