Muhsinah is an American

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

nominated singer and producer, from

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

She cites

Chick Corea Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea (June 12, 1941 – February 9, 2021) was an American jazz composer, pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and occasional percussionist. His compositions "Spain", " 500 Miles High", "La Fiesta", "Armando's Rhumba", and ...

Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and composer. Hancock started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he help ...

Quincy Jones Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (born March 14, 1933) is an American record producer, musician, songwriter, composer, arranger, and film and television producer. His career spans 70 years in the entertainment industry with a record of 80 Grammy Award n ...

Nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...

and Chopin as among her influences.

Musical career

A graduate of the

Duke Ellington School of the Arts The Duke Ellington School of the Arts (established 1974) is a high school located at 35th Street and R Street, Northwest, Washington, D.C., and dedicated to arts education. One of the high schools of the District of Columbia Public School syste ...

and of

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and accredited by the Middle States Commissi ...

, Muhsinah's self-produced EP ''day.break 2.0'' (2008) was described by

XLR8R ''XLR8R'' (pronounced "accelerator") is a website that covers music, culture, style, and technology. It was originally also a print magazine. History and profile ''XLR8R'' was founded as a newsprint zine in 1993 by publisher Andrew Smith in Sea ...

magazine as "a beautiful smack in the face of mainstream hip-hop and R&B convention". Though a small scale independent release, it attracted the attention of rappers

Common Common may refer to: Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts * Clapham Common, originally com ...

as well as

Phonte Phonte Lyshod Coleman, known mononymously as Phonte (born December 28, 1978), is an American rapper, singer, and producer. He is currently of the North Carolina hip-hop trio/duo Little Brother (revived in 2019 without producer 9th Wonder) and ...

of Little Brother/

The Foreign Exchange The Foreign Exchange is an R&B/electronica/ hip hop duo consisting of the American rapper/singer Phonte and the Dutch record producer Nicolay. Musical career The pair initially made contact via message boards on Okayplayer.com and soon be ...

, both of whom she later recorded with, appearing on Common's Universal Mind Control and

's Leave It All Behind. The ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' has written of her as being "part of a new breed of young soul rebels who seamlessly meld electronic beats with layers of jazzy arrangements and unorthodox song structure", and as "equally at home chopping loops and tapping pads on an

Akai MPC The Akai MPC (originally MIDI Production Center, now Music Production Center) is a series of music workstations produced by Akai from 1988 onwards. MPCs combine sampling and sequencing functions, allowing users to record portions of sound, modif ...

as she is behind a piano keyboard". Muhsinah was acknowledged by

Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...

frontman,

Thom Yorke Thomas Edward Yorke (born 7 October 1968) is an English musician and the main vocalist and songwriter of the rock band Radiohead. A multi-instrumentalist, he mainly plays guitar and keyboards and is noted for his falsetto. He has been describe ...

, on their website

Dead Air Space Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass); ...

on March 15, 2010www.radiohead.com
when he listed the song, "Lose My Fuse (Produced By

Flying Lotus Steven Ellison (born October 7, 1983), known by his stage name Flying Lotus or sometimes FlyLo, is an American record producer, Disc jockey, DJ, filmmaker and rapper from Los Angeles. He is also the founder of the record label Brainfeeder. Flyi ...

)" among his favorites at the time the post was published.

Awards and nominations

Discography

Extended plays

Production

*''Ruff Drafts Volume 1'' (Track: 3) – JapaNUBIA Musik 2006 *''Getback'' (Track: 6/7 Interlude ) – ABB 2007 *''day.break'' (Tracks: All) – Rxlngr 2007 *''pre.lude'' (Tracks: All) – Circulations 2008 *''Higher Ground'' (Track: 3) –

Wayna Wayna (real name Woyneab Miraf Wondwossen) is an R&B/soul singer and songwriter who was born in Ethiopia and raised in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. She worked as a writer for the Clinton White House before releasing three solo albums, garnerin ...

Quiet Power Productions 2008 *''The Awakening'' (Track: 3) – JapaNUBIA Musik 2008 *''Border Breaker'' (Tracks: 1,3,5) – Ghetto Falsetto 2009 *''The Oscillations:Sine'' (Tracks: All) – Rxlngr 2009 *''The Oscillations:Triangle'' (Tracks: All except 2,4,5 & 7) – Rxlngr 2009

Guest appearances

*''Ruff Drafts Volume 1'' (Tracks: 3) – JapaNUBIA Musik 2006 *''I Predict A Riot'' (Tracks: 1 & 18) – Soulspasm Records, Inc. 2007 *''Cuba After Market'' (Tracks: 3 & 13 ) – Humble Monarch Music/Rawkus 50 2007 *''Producer No. 1'' (Track: 7) – Fat City Records 2007 *''Suite903 No.15'' (CD#2 Track: 16) – Fader Label 2007 *''Blunt Park Sessions'' (413) (Track: 2 ) – Rude Squire/Rawkus 50 2007 *''Higher Ground'' (Track: 3) – Quiet Power Productions 2008 *'' Leave It All Behind'' (Tracks: 1, 5 & 10) – Hard Boiled 2008 *''Down To You 12"'' (Track: B1) – Planetgroove 2008 *''

Universal Mind Control ''Universal Mind Control'' is the eighth studio album by American rapper Common. Originally scheduled to be released on June 24, 2008 under the name ''Invincible Summer'', the release date was pushed back to September 30, 2008 due to Common's ac ...

'' (Track: 7) – G.O.O.D/Geffen 2008 *''Arale 01'' (Are In Be) – Arale.tv 2009 *''Odd Summer EP'' (Track: 8) – Oddisee Music 2009 *''Adroit Adventures 12"'' (Track: A2) – Ubiquity 2009 *''Kilawatt: V2'' (Track: 1) – Kilawatt Music Limited 2010

References

www.muhsinah.comBenji B, BBC 1Xtra, April 11, 2008.
*Devin Barrett. "Half Hip Hop, Half Amazing", Issue No. 83, ''

TRACE Trace may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Trace (Son Volt album), ''Trace'' (Son Volt album), 1995 * Trace (Died Pretty album), ''Trace'' (Died Pretty album), 1993 * Trace (band), a Dutch progressive rock band * The Trace (album), ''The ...

'', August 2008. *Fritz Hahn, Rhome Anderson and David Malitz
"Nightlife Agenda"
''Washington Post'', November 15, 2007. *Jalylah Burrell
"Muhsinah Creates Homemade Physics"
Issue No. 3, ''FADER/F2'', August 2008.

External links

"Construction"
official Muhsinah video on Rxlngr Incorporated' channel @ vimeo.com
Radiohead
{{Authority control 1983 births Living people American women singer-songwriters American contraltos American music arrangers Record producers from Washington, D.C. American keyboardists American film score composers American electronic musicians American women pianists American women in electronic music 21st-century American singers 21st-century American women singers 21st-century American pianists American women record producers Singer-songwriters from Washington, D.C.