Lotl-Radio Welcomes R&B Balladeer ROME

ROME sang in a cover band called Fire & Ice while a high schooler, and toured regionally both as a solo artist and with the band. He attended Oakwood University but dropped out in 1989 and moved to California in hopes of making a career as a singer.Rome. He toured with Vesta but had little success until he met with Gerald Baillergeau and Victor Merrit of Grand Jury Records, the producers who heard his demo and sent it to RCA Records. RCA signed him to a major distribution deal and released his debut album in 1997, which went on to sell over a million copies in the U.S., mainly on the strength of the single "I Belong to You (Everytime I See Your Face)", which peaked at #2 on the U.S. Billboard Charts and #1 on many other R & B charts. He eventually had two Top 40 hits from the album. Having achieved success with his RCA Records' debut he was left stranded when a projected second album was rejected. He then left Grand Jury and inked a deal directly through RCA in 1998 but upon completion of his second album, the majority of the labels efforts were being put forth to his new labelmate "Tyrese" resulting in Rome's project getting shelved indefinitely. Instead, he signed a distribution deal with Ground Level for his own JTJ label follow-up -