From the earliest years of his life Jean-Paul "Bluey" Maunick was literally surrounded by music. Born in the late 1950s on the small island of Mauritius (off the coast of Madagascar), Maunick was the son of Edouard Maunick, a distinguished African poet and writer, who was his country's ambassador...
"It's been a wild ride, that's for sure," admits Eli "Paperboy" Reed, looking back at the incredible journey that took the boyish-looking yet preternaturally mature soul belter from a Boston high school band room to a Mississippi Delta juke joint, from Sunday morning gigs behind the organ at a...
Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter/producer and international DJ, Vikter Duplaix, is known throughout the world as an ambassador of futuristic sensual sound and seductively smooth vibes. His critically acclaimed releases International Affairs, Prelude to the Future and Bold and Beautiful, have allowed him to tour and experience over 40 countries with his unique combination of lifestyle enhancement and eclectic sound.
Harlem-bred vocalist Kelis left her parents' home at 16, but continued her education at the famed Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. 2 years later with the support of producers The Neptunes, she landed herself a recording deal. In mid-1999, Kelis was singing...
A 27-time Grammy Award winner (the most of any living musician) and the all-time most nominated Grammy artist with a total of 79 nominations, Quincy Jones' career has spanned six decades and encompassed the roles of composer, arranger, conductor, instrumentalist, record producer, record...
Jose James the son of a jazz-saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist father from Panama, Jose James first embraced jazz in his early teens. By the age of 17, he had emerged as both a budding performer and a serious student of jazz history and technique, performing around Minneapolis in a variety of...
From Philly street corner buskers to hip-hop pioneers to perpetually touring live act to late-night television house band, legendary hip-hop group The Roots have never been one to rest on their laurels. After more than 15 years, the critically acclaimed, award-winning band continues to reinvent...
In 2000 Gotan Project, the trio, founded by Philippe Cohen Solal, Eduardo Makaroff and Christoph H. Müller, released their debut album La Revancha Del Tango. Their music is now played in the cool and chic clubs of New York to the beaches of Rio de Janeiro. The second album...
Aquarian Records
Ghana's international music star Rocky Dawuni has leveraged his popularity within and without of the Continent to champion social causes and inspire a generation of artists and fans alike. Dawuni's eloquence as well as his successful melding of musical celebrity and social action has made him a...
Téa is a Vancouver based singer/ pianist/ songwriter who fuses elements of R&B, Soul, and Pop music into her own brand of "City Soul." Drawing inspiration from diverse artists like Sade, Amy Winehouse, and Remy Shand, Téa has crafted an unmistakable sound that continues to win audiences over....
With a voice that can caress or confront, embrace or exhort, Gregory Porter exhibits such an incredible degree of vocal mastery, that no less a jazz luminary than Wynton Marsalis has gone on record to call him "a fantastic young singer." Born in Los Angeles, raised in Bakersfield, and now...
"What is a N.E.R.D? N.E.R.D stands for No One Ever Really Dies. The Neptunes are who we are and N.E.R.D is what we do. It's our life. N.E.R.D is just a basic belief, man. People's energies are made of their souls. When you die, that energy may disperse but it isn't destroyed. Energy cannot be destroyed. It can manifest in a different way but even then it's like their souls are going somewhere. If it's going to heaven or hell or even if it's going into a fog or somewhere in the atmosphere to lurk unbeknownst to itself, it's going somewhere." -- Pharrell Williams
The Drop
Fat Freddy's Drop's pirate soul train has seen them beat a resolutely independent path to the ears and feet of audiences around the globe for over a decade.
Formed in 1999 the Wellington seven-piece has never stuck to a script. Their sound draws inspiration from almost every part of the black...
Jay Denes started his professional career in music in the late 80's playing keys and singing in a New York based electronic pop band. After signing his first record deal, and experiencing the difficulties so often encountered at the hands of the "majors", he decided to strike out on his own as a...
The notion of "traditional hip hop" has changed forever. Whether you're talking about genre bending projects from superstars like Kanye West and Lil Wayne or surprising debuts from new artists like Kid Cudi and Drake, hip hop has never had a more exciting, expressive moment. If hip hop is...
There is a lot to say about Mark Ronson, Ex-Pat NYC based British musical auteur. Internationally renowned as one of the worlds finest DJs, favoured by the decadent fashion cognoscenti, the hip hop elite and anyone in general that likes to party, add to that list; uber-producer du jour, solo...
Wings Music
It would have been no surprise if Yvette Rovira's musical talents had gone undiscovered. Raised in a family that was more focused on the sciences than the arts - both her mother and only brother are engineers - a career in music might have seemed unlikely. But as is the case with those to whom...
