NiteNdae (@ iTunes)

LIVE and DIRECT are the best words to describe a NiteNdae performance as she never holds back what she feels, coming correct with her funky style and broad range of vocal skills. NiteNdae has been expressing her artistic talents from the age of two in art forms such as dance, singing, and poetry. Growing up in a dance studio owned by her mother in Los Angeles, Huntington Park to be exact, she was always listening to various artists from the likes of Prince, Lionel Richie, Billie Holiday, Led Zeppelin, Madonna, JJ FAD, Michael Jackson, The Clash, and many classical ballet scores (Swan Lake, Giselle, etc.) just to name a few. Music became the most crucial element to her sanity living in an area with heavy crime and gang activity. By the time she was 10 years old she fell in love with hip hop through dance and soon became addicted to the conscious lyrics. As she explains it, “It was the first time I felt like there were people out there who thought like me and experienced the same things I had living in the city.” Hip hop spoke loudly to NiteNdae with early influences such as MC Breed, Nas, Eazy E, De La Soul, MC Lyte, Black Sheep, and Queen Latifa to start off. Throughout her childhood and teens she performed with different hip hop and dance groups and continues to be involved today through teaching. By the time NiteNdae entered high school she knew she wanted to do it all, singing, dancing, and even poetry contributing to her creative writing club’s magazine, Literati. After graduation she started out as a backup singer for various Jazz/Blues/R&B bands in Los Angeles and began performing at clubs and venues she wasn’t even old enough to enter. She also frequented many hip hop shows and weekly open mics such as Project Blowed as a spectator and freestye dancer. She soon after found the courage to perform her original songs at Unite in Little Tokyo and from there it was on! Between then and the time she met Xololanxinxo from the hip hop group OMD in 2001 she was keeping her soul open for the right sound to fit her eclectic style. It was his album, “Marketing the Monsters,” in which she was featured and began to see the infinite amount of ability the voice has to offer from his diverse styles as an MC. With Mascaria on production it was inevitable the two would end up working together and release “Journey of the Fish” which centers on the spiritual journey she went through finding her way as an artist. She has since been featured on the albums “The Chemikillz” with Awol One and Mascaria, “Laws and Flaws” with Gel Roc, and the Mozaic Compilation cd “To the Beat Y’all.” During all of this she also found time to earn her bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing from USC in December 2007. Be on the look out for her sophmore album, “Interstellar Inkblots” due out in the summer of 2008!I edited my profile with Thomas Myspace Editor V4.4 (www.strikefile.com/myspace)