YRB Magazine

by Danielle Young

Photography by Chad Griffith

TThere was a time when R&B was referred to as soul, an era where music was saturated in melodies that could stand the test of time and then some. Soul was paired with lyrics that made women beg, plead and even toss their unmentionables on stages. But in this day and age, that quality of music is almost nonexistent in soul’s descendant. Luckily, singer/songwriter Kevin Cossom has plans to breathe life back into R&B. “We’re lacking [potent] subject matter and content,” he says of contemporary R&B. “Our focus is the club, and it’s hard to be in the club and be meaningful.”

Cossom’s roots can be traced back to his childhood. The Philadelphia-born, Orlando-raised singer had a supportive mother who founded a performing arts school and encouraged her son’s vocal talents. “She got me into singing and doing things in church,” he says. “My first solo was when I was three years old in a play. By the time I was 14, I wanted to do it professionally.”

A few years later, Kevin met his manager and, within a year of that meeting, landed his first placement on Lloyd Banks’ “Karma.” Unfortunately, Kevin saw firsthand how finicky the music business can be. “They eventually did a remix and put Avant on it, but [it was] whatever,” he says. “I realized it was not just music, it’s a business. There were reasons why they did that.” After that experience, Kevin turned to songwriting and began his current journey as a singer/songwriter.

The 25-year-old began penning hit after hit for artists like Young Jeezy, Rick Ross, R. Kelly, Trey Songz and Keri Hilson under Danja’s fresh label N.A.R.S. (New Age Rock Stars). Working with Danja as a writer, Kevin expressed interest in singing and the Grammy-winning musician brought him into the lab to see what he could do. “We went in the studio and came up with three or four crazy joints,” he says. “The connection and the chemistry were automatically there.” 

With inspiration spanning from church to melodies to conversations, Kevin delivers a raw perspective to popular R&B. His pre-album mixtape Hook vs. Bridge (on which he wrote all 14 songs) is just a tease of what we’ll be getting with his debut, L.O.V.E. (Longing Over Various Emotions). “The album is if you’ve ever been in a relationship, liked somebody, searched for love. There’s something in there for you,” he explains. “From the feeling when you first meet somebody to when you’re tired of them. It’s all of those emotions put together in the album, in song form.”

When it comes to his music, Kevin’s got high hopes that it will “affect people in a good way,” whether it’s with recent collabs with artists like Mary J. Blige and Usher or, of course, his solo joints. “The things that I talk about – love and all that – I hope I can help somebody through a certain situation or let them know that somebody else feels the way they do.”

by Michael Menachem

Photography by Odessy Barbu

Pop music always has room for another unruly badass who runs her mouth.  L.A.-based Ke$ha may have been on your radar prior to her current radio smash “Tik Tok” as the voice on Flo Rida’s #1 track “Right Round,” on which she was credited internationally but not in the U.S.

The 22-year-old writes all her own music – she’s kind of obsessed with it – and even broke into Prince’s Beverly Hills home once. Her essence is really that of the anti-pop star. It’s easy to compare her sound with Lady Gaga’s musical style, but you can’t discount her outspokenness and lyrical savvy that comes off as one part Pink, another part Beastie Boy. Her material is the pop star equivalent of Kathy Griffin or Mo’Nique, with enough raunchiness to parallel a slew of Howard Stern shows.

“I’m not a brain surgeon, it’s pop music,” she says. “I don’t take myself too seriously – it’s supposed to be a fun ride.”

Ke$ha’s debut single, “Tik Tok,” boasts a filthy, addicting beat with beeps and blips, and it broke the Hot 100’s top 10 in late 2009. But she’s not letting the success go to her head. In fact, it has the opposite effect. “I try not to think about it because it kind of gives me anxiety,” she states. “It’s awesome. I honestly don’t think about it, but now that I am it’s giving me anxiety. It’s flattering that people give two shits about what I’m saying. Like people give a shit about me brushing my teeth with Jack Daniels. If it were with Jack Daniels I would brush my teeth more often!”

The signature dollar sign in her name was originally added just to be funny. “I was just singing on ‘Right Round’ and it was #1 in like a billion countries and on Kidz Bop and nobody knew it was me, and I didn’t make any money on it,” she says. Already, Ke$ha has worked with Pitbull on “Girls,” another song with Flo Rida called “Touch Me,” and she’s worked with Mickey Avalon, Taio Cruz and her good friends 3OH!3. Dr. Luke, super producer of hits like Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone” and Katy Perry’s “I Kissed A Girl,” co-produced “Tik Tok” with Benny Blanco, which appears on Ke$ha’s debut effort, Animal.

Originally from Nashville, Ke$ha describes L.A. as an adult playground. “It’s kind of a shit show,” she says. “You know, it’s kind of like Vegas, but like all the time. It has this sort of tragic vibe because it’s built upon so much bullshit, broken dreams and ghosts haunting people.”

