User:Trqalobaid/sandbox

Alex Mali
Alex Mali is an American singer-songwriter from Brooklyn, New York. She first gained notoriety from her 2016 SoundCloud track "Phenom", before achieving wider recognition with the track "Start It Up" from her 2019 EP, Sweet & Sour. She released her debut album, Trust the Process, in 2023.

Early life
Born to a Jamaican mother and a Trinidadian father in Brooklyn, she was inspired to sing after watching Rodger & Hammerstein's Cinderella, starring Whitney Houston and Brandy. In 2014, while studying jazz in college, she wrote and recorded her first song "Is This Love", using a pre-made doo-wop-influenced instrumental sampling the late Jamaican reggae artist Bob Marley. The song received some considerable attention on SoundCloud, which pushed her to pursue her musical passion seriously.

Career
In 2016, Mali began collaborating with Nigerian-American rapper Thutmose, and released a two-track EP featuring the songs “Devil Springs” and “Body High.” She later released “Phenom”, which quickly went viral on SoundCloud. She gained almost one million streams on Spotify, appeared on curated playlists on multiple streaming platforms, and eventually played on BBC Radio 1. In 2017, her next collaboration saw her featuring MeLo-X on her reggae-influenced track “Hoity Toity,” which received airplay on Ebro’s Beats 1 radio show on Apple Music, and the video premiering on The Fader magazine. Between 2017 and 2019, Mali released a number of singles, including "Set Good" and "99 Bottles", the latter of which was released for VFiles' SS19 fashion show, and she appeared on Nyck Caution’s debut mixtape, Disguising the Limit. In March 2019, she appeared as part of SXSW Festival’s Leaders of the New Cool musical lineup. She later released her debut EP, Sweet & Sour, to widespread critical acclaim, with “Start It Up” achieving the most notoriety, gaining over two million views on YouTube as of July 2024.

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mali released her second EP, Phenom, which was preceded by several singles, “Problem,” “I Know,” “Control,” and the pop-influenced dancehall track “Good Good”, the latter with a music video of Mali and dancers in Carnival regalia dancing outside of the Brooklyn Museum. The music was handled by production duo The Breed, for whom she flew out to Los Angeles to collaborate. She also performed as part of Adult Swim Festival's musical lineup, debuting a standalone single, “5 Star.” She later appeared on Duckwrth’s second album, SuperGood, on the track “Find A Way” alongside Radio Ahlee and Bayli. In 2021, she released the Iconic EP featuring the drill-influenced single “Addicted,” Mali terming her new style as “drill&B.” In 2022, she appeared as part of Afropunk’s lineup upon the festival's return from pandemic hiatus. She began work on her debut studio album, Trust the Process, in 2023; the eleven-track project was recorded over the course of two weeks and featured the high-energy single “Active” and the dance-pop single “Dance Now Cry Later.” It was released in August of that year. In 2024, she parted with her neon green hair and opted for equally vibrant red hair in preparation for her latest EP, Sweet & Spicy, a sequel to her debut project. The EP was released on July 12, 2024, preceded by three singles, “The Boy Is Mine,” “4Life,” and “Replay” featuring British R&B singer Kari Claire.

Artistry
Mali describes her music as dancehall-R&B and pop. Growing up in a Jamaican-Trinidadian household, she primarily draws inspiration from her Caribbean heritage and Broadway musicals, though her early career saw her as a proponent of the 2010s alternative R&B scene. In an interview with MEFeater Magazine in 2017, Mali explains how she finds her inspiration: "I draw inspiration from life. Music, film, art, experiences, photography, emotion, culture…. you name it. Sometimes when I’m writing to a piece of production, I can usually hear the story in the music. If not, it reminds me of a story I could share." She cites Kelis, Rihanna, SZA, and Beyoncé as some of her major influences.

Studio albums

 * Trust the Process (2023)

Extended plays

 * Lost & Found (with Thutmose) (2016)
 * Sweet & Sour (2019)
 * Phenom (2020)
 * Iconic (2021)
 * Sweet & Spicy (2024)