| Los Kumbia Kings A.B. Quintanilla, III devoted himself to creating the Kumbia Kings, a razor-sharp eight-piece band that could play with authority in a number of styles. With A.B. writing and producing, the Kings released their debut album, Amor, Familia Y Respeto, in 2000. The feel is a melange of Latin and other elements, with a multicultural array of guest artists that includes Sheila E, cumbia saxophonist Fito Olivares, R&B vocal harmonizers Nu Flavor, Puerto Rican rapper Vico-C, and, in one of his last performances, techno-funk innovator Roger Trautman. Sales of Amor, Familia Y Respeto were hot out of the gate; as of now, more than a million copies have sold throughout the U.S. and Mexico. A.B. Kumbia Kings followed in early 2001 with SHHH!, which broke out in its first week at Number 2 among Latin releases and refused to drop from the charts for nearly two years; All Mixed Up: The Remixes, a daring transplant of remix artistry into the Latin market, in 2002; and 4 in March 2003, another genre-juggling project that veered between Spanish and English, R&B balladry and electro-cumbia, and innovative fusions of pop, reggae, hip-hop, and vallenatos. All-star appearances by Aleks Syntek, El Gran Silencio, and the Grammy-winning group Ozomatli brought extra dimension to the Kings' already encompassing style; one track, a cover of the Mexican icon Juan Gabriel's "No Tengo Dinero," is an historic wrap of the classic and the cutting edge, with Gabriel and Monterrey's rock/rap powerhouse El Gran Silencio both backed by the Kings. Another track, ?Don?t Wanna Try?, is an R&B hit. Along the way they broke attendance records at the San Antonio Livestock Show & Rodeo, duplicated Selena's feat of selling out the Astrodome three times, racked up four Billboard Awards, seventeen Tejano Music Awards, four Furia Musical Awards, two Ritmo Latino Award, a Premio Lo Nuestro Award. But as the Kings' star rose, A.B. was already looking beyond the horizons of their success. Relocating from Corpus Christi to McAllen, Texas, he founded King Of Bling as a label, talent agency, and recording company. Under the KOB umbrella, he has pursued plans as traditional as album production (recent clients include Paulina Rubio) and an upcoming television project. It all adds up to a portrait of an artist in transition, leaving a past spangled with darkness and light and moving toward a more varied career in service to the music he loves. "I'm very thankful and grateful to God that I'm here and my sister is not forgotten," he says. "There was only one Selena, just as there's only one Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, only one Quincy Jones, only one Babyface, only one Emilio Estefan...and there's only one A.B. Quintanilla. I'm here to stay."
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