Crystal Waters

Born in Deptford Township, New Jersey, Waters is the daughter of Junior Waters, a famed jazz musician,[4] and his wife Betty. Her great-aunt, Ethel Waters,[4] was one of the first black American vocalists to appear in mainstream Hollywood musicals.[5] Her family moved to New Jersey for a while but they again moved to Washington, D.C. At age eleven she began writing poetry and took her writing seriously enough to be inducted into the Poetry Society of America when she was 14,[4] the youngest person ever to receive that honor.

She studied business and computer science at Howard University, but her creative work as a musician dropped off as she found less time for it. After earning her college degree in 1989, Waters secured a job as a probation officer with the Washington, D.C. parole board, making a living that would support her two daughters. One of her daughters, Ella Nicole, is a singer-songwriter who was discovered in 2014 and managed by Samonee K.