keiyaA is an impressive woman who, as an African American artist, proudly displays her “Blackness” for all to see. Sometimes she wears her hair down; other times, she artfully braids it. Her fingernails are often long and pointed like stilettos, and her earrings frequently sparkle like gold in the sun. She confidently captivates her audience when she sings her songs on stage, phrasing them smoothly with the dark timbre of her voice. The sound of her generation is soul and R&B, both of which, like jazz, have roots in African American culture. She was born in 1992 as Chakeiya Camille Richmond in Chicago. She dropped out of music school when she realized that her creativity was being stifled by the rigid curriculum. In 2015, she moved to New Jersey, not far from New York, where she decided to pursue a career as a singer. She added a capital “A” to her stage name—as keiyaA, she recently released her second album, “hooke’s law”: featuring songs that often touch the soul while also possessing the laid-back groove of nu-jazz tracks.
