SOLD OUT – Kehlani
SOLD OUT – Kehlani
Bowery Boston presents
Doors: 6:00 pm / Show: 6:30 pm
This event is 18 and over. Patrons under 18 admitted if accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.
SOLD OUT
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Kehlani
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Kehlani tells it like it is. Whether in conversation or on stage, the Oakland-born R&B singer and songwriter gives the straight truth about her life, pain, passion, love, triumph, and everything in between with collected calm and confidence. It’s that type of honesty that makes her music resonate with the depth of classic Motown and a vividly confessional lyricism reminiscent of Neo Soul. At the same time, her 2015 mixtape, You Should Be Here, tells a story that distinctly belongs to her.
It all starts on the East Bay…
Born a unique blend of ethnicities including African American, Caucasian, Native American, Spanish, and Filipino Native American Kehlani will casually tell you “You’re lucky if you make it out of Oakland.” However, in her case, talent usurped luck. Months after her birth, Kehlani lost her father, never properly meeting him. Mired in drug addiction, her mom shuffled her to an aunt. She initially found solace in dance—ballet in particular—but a knee injury sidelined her what might’ve been a budding career as ballerina.
“That’s when I started singing,” she recalls. “When I was living with my aunt, she played me all of these powerful women and love songs. It was that Neo Soul-R&B, and I couldn’t get enough of it. It felt right to sing from the moment I began.”
In eighth grade, she became a member of the group Poplyfe produced by D’wayne Wiggins of Tony! Toni! Toné! fame. With Kehlani front and center, Poplyfe ended up becoming a finalist on America’s Got Talent—even performing with her idol Stevie Wonder during the final round. They didn’t win the competition, but she made an invaluable ally in Nick Cannon. A few industry pitfalls and detours derailed her musical momentum for six months until she decided to pick up the mic again. Without a home, she moved from couch to couch until Cannon got back in touch wanting to help however he could. Kehlani wanted one thing: studio time.
Kehlani’s 2014 mixtape, Cloud 19, introduced her to the world. Immediately, tastemakers and audiences alike wholeheartedly embraced her. Complex showcased the songstress in a piece entitled “How R&B Saved 2014,” Pitchfork dubbed the mixtape one of the “Overlooked mixtapes of 2014,” Vice proclaimed her an “R&B Artist on the Verge of Blowing Up,” BuzzFeed pegged her at #4 on their “41 SXSW 2015 Artists You Need In Your Life,” and she ended up being one of SXSW’s “Top 5 Most Tweeted Artists.”
In late April she shared You Should Be Here with the world, which earned Kehlani her very first GRAMMY nomination at the 58th GRAMMY Awards for “Best Urban Contemporary Album.” Upon its release Billboard immediately called this project “The year’s first great R&B album”. Amongst their great review, You Should Be Here has seen quite a bit of success on the charts. Aside from being the top R&B debut of the week, it also came in at #1 on the iTunes R&B/Soul chart and #2 on both the Overall R&B Albums and Current R&B Albums chart.
Signing to Atlantic Records in early 2015 and releasing You Should Be Here, Kehlani possesses the power to make an impact because she’s so unwaveringly honest.
“I am one-hundred percent music,” she’ll assure.
That’s because it’s the truth.
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Ella Mai
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London, United Kingdom
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Jahkoy
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Like all the most exciting new talents, 21-year-old Toronto-born JAHKOY seemed to appear from nowhere. Shared speculatively on his Soundcloud last June, the shimmering funk of debut single Still In Love – the first song he recorded after he moved to LA alone aged 20 – now sits at over one million plays on all platforms. Same with the skipping electro-throb of follow-up Hold Your Hand, the string of those songs presenting a new artist in absolute control of his craft while already looking to manipulate it into new and exciting shapes. Both songs have received plays and shout outs on Beats 1, most notably from Zane Lowe, Drake and JAHKOY’s childhood hero, Pharrell. In fact, it’s telling that from a young age JAHKOY was drawn to a constant shape-shifter and experimentalist like Pharrell. “I loved the fact he was in his own lane,” he explains. “There was stuff that was going on but he was creating new stuff. He didn’t fit in and he stepped over the boundaries of music and made what he has today.” A brief pause. “It’s something I want to do with my music.”
