SUMMER 2016
THE UNDERGROUND WORLD OF HIP-HOP
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A N D E R S O N . PA A K
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verge CREATOR/FOUNDER/CEO TI AR R A LA
EDITORIAL EDITOR T R YC E L E E
EXECUTIVE EDITOR B RYSO N M AL IK
ART DIRECTOR ASHLEY LAR K IN
WRITERS J E S S I E Q I , S H AW N K H A L I L , E LY S S A G O L D B E R G , J A E S M I T H , W I L L L AV I N , P E T E R G O S S E L L , A LY C O M I N G O R E
PHOTOGRAPHERS T I A R R A L A , J A B A R I J ACO B S , J U L I U S SCHUL M AN , GIZEL LE HER N ANDEZ
PUBLISHER R E N ATA LO P E S - M E R R I A M
MARKETING: IN HOUSE J A M I E K AT Z Verge is a magazine that showcases some of the world’s best “undiscovered” artists. With each issue, you’ll be able to not only update your playlist, but update your bucket list as well. Aimed to provide insight to the world of underground music, Verge gives a piece of the culture to you - the reader. Music, art, soon-to-be the best “new” foods, fashion, adventures, literature - you name it, we’ve got you covered.. Available in print and digital formats. Follow us:
IG: ontheverge FB: ontheverge vergemagazine.com
MARKETING COORDINATORS M AT T WAT S O N , PA O LO E S C O B A R , B R I A N ES CO B A R , T R I N I T Y L E
PUBLIC RELATIONS M A R K S TO N E , D R E M A R T I N , S I G E V I L L E
VP OF EVENTS K I M CA M ACH O
CREATIVE SUPPORT N I C K PA R K , T R E T Y L E R
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EDITOR’S NOTE I’m gonna keep this short and sweet for you (cause I know half of you are only here for the super cool pictures *insert heart emoji here*) So, you’ve picked up a copy of Verge. Yas. In the process of creating this magazine, honestly, I didn’t know what the f*ck I was doing. All I knew was I wanted to show you guys cool shit, cool people, and cool things that only the only the cool kids new about (A.K.A. you!). Now here we are - a magaazine full of cool shit, cool people, and (drum roll please) COOL MOTHAF*CKIN’ THINGS (I mean, hopefully you find it cool...............)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“Why do you focus on ‘underground’ artists?” is a common question I’ve been asked. Well, everyone has their story, everyone has their sound, everyone has their art. The underground world has a very unique culture and it’s one that I hold close to my heart. These artists have stories that need to be heard; they need to be shared with the world. With this issue, I hope you can discover what there is to love about it. The aim here at Verge is to make sure you stay hungry - stay inspired to always be on the verge to do more, learn more, and be more.
Always think you’re on the verge my friends. Love Always, Queen of the Crooked Bun
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Ohana Poke Co. Pictured bowl is from the kick-ass Ohana Poke Co. Ohana Poké Co. is a family owned and operated business, brought to you by Chef Eric Park (black hogg, sopressata, hero shop). With two locations: Downtown LA in the Historic Core, and on the Eastside in Silverlake.
