Eric Marlon Bishop (born December 13, 1967), professionally known as Jamie Foxx, is an American actor, comedian and singer. Foxx received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on September 14, 2007. For his work in the film Ray, Foxx won the Academy Award and BAFTA Award for Best Actor.
Foxx began piano lessons at age five. In 1994, Foxx released an album (on the Fox record label) entitled Peep This. In 2001, he hosted the MTV Video Music Awards. His music career went into a higher gear when, in 2004, he was featured on rapper Twista's song, "Slow Jamz", which also featured Kanye West. The song reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, as well as number three on the UK singles chart. Foxx's second collaboration with Kanye West, "Gold Digger", in which he sang the "I Got a Woman" Ray Charles-influenced hook, went straight to number one on the Billboard Hot 100, and remained there for 10 weeks. In 2005, Foxx was featured on the single "Georgia" by Atlanta rappers Ludacris and Field Mob. The song sampled Ray Charles' hit "Georgia on My Mind".
Foxx released his second studio album, Unpredictable, in December 2005. It debuted at number two, selling 598,000 copies in its first week. The following week, the album rose to number one, selling 200,000 copies. The album has sold 1.98 million copies in the United States and was certified double Platinum by the RIAA. The album also charted in the UK Albums Chart, where it peaked at number nine. Foxx became the fourth artist to have won an Academy Award for acting and to have achieved a number-one record album in the US. (The other three to accomplish this feat were Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Barbra Streisand.) Foxx's first single from the album, the title track, "Unpredictable" (featuring Ludacris) samples "WildFlower" by New Birth. The song peaked inside the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 and also made the UK top 20 singles chart. The second US single from the album was "DJ Play A Love Song", which reunited Foxx with Twista. In the UK, however, the second single was "Extravaganza", which saw Foxx once again collaborate with Kanye West. He was not, however, featured in the song's music video.
