Sisqo (It is reported his name, Sisqo, means "sweet, yet strong"), who's real name is Mark Althavan Andrews, was born November 9, 1978, in Baltimore, Maryland. While he may not seem the most imposing R&B artist at only 5'5" and wears a size 6 in shoes, Sisqo does admit to a criminal past that included an arrest. He explains, "The whole thug thing was something from my youth. It isn't about being or not being a thug. It's about being real. I think that is how street respect is earned. Unfortunately for me, the immediate clique I was in you had to do something derogatory to gain the respect." When pressed to explain what exactly derogatory means Sisqo conceded, "If you came into our neighborhood and we didn't know you, we'd jump you. And my job was to be the first one to hit the guy. I liked that, because if I was the first one to hit him the next day everyone would be talking about it." Though a part of life in the inner city, he certainly has matured as he regrets his actions, saying "It was bullsh**. It was stupid. I did all that just to make people think I was tough."
It should be of note that the house he grew up in was featured in the HBO miniseries “The Corner”, In fact most of the street scenes were filmed in front of it.
Sisqo has also run into troubles in the recording industry. Similar to the problems his touring partners *NSYNC experienced, Sisqo and the band he co-founded, Dru Hill, had to go to court to get out of their recording contract. In this case though, there was charges of violence, where Dru Hill claimed that an Island employee allegedly hit Dru Hill's manager with a pool cue, setting the suit in motion. Compounding Island's problems was an executive at Polygram, Eric Kronfeld, who's racist, remarks virtually lost any chance Polygram had of winning the case. Kronfeld was asked why he hired the individual who allegedly hit their manager with a criminal record, and he responded by saying that if he didn't hire African-Americans with criminal records, "then there would be virtually no African-American employees in our society or in our industry."
While Sisqo enjoyed success with Dru Hill, he seems to be gaining more prominence as a solo artist thanks to the mega hit Thong Song. The origins of the song came from a friend Sisqo says "I was sitting in my house with a couple of my doggs, and one was telling me about a date he had with a girl who was wearing a thong, and he sang: Thong, tha, thong tha, THONG". The song became a virtual anthem for Y2K's Spring Break. Enlisting the help of dozens of booty-ful women, Sisqo shot a video in Miami that had enormous pop success. We don't doubt that Sisqo got naked with at least a few of those bikini wearing women, as the single artist admits he is single and that he is a playa. Sisqo's uncensored remix version of the video features near nude women that he hopes is enough to satisfy everyone. While he did record a video with Mya, he denies rumors that the two were an item. Sisqo may be at a crossroads with Dru Hill seeing that his solo success with Unleash The Dragon seems to be dwarfing that of the band, one wonders if the egos involved in this group won't clash if the other Dru Hill band mates who plan solo releases of their own don't garner near the success as he does.
While his Thong song was a hit, it did cause some problems for the Texas Rangers when two of their players got into an argument over the song. Former Ranger-Chad Curtis felt it was shouldn't be played around the visiting children in the locker room. Royce Clayton took offense to it since he was the one playing and many Rangers fans felt that this was situation that led to the demise Texas Rangers that season.
Sisqo decided to pose nude for Cosmopolitan Magazine and at least one of the photos have made it various websites. He is also quoted for saying that ”going down on women is the best thing a man can do.”
In 2000, Sisqo joined the ranks of Brandy, Master P, Tupac, Michael Jackson and MC Hammer with a doll of his own. There are three different versions and have become fairly hard to find.
Sisqo released his next album Return of the Dragon with the semi hit song “Can I Live”. He then stated that he was the greatest R & B sing of all time. Immediately Bernie Mac, Vibe and Steve Harvey took shots at him for making that statement. He even got into a minor feud with Usher Raymond when he bragged that he could out sing him on Hot 97 in New York.
He did a movie called Get Over It and played Dennis, friend of Ben Foster’s character. In a later interview he admitted to not liking the movie nor did he care for it. Despite the fact that he did a music video for the movie and his untimely comments may have cost him other roles in the future. He was given the green light for a pilot on NBC. He would play a vendor that saves a famous person at a baseball game and becomes famous. The pilot was filmed and the series was never picked up.
He appeared on the sixth season premiere of the WB’s Sabrina: The Teen Witch playing a vampire and will co-star in the Disney movie Snow Dogs with Cuba Gooding Jr. He also did a movie called Pieces of April. He played Latrell and the movie was about a Thanksgiving party at a girl's apartment in New York.
Dru Hill reformed in 2001 with a fifth member and released a new album.
Sisqo Sites
