Artist Biography - Kehlani

 Kehlani was born on the 25th of April 1995 as Kehlani Parrish in Oakland, California but has previously described her ethnicity as a mix of black, white, Native American, and Hispanic. Raised by her aunt due to her father dying when she was young and her mother constantly in and out of prison, Kehlani attended the Oakland School for the Arts initially with a focus on dance. However, whilst training in order to follow her dream to attend the Julliard School, she injured her knee which meant she turned her focus to singing. With her aunt mostly listening to R'n'B as she grew up, Kehlani said that her early influences in life were the likes of  Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu, and Jill Scott among her early influences. Later on when she was 14, she was recruited to join a local pop cover band known as PopLyfe. In 2011, they auditioned for the sixth season of America Got Talent, and end up finishing in fourth place in the finals. Piers Morgan told Kehlani in their final performance that she had 'real talent' but she didn't think she needed the group. With fear of being sued by the groups management, Kehlani didn't pursue any type of music career after the group split up shortly after America's Got Talent finished. In 2012 and 2013, Kehlani became homeless, moving from house to house and often sleeping on sofas. She later was offered recording deals with a rap group by Nick Cannon (America's Got Talent presenter). She later rejected and moved back to Oakland. She then released her first solo track on Soundcloud called "ANTISUMMERLUV." Cannon called her back after hearing the song and set her up with an LA apartment and studio time. This lead to Kehlani releasing her first album called 'Cloud 19'.

The album ended up being ranked 28th on Complex's list of the 50 Best Albums of 2014. In April 2015, she released her second album 'You Should Be Here' which was named by Billboard as the 'year's first great R'n'B album and debuted at number 5 on the States 'R'n'B/Hip Hop' charts. In order to compliment her album, she went on the You Should Be Here tour which sold out every North American date and European dates. Complex went on to call her one of the "15 Artists to Watch Out for in 2015" and Rolling Stones magazine named her one of the "10 New Artists You Need to Know." She was also nominated for a 2016 Grammy Award for Best Urban Contemporary Album. Kehlani also went on to collaborate with Zayn Malik on his single 'Wrong which was on his debut album.

Kehlani went on to record the single 'Gangsta' which was released by Atlantic Records on the 1st of August as a part of the Suicide Squad soundtrack. It was written by Kehlani, Myron Birdsong, Skylar Grey, Andrew Swanson, and JMIKE. Andrew Swanson and JMIKE also were the producers of said song. At the end of 2015 Kehlani released songs, 'Champion', 'Tore Up', 'Did I' and '24/7' which are all non-album singles. Within 2016, she has also released two singles 'CRZY' and 'Distraction'. Both of which are on an upcoming album which is to be distributed within the near future.

Our Logo

This is our logo for our record label named 'Grunge Records'. We have named our record company Grunge Records because we wanted something that would relate to our artist Kehlani. We also believe that this would easily relate to our age range (16-22) because grunge is the term that would normally be used to describe a lot of things such as fashion etc. which is current. We chose the same design as Sony's brush stroke which is used within their logo because we liked it's simplicity and stylishness. However, we have retouched it by changing the texture and the colour of the brush stroke. Previously, the texture was just a simple 2D brush stroke. Now, we have changed it so it looks glossy and 3D allowing it to stand out. Furthermore, we have chosen a new colour which we feel represents the idea of grunge. We didn't want to use the colour red of which the brush stroke was initially because we didn't believe that that would fit with our style. We have instead chosen a darker purple because we believe it is still a stylish colour but it also is quite dark and 'grungy' which is what we feel relates to our artist. We have also chosen a specific font for our logo. We feel that the italic style of the font gives it the stylish feel and the texture makes it look weathered and worn down which is a foreshadowing the fact that our actor is from a rougher area within the music video. Overall, we feel that our logo foreshadows and represents our artist with them being stylish in the way of being a gangster but also, weathered and rundown in the sense that she is from a not so glamorous lifestyle.

Logo ideas- Beluga Heights.

This is the record logo for Beluga Heights which has artists such as Jason Derulo and Sean Kingston. They are an R&B record label situated in America and were founded in 2006. This then explains why the 'glitzy' and 'flashy' 00's look is out-dated and look cheesy. This therefore doesn't represent the type of look that we want our artists to be about. This also looks like the target audience will be maybe between mid 30's to early 40's. This then is the wrong type of audience that we are aiming for since we are looking to interest young people between the ages of 16-22. The logo also has a casino feel about it meaning that they are looking for glamour and glitz, Again, this contrasts the look that we are going for because as you can see during our target audience mood board, my group are aiming for more of a simplistic and stylish look. The silhouette of the world in the background could represent that they are a worldwide company even though they only have four artists signed to them. Furthermore, the added sparkle contains the connotation that they have stars within their company, although it does make the logo look somewhat tacky.

Logo ideas - Domino Records.

Domino Records is home to artists such as The Artic Monkeys, The Last Shadow Puppets and Franz Ferdinand. As you can tell, they deal with artists that aren't very well known and that aren't from a R&B background or genre. This means that they wouldn't be the best record label for our artist because we would prefer a label that specialises in R&B aritsts and has previous knowledge and history of the genre. Furthermore, the logo represents the idea that the target audience is of people of an older age. For example, the black and white colour scheme shows the idea of a timelessness which can in some cases is an excuse and a way to justify something that is old and outdated. Also,m the font and the style of the logo reminds me of an old American car, ie like the film Grease. The film itself is set in the 1950's so the connotation of the font is that it is aimed towards more of the elder side of the population. This, therefore, doesn't apply to my group and our logo ideas. This is because we would like something that is aimed and targeted at younger people.