Fia is a singer/songwriter from Nanakuli, Hawaii. He exploded in the Island Reggae scene after the release of his sophomore single, "Love Me." In 2019, Fia swept at the Island Music Awards taking home all 4 of his nominations: Male Solo Artist of the Year, Music Video of the Year, Breakout Artist of the Year and Song of the Year. He also claimed the Music Video of the Year award in 2021.

He has toured domestically and internationally, even headlining his own South Pacific tour late 2019. Fia just came off of Kolohe Kai’s 10th Year Anniversary tour which was entirely sold out along the West Coast. The soulful artist has also performed at One Love NZ, One Love Cali, Island Vibe Music Festival, and at the Los Angeles Clippers NBA Hawaii Day Halftime show.

His latest single “Take Me” is now available on all digital platforms.

J Balvin is the stage name of José Álvaro Osorio Balvín, from Medellín, Colombia. Balvin is a reggaeton singer whose polished urban singles and best-selling albums have made him a top-tier Latin pop artist. He became interested in music at a young age while listening to rap, champeta, bachata, and reggae on the radio. He was also a big fan of music videos; it was from these that he began to develop his dance moves and cultivate his own style.

He signed to EMI Colombia in 2009 and released his first single, "Ella Me Cautivó," which charted at 35 on the U.S. tropical chart. This was followed by the release of the full-length Real in 2010. Balvin contributed four tunes to the soundtrack of the Tim Bulot film El Negocio. All of them charted, including "En Lo Oscuro," which hit the top spot in his native country.

La FamiliaBalvin was a featured vocalist on the Colombian version of Robin Thicke's smash single "Blurred Lines," which was issued in October of 2013, just prior to his own second album, La Familia. All four singles from the album charted in Colombia's Top Ten, and "Yo Te Lo Dije" hit number two on the rhythm chart and number nine on the Latin pop chart in the U.S. The B Sides collection appeared in September of 2014, featuring two more radio chart-topping singles in "6 AM" and "Ay Vamos." The latter won a Latin Grammy for Best Urban Song. His 2015 single "Ginza," the offcial pre-release for his next album, entered the Hot Latin Songs chart at number one, topped several others, and was certified platinum.
EnergíaBalvin's collaborations were as notable as his own work that year. He and Julión Álvarez were featured on Juan Gabriel's single "La Frontera." His "Latino Remix" of Justin Bieber's smash "Sorry" scored big for both artists at Latin pop radio and in digital streaming and downloads. The following year, Balvin won the Premios Lo Nuestro Artist of the Year Award and was a featured guest on both Sofia Carson's charting debut single "Love Is the Name" and on Alejandro Sanz's "