Manuel Seal

Manuel Lonnie Seal Jr. was an American songwriter, record producer, multi-instrumentalist and vocal coach whose work with Jermaine Dupri and So So Def helped define a generation of R&B and pop hits. He died on 27 September 2026, the day after his 66th birthday. The cause of death was not publicly disclosed.

Born on 26 September 1960 in Chicago and raised in Freeport, Illinois, Seal grew up in a musical household. His parents encouraged piano lessons from age five. After his father left when Seal was ten, his mother, a schoolteacher, kept the family going. Seal learned flute and other instruments, formed bands in high school, and performed across the Midwest while still underage.

A manager spotted him while he worked with gospel and R&B singer Ann Nesby. Meetings in Los Angeles and Atlanta followed. In an Atlanta hotel lobby, Seal drew a crowd while playing piano and singing; Jermaine Dupri heard him and signed him. Seal became a core creative partner at So So Def, writing, producing and arranging for Xscape, singing on Da Brat's Funkdafied, contributing to TLC's CrazySexyCool, and co-writing Mariah Carey's Always Be My Baby.

He wrote much of Usher's My Way album, including You Make Me Wanna, My Way and Nice and Slow, and later shared in the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song for Mariah Carey's We Belong Together. Credits also included Janet Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Destiny's Child, Alicia Keys and many others. Across his career he received thirteen Grammy nominations and one win.

Dupri announced Seal's death on Instagram, calling him the first person who truly understood him musically and crediting him as a co-creator of the So So Def sound. Music outlets including VIBE reported the tributes that followed.