He signed with the label as a recording act to release his debut studio album, My Heart (1996), which was met with lukewarm commercial reception despite yielding his first Billboard Hot 100 entries with its singles "In the Hood", and his cover of Stevie Wonder's "Knocks Me Off My Feet."

[1] He later met DJ Eddie F of Heavy D & the Boyz and signed with Untouchables and LaFace Records, writing hits for Usher and 702.

While most of the album was produced by Jones himself, it also featured help from Eddie Ferrell's Untouchables Entertainment production team, involving Mookie, Marks Sparks, Kenny Tonge, and Darin Whittington.

In the latter country, "U Know What's Up" entered and peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart, where it remained for two consecutive weeks behind "The Masses Against the Classes" by Manic Street Preachers and "Born to Make You Happy" by Britney Spears.

[3] The album produced three further singles, including "Shorty (Got Her Eyes On Me)" and "Where I Wanna Be," the latter of which reached number two on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, and was eventually certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales in excess of 1.0 million copies.

[5] Jones reteamed with his regular team of contributors, including Eddie F, Sheldon Goode, Jamie Hawkins, G-Wise, Kyle West, and Darren Lighty to work on his third album Life Goes On.

[3] In 2009, Jones released The Lost Files, a collection of unreleased songs that were recorded between 1996 and 2004, through his own label Candyman Music Inc and TuneCore.

[3] Lyrics produced two singles, including "Love Like This" which reached the top five of Billboard's Adult R&B Songs chart.