Nivea (singer)

Nivea B. Hamilton (born March 24, 1982), who performs under the mononym Nivea, is an American singer whose recordings reached the Billboard charts during the early 2000s. Nivea is known most for her singles "Don't Mess with My Man" and "Laundromat". She released three studio albums: Nivea (2001), Complicated (2005) and Animalistic (2006) and an independently released extended play Nivea: Undercover (2011).

Early life
Nash was born in Savannah, Georgia, the youngest of three sisters. She sang in a church choir and admired the music of Mariah Carey.

2000–2003: Nivea
She appeared on Mystikal's 2000 single "Danger (Been So Long)". Her debut solo single, "Don't Mess with the Radio", followed in 2001. On September 25, 2001, her self-titled debut album was released in United States and later in other countries. The album reached the Top 100 of the U.S. Billboard 200 albums chart. Another single, "Run Away (I Wanna Be with You)" (featuring Pusha T) was released in Japan in December 2001. In August 2002, she released her second single in the U.S., "Don't Mess with My Man" featuring Brian and Brandon Casey (of R&B group Jagged Edge), which peaked at number eight on U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in 2002. Her album was re-released on December 10, 2002. In 2003, "Don't Mess with My Man" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. Nivea's third American single "Laundromat" featured singer R. Kelly. Fourth single "25 Reasons"/"Ya Ya Ya" was released for airplay in 2003.

2004–2008: Complicated and Animalistic
In 2004, she released the Lil Jon-produced single "Okay". The music video for Okay featured the artist YoungbloodZ and Lil Jon who were also featured on the song. In May 2005 she released her second album Complicated. A second single, "Parking Lot" was released shortly before she got pregnant with her first child. Jive Records subsequently dropped promotion for the project, although she appeared on Soul Train the following year and performed "Complicated", which was originally planned to be the third single. Jive gave up on the project and decided to focus on other new artists at the time.

In 2006, Nivea signed a new contract with Formula Records and released her third album Animalistic on November 15, 2006 in Japan. The album was primarily produced by her then-husband, The-Dream. The album's only single was "Watch It." Originally, Nivea was planning release it in the US in 2007 but no label picked up on the project. Nivea was "in talks" to sign with Capitol Records but nothing came about. Nivea then proceeded to release various songs on MySpace such as "I Might", "Look Back" and "Zodiac" which had fans believing they were getting a new album, although nothing came of it.

2009–present: Undercover, The Randy Watson Collection and Mirrors
In 2010, she released a buzz single titled "Love Hurts." Also that year, she appeared on a few mixtapes including Sir Will ("It Only Hurts Forever") and Rasheeda ("Surprise" "Say Something Remix"). Additionally, she released another video for her cover of the Sade hit, "Stronger Than Pride", also the lead single off her EP. In September 2011, she released her first EP "Nivea: Undercover" which featured a set of acoustic covers. EP was released independently.

Her fourth studio album, "Purple Heart" was set for a May 2012 release, however nothing was released and no info on the album had been released since summer 2011. Amazon's website had it listed but with no release date.

Nivea announced on Twitter that she will be dropping a new single titled "Loud Blunt". It was confirmed that her fourth studio album will now be titled Nivea Revealed. Single was released in November 2013 with album set for release in 2015. In October 2015, Nivea revealed that she will be releasing two albums simultaneously through her own record label. One of the projects will be titled The Randy Watson Collection, which is currently in finalization stages. This project will be an acoustics LP, with her father behind the production. According to the singer, Randy Watson will explore a love story between herself and two men, and is influenced by neo soul and pop. Second project is titled Mirrors and will be a rhythm and blues album with urban undertones. She has just begun production on it with local, upcoming hip-hop producers in Atlanta. Both projects will have dual single releases, it is unclear when the release date will be made available.

Personal life
In February 2002, Nivea started dating rapper Lil Wayne. On December 11, 2002, They became engaged. In her July 2003 interview with Sister to Sister magazine, Nivea spoke about her engagement and how Wayne proposed. "Wayne said, 'I got your Christmas present with me and you're gonna love it. It's gonna make you smile. He got down on his knee and he was like, 'I know I'm young, but I've been through enough relationships to know and understand the meaning of what love is.' He was just perfect. He told me that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me and he loved me. It was snot and tears at the same time." She also spoke on her wishes to have a son with the rapper. "I want a little boy very much right now. Wayne's daughter is just wonderful. She's a beautiful little girl." Nivea credited Wayne as being her first love. She said that if they didn't get married, that she would die a single woman. In August 2003, Lil Wayne called off his engagement to Nivea and became engaged to his daughter's mother, Antonia Wright.

Nivea married R&B singer and producer Terius "The-Dream" Nash in December 2004. Their daughter Navy Talia Nash was born on May 10, 2005, and their twin sons London Nash and Christian Nash in April 2006. The couple divorced in 2007. Nash stated in an interview, "I decided to end it because I didn't want to take this person [Nivea] and treat them a certain way based on what I was changing into, based on being bitter." However, Nivea says The-Dream wanted the divorce, not she. "I'm lying, it's not. We're supposed to say that, but it's not true. It wasn't no mutual agreement, he wanted to do it, I didn't, but it's done. I'm dealing with it."

After her divorce in 2007, Nivea reconciled with her ex-fiance, rapper Lil Wayne. Nivea stayed with Lil Wayne after he had a son, Dwayne Carter III with his ex-girlfriend in 2008. On June 9, 2009 it was rumored that Nivea and Lil Wayne were engaged and expecting a child together. At the same time Lil Wayne was also expecting a child with Actress Lauren London. On October 14, 2009, Lil Wayne confirmed that he and Nivea were expecting a son, Neal Carter. Nivea gave birth to their son, Neal Carter on November 30, 2009. In June 2010, Nivea and Lil Wayne broke off their engagement for the second time.

Discography

 * Nivea (2001)
 * Complicated (2005)
 * Animalistic (2006)
 * Randy Watson Collection (TBA)
 * Mirrors (TBA)