just a demo written by Keiya & Khallee produced by Keiya twitter.com/therealkeiya twitter.com/khallee

Singer/producer Keiya impressed me back in February when she released her debut EP Work. Produced, mixed, mastered, and recorded by herself, the independent talent created an emotional backdrop of woozy R&B and stoned soul that takes to the clouds and refuses to come down.

Following her Work EP, the Chicago artist moved to New York and has been plugging away at music, hopefully working on something that will act as a follow-up to her strong debut. While we've only heard a few pieces of music since Work, she decided to let loose two singles earlier this week. She produced both of them and they're both worth mentioning here. "Simple", featured above, contains a guest part from Chicago/NY artist Khallee, where they mumble through auto-tune and reflect on 2015, fantasizing eventually about next year. The song reminds me of Oakland duo Main Attrakionz and I make that comparison in the best way possible. "Maybe one day we can all be the same. 2016, ain't a damn thing changed."

On "Rite 1", featured below, Keiya presents a solo track. Retroactive and soulful, it begs for a late-night dance floor, for a synthwave cruise through the rainfall of yesteryear. Emotional, sleepy, and yet strikingly optimistic, Keiya's music stands out as her own, sounding unlike anything else you will listen to this week.