Just how did Amel get going in the biz? She realized early on she was a gifted singer/songwriter; she tells an interviewer;

[quote_box_center]“I’ve been writing songs before I could even speak. I would just make them up. My mom is a professor of history and a researcher. All of her work was around chronicling things with tape recorders and she would record them. Before long, I was writing my own stuff. The moment I realized it could turn into a job was when I was working for Karen Durant, a music publisher. I was her assistant. I was actually labeling the cassettes. Bryce Wilson was signed there as a producer. He was trying to get a group together and shopping a deal. He said, “Well…look do you want to try writing one of the tracks?” When he heard it, he said why don’t you just be the singer too. And that was the beginning of it.”[/quote_box_center]

Larrieux left “Groove Theory” in 1999 to pursue a solo career, being replaced by Makeda Davis. Shortly afterwards, Larrieux formed her own independent record label, Blisslife, to distribute her music. Bryce Wilson would go on to appear in the films Beauty Shop, Trois and Hair Show, and produced music for Beyoncé, Amerie and Mary J. Blige. And what has Amel been doing recently? She said boldly, “I’ve been raising my two teenage daughters,” said the 41 year old.