Black History Month 2025: Artist Spotlights

Arima Ederra grew up in Las Vegas, where her Ethiopian refugee parents had settled to raise a family. The experimental, vulnerable R&B artist has loved music since she was 5 years old and still uses the inspirations from her childhood in her writing and singing today. She grew up around Bob Marley, jazz, and afro rock, along with her father’s friends– Ethiopian artists who often stayed in their home for extended periods in her early life. 

Although her family was not musically inclined, they did have an appreciation for, and emphasis on, good music in her childhood environment. She began with songwriting, through her childhood poetry, and then began This inspiration has led to her being a self-described “kid at heart” within her current musical styling. She owns a lack of inhibition in her music, allowing herself to bear it all within her free-flowing melodies. 

Ederra has now lived for six years in Los Angeles, where nannying in Venice was her first job. She has collaborated with artists such as Jay Prince, Blu, Dizzy Wright, and Raveena, on albums with an incredible variety of musical genres and styles to introduce her to the musical scene in Los Angeles. She has most frequently worked with her producer and collaborator Teo Halm, who has been alongside her for the majority of her musical journey. Her style is well represented in her song “Portals” on An Orange Colored Day, which aided in gaining her new fans. The songs on this album welcome the listeners, inviting them into a new realm alongside Ederra. Her voice is dreamy and slow, not rushing the audience or forcing the songs onto them, but allowing them to take it in at their own pace as a hand on their shoulder. This reflects her inspiration for the lyrics, which initially stemmed from the hardships that she faced in her childhood– losing a parent, and getting evicted from gentrification, leading to her needing an outlet for observation. Her lyrics and ability to transform her pain into a vulnerable piece of art pair well with her name, which means “beautiful soul” in Basque.

Listen to Arima Eduerra’s playlist HERE

Chrystia Cabral isn’t afraid of being weird. Growing up as a biracial, self-described “shy kid,” she’s since taken the reins as a confident frontwoman and critically acclaimed producer. From the lo-fi gothic of 2017’s Pantheon of Me to the orchestral art pop of 2021’s The Turning Wheel, Cabral has made a career out of conjuring the mystical through her music.

But Cabral didn’t think of becoming a musician until relatively recently – she originally studied philosophy, but being the only femme and person of color in her classes discouraged her from continuing. Eventually switching into English literature, she found herself immersed in Gothic horror and the idea of becoming a writer. It wasn’t until the death of a friend in 2015 that Cabral was spurred to learn music production, informed by the stories that she spent years studying.

With larger-than-life vocalists like Kate Bush, Prince, and Minnie Riperton as well as the instrumental wizardry of acts like Kraftwerk and Björk in mind, Cabral’s songs are a melting pot of the avant-garde. And when paired with lyrics about marrying deer and alien abductions, these songs become portals into her imagination – one that revels in fantasy and finds pride in being different.

So it’s no surprise that SPELLLING has found a welcoming audience in communities of color and queerness. Because as fun and otherworldly as her music can be, Cabral never shies away from talking about very real and personal issues. “Haunted Water” evokes the terrors of the Middle Passage, while “Portrait of My Heart” evokes the terrors of social alienation. But the goal of SPELLLING isn’t just to help listeners understand a bitter past, it’s to help them imagine a brighter, more fantastical future. And when listening to the defiant guitar solo on a song like “Boys at School,” it’s easy to believe that this future is right around the corner.

Listen to SPELLLING’s playlist HERE

Tampa’s self-proclaimed Swamp Princess, born Jaylah Ji’mya Hickmon but best known by her artist name, Doechii, has defiantly saturated the modern hip hop and R&B scene in the last year, but her work and artistry have been long in the works. At only 26 years old, the Florida-born rapper and singer has garnered over 20 million monthly listeners on Spotify, a number increasing with each release and collaboration she works on. In 2023, Doechii was awarded the Rising Star Award from Billboard Women in Music and was a three-time Grammy nominee. At the recent 67th Grammy Awards, she became the third woman ever to win Best Rap Album, for her 2024 release, Alligator Bites Never Heal.  

Though now based out of LA, Doechii’s music and style draws from her Tampa roots, where she grew up in a Christian household and had early dreams of becoming a professional choral singer. Her father and uncle were both rappers during her upbringing, and through the encouragement of her peers, Doechii ultimately broke out into the rap scene as a teenager, independently producing and releasing music on SoundCloud. In 2016, amidst the inception of her music career, Doechii also launched a visionary clothing line with messaging in protest of police brutality and promoting racial equality. “Stay Woke, Stay Black” ultimately ended as a brand, as Doechii chose to focus on her music and moved to release her debut EP, Oh the Places You’ll Go, in 2020. The EP features one of Doechii’s first breakout hits, “Yucky Blucky Fruitcake,” a fiery and attention-grabbing track that went viral on TikTok and helped launch her music into the public eye. 

