Kali Uchis: Visionary Lifestyle Angel

It's 2014, you've ventured out to seek some happening new musical vibes, open the door to your local uber-cool intimate venue and take a seat.

House lights dim and the music starts, Billie Holiday takes the stage, your draw drops and before you have time to seriously question what the hell it is you'™ve been smoking lately, she shape shifts into 90s '˜riot grrrl’ supremo Kat Bjelland: all bleach blonde hair, babydoll dresses, twisting your gut one grunge filled lyric at a time. Ok, it’s getting smokey in here you say to yourself: what are these guys pumping through their ventilation system?

You rub your eyes, just as Kat is joined on stage by Gwen Steffani, who hand-in-hand with Amy Winehouse, surround her, and in the puff of tie-dye coloured smoke cloud, disappear in front of your eyes. Enter stage right, Kali Uchis: a new babe in a era remixed toy land.

Twenty-year old, Columbian born, (now US based) Kali Uchis likes to note that Billie Holiday died on the date she was born (July 18th), only decades apart; accident of fate and sweet serendipity. Kali's music absorbes the influence of everything from Billie, to Doo Wop, Mowtown, and Hip-Hop, creating a musical and visual dreamscape, all of her own.

Curiously reminiscent of the ˜DIY™ ethos of the 90s grrrl™ artists – recording her first mixtape 'Drunken Babble' using Garageband, sat on her bedroom floor – Kali does it all: writes, raps, sings, directs (and stars in) her own videos and has cultivated her own covetable style. She combines part pretty baby doll – grungy Lolita chic in pastels, washed out denim, cropped plaid shirts, heart shaped sunglasses – with a distinctly street feel; think Gwen Stefani – cargo pants, crop tops, and vintage style up-do's.

Back in the present, 2014 has been a pretty good year for this new-classic style auteur; with major love shown from Snoop Dogg, Diplo, A$AP, to name a few and signing with a major label in the pipeline.

“You just wanna be accepted, I just wanna be perfected she talk-raps, on Mucho Gusto – a track from the freely available mixtape – and on her own unique trajectory to stardom, she is well on her way.