Marques Barrett Houston (born August 4, 1981) is an American R&B singer, songwriter, rapper, and actor. A member of the R&B singing group Immature/IMx until 2002, he went solo in 2003. He is also the cousin of J-Boog, former member of the R&B/Hip-Hop group B2K.
Born in Inglewood, California to Michael and Carolyn,[1] Houston lost his mother to lymphoma in 1997.[2] This affected him deeply: he wrote songs about his mother's battle with the disease and her eventual death, including the song "All Alone" on Immature's album The Journey.
Early career and IMx
Houston became a founding member of the R&B group Immature, known from 1999 as IMx. The group included Jerome "Romeo" Jones and Don "Half Pint" Santos (later replaced by Kelton "LDB" Kessee), with Chris Stokes acting as their manager. At this period Houston went by the nickname "Batman". The group released four albums under the name Immature.
In 1999, the group underwent a name change but continued on to release two albums under the name IMx: Introducing IMx (1999) and IMx (2001). The group also branched out into film (such as House Party 4: Down to the Last Minute) and television (such as A Different World) before disbanding in 2002.