R&B artist Ginuwine has been through the ups and downs of the music business. Ginuwine, who celebrated hit songs during the late 1990s and early 2000s, is now back on the road after a long hiatus. The “Pony” singer has been performing at various shows across the country. And most recently during a rehearsal at illusionist Criss Angel’s Magic with the Stars show, Ginuwine was on the unfortunate side of a trick gone wrong.
Ginuwine reportedly became unconscious after he dunked himself underwater while holding his breath in a glass box with heavy chains on the outside. He soon made a “full recovery,” and still went ahead with the life-threatening stunt on the show, Fox News reported.
Just like this stunt, Ginuwine has experienced the scary side of the industry after riding high on his hits only to fall hard.
At one point, Ginuwine owed millions to debtors and the IRS, was in a nasty and expensive divorce and was close to bankruptcy.
The Beginning
Ginuwine launched his professional singing career as a member of the collective Swing Mob. Soon after, he met Missy Elliott, Stephen Garrett, and Timbaland, with whom he began to collaborate. He dropped his debut album, “Ginuwine… the Bachelor,” in 1996. Timbaland was the main producer for the project on 550 Music. The album was distributed through Epic Records.
Ginuwine’s second album, “100% Ginuwine,” was released in 1999. His last and eighth album, “A Ginuwine Christmas,” dropped in 2011. In his career, he produced such hit songs, among others, as “Pony,” “In Those Jeans” and “The Best Man I Can Be.”
In 2007, he joined forces with two other artists, Tyrese and Tank, to form the R&B group TGT. TGT toured and released its debut album several years later in 2013, called “Three Kings,” which was nominated for a Grammy.
According to Billboard, he has sold 10 million albums.
Being Broke
In 2014, the singer was hit with a lawsuit from Robert Reives, executive producer of his hit 1996 debut album, “The Bachelor.” Reives claimed he was owed royalties from a $1.25 million, five-album deal Ginuwine signed with Sony. His lawsuit sought as much as $250,000 from Ginuwine.
But lawyers representing the singer claimed Ginuwine was broke.
“Mr. Lumpkin is very close to declaring bankruptcy,” Ginuwine’s lawyer, Bruce Beckner, said. “He owes my firm a ton of money and a bunch of other people a ton of money. He owes Uncle Sam $300-odd thousand dollars in back income taxes.”
According to Beckner, Ginuwine’s money trouble stemmed from his 2015 divorce from his wife, the rapper Solé, whom he married in 2003.
Reportedly, today Ginuwine is far from broke. His net worth is estimated to be roughly $1.5 million.
