Coachella 2011: Rye Rye makes the stage ‘Go! Pop! Bang!’ -- now about her delayed debut album
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In the week leading up to Friday’s kickoff of the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Pop & Hiss offers a preview of some of this year’s less established or underappreciated artists.
Who: Rye Rye
When: Sunday
From: Baltimore
Being a Rye Rye fan requires steadfast patience.
Ever since the M.I.A. protégé emerged in 2008 as a high school student by day, club raver by night -- a femcee who, like her mentor, employed frenetic electronic club backbeats, Jamaican dance hall choreography and bright, eccentric patterns on both her clothing and artwork, fans were anxiously awaiting her debut, “Go! Pop! Bang!” -– set for release via M.I.A.’s Interscope imprint, N.E.E.T.
But the wait continues.
M.I.A. teased the serially delayed record to Times staff writer Todd Martens way back in 2008, when she noted that she’s responsible for all of Rye Rye’s “production, and I do all her styling. I dye her weave.”
“Rye Rye’s record was really clubby, and that’s where I started, and she fits that so well,” M.I.A. said in the interview. “Her music has so much energy. I kind of exhaust [her] with that.”
Bad news of course is it’s three years later and still no “Go! Pop! Bang!” (last release date we heard was spring with new tracks from producers such as Bangladesh, Christian Rich and Pharrell Williams). Good news is Rye, now 20, rewarded her patient fans with her first mixtape, “RYEot powRR,” and got major props for her set at this year’s South By Southwest Music festival in Austin, Texas.
The mixtape is a mashup of original tracks like the booming “Witchdoctor” and the hyperactive “Hardcore Art School Girl.” She also puts her Baltimore club spin on Ke$ha’s “We R Who We R,” Willow Smith’s “Whip My Hair” and Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the U.S.A.” (language alert) – the mixtape’s standout.
Download her mixtape below.
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-- Gerrick D. Kennedy
Twitter.com/gerrickkennedy
