Tyrese’s “Lately” was the third single from his 1998 debut album that was simply titled, Tyrese. He wrote “Lately” with Derek Allen who also produced the song. Tyrese was a new artist but his performance harkened back to the R&B wisdom of Anita Baker. There were stylistic similarities to her phrasing but vocally he had the emotional power of a pleading crooner like Lenny Williams. “Lately” was a new standard tune destined to be covered by Baker herself in 2012. The album reached platinum status by 1999 after an impressive 10-week climb of the charts. Tyrese announced the release of his seventh studio album Beautiful Pain early in 2022.