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Poké is near ubiquitous in Hawaii, served everywhere from run-of-the-mill grocery stores to gas stations, surf shacks, and beyond. The Hawaiian classic is casual, the kind of food you pack into a flimsy plastic cup for the road and eat somewhere on the beach listening to the sound of the
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waves crashing against the shore. Now you can eat new-school versions on the mainland, served atop trendy rice bowls and plated at upscale restaurants, from the sunny shores of Los Angeles to Charleston and Brooklyn. So, what is poké, and what is it doing on the mainland,
in places like Boulder, Colorado, that are hundreds of miles from the nearest shore? Traditionally, poké (pronounced POKE-AY, not POKE-EE) is chunks of tuna marinated in soy and sesame, said Gerald San Jose, co-owner at Noreetuh, a hot new Hawaiian-inspired
restaurant in New York. But poké is such a ubiquitous term that it can mean anything chunked, because poké comes from the verb for “to section, slice, or cut” in Hawaiian language, he said. San Jose also mentioned that poké is everywhere in Hawaii; you can go to the nearest grocery store and
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FOOD | T RAVEL | T HE FIFT H FLO O R
N I A I R E R . T
a t w e ’ r N f I a s a D TO ST ll E I C E N RIVERS K T A E H E LAKE ND TH HAT S T O U ’RE
Mount Rainier National Park, an expansive Washington state reserve southeast of Seattle, has glacier-capped, 14,410-ft.high Mount Rainier as its towering centerpiece. Atop 6,400-ft.-tall Sunrise, the highest point in the park reachable by car, visitors can admire Rainier and other nearby volcanoes, including Mount Adams. Paradise overlook also offers sweeping mountain views, summertime wildflower meadows and many hiking trailheads
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TO THE WINDOW, TO THE WALL (TO THE WALL)
WRITTEN BY: JAE SMITH PHOTOGRAPHED BY: TIARRA LA
VCOMM AT FIDM Visual Communication pros are experts at designing the perfect window display or pulling together the perfect outfit—and making it look like a work of art. With classes in quick sketching, Photoshop and Illustrator, and practice working in teams and analyzing trends, students become experts at design and visual communication. In the classroom, students collaborate on real-world projects with companies like Saks Fifth Avenue and Disney Stores North America. Internships have included Anthropologie, Giorgio Armani, Warner Bros., and luxury brand owner Richemont. The Visual Communications Program offers students
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Visual Communications (also known as VC) –– is a community-based non-profit media arts organization based in Los Angeles and founded in 1970 by independent filmmakers Robert Nakamura, Alan Ohashi, Eddie Wong, and Duane Kubo. Fueled by the Civil Rights and Anti-War movements, they set out creating learning kits, photographing community events, recording oral histories, and collecting historical images of Asian American life. Additionally, they created films, video productions, community media productions, screening activities, and photographic exhibits and publications.[1] VC originally worked as a film collective, concentrating on portraying accurate images of Asian Americans and
capturing social movements. In the 1970s and 80s, VC took on several projects in the independent film production arena. That first period saw the creation of over fifty productions, including works about the Asian American experience, such as: CHINATOWN 2-STEP, a documentary on the suburbanization of Chinese American community in Los Angeles and the role of the Chinatown Drum and Bugle Corps; MANONG, a film on the first generation Filipino American immigrants; and WATARIDORI, a documentary on early Japanese American immigrant pioneers. VC published three books, In Movement: A Pictorial History of Asian Pacific America, Little Tokyo: One Hundred Years in Pictures, and Moving the Image: Independent
Asian Pacific American Media Arts.[2] In the 1990s, VC transitioned from a film production collective to a media arts center. The organization provided support services like workshops and trainings for Asian American artists, filmmakers, and community members, as well as presentation opportunities for independent media. VC currently offers production and training in filmmaking, video and photography for Asian Americans. VC presents the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival annually and maintains an archives of Asian Pacific American still and moving image holdings.[3] To promote intercultural understanding through the creation, presentation, preservation and
support of media works by and about Asian Pacific Americans. VC was created with the understanding that media and the arts are important vehicles to organize and empower communities, build connections between generations, challenge perspectives, and create an environment for critical thinking, necessary to build a more just and humane society. Established in 2002, the Armed With A Camera (AWC) Fellowship for Emerging Media Artists is awarded to a select group of Filmmakers annually. Visual Communications works with the Fellows for seven months and provides special training, mentoring and networking opportunities, access to facilities and equipment plus a stipend to create their digital short films that premiere at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film
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NECESSITIES 1
1. Comme des Garcons x Converse Collaboration High-Tops, Barneys New York, $125. 2. Laptop Sleeve, Amazon, $10. 3. Apple Earpods, Apple, $29.99. 4. LAX Gadgets Extra Long Nylon iPhone Cord, Amazon, $9.99.