Doechii’s choice to sign with Top Dog Entertainment in Los Angeles was not one made without careful consideration; in a 2022 interview with Billboard Magazine, she shared, “I didn’t want to sign with anybody, but was praying for an all-black team in a black-owned business. So it was perfect. Many labels had reached out, but it was TDE for me.” Driven by inspiration from artists such as Nicki Minaj, Lauryn Hill, Tyler the Creator, Kendrick Lamar, and SZA, Doechii shines under a musical spotlight that is nuanced, gritty, and entirely her own. As a Black bisexual woman, Doechii’s lyrics touch on both struggle and strength and anger and power, all wrapped up in her distinctive Swamp Princess beats.

Listen to Doechii’s playlist HERE

Something about the dance floor seems to elicit an emotional openness and vulnerability like no other. Bodies wriggle on stage, skin sinks into one another, tears and sweat become indistinguishable, and the body heat of a random stranger begins to feel like the most precious thing in the world. In the eyes of an observer, it might all feel a little jarring, but true enjoyers of the dance floor would say otherwise. For those who get it, cathartic release is the correct and only way to worship the space. Do anything but, and it might as well just be sacrilege.

So it’s no wonder FKA twigs’s music celebrates bodily pleasure with a religious fervor. MAGDALENE draws more explicit connections between the body and the divine, but even her catchier albums like CAPRISONGS and EUSEXUA share a deep devotion to the body as a temple. Songs in twigs’s discography flow with a slow viscosity. Beats thump with the muscular force of puckered lips. Lyrics speak in reverence to human anatomy. So it makes sense then for twigs to sing, “sacred is the body.” Because if the dance floor truly is a sacred space and human bodies are its object of idolatry, then you begin to realize that twigs couldn’t be more correct.Though some might find the idea of honoring the dance floor as a sacred space a bit foreign, twigs is so fluent in the language of sensual pleasure that it’s hard not to get the hype. Where words fail to describe the physical, visceral glory of being alive, the dance floor provides a special opportunity to communicate that nuance. Case in point: check out the music video to “cellophane” or literally any song on EUSEXUA. Within the realm of FKA twigs’s music, physical movement alone can express sexual freedom, emotional wounds, and the raw desire for human connection, typically all at once, always unpredictably. Music then should provide the means for bodies to move, shoulders to rub into one another, feet to shuffle, arms to flail; lucky for us, FKA twigs is more than up to the task.

Listen to FKA Twigs’ playlist HERE

Jersey. London. The Bronx. Within the first 20 years of his life, MIKE (also known as Michael Bonema) had lived in all three. With such an eclectic upbringing and such a wide variety of musical influences from vastly different places, a young MIKE found himself gravitating towards the best of both American and UK hip-hop. Fast forward to the present year, and it’s fair to say that he’s taken these influences and run with them. 

As he’s continually collaborated with hip-hop darlings such as Earl Sweatshirt and The Alchemist and expanded his influence, MIKE has evolved into a force to be reckoned with in the hip-hop scene. In this journey to the top, one thing has become clear: one thing defining MIKE is his refusal to be easily defined. To the untrained ear, it might be easy to place MIKE and his music within a certain genre, but being placed in a box goes against everything in his ethos as an artist. It’s true that the success of albums like MAY GOD BLESS YOUR HUSTLE have given him a reputation as a more lo-fi, sample and loop heavy artist reminiscent of early hip-hop. Songs like “HUNGER” are perfect examples of this, filled with looped chorus and piano samples that crackle with a characteristic vintage sound as MIKE’s syrupy drawl-like flow draws you further into the melody, into the lyrics. It’s rough around the edges in the best way, it’s classy, it’s cool. Yet for all the acclaim this sound has brought him, it’s clear that sticking to it is anything but the plan. Recent collaborations with more energetic fringes of the hip hop scene (an incredibly danceable collab album with Surf Gang) show MIKE experimenting with his sound more than ever before. In interviews, he’s commented often on a fear all too common amongst artists: being too well known for a certain type of sound to the point where they can’t experiment with music in the way they want. With the imminent release of his new album Showbiz and another tentatively planned collaboration album with Surf Gang, it’s clear that MIKE pays these concerns no mind. In a world where artists strain against being confined to a genre or sound, there are always some that take pleasure in breaking free from the labels that others might assign to them. Even in an industry that increasingly pressures artists to fit neatly into a box, you can never keep a good man down. You certainly can’t keep MIKE down.

