Anita Baker: Dropped for No Star Potential, Then Rapture and Her Masters

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Anita Baker was born in Toledo, Ohio, in January 1958, abandoned by her mother at two and raised in Detroit by a foster family, then by her foster sister after her foster parents died when she was 12. She was singing in Detroit R&B clubs at 16, and in 1975 bandleader David Washington brought her into the funk band Chapter 8. The band signed with Ariola in 1979, but after Arista bought the label, executives dropped them and said Baker lacked star potential. She went home and worked as a waitress and receptionist until former Ariola associate Otis Smith signed her to his Beverly Glen label.

Her 1983 album The Songstress produced the top five R&B hit Angel, yet she saw no royalties, and Smith sued her for breach of contract in 1985 when she tried to leave. She won the right to record elsewhere and signed with Elektra with creative control as her own executive producer. Rapture (1986), carried by Sweet Love, sold over eight million copies worldwide. After Giving You the Best That I Got topped the Billboard 200, she stepped back to raise two sons. In 2021 she fought Elektra over her master recordings.

Sweet Love reached No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Giving You the Best That I Got sold about five million copies and won three Grammys.
I Apologize, from the 1994 album Rhythm of Love, earned her an eighth Grammy.
She claimed her masters under Section 203 of the U.S. Copyright Act, which returns rights to creators after 35 years.
She asked fans to stop buying and streaming her music during the dispute and announced in September 2021 that she had regained her masters.

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