Artist

A member of the Total Experience Gospel Choir who had a day job as a tennis instructor, singer Ray Dalton was lifted into the Top 40 by hip-hop when he joined Macklemore & Ryan Lewis on their single "Can't Hold Us." The Seattle resident wasn't a complete stranger to hip-hop, as he had joined the hip-hop and jazz fusion group Dyno Jamz for his debut recording, performing the hook on their 2010 single "Kingdom Come." In 2011, he was contacted by rapper Macklemore via social networking and was asked to contribute to the tracks "Wings" and "Can't Hold Us," both of them landing on the Macklemore & Ryan Lewis album The Heist. In 2012, the album's "Thrift Shop" single would make the duo stars, with "Can't Hold Us" re-released as the follow-up single in 2013 (it had originally been released in 2011, but failed to make an impact). After Dalton joined the group to perform the song on the television show Saturday Night Live, "Can't Hold Us" topped the U.S. charts. ~ David Jeffries