“I haven’t, personally, ever had the chance to work alongside anybody like [Tray Bien], so poetic, and so relevant to people from different walks of life.
“I haven’t, personally, ever had the chance to work alongside anybody like [Tray Bien], so poetic, and so relevant to people from different walks of life. And Darwin can produce unicorn tears if you asked him to,” said Nessie King, whose haunting vocals are featured on the track, “Unveil” by Tray Bien, produced by Darwin Tyde. King has nothing but praise for the Kenyan-American rapper who cites Nas, Pink Floyd and Damian Marley amongst his musical influences.
King’s vocals are the glue keeping the track together, giving it a sound that is contemporary, but unique enough not to overwhelm the listener. It is the perfect balance. The singer has loved music most of her life growing up in the age of 90’s pop music clearly had an influence on the talented vocalist.
“I remember…dancing in front of the TV to Britney Spears’s music videos, the Spice Girls, and The Backstreet Boys. I’m sure many people my age had those same moments, but I would dream of being that girl in the music video or singing that song,” said King.
She definitely has the potential to be that girl, but one gets the feeling that Nessie King desires to be more than a pop star. “I feel so deeply connected to storytelling. In the past couple of years I have kind of gone wild in my imagination and pictured how I wanted to tell my story,” said King. “Unveil” has been a great starting point on the singer’s journey to tell her story.
“For me it was about discovering the true meaning of self, “unveiling” the cover we have learned to put on display. I’ve seen and been through addiction, so I know what it feels like to want to escape, but also getting to a moment of “who am I?” I ended the hook with ‘So I’m gone.’ Some people never get to the better side of addiction, which is beating it,” she said.
Tray Bien mirrors King’s sentiments about the meaning of the song. Seeing it as an opportunity for self reflection and unveiling one’s’ true self. “[‘Unveil’] is about self awareness, or the lack thereof. It is about mental slavery and the deception of freedom,” said Bien.
The 26-year old rapper didn’t begin recording until October 2010, after an offer to play basketball in Europe fell though. He saw the setback as an opportunity to make music. Bien had no musical experience prior to 2010 but quickly found rapping and hip-hop, as a genre, a useful means of expression. He sees music as “a mechanism for promoting education, inspiration and positive influence.”
“Unveil” could help to service that mechanism. The song’s message of self-reflection can resonate with listeners; but, it is Nessie King’s show-stopping vocals and Tray Bien’s earnest desire to impose a message on the listeners that will have them sticking around for more.
The rapper and vocalist are working on a collaboration project with the producer Darwin Tyde that is due out this summer. “‘Unveil’ is the first song on the Nessie/Tray collaborative project and really came out sounding exactly like we wanted it to…shrouded in mystery, intellectual, heartfelt, [but] also a bit melancholy,” said Tyde.
Nessie King and Tray Bien’s collaboration EP, produced by Darwin Tyde, is due out on August 7th.
