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Reggie King Sears is an award-winning Southern Soul and Contemporary R&B singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, guitarist, producer, and creator of Ghetto Soul — a modern Southern-rooted style that fuses Southern Soul, Contemporary R&B, Neo-Soul, Quiet Storm, funk, hip-hop, Southern Rap, and hook-heavy Pop sensibilities into one unmistakably Black, emotional, and deeply Southern sound. Born and raised in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in Boulevard Gardens (locally referred to as Tatertown), Sears has lived inside this music for more than two decades, carrying the church fire, emotional honesty, street sensibility, and grown-folk truth he grew up with straight into the center of his work. His velvet-fire baritenor, racy romantic realism, gospel-rooted intensity, and intimate storytelling have earned him a fiercely loyal fanbase.

His forthcoming album Crowned & Dangerous (2026) represents the fullest expression of his identity yet — a Southern-rooted R&B statement blending sensual ballads, funky club joints, steppers grooves, trap-soul confessionals, and late-night Quiet Storm emotion. It sits spiritually between Gerald Levert (the foundation of Sears’ entire sound), Sir Charles Jones, Calvin Richardson, Tank, Trey Songz, August Alsina, the musical sophistication of Eric Roberson and Dwele, and the Southern street influence of JT Money and UGK.
Guests include Miami legend JT Money, South Florida underground staple and longtime collaborator Xose, and Grammy-winner Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, who publicly called Sears “a Florida legend” and “the real deal.” The album also features production from Patrick “Guitarboy” Hayes (Chris Brown, Nicki Minaj, Ty Dolla $ign).
Early standouts include the live-show favorite “Luv Gangsta”, the steppers groove “What He Don’t Know,” the late-night ballad “Best Wishes,” the Southern Rap/Neo-Soul blend “Lady Pimp” and the Neo-Soul ballad "Walk In", featuring Grammy Award-winner Christone "Kingfish" Ingram.

Sears’ musical lineage stretches back through Tatertown itself. Raised in poverty in the aftermath of the crack era, he grew up around struggle, survival, brokenness, church, humor, and the complicated realities that later shaped the themes of Ghetto Soul. His father held the family together, while his mother’s sharp musical ear helped guide the sound he still creates. His older brothers shaped his early taste. The church formed his voice; becoming a young preacher added sanctified urgency to his delivery; and Tatertown itself gave his lyrics their honesty.

Vocally and emotionally, Sears stands on the foundation of Gerald Levert. That lineage flows through Bobby Womack, Marvin Sease, K-Ci Hailey, Dave Hollister, Leslie Wilson (New Birth) and the bluesy storytelling of Johnnie Taylor. His melodic sense carries the Pop-soul clarity of Kavana, and his harmony palette pulls from Brandy, D’Angelo, and Bilal. His production instinct nods to J. Dilla, DJ Mustard, Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins, and the deep-stacked slow-jam architecture of ’90s–’00s R&B — filtered into his own Southern identity.

A former prodigy, Sears began playing guitar at 11, performing professionally by 12, and leading his own band by 13. Even then he was receiving rare one-on-one mentorship: W.C. Clark coached his gospel-soaked vocal phrasing; Hubert Sumlin personally shaped his guitar instincts; B.B. King and Buddy Guy encouraged him (with Buddy famously calling him a “bad motherf*cker”); and in 2008 Solomon Burke crowned him with the name “King,” adopting him as a godson. Marvin Sease, Denise LaSalle, and Fred Bolton all played defining roles in sharpening his direction.

By his early teens, he was already performing with The Temptations, Pinetop Perkins, Guitar Shorty, Shemekia Copeland, Inner Circle, David Hudson, Jeff Floyd, Bobby Stringer, LJ Echols, Nathaniel Kimble, and The Love Doctor, as well as performing with Betty Wright. He served as music director and guitarist and opening act for Betty Padgett and David Hudson, and played guitar for Bobby Stringer, The Love Doctor, Screamin’ Clifford Hawkins, and Fred Bolton. He toured and recorded extensively with Blowfly and Timmy Thomas, and later became a frequent special guest with G. Love & Special Sauce, appearing with them dozens of times over roughly fifteen years. In late 2006, at just 15, he became the youngest touring member of James Brown’s Soul Generals.