As far as her own career goes, Ke$ha doesn’t see herself becoming one of those lost souls. “I don’t know how I’m going to change in the future, but I could become a nun next year,” she jests. “I want to be known for standing for irreverence and carelessness and having fun with everything. It doesn’t mean you have to get fucked up. I want people to be happy. I want to increase some endorphin levels.”

by Emily Zemler

Photography by Marc Bessant

Listening to Gee, the MC and vocalist for Bristol duo Malachai, ramble and joke his way through a 45-minute interview almost doesn’t make sense until you hear his band. The jovial musician, who calls from his house where he’s having a boiler installed, mimics various accents, decries American food, jumps from tangent to tangent and repeatedly asks, “Is this making sense?” But in the end, after making several good points about music, Gee’s unfocused yet compelling conversation reflects Malachai’s hodgepodge of styles, influences and sounds.  

The band, which formed when Gee’s musical partner Scott discovered him in the Bristol hip-hop scene where he was a rapper, takes its cues from a huge range of music – the Beatles, the Beach Boys, underground hip-hop, ‘50s rock – and creates a unique amalgam of everything. 

“Don’t ask me how we make the music!” Gee says of the songs on the band’s debut, The Ugly Side of Love. “I’m sworn to secrecy! I can’t talk about that. Scott provides me with a lot of the music or wraps the music around songs I write. There’s a few things going on in the songs. It’s a very two-way thing. It’s like that game you played as a child where you folded a piece of paper and one person would draw on one part and you’d turn it over and the next person would draw and you’d unfold the paper and have a picture. Our songs are like that a bit.”

The Ugly Side of Love, which has been out in the U.K. for almost a year, is finally seeing the light of day in the States after a failed Island record deal, with the version that’s already been released being made up of the original demos Gee and Scott recorded a few years back. 

“We could never recreate the original demos,” Gee explains. “That was the magic of it. That’s what got everybody into it. What you’re hearing is the true representation of us.”

But because the record has been out for so long in the band’s home country, Malachai already has a collection of newer tracks ready to be presented as their second record. So while they have never even played a concert in the U.S. (something they hope to remedy soon), the twosome has already established themselves back home. Having new songs also offers the band a chance to improve upon what they’ve done thus far. 

“I think The Ugly Side of Love is a bit harsh,” Gee says. “There’s not a lot of gaps in it. It was us just trying to get in the door, really. But now that we’ve got in, this time around, the second record will be a bit more settled in the shoes. It has a bit more space around it and we can let it breathe more. The first one was just a release of energy that just needed to get out and Malachai gave us a place to do 

by Steven J. Horowitz

Photography by Edwin Tse

Like many of her British contemporaries, English singer-songwriter V V Brown has taken her sweet time bringing her music to an audience across the Pond. With a career that’s taken years to unfold, Brown has layered her foundation brick by brick, releasing her debut album Travelling Like the Light overseas in July 2009 and using the subsequent months to spread her music across the English terrain before even thinking about breaking the continental divide.

“I think it’s very important for me, or any artist, to make sure they try to get some kind of a connection to where they’re from,” she says. “And it was really important for me to release my music in England first, and I’m not in any rush. I want to be in this industry for a long time, so I believe good music is good music, and eventually, people will hear it.”

Even with her laissez-faire attitude, the 26-year-old Northampton native feels that now is the time to make some noise overseas, with the Stateside release of her debut hitting stores this winter. Though the album consists of tracks like “Crying Blood” and “Game Over” that have already made ripples in the European market, Brown has made sure to beef up the full-length for American listeners by tacking on a special track that adds a little more spice to the mix.

“I’m really excited about this new song, ‘Caroline,’” she exclaims. “It’s very different. This song is just straight up ‘I’m not happy,’ and the music sounds like I’m not happy, and it’s big. It’s wicked, man.” 

It’s a change of pace for an artist whose biggest hit, “Crying Blood,” juxtaposes a sunny ‘50s pop-brushed melody with lyrics that excoriate a boy that’s wronged her to the point where she’s in such agony that she sheds red tears. Her career sprang from the same sort of inner anguish that developed after a botched trip to Los Angeles where she was looking to find herself as an artist, only to be told that she should try to be more R&B and wear “short, hot pants” to make her dreams a reality.

“I was kind of doing the whole Dick Wittington story, trying to make it out there,” she says. “I was living in L.A. for about two years, and when I got back, I was pretty depressed and I was broke. And so I bought this one-string guitar from a charity shop, and I just really got roots-y and back to the beginning, and I literally wrote the album in about a week.”

Back in the U.K., Brown made a name for herself with her fresh batch of recordings, stirring up so much commotion that even Diddy caught wind of her music. “We did a little showcase for him and I came with my one-string guitar and I played the piano, and he was really nice,” she says. “But I just felt, for me, I wanted to be in England. I’m a British artist, and if my music’s ever going to go anywhere in the world, I think it’s important for people to embrace me from a British beginning.” With Britain finally on her side, Brown is ready to take the world by storm A even if the journey has her traveling much slower than the speed of light. that.”