Before he could pinpoint his own musical inspirations, there was a childhood household bustling with early influences, mainly covering 90s R&B and hip-hop. “A lot of New Edition, Total, Notorious BIG, Lil Kim,” he says with a smile. While school didn’t offer him a musical education as such, there were mandatory violin lessons to train his ear. “Because it’s the only instrument I know how to play I feel like it’s pretty easy,” he shrugs. By the age of 11 music had started to go from something he listened to to something he created, and buoyed by the expanding Toronto music scene he started (secretly) writing early lyrics in the form of poetry. Steadily these turned into raps, which in turn became his debut releases under the name Raheem. “At the time I was doing music everyone was rapping,” he says. “It started becoming more of a common thing and then it was too common. I put out three projects before changing my name.” While proud of the critically acclaimed mix-tapes, he’s also aware that they were a stepping stone: “That was more my learning process to get to where I am now.”
JAHKOY, the artist, was inspired by a perfect storm of circumstances, mainly built around UK dance duo Disclosure and, well, good old-fashioned love. “Disclosure came to Toronto in 2014 and I had just dropped a project as Raheem that same day,” he explains. “I went to the Disclosure show, but I was going to see Vic Mensa, who opened for them. So he killed it and then the headliners came on and they completely ripped it. I had no idea what kind of music they made or anything but their name. I was blown away by it. More because it was instrumental so I figured it would be dope if somebody sang or rapped over those kind of beats. So I started doing just that and then it turned into singing.” His passion for singing was also bolstered by falling in love, the title of his forthcoming debut album, Temptations, inspired by his first date.
In amongst the musical re-awakenings and the young love, JAHKOY also knew he needed to leave Canada to make his dreams a reality. “I left Toronto for Atlanta,” he says. “I just needed to get out of Canada. So I spent some time there, but eventually felt like there wasn’t what I needed in Atlanta. I needed to explore what was out there and so I went to LA and I grinded it out.” In fact, he didn’t tell anyone he was going to LA, just packed up his stuff and left.. While a move to LA sounds glitzy on paper, in reality it was a leap into the unknown. “When I got to LA there was just one person I knew. I’d met him online. He was actually a fan of my early music, so I knew he was really down to support the movement,” he explains. “So I was staying on his couch for a while and getting a chance to meet people. The internet is a big world and there were some people who I knew were in LA that I hadn’t met before, but I was willing to because I was there. So I linked up with a few people and I worked in a few studios and it went from there.” It was during those early sessions that he created Still In Love, a song that re-shaped his journey.Steadily his name started to reach other producers, most notably the likes of No ID, Pop & Oak, James Fauntleroy and DJ Dahi, with a deal eventually signed with Def Jam.
Often the inspirations behind JAHKOY’s songs are used purely as the foundation to careen off into glorious new areas. So Hold Your Hand was inspired by The Beatles’ I Want To Hold Your Hand, this sense of carefree early love morphing into a day-glow mix of filtered guitars, shuffling beats and JAHKOY’s airy delivery.
Asked where he’d like to be in five years’ time, JAHKOY says it’s something he’s been thinking about a lot recently. Rather than emulate a specific career, he’s focused on making his music meaningful to as many people as possible. Once again, there’s this sense of following your own path and doing what you need to do in the best way you can, regardless of what else is happening around you. “I want to be influential to the music world,” he states, and you believe him. “That’s really it. I want to be able to bring that light to music.
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Noodles
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A name to know and an artist to watch in Electronic music, Noodles continues to shine as a rising star in the DJ/Producer ranks and has taken his fans on quite a wild and exciting ride this past year. Noodles is well known as the go-to remixer for some of the biggest names in music and 2015 allowed him to further expand his library of collaborations while working on official projects for artists spanning the gamete of the industry, from David Guetta to Pitbull. His work was also featured in the widely successful 2015 blockbuster motion picture “Furious 7” and can also be found on the official movie soundtrack.
Aside from working on his original releases as well as remixing for the biggest acts in music, Noodles has continued to grow his radio audience reach to impressive lengths. He can be heard by over 2.5 million listeners per week through his massive radio network which includes mixes every weekend on Miami’s #1 station HITS 97.3, his internationally syndicated show “The Radio Remix”, his signature “Noodle’s Nation” show on DASH radio, as well as weekly appearances on SiriusXM. Turn on a radio just about anywhere and you are sure to hear a mix or remix that Noodles is responsible for.
Noodles brings the show during his high energy live performances! His sound can be described as a genre mashing experience rooted in big room electronic music with hip-hop, trap and reggae influences, which is the perfect combination to get any crowd moving.
Remix King, Super Producer, and Radio Ruler- Noodles is a name to know and a star to watch in 2016.