Nola Darling

VIMBY - Puma Mixtape Riot with Mix Master Mike



Support 2 Hungry Brother's "Table Manners" (sold out at FAT BEATS and CD BABY, but you can cop it on ITUNES. search for Nola Darling). we're on a couple tracks.



Spit-fire flow, tongue in cheek sensibility, and an informed female perspective, fused with classic Hip Hop and innovative World sounds, make NOLA DARLING a powerful new voice in music. As singers AND emcees, the ladies of NOLA DARLING challenge the status quo, redefining the roles of women in Hip Hop and modern society.



Though they were born on opposite coasts (Alex in Queens, NY and Jaq in Los Angeles), the two girls share like stories and tastes, similarities they attribute to their progressive upbringing. "Both sets of our parents were pretty socially conscious and forward thinking. They made it their mission to expose us to a lot. We both grew up on everything from OutKast, The Fugees, Stevie Wonder, Donnie Hathaway, and Ella Fitzgerald to Eddie Palmieri, Jimi Hendrix, John Lee Hooker, Tabou Combo, and Bad Brains" says Jaq.



Alex and Jaq began perfecting their craft as young girls, encouraged by their parents to explore all artistic mediums. Alex, hailing from a musical family, began her studies at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and later performed as a vocalist with Miami-area jazz bands in middle and high school. A third generation thespian, Jaq took to the small screen, appearing in shows like "Hanging With Mr. Cooper", “Roswell”, and "ER."



The two first met at NYU’s highly selective High School Acting program at Tisch School of the Arts. When they later returned to NYU as undergrads, Alex and Jaq joined forces on several creative theatre, film, journalism, and music projects, through which they discovered an artistic synergy between them. Post graduation, the friends and collaborators took a trip across the globe to investigate Hip Hop and its impact on young people outside of the US. Stopping in Johannesburg, Cape Town, London, Amsterdam, Rotterdam Paris, and Rome, the two-woman team interviewed countless Hip Hop heads, producers, DJs, dancers, and artists, including Dead Prez. The resulting documentary film is entitled "WORD?! I Didn't Know ( ___________ ) Could Get Down Like That!” (Official Selection of the 16th Annual Pan African Film and Arts Festival). “We have always loved Hip Hop. But in the process of making “Word,” says Alex, “We saw first-hand the scope of Hip Hop culture as an active tool for social and political change. It ignited something within us.”



As Alex and Jaq began writing, recording and performing as NOLA DARLING, they soon linked up with a handful of New York’s most talented Emcees, DJs, producers, and visionaries and helped found the A-OK Collective. In the summer of 2008 NOLA DARLING introduced a new form of musical release to the world with "Nola Darling's Pretty-Gritty Mini-Mixtape" on RappersIKnow.com, featuring A-OK members Fresh Daily and P.So and production by Melo-X, who mixed the project. NOLA DARLING was also recently featured on COMPLEX Magazine’s “Leaders of the New School” mixtape, mixed by Mick Boogie.



NOLA DARLING has graced stages at UCLA’s Jazz and Reggae Festival, The Roxy, The Viper Room, SOB’s, Crash Mansion, The Knitting Factory (NYC), Dakota Lounge (LA), Southpaw (BK), among many others. NOLA DARLING has also been featured in the NY POST, XXL.com, Hip Hop DX’s “DX NEXT”, VIMBY’s “Candied Cartel”, 2 Dope Boyz, M.I.S.S. CREW’s “We Got The Beat”, Soul Bounce, Ill Roots, Format Magazine, and Digiwaxx. Stay tuned for their upcoming EP, due summer 2010.



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Nola Darling's on the new Complex mixtape! Download it