Listen to MIKE’s playlist HERE

Atlanta-based artist and record producer, Mereba, tells a complex and uplifting narrative with every song she writes. Signed with Interscope Records, the alternative/R&B rapper and singer-songwriter has explored a wide range of musical genres throughout her last decade in the music industry.

What makes Mereba stand out as a musical performer is her storytelling ability. She is not afraid to break the mold of a typical album or music video concept. With a seamless shift in genre through each track, her breakout studio album, The Jungle Is My Only Way Out, is possibly one of the most diverse, yet coherent pieces of work I’ve heard in a long time. From the cadence of spoken word poetry over plucked guitar in “dodging the devil,” to the soulful ringing of a sweet chorus in “Get Free,” and the quick patter of rap in “Planet U,” this album contains emotional and creative depth while interweaving elements of optimism. While many of her songs focus on deep messages of love and loss, her work remains novel and refreshing through changing instrumentation, vocal stylization, and a constant push of hope. 

Easily my favorite part of Mereba’s artistry is the way she is able to seamlessly blend varying musical sounds in a visual format. In her visual EP, the song, “Sandstorm feat. JID” is portrayed cinematically with rhythmic narration to paint a journey of drifting apart and moving forward. Classic R&B sounds are heard over stunning and vibrant images of Mereba in a deserted tree, a beach at golden hour, and a softly lit crowd. Claiming “the only way out is through,” Mereba pushes her audience to preserve through emotional loss and to seek love.Other notable works include her 2019 NPR Tiny Desk feature with musical intimacy and spoken word (similar to Doechii’s standout performance) along with the EP AZEB. Her next album, The Breeze Grew a Fire, will be released this Valentine’s Day, perfectly timed considering the overarching presence of love throughout her work. If you’d like to see Mereba live, she will soon embark on her North American tour with a stop in Los Angeles on May 21st!

Listen to Mereba’s playlist HERE

Sheldon Jerome Young rejected the name given to him by his mother and chose one of his own. Enter: Channel Tres. As a rapper, DJ, singer, and producer from Compton, California, Channel Tres has carved out a unique space in music, blending house beats with the rich influences of his South LA upbringing.

Music has been a part of Tres’ life since childhood. After receiving his first drum set from his great-grandfather as a five year old, music quickly became his refuge. His musical journey started in a church band, where he learned from gospel legends Kirk Franklin and John P. Kee. His childhood friend and musician, August 08, introduced him to studio sessions, where he quickly transitioned from making beats to collaborating with artists like Tyler the Creator, JUNGLE, and Toro y Moi. 

Collaboration remains a foundation of Channel Tres’ career. His debut full-length album, Head Rush, dropped on June 28, 2024, boasting 17 tracks of eclectic dance grooves and featuring artists like Thundercat and Ty Dolla $ign. The project showcases his love for blending sounds and pushing boundaries.

Even his name reflects his artistic spirit. “Channel” represents his ability to tap into different creative spaces, while “Tres” is a nod to his favorite childhood TV channel and a tribute to the Mexican culture that shaped him in Compton. Tres has named his signature sound Compton House—a fusion of house music with influences from South LA. With over 3 million monthly listeners on Spotify and a growing impact in the dance music scene, Channel Tres continues to break new ground. You can expect to see him on stage this May at the Lightning in a Bottle festival…I know I’ll want to be there.

Listen to Channel Tres’ playlist HERE

This American group formed in 2013 with the former Boston based hip hop duo 7L and Esoteric, along with the former Staten Island based and Wu-Tang Clan member Inspectah Deck. Deck had collaborated with the duo in 1999 and 2010, but it took a few years for them to brainstorm their full length, self-titled, debut album CZARFACE. Not only did CZARFACE form from three iconic artists by themselves, but now they were in a supergroup of the genre. They have come out with almost an album a year since they formed, but have not sacrificed quality in the quantity that they have produced. I will try to do this all in one breath, but the group has collaborated with some incredible artists– Jedi Mind Tricks, ICE-T, Wu-Tang’s GZA and Method Man, Ghostface Killah, MF DOOM, Roc Marciano, Action Bronson, Vinnie Paz, R.A. The Rugged Man, Mega Ran, Large Professor, Mayhem Lauren, Kool Keith, and Missio. 