Caracol Records
Singer-songwriter Alex Cuba hails from Artemisa, Cuba and resides in Smithers, B.C. (14 hours north of Vancouver). Musically, he lives everywhere in between. His trademark sugarcane-sweet melodies, pop-soul hooks and rock chords subtly subvert commonly held notions of what Cuban music is. Alex...
SomeOthaShip Connect
Georgia Anne Muldrow is appearing as Jyoti (meaning light in Sanskrit) in all of her "jazz" recordings to come, paying homage to the great and masterful ancestor Alice Coltrane who gifted her with this name shortly before she ascended into an even higher consciousness.
Georgia Anne Muldrow was...
Distant Relatives was created by two serious artists to explore and celebrate the correlations and deep-rooted connections between reggae and hip-hop, tracing both sounds back to the African motherland that is both the cradle of humanity and the wellspring of mankind’s music.
And who...
Bold pop records of unwavering consistency, depth, finish, and pleasure do not suddenly drop out of the sky, and that is the case with "We Are Born," the fifth proper album from the long-formidable Australia-born singer and songwriter Sia. These dazzling fourteen songs, produced by noted Los...
Reprise Records / Warner Brothers Records
Releasing their debut album in 2010, Nikki & Rich are Nikki Leonti, a California-born pastor's daughter who grew up singing in church, and Rich Velonskis, a Queens, NY-born former DJ and established hip-hop/R&B producer who got his start spinning in New York City clubs as a teenager. These two...
A ground-breaking, genre-blurring singer, songwriter, producer, and performer, Janelle Monáe’s inventive style melds a refined pop sensibility with an extraordinary postmodern mash-up of soul, funk, and rock ‘n’ roll.
Hailing from Sweden, Robyn was signed to a major label aged 15, had her first album out at 16 and had toured America before she was 20. While other teenagers were learning about who they were alongside their peers, Robyn spent her formative years surrounded by what she describes as a...
It is said of many artists that they are born with a gift for music. While this can be an overused and sometimes incorrect expression, it really does apply to Oceana. Oceana's mother, a German Haute Couture fashion designer, moved to Paris because of a job and was immediately fascinated by its...
TK Wonder's notable skill for writing and "slamming" lyrics in a very unique hip hop/spoken word fashion seems to create a new genre with a significant electro punch. Her singing is as unique as her vibrant presence on stage and her outstanding live performances. Raised on a nourishing diet of...
Treading their own path through a diverse spectrum of sounds and life experiences, Agape brings it all together in a collaboration that ignores geographical locations and sound barriers. The sound can be called "Dub" since it's the element that seems to mostly tie the strings of their prismatic...
Shannon Harris is a self-taught music producer/composer/artist and multi-instrumentalist. The development of his anomalous expressions in music is the fruition of a lifetime of musical influences. Growing up in an artistic family, Harris was exposed to an abundance of music, media, culture and...
If "esperanza" is the Spanish word for hope, then bassist, vocalist and composer Esperanza Spalding could not have been given a more fitting name at birth. Blessed with uncanny instrumental chops, a multi-lingual voice that is part angel and part siren, and a natural beauty that borders on the...
Sony Music
Bringing John Legend and The Roots together is an inspired pairing, so logical that it's a little surprising they haven't teamed up before. John Legend is a six-time Grammy winner whose three albums have all hit Number One on the Billboard R&B charts, and who has collaborated with such artists as...
Dr. Martens air-cushioned sole, designed by German inventor, Klaus Maertens, was the result of practical thinking; it was designed to meet the specific need of providing additional support and comfort for a broken foot.
The Dr. Martens boot, manufactured by R Griggs and Co, British boot...
The Dr. Martens boot, manufactured by R Griggs and Co, British boot...
ArtSoul Entertainment
SonnyBoy is a song writer, composer, arranger and producer of a unique and creative live-band sound that challenges the existing technology-enhanced sound of today's music. Hailing from the Blues-entrenched heartland of Monroe, Louisiana and raised in the Gospel churches of Milwaukee, it took...
Frogg is one third homegrown UK talent and London vocalist Mills, who brings her eclectic music foundation, which lies squarely between guitar songwriting and drum 'n bass. Fusing rap with a raw, English-witted tongue and vocals that harness an individual R'n'B flava, Mills crosses the British...
Kirk's primal connection to soul comes naturally. He was born in Memphis, musical home of Otis, Sam and Elvis...in that order. His history there is part of what connects him so deeply to the music of Donny Hathaway. "If you think about how I got started, it was the live gospel instrumental...
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