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5. Moleskin Mini Notebook, Staples, $14.19. $6. Monopoly Deal, Toys R Us, $6.99. 7. Motivational Poster, Your Place, Free (minus paper + printing costs). 8. Beanie, Pacsun, Free. 9. Fujifilm Instax Mini, B&H Photo, $50. 10. Hockey Jersey, Thrift, $5. 11. Clear Glasses, Coastal, Free. 12. Ray Ban Classic Wayfarer, Ray Ban, $150.
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R RSON, P E D N A . RE AAK NDON P NG WITH DR. D A R B Y I G ORK RODI SICAL P OMELESS TO W U M T S BS COA NG H N IC WEST AK, TALKS BEI L L L A V I A R I J A C O T C E L C E ON .PA JAB : WI ANDERST T E N B Y E D B Y : WRI TOGRAPH PHO
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ANDERSON .PAAK emember Beanie Sigel’s ‘The Truth’? Well if it were to be used as a theme song for an artist hailing from today’s generation, it would undoubtedly be 30-year-old a Anderson .Paak. The west coast musical prodigy is the truth in every sense of the word: Humble, passionate and swimming in talent, he’s been busy playing the circuit for quite some time fighting his way out of the depths of obscurity. But he needn’t fight anymore. Officially signing on the dotted line just a few weeks ago, Anderson .Paak is now a fully fledged member of Dr. Dre’s Aftermath family. Joining a label whose legacy includes nurturing the careers of Eminem, 50 Cent, The Game, Kendrick Lamar, and Dr. Dre himself, the sky really is the limit for the NxWorries singer/songwriter/rapper/ producer/instrumentalist.
think during the lowest points of your life that you’d one day be where you are today? “It was always in the back of my mind, yes. I’d always say to myself, ‘There’s gotta be a better ending to this. It can’t be like this.’ Which is usually why I always ended up coming back. If I ever took a break from music, or was down then I’d always say that to myself, and if it wasn’t me saying it then it was my closest friend, Jose, who’s been riding with me and who was at those low points with me. He was always in my ear like, ‘Yo, it’s ok. We’re gonna be good. It’s gonna work out and we’re gonna be crushing it one day, trust me.’ “There was always a lot of supportive people around me, who a lot of the time were helping me out and getting me to the next level. They were like, ‘Yo, you’re gonna make it. Don’t worry, you’re gonna be straight. Just keep doing what you do.’ So I definitely had it in my gut that there was something on the horizon, and that was the main thing that kept me going, like, ‘It’s gonna happen at some point, just keep it poppin’.’ It just always felt worse whenever I just stopped.”
There’s gotta be a better ending to this. It can’t be like this. First thing’s first, why the dot in the middle of your name? “Detail. It stands for detail. Always paying attention to detail. I feel like that’s what it took to get here. To get me to where I’m at now I had to do a lot of paying attention. I had to do some developing of work ethic and I had to get some good habits on the go as I didn’t have any before, and it took some time to realise that. But once I started paying attention to detail people started paying attention to me so I put it there in my name.” And when people don’t use it? “It shows me a lot about that person.” You’ve mentioned on record before, as well as in other interviews, that you were once homeless and you had to overcome various other hardships. Did you ever
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If you stop there’s no knowing if you were one more step away from achieving your dreams… “Right! And I believe that that’s all that separates a person from the next. The successful person is just the one that didn’t stop.” What was the moment that made you realise you’d made it? “Made it? I don’t know. People say that a lot but I don’t know if I feel that way.” Okay then, how about when you realised you’d achieved your dreams, or were in the same realm as achieving your dreams? “Well when [Dr.] Dre’s album dropped I was like, ‘Well, this is
DISCOGRAPHY EP: - VIOLETS ARE BLUE (2010) - COVER ART (2013)
ALBUM: - O.B.E. VOL 1 (2012) - LOVEJOY (2012) - VENICE (2014) - MALIBU (2016)
SINGLE: - 8OOM 8AP - DRUGS - MISS RIGHT - SWITCH UP - AM I WRONG - THE SEASON / CARRY ME - ROOM IN HERE - COME DOWN
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pretty lit. (Haha!) I’m probably about to be the man now for at least a couple of weeks.’ When that pre-order dropped I was like, ‘Wait. I’m on Dre’s album, the one that was never supposed to drop.’” Are you saying you didn’t know you were going to be on it?