They group stays consistent with the inspirations behind visual work that accompany their discography with their album cover being inspired by vintage comic books and the name CZARFACE being loosely based on a comic character who intended to save hip hop. Their album names include this playful theme with a variety of word plays for the album titles such as Czarmageddon and Czartificial Intelligence. All of these inspirations come from Lamour Supreme, the multimedia graphic designer and street artist. He has aided in the group coming out with their own visual merchandise such as prints or posters.

A background choir repetition and piano in “Bomb Thrown” and a base track with what could be a trumpet in “Mando Calrissian” are examples of an incorporation of the symphony that they create in each of tracks without parroting their previous creations. Bass drums have a heavy influence on their early to middle career work as a trio, while more experimental foundations are popular in their late albums, such as scratching, harmonizing, and gritty riffs on the guitar. 

The band is incredible to listen to with a heavy influence on their lyrics from the stylistic perspective that can only be described as comic book adaptation. Their consistency and ability to consistently break their own boundaries is admirable, and incredible to witness. I highly recommend listening to them if you have listened to any of the artists with which they have collaborated. Their villain-like lyrics and old school sound echo their career beginnings, previous to CZARFACE, and will be appreciated by anyone with a love for 90s hip hop.

Listen to Czarface’s playlist HERE

Since the release of their viral debut single “Cardboard Box” in 2022, Jorja Douglas, Renée Downer, and Stella Quaresma of the British R&B girl group FLO have released two EPs and a debut album, performed at Coachella, won the BRIT’s Rising Star Award, collaborated with everyone from Missy Elliott to GloRilla, and managed to single-handedly bring Chlöe & Halle out of their hiatus. They know how to strike while the iron is hot while still managing to deliver quality music that fits just as well alongside the records of the early 2000s as it does to the hits of the 2020s. 

FLO proudly wears their influences on their sleeves, with their 2024 album Access All Areas opening on a Cynthia Erivo-narrated history lesson about the R&B girl groups of the past and present. While they certainly take plenty of inspiration from the timeless production, flawless harmonies, and confident and sensual lyricism of their idols, FLO brings their own flavor to the table with their undeniable chemistry and eagerness to take risks with their sound through hip-hop and rock influences. The trio has managed to maintain a truly skipless discography, but Access All Areas is FLO at their best, with highlights including “Walk Like This,” “On & On,” “Shoulda Woulda Coulda,” and “Get It Till I’m Gone.”

On album closer “I’m Just A Girl,” Downer asks, “How many Black girls do you see on center stage now?” FLO has been vocal about the UK music industry’s apprehension to R&B music like theirs. While the trio has managed to find an audience and hone their craft, they remain committed to pursuing the global, hit-making potential they know they have. Girl groups like SWV, TLC, and Destiny’s Child paved the path for FLO to take center stage, but now FLO is on a mission to ensure they’re not the last.

Listen to FLO’s playlist HERE

American singer-songwriter Santi White, who performs as the moniker Santigold, is an influential figure among contemporary Black artists. Her discography blends a variety of styles like new wave, dub, and hip hop to create a distinctive and genre-defying sound. She debuted with 2008’s Santogold (featuring the instant hit “L.E.S. Artistes”) to critical acclaim. She has released several records since, up until 2022’s Spirituals. Still, her solo discography is outnumbered by contributions to other records and soundtracks, designating her a prolific collaborator. Joining forces with artists like A$AP Rocky, the Beastie Boys, and David Byrne, she imbues her unique sound into any track she touches. Most recently, she was featured on “Thought I Was Dead” off CHROMAKOPIA by Tyler, the Creator. Though she has collaborated on tracks spanning a wide range of genres, she shines the most on songs by male rap and hip hop artists, where her melodic, soulful voice stands out even more when juxtaposed with intense, fast-paced rap verses.

While digging through Santigold’s extensive discography, I uncovered a hidden gem in the form of Stiffed: a punk band fronted by Santigold before she debuted her solo career. Given her popularity, I was shocked to discover how overlooked this band was; although very different from her current sound, Santigold’s vocals significantly elevate the classic punk tracks, resulting in a highly under-appreciated relic from her early career. With her unique sound fusing various genres and her collaborations with countless other artists, Santigold has truly left her mark all across the music industry.

Listen to Santigold’s playlist HERE

Closer to private love letters than pop songs, Labi Siffre’s discography is a treasure trove of intimacies set to gorgeously understated melodies, a testament to the possibilities of queer love. His string of albums in the 1970s are simultaneously gentle and assertive, simple and complex. The intertwining of his crystalline voice, soft guitar picking, and bittersweet lyrics define deceptively nuanced classics like “Watch Me” and “Bless the Telephone,” odes to his cherished domestic life with his multiple partners. An openly gay and polyamorous Black man, his art was a declaration of his own agency, his commitment to living a free life, full of love. 

