Tony Rich (or "the Tony Rich Project," as he likes to call himself) hit the jackpot with his debut album, Words, in 1996. It sold a million copies; threw off a million-selling single, "Nobody Knows"; and won the Grammy Award for best R&B album. Then, everything fell apart. The 1998 follow-up, Birdseye, was a flop, and Rich left major-label-affiliated LaFace Records, issuing his next two discs, Resurrected and Pictures, on independent labels to little notice. Hidden Beach Recordings, which is releasing his fifth album, Exist, is another independent, but it has a track record in breaking and reestablishing adult R&B artists.