Born in Aurora, Illinois, Thomas sang around Chicago and became a member of The Fourmula. He branched out, however, and traveled to New York, where he sang at clubs during open-mic nights. One such performance caught the eye of Sean "Puffy" Combs, who signed Thomas to Bad Boy Entertainment in 1997. Since then, the now GRAMMY-nominated R&B singer is back on tour after a surgical procedure in 2019 to remove a non-cancerous tumor from his salivary glands.