Emulating his heroes Billie Holiday and Wes Montgomery, he played jazz guitar in various London clubs throughout the 1960s, honing the musicianship and professionalism that would allow him to entirely write and produce his own records, including The Singer and the Song (1971) and Crying Laughing Loving Lying (1972). Despite sharing some sonic qualities with the contemporary folk movement, the albums embrace quotidian beauties over hippie utopias. For Siffre, love is shared sweaters and short phone calls, not melodramatic affairs. His songs are always grounded in reality; gentle assertions of his politics and sexuality define songs like “Fool Me a Good Night” (“I don’t care if there’s another man/I don’t care if there’s three or four”) and “The Dead Don’t Matter” (“The struggle never ends/this is written in stone”). Though he only sporadically releases music today, he continues to speak out publicly for Black lives, Palestine, queer youth, and global justice. 

Listen closer to the songs in Siffre’s near-perfect discography, and you’ll hear love that is not mystical or metaphysical – it is love made strong by time, tenacity, and tenderness. They are reminders to his queer audience that love, true love, is as possible and inevitable as the rising sun.

Listen to Labi Siffre’s playlist HERE

Kilo Kish is an artist in every sense of the word, and her multifaceted genre-defying creative output over the last decade has been irreducible to merely that of the ‘musician’ – with a career populated with collaborations with established fashion houses, solo gallery exhibitions, and multimedia music releases that go far beyond the bland, traditional album rollout. All of this to say that even when she’s releasing critically acclaimed solo records and collaborating with artists like Childish Gambino, Vince Staples, Gorillaz, and Surf Curse, she’s still an artist’s artist–breaking the rules and writing her own in whatever she does.

Born Lakisha Kimberly Robinson in Orlando, Florida, Kilo Kish initially attended Pratt University on scholarship before attending the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) to pursue textile manufacturing, graduating in 2012. That very same year, Kish released her debut EP ‘Homeschool’ to positive critical reception, being ranked one of Complex’s best releases for that year. She wasted no time in proving to her newfound audience what kind of artist she was: the very next year she released a debut mixtape K+, boasting features from A$AP Ferg, Childish Gambino, and Earl Sweatshirt. Later in the year she released an accompanying zine of visual art and behind-the-scenes photos pertaining to the mixtape, showing the world that she intended to be more than just a recording artist.

When Kilo Kish finally released her debut album, Reflections in Real Time to the eager anticipation of many, it revealed more about her personal experiences as an artist and as a person than any of her prior endeavors. confessional spoken word elements populate her dreamy art-pop soundscapes to paint an impressionistic self-portrait of the struggles and triumphs of her early twenties. The striking album cover of an off-centered greyscale portrait of the artist with her face paused in dramatic, almost theatrical shock suggests the sharp, deliberate precision of her creative language.

Just a year after releasing her debut Kilo Kish also showed her first solo gallery exhibition, Real – Time in LA’s own HVW8 gallery in West Hollywood. This was far from her first foray into visual art; she’s been directing her own music videos and serving as her own primary creative director for as long as she had been creating music.

2018 was a productive year for Kilo Kish as a feature artist, establishing her presence on both Gorillaz’ guest-heavy record Humanz, as well as offering a phenomenal feature on Vince Staples’ song Crabs in a Bucket on his sophomore album Big Fish Theory.

In 2019 she released an energetic dance-pop EP REDUX, followed in 2022 by her sophomore album AMERICAN GURL. In 2024 fans received an anniversary redux of her breakout mixtape Homeschool, as well as a collaborative single with acclaimed producer Machinedrum to assure us that she’s not done creating, evolving, or defying expectations any time soon.

Beginning later this month, Kilo Kish has announced that she and Zehra Zehra are curating a collection of films for the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art called American Gurl: home–land, a “presentation of 6 short film works that negotiate land, diaspora, home and displacement from artists Melvonna Ballenger, Shenny De Los Angeles, Ella Ezeike, Solange Knowles, Alima Lee, and Cauleen Smith.” American Gurl, a title she has lovingly lifted from her most recent album, has been repurposed as a name for her ongoing co-curatorship with Zehra Zehra, as a sign that her identity as a musician is inseparable from her ongoing commitment to uplifting others’ voices in the community.

Listen to Kilo Kish’s playlist HERE