Singer, Songwriter & Producer

Singer/songwriter/keyboardist/producer Kashif wrote and played on Evelyn King’s (aka Evelyn “Champagne” King) number one R&B hits “I’m in Love” and “Love Come Down,” Whitney Houston’s first hit “You Give Good Love” and one of its follow-ups, “Thinking About You” from her 17-million-selling debut album Whitney Houston. He also contributed to her 17-million selling Whitney LP. His own recording career yielded 17 R&B hit singles and four Top 40 albums. He recorded several duets: “Love Changes” with Mel’isa Morgan, “Love the One I’m With” with Melba Moore, and “Reservations for Two” with Dionne Warwick.

Part of the vanguard that includes early pioneers Stevie Wonder and Ronnie McNeir and his ’80s contemporaries the System, Kashif helped to revolutionized R&B music through the infusion of the then-emerging affordable, MIDI/synth technology of the ’80s. Music synthesizers at one point could easily fill a room. With the advent of the microchip, synths became more portable and had tonal stability and pricing (though most professional-level synths cost a couple thousand dollars or more) during the ’80s. Like McNeir, Kashif shares the distinction of having two self-titled albums in his catalog.

Born Michael Jones in Brooklyn, NY, in 1959, Kashif was orphaned at an early age, growing up in eight foster homes. His first experience with synthesized instruments came during his years with B.T. Express (“Express,” “Do It ‘Til You’re Satisfied”). He appears on the group’s early-’80s sides for Columbia Records (check out “Ride on It ” from 1978’s Shout! LP, among others). Kashif began playing synthesizer bass using the miniMoog while on the road with the group.

Signing with Arista Records in 1983, his self-tilted debut Kashif spawned the hits “I Just Gotta Have You (Lover Turn Me On),” “Stone Love,” “Help Yourself to My Love,” and “Say Something Love.” His other albums are Send Me Your Love, “Baby Don’t Break Your Baby’s Heart,” “Are You the Woman,” Condition of the Heart, Love Changes and 1989’s Kashif, with the charming cover of the Four Tops hit “Aint No Woman Like the One I Got.” Becoming an in-demand writer/producer, Kashif can be heard on releases by Kenny G (“Keeping Love New”), George Benson, Johnny Kemp, Dionne Warwick, Giorge Pettus, Stacy Lattisaw, Expose, the Wootens, Freda Payne, and others. His Grammy nominations are for the instrumentals “The Mood,” “Call Me Tonight,” “Edgartown Groove” featuring Al Jarreau, and “The Movie Song.”

During 1994, Kashif received an invitation from the famed U.C.L.A. Extension program and created a course called Contemporary Record Production With Kashif. In August 1995, Kashif authored the music industry tome Everything You’d Better Know About the Record Industry as CEO of his Los Angeles-based Brooklyn Boy Books, Entertainment, and Information. In 1998, Kashif signed with U.K. label Expansion Records and his album Who Loves You was released that same year.