All roads lead to the Grammy’s for Chicago-based Reggie Benjamin, if everything goes according to plan. And it typically does for the hyper-focused singer and musician. In fact this enterprising talent has worked diligently to carve out his own in the dance club scene throughout the mid-west.

“I grew up on George Michael and Prince,” says Reggie. “Their music somehow defines an era and is still timeless. That’s the music that informs my own fusion pop sound.

Forming “The Reggie Benjamin Band” in 1983 when he was in junior high, Reggie and the group stayed together through high school, playing schools, colleges and talent shows, and somehow managed to avoid paying weddings and bar mitzvahs. Reggie put together his next band immediately out of high school. With “R.P.M.” he moved quickly from all covers to all original songs, successfully playing the region college circuit through Illinois, Indiana and Western Michigan.

But merely doing well wasn’t enough for the determined Benjamin, so he hooked up a new plan, one designed to get R.P.M. a steady gig at Elixir, one of Chicago’s hottest clubs. Armed with the knowledge that Thursdays are the slowest night in dance clubs, he approached Elixir’s owner and offered to play on Thursday’s, guaranteeing that R.P.M. would pack the crowds in or the owner wouldn’t pay them. In the meantime, Reggie and the band quietly papered the local university campuses and legions of R.P.M.’s fans from all over the area followed them to the club. It wasn’t long before R.P.M., featuring Reggie Benjamin, was the house band at Elixir, drawing standing room only crowds.

I’m sure he was certain we wouldn’t sell even half the house,” remembers Reggie. “The great thing was that I already knew that we could reach a lot of people who were already fans…I just didn’t know that we could pull them out on a school night!”

But success hasn’t spoiled Reggie Benjamin. Positioning himself to break as a solo artist, he recruited top Producer/Re-mixer, Eric E Smoove” Miller and recorded his first album, “2X-Centrix,” which will be released in spring 2001. The 12” mix of “Hurry Up,” the albums first single, is already climbing Italy’s Club Charts at #7. Reggie is directing the “Hurry Up” video, which includes scenes and footage shot at the legendary and the famed Playboy Mansion.

Billed as the first Indian pop star, Reggie’s five-year master plan includes delivering a Grammy acceptance speech.