Artist of the Week: VOTE For Your Favorite!
Engage your clicking thumb. It’s time to choose MTV Iggy’s Artist of the Week!
This is a round-up of five of the best global bands we found this week. You have until Monday night at 11:59 p.m. USA Eastern Standard Time to vote for your favorite new artist on MTV Iggy, using the bottom poll!
On Tuesday morning, the band with the most votes will be featured on the MTV Iggy homepage marquee along with a tell-all interview.
Good luck!
Iyadede
Photo Courtesy of Iyadede
Born and raised in Rwanda, pop singer Iyadede fled the genocide with her family and settled in Belgium. (She calls her place of birth “a beautiful country I had to leave.”) Making her way to France, Iyadede began her music career, touring with Zap Mama and performing across Europe, singing in French. She alighted again in Brooklyn, and in 2010 released her English language LP Talking to God. New York has been a welcoming port for her, as evidenced by recent high-profile dates with artists like Blitz the Ambassador and Spoek Mathambo.
D’Banj
Photo Courtesy of Mo'Hits Records/Credit: Amadi Obi
There’s been a flurry of Nigeria-US collaborations, signings, and co-signings, but if one artist is poised to carry the banner for the burgeoning scene it’s Dapo Daniel Oyebanjo, AKA D’Banj. He’s earned it.
The Lagos-based Nigerian vocalist and harmonica player (Yes.) slings some of the most dangerous hooks on any continent. Over his career his albums have become more Western-leaning in their tone. Or rather, exemplifying that best of what Afrobeats means, his music has evolved into a more potent fusion of pop, R&B, club-friendly hip hop, and Nigerian flavor.
Lady Leshurr
Photo Courtesy of Lady Leshurr
If I wanna put my money on a girl who has her head on straight and is gonna get all “Nicki-Minaj-in-2012″ it might be the squeaky-voiced lyrical beastess Lady Leshurr. She’s already featured on Tinie Tempah’s mixtape and on a Tinchy Stryder remix, and her first official single, ”Lego,” came out in November and cemented her Missy-Elliott-inspired goofy bravado. Her flow — machine-gun fluent like Busta Rhymes, her stance — can’t-stop-won’t-stop like another pint-sized Barbie MC ya mighta heard of.
Himuro Yoshiteru
Photo Credit: Pak Chee
In 1998, Tokyo’s Himuro Yoshiteru was already steeped in 8bit and stuttering beats, dropping chopped up tracks like these for the endangered bastion of rave kids. Over the last 14 years he’s developed a knack for warping EDM (namely a lot of drum and bass in those early days) into wild, dense tangles for the kids who were always too brainy for house music. Over the years Himuro has dropped seven studio albums through six labels in the US, France, Australia, and Japan — including his own label, TaNGRaM. Already in 2012 he’s released an EP on Generation Bass and an album on Oilworks. The years haven’t slowed him down.
Lulina
Photo by Renato Parada, courtesy of Lulina.
São Paulo’s Lulina writes love songs, but they’re not your mother’s love songs. She sings ditties about receiving multiple orgasms, and to men who wash her dirty clothes while she sits around and drinks. It’s all sung in wavering, almost feeble voice that’s disarmingly honest at the same time, equal bits sunshine and sadness, sweet-toothed and foul-mouthed. As for the music, there’s everything from toy-pianos and cheap-sounding synth drones on “Do You Remember Laura” to the banjos and bouncy basslines of “A Margarida.” Overall, she tends to go towards lo-fi textures, a rare and refreshing choice in Brazil, where pristine production reigns.