A major part of Sears’ artistic evolution was forged inside Reggie’s studio, the birthplace of the Mixed Royalty Sound and the earliest shape of Ghetto Soul. For nearly a decade, Sears and his best friend and collaborator Xose wrote constantly — surrounded by drum machines, samplers, workstations/MPCs, synths, sequencers, tape machines, computers, vinyl, and cassettes. His late younger brother Dimitri “D.T.” Theros was a central creative force, contributing keys, guitar, bass, organ, ideas, and emotional texture. These relentless nights — cheap meals, no sleep, harmony experiments, songwriting marathons — forged the polished, modern Southern R&B/Ghetto Soul identity Sears carries today.

His early catalog laid the foundation for everything to come. Transitions (2005) introduced him as a young soul-blues prodigy with jazz and funk edge. Blues Power (2006) pushed deeper into Malaco-style soul-blues before he made a decisive move into R&B/Southern Soul with Southern Soul, Florida Style (2006). Get Up On It (2007) blended Contemporary R&B with Southern Rap. Sweet Thang (2007/2009) brought Adult Contemporary R&B into Southern Soul lanes. During this period he scored consistent Southern Soul radio play with early singles like “Prisoner of Love,” “I Can’t Find a Love,” “Drawers Off,” “Dip My Dipper,” “Dirty Dancer,” and the award-winning slow jam “You Betrayed Me” (2010 Soul Patrol Award). His rare 2014 project So Many Roads crystallized the Ghetto Soul formula: Southern Soul heart, AC R&B polish, and hip-hop edge.

During this same era, Sears and Black Zack made genuine regional history with the Southern Soul/Southern Rap crossover “Southern Soul Lover” (featuring Fred Bolton), opening a new lane for younger artists blending soul and street energy. He also produced and co-wrote “Broken Heart Bills and Roaches,” fusing Southern Soul with juke-joint blues and gritty narrative rap. He contributed guitar, vocals, or production to sessions for Kurupt, Isaiah Rashad, RA the Rugged Man, Glasses Malone, Son Little, Dae One, A.F.R.O., and Grammy award-winner Sky Keeton as well.

By his mid-teens, Sears had become a real road veteran, performing more than 250 shows a year across the United States, Canada, Europe, and the Caribbean. He came up the hardest way — in ghetto bars, rural juke joints, hole-in-the-wall clubs, Deep South festivals, the modern chitlin’ circuit, Blues and Southern Soul festivals, and international stages. Those years sharpened his voice, stamina, stagecraft, guitar work, and unfiltered connection to audiences. That grind never stopped: today he still maintains a demanding, year-round performance schedule at festivals, theaters, casinos, concert halls, juke-joint venues, and R&B/Southern Soul clubs nationwide.

Even though Sears was a child guitar prodigy, neither he nor the album is guitar-centric. His core identity is songwriter, vocalist, and producer. His music is built from the ground up starting at the keyboard, with his main focus being songwriting, harmony, stacked vocals, programming, and polished, modern R&B production driven by emotional transparency, and precision — fueled by autistic detail-orientation, ADHD hyperfocus, and bipolar emotional depth.

The themes in Sears’ music have always been grown-folk: love, sex, secrets, temptation, cheating, messy entanglements, heartbreak, reconciliation, spiritual conflict, street romance, toxic desire, quiet regret, late-night vulnerability, humor, lust, and the sacred colliding with the sleazy. On Crowned & Dangerous, these themes aren’t new — they’re simply louder, deeper, sharper, and more fearless, pushed to their emotional edge.

Two decades into a career that began before high school, Reggie King Sears stands as one of the rare artists who bridges Southern Soul, Contemporary R&B, Southern Rap, Neo-Soul, and street-leaning romance into a unified identity. His music remains rooted in Black Southern truth, church fire, sensual grit, grown-folk storytelling, and the belief that soul belongs to the people who live it.
Crowned & Dangerous marks the next evolution — the arrival of a fully realized Ghetto Soul original stepping into his prime.