one of the things I never really ever thought of.” So back when Dre dropped 2001 in 1999, it wouldn’t have even crossed your mind that 16 years later you’d working with him?
“I felt like I knew I was going to be on something, but you never know until that shit drops, and that’s the same for any record. People tell you, ‘It’s the single, it’s this and it’s that,’ and then the shit doesn’t even make the album. And remember this was Dr. Dre’s long awaited album. People were like, ‘I worked on it for seven years and it never saw the light of day.’ I heard all kinds of horror stories.”
“No. That record was huge! I mean that record was so amazing for me. I was just getting into making beats too at that point. But yeah it was so far fetched, the idea that I’d one day be working with him. But he’s always been a part of my musical DNA growing up. So I’ve always been like, ‘Damn, what’s the craziest thing musically that could happen to me?’ and I guess that would have been one of them.”
And it had changed form so many times yet you ended up on the final version…
After grinding away for so long, why do you think your time is now?
“Dude! It was crazy. And I was one of those dudes that never thought Dre was going to ever drop another record, let alone that I would be on it. That’s
“I don’t know. I think everyone’s got their time. Everyone’s got their own unique story to tell, but I think people get it when they want it. When they
really, really want it. That’s what happened with me. I was doing a lot of background work, but not as an artist, it was more a drummer for hire type thing, building other bands and producing for other people. I think that contributed to it taking a little longer for me, but honestly, once I started putting out music that started to resonate with people that’s when things started to change. You know?
I think everyone’s got their time. Everyone’s got their own unique story to tell, but I think people get it when they want it. When they really, really want it. verge SUMMER 2016 21
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ANDERSON .PAAK “When I started putting out music that actually mattered to people then they just couldn’t ignore it. Whether it was music that they strongly hated or strongly loved it didn’t matter, they felt real feelings about it, and that’s when things started to happen.
have mirrored one another. You both came up on popular underground labels - you on Stones Throw, her on Jamla you both started being called upon to appear on big albums, and then you were both co-signed by Dr. Dre. What’s your opinion of her?
“I don’t think there’s any kind of rocketscience behind it. When you have good material it’s going to get shared, especially in this day and age. It might not be shared at light speed - sometimes it will - but it will get shared. People like to feel cool, like they’ve got the new shit first, and I feel like that’s what happens. It took a while for me, but once I realised that I really wanted it I then started to make some music that mattered. I was sick of putting out projects that just didn’t matter to people. I’m done with that. I wanted to get better. I wanted to put out visuals that mattered, music that mattered, and I wanted to go on tours that mattered.”
“First of all I feel like she’s probably the best female MC. Fuck it, she’s one of the best MCs period. She’s fucking killing it and she’s a sweetheart. She has the demeanour of an elementary school teacher but then she gets on the mic and she’s a beast, she’s super nice! And I love her to death. I think she’s gonna get everything she wants out of this life. You know? She should move to L.A., that’s gonna be the start of it.”
I was sick of putting out projects that just didn’t matter to people.
You recently dropped your new album Malibu. On it you have a track with ScHoolboy Q called ‘Am I Wrong’. Usually a rowdy and rebellious rapper dipped in gangsta rap influences, how on earth did you get him sounding like Andre 3000 on that particular track? “Haha! I just played the record for him and he was loving it. I didn’t even think that was gonna be the record at all. I had another one that was like a super ScHoolboy Q sounding record but he was like, ‘I want this one.’ He knew he wanted to do that. He’s been saying for a while that he was ready to move past this rap shit and evolve into some other shit, and I think ‘Am I Wrong’ was a step into that.” Another artist that features on Malibu is Rapsody. It’s almost as if your careers
And then have her sign to Aftermath? “Exactly! Who knows?” You feature on the new Macklemore & Ryan Lewis album on a track called ‘Dance Off’, featuring Idris Elba. Were you ever hesitant t o d o t h e record based off of the whole Grammy controversy with Kendrick - being that you’re now a part of the Aftermath family - and because of the fuss the Hip Hop community made about it? “I’m always kinda edgy when it comes to features in general because I guess I have to think about my brand a bit more now. But I liked the tune and I’m a big fan of Idris - I had just seen Beasts of No Nation and I was like, ‘What the fuck!? Hell yeah I’m down.’ And then they were really cool in the studio, and the homie Tunji, who A&Red good kid m.A.A.d. city and all these other great records, he was the one that hooked it up, and usually anything that he gets me involved in I’m 100% down to do.”
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SE OF SPACE Photographer Julius Schulman’s photography spread California Mid-century modern around the world. Carefully composed and artfully lighted, his images promoted not only new approaches to home design but also the ideal of idyllic California living — a sunny, suburban lifestyle played out in sleek, spacious, low-slung homes featuring ample glass, pools and patios. Written by: Peter Gossell | Photographs by: Julius Schulman
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“The subject is the power of photography,”
Shulman explains. “I have thousands of slides, and Juergen and I have assembled them into almost 20 different lectures. And not just about architecture—I have pictures of cats and dogs, fashion pictures, flower photographs. I use them to do a lot of preaching to the students, to give them something to do with their lives, and keep them from dropping out of school.” It all adds up to a very full schedule, which Shulman handles largely by himself—“My daughter comes once a week from Santa Barbara and takes care of my business affairs, and does my shopping”— and with remarkable ease for a near-centenarian. Picking up the oversized calendaronwhichherecordshis appointments, Shulman walks me through a typical seven days: “Thom Mayne—we had lunch with him. Long Beach, AIA meeting. People were here for a meeting about my photography at the Getty [which houses his archive]. High school students, a lecture. Silver Lake, the Neutra house, they’re opening part of the lake frontage, I’m going to see that. USC, a lecture. Then an assignment, the Griffith Observatory—we’ve already started that one.” Yet rather than seeming overtaxed, Shulman fairly exudes well-being. Like many elderly people with nothing left to prove, and who remain in demand both for their talents and as figures of veneration (think of George Burns), Shulman
takes things very easy: He knows what his employers and admirers want, is happy to provide it, and accepts the resulting reaffirmation of his legend with a mix of playfully rampant immodesty and heartfelt gratitude. As the man himself puts it, “The world’s my onion.” Shulman is equally proud of his own lighting abilities. “I’ll show you something fascinating,” he says, holding up two exteriors of a new modernist home, designed for a family named Abidi, by architect James Tyler. In the first, the inside of the house is dark, resulting in a handsome, somewhat lifeless image. In the second, it’s been lit in a way that seems a natural balance of indoor and outdoor illumination, yet expresses the structure’s relationship to its site and showcases the architecture’s transparency. “The house is transfigured,” Shulman explains. “I have four Ts. Transcend is, I go beyond what the architect himself has seen. Transfigure—glamorize, dramatize with lighting, time of day. Translate—there are times, when you’re working with a man like Neutra, who wanted everything the way he wanted it—‘Put the camera here.’ And after he left, I’d put it back where I wanted it, and he wouldn’t know the difference—I translated. And fourth, I transform the composition with furniture movement.” To illustrate the latter, Shulman shows me an interior of the Abidi house that looks out from the living room, through a long glass wall, to the grounds. “Almost every one of my photographs has a diagonal leading you
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into the picture,” he says. Taking a notecard and pen, he draws a line from the lower left corner to the upper right, then a second perpendicular line from the lower right corner to the first line. Circling the intersection, he explains, “That’s the point of what we call ‘dynamic symmetry.’” When he holds up the photo again, I see that the line formed by the bottom of the glass wall— dividing inside from outside—roughly mirrors the diagonal he’s drawn. Shulman then indicates thesecond,perpendicularlinecreatedbythe furniture arrangement. “My assistants moved [the coffee table] there, to complete the line. When the owner saw
the Polaroid, she said to her husband, ‘Why don’t we do that all the time?’” Shulman’s remark references one of his signature gambits: what he calls
people might have had if they’d lived in those houses,” suggests the Los Angeles–based architectural photographer Tim StreetPorter. “He was doing—with a totally positive use of the words—advertising or propagandist photographs for the cause.” This impulse culminated in Shulman’s introduction of people in t o his pictures—commonplace today, but virtually unique 50 years ago. “Those photographs—with young, attractive people having breakfast in glass rooms beside carports with wo-tone cars—were remarkable in the history of architectural photography,” Street-Porter says. “He took that to a wonderfully high level.” “I tell people in my lectures, ‘If I
"AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHER JULIUS SHULMAN'S IMAGES OF CALIFORNIAN ARCHITECTURE HAVE BURNED THEMSELVES INTO THE RETINA OF THE 21TH CENTURY."
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“dressing the set,” not only by moving furniture but by adding everyday objects and accessories. “I think he was trying to portray the lifestyle
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were modest, I wouldn’t talk about how great I am.’” Yet when I ask how he developed his eye, Shulman’s expression turns philosophical. “Sometimes Juergen walks ahead of me, and he’ll look for a composition. And invariably, he doesn’t see what I see. Architects don’t see what I see. It’s God-given,” he says, using the Yiddish word for an act of kindness—“a mitzvah.” “Most people whose houses I photographed didn’t use their sliding doors,” Shulman says, crossing the living room toward his own glass sliders. “Because flies and lizards would come in; there were strong winds. So I told Soriano I wanted a transition—a screened-in enclosure in front of the living room, kitchen, and bedroom to make an indoor/outdoor room.” Shulman opens the door leading to an exterior dining area. A bird trills loudly. “That’s a wren,” he says, and steps out.
“My wife and I had most of our meals out here,” he recalls. “Beautiful.” When I ask Shulman what Neutra saw in his images, he answers with a seemingly unrelated story. “I was born in Brooklyn in 1910,” says this child of Russian-Jewish immigrants. “When I was three, my father went to the town of Central Village in Connecticut, and was shown this farmhouse—primitive, but [on] a big piece of land. After we moved in, he planted corn and potatoes, my mother milked the cows, and we had a farm life. “And for seven years, I was imbued with the pleasure of living close to nature. In 1920, when we came here to Los Angeles, I joined the Boy Scouts, and enjoyed the outdoor-living aspect, hiking and camping. My father opened a clothing store in Boyle Heights, and my four brothers and sisters and my
mother worked in the store. They were businesspeople.” He flashes a slightly cocky smile. “I was with the Boy Scouts.” I ask Shulman if he’s surprised at how well his life has turned out. “I tell students, ‘Don’t take life too seriously—don’t plan nothing nohow,’” he replies. “But I have always observed and respected my destiny. That’s the only way I can describe it. It was meant to be.” “And it was a destiny that suited you?”At this, everything rises at once—his eyebrows, his outstretched arms, and his peaceful, satisfied smile.
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Born and raised in Alor Setar, the capital of the Malaysian state of Kedah, Yuna grew up an only child. She began writing her own songs at 19, and continued to do so while she studied to become a lawyer. In 2008, with a growing local fan base behind her, she started posting her songs (in English and Malay) to MySpace, in the hopes of making it big in the United States. By 2012, she’d put aside her law degree, signed a recording deal, and moved to California. Written by: Aly Comingore Photographed by: Gizelle Hernandez
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una says over breakfast at her neighborhood café in Los Angeles, " I feel like I finally know what being a woman is all about,”. She’s talking about her new record, but also about the past two years of her life, which brought the end of a relationship, as well as a whole lot of emotional and artistic growth. “I wrote somewhere around 80 songs for this album,” she says, “but the songs I was writing were vague, typical, basic. I was writing without thinking. It wasn’t until I gathered myself and cooled off that I figured out how to bring out the best in me.” In May, Yuna released Chapters, her third and arguably most self-assured studio album to date. “The last record was about falling in love and it was very happy and uplifting and 2wcolorful,” she says. “This album is dark. Some of the songs are upbeat, but they’re about me finding myself and embracing my womanhood.” Born and raised in Alor Setar, the capital of the Malaysian state of Kedah, Yuna grew up an only child. She began writing her own songs at 19, and continued to do so while she studied to become a lawyer. In 2008, with a growing local fan base behind her, she started posting her songs (in English and Malay) to MySpace, in the hopes of making it big in the United States. By 2012, she’d put aside her law degree, signed a recording deal, and moved to California. “Back home, we are pushed to be doctors, lawyers, brain surgeons,” she says with a laugh. “Now all my friends are getting married and having babies, and I’m doing something insanely different. In the last few years I’ve definitely had to remind myself that I need to stop worrying about what everyone else is doing.” While the themes in Chapters play to Yuna’s strengths—exploring issues of love, heartache, and self-discovery with a deeply personal and infectiously positive attitude—the album’s self-possessed vibe and old-school R&B and hip-hop influences are new for her. “When I started working with [my producer] Fisticuffs, I knew nothing,” she says. “I came from the folk and acoustic world in Malaysia, but living in L.A. you’re immediately connected to hip-hop music. You can’t
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escape it. So I learned about Straight Outta Compton and N.W.A. I learned about Eazy-E. I studied. Along with Fisticuffs, Chapters also features collaborations with DJ Premier, who produced the album’s first single, “Places to Go,” and Usher, who guest stars on “Crush.” “He was wonderful and very particular,” she says of the latter. “He wanted to know my background, where I was coming from. It was really nice because it shows that he obviously cares about his craft. It was overwhelming, though. We had to really think about how the song was going to come out, and how it was going to look if a Muslim woman was singing about love and he was on the track. He really thought about it.”
Since coming to America, the singer’s faith—and her headscarf—have become a source of constant attention. “It’s something shocking, apparently,” she says with a laugh, “but the majority of the people in Malaysia are practicing
"I've definitely had to remind myself that I need to stop worrying about what everyone else is doing."
Talking about her religion is something that Yuna has become plenty familiar with in recent years.
Muslims. We still love music and we still live our lives like normal people do. Where I come from, music is so huge—it’s the fabric of our culture. Art is embedded in everything we do. I think in America, we’re only familiar with Muslims in countries with conflict, but I come out here and meet
American Muslims, and I can relate to them. I’m a normal girl, and I have a belief system just like everyone else does. I feel like I exist to remind everybody that there’s a yin and yang in everything.” Now that Chapters is done, Yuna is refocusing on finding that normalcy, and nurturing her other love: fashion. Most recently, she relaunched her lifestyle brand under the name November Culture, and this August she’ll release Hatta x Yuna, a clothing line in collaboration with designer Hatta Dolmat for Asian online retailer Zalora. “Online shopping is huge in Malaysia, so we wanted to do something really different,” she says. “It doesn’t look like everything else they have in Asia. It’s international, but it still feels very Los Angeles.” As if that wasn’t enough, Yuna
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"I’m a normal girl, and I have a belief system just like everyone else does. I feel like I exist to remind everybody that there’s a yin and yang in everything.”
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