Rico Love

Rico Love
Rico Love in 2009
Background information
Birth name	Richard Preston Butler Jr.
Born	(1982-12-03) December 3, 1982 (age 41) New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
Origin	Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
Genres	R&B[1] hip hop
Occupation(s)	Record producer songwriter singer rapper
Years active	2003–present
Labels	Division1 Interscope Universal Motown Warner/Chappell
Children	2
Website	welovemusicconference.com

Richard Preston Butler Jr. (born December 3, 1982), better known by his stage name Rico Love, is an American record producer, songwriter, singer, and rapper. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, but split his childhood between Milwaukee, Wisconsin and New York City's Harlem neighborhood. He attended Florida A&M and, while visiting Atlanta, Georgia, worked his way into the music industry through connections with singer Usher, who became one of Butler's frequent collaborators.

Butler first wrote the song "Throwback", which was performed by Usher on his Grammy Award-winning album Confessions (2004). Butler has since contributed to works which have received Grammy Awards, including Beyoncé's I Am... Sasha Fierce,^[2] Usher's Raymond v. Raymond (2009),^[3] and the albums single, "There Goes My Baby".^[3] He also co-wrote "Heart Attack" for Trey Songz, which received a nomination for the award.^[4] Throughout the decade, he would continue to write or produce other commercially successful R&B singles including Usher's "Hey Daddy (Daddy's Home)", Nelly's "Just a Dream" and "Gone", and Beyoncé's "Sweet Dreams".^[5][6][7] He has also been credited on releases for artists including Kelly Rowland,^[8] Mario,^[9] Chris Brown,^[10] Alexandra Burke, Keri Hilson,^[11] Fergie,^[12] and Fantasia.^[13]

As a recording artist, Butler has released two studio albums: TTLO (2015) and Even Kings Die (2018); the former spawned the single "They Don't Know", which moderately entered the Billboard Hot 100. He launched the record label Division1 as an imprint of Universal Motown in 2010 and later Interscope Records in 2013; it has signed artists including Young Chris, Tiara Thomas, and Teairra Marí.^[14][15][16] He has guest performed on albums for T.I., Jermaine Dupri, Jamie Foxx,^[17] Rich Boy,^[18] and Fat Joe.^[19]