Contemporary R&B singer, songwriter, and producer Trey Songz debuted during the mid-2000s with the Top Ten R&B/hip-hop hit I Gotta Make It (2005) and swiftly followed through on its creative and commercial promise. Within the first 13 years of his career, Trey released seven albums that peaked inside the Top 20 of the Billboard 200 chart, including the chart-topping Chapter V (2012) and Trigga (2014), while 15 additional headlining singles reached the R&B/hip-hop Top Ten. One of the few post-millennial R&B artists with sustained mainstream status, he has been nominated for a handful of Grammy awards, beginning with Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for the Stargate-produced ballad "Can't Help But Wait." Trey has been sought out for collaborations with A-list R&B and rap artists such as Scarface, Mary J. Blige, and Toni Braxton, and has worked with key inspirations such as R. Kelly and Teddy Riley. The latter contributed to 11 (2018), one in a pair of simultaneously issued mixtapes. The most valuable partnership Trey has struck up, however, is with producer Troy Taylor, who has worked with him all the way through Back Home (2020), his eighth album.

While growing up, Petersburg, Virginia native Tremaine Aldon Neverson loved hip-hop, but the only R&B he could get into was by R. Kelly. When his friends heard his perfect tenor voice, however, they pushed him to drop rap and start crooning. Trey won numerous talent shows and at some point, through his stepfather, met Troy Taylor, who had worked behind the scenes with such artists as Patti LaBelle, SWV, and B2K. Taylor encouraged Trey to finish high school first, and then they could talk about a possible music career.

Trey received his diploma and immediately moved to New Jersey to work with Taylor. Soon, the singer appeared as a sideman on Kevin Lyttle's self-titled debut and Trick Daddy's Thug Matrimony, and struck out on his own with "About the Game," a solo cut for the Coach Carter soundtrack.