Ohio singer Lorine Chia first crossed my radar last year with “Living in Vain,” a jazzy melodic track she cut with Chance the Rapper. Chia’s deep, gorgeous voice has plenty of character, and she often flirts with rapping without outright abandoning the outstretched cadences she employs while singing; you could call her a singer-rapper, or even a rapper-singer, but the best tag for Chia is “pop artist,” as she’s able to draw upon and combine a variety of genres (frenzied rap, sinuous R&B, ominous reggae, gauzy jazz, and hyper-accessible Top 40 pop) with an ease that’s escaped countless aspiring musicians.
Chia plays up her musical flexibility on the brand-new release Naked Truths, which is billed as an EP despite the fact that it has 14 songs. Nomenclature aside, Chia sounds like a pop star on the rise, and she gets some good crossover panache from producer Nate Fox, who made “Living in Vain” as well as a good chunk of the beats for Chance’s Acid Rap. Fox’s cuts are among the ones I’ve kept returning to while listening through Naked Truths, and it’s clear that Chia’s also fond of Fox’s work on the EP; she decided to make a video for the sleek, Fox-produced banger “Might Come Around,” which Rookie magazine premiered a couple days ago. The folks behind Chicago hip-hop outlet Elevator made the clip, which features a couple local dancers—I saw the long-haired dancer bust some moves this past weekend at the War Zone, a dance event organized by Wala Cam’s Wala Williams, and I was told the dude’s the best footworker in the city. Check out the video below and head to Rookie‘s site to read an interview with Chia about the clip, her music, and struggling through high school. Also take a listen to Naked Truths, which is available from iTunes.
Leor Galil writes about hip-hop every Wednesday.