Singer and rapper Aloe Blacc began performing in the ’90s as half of the underground hip-hop duo Emanon before launching his solo career in 2003. • He’s said he chose the name Aloe because his style is “smooth like lotion”. • Blacc was a teenager when he formed Emanon with the producer Exile. The group’s moniker is “no name” backward, a nod to a 1955 track by the jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. • Music was initially a hobby for Blacc, who graduated from the University of Southern California in 2001 with a degree in linguistics and psychology. • Blacc’s solo breakthrough came on the single “I Need a Dollar”, from his second solo album, 2010’s Good Things. The song was an international hit, reaching the Top 10 in nine countries. • He co-wrote and sang on “Wake Me Up”, a massive 2013 single by the Swedish DJ Avicii. Blacc recorded an acoustic version as the title song of an EP he released the same year. • Blacc appeared on the sitcom Black-ish in 2016 and the crime drama Godfather of Harlem in 2019. He also voiced Boris the Frog on the animated children’s show Beat Bugs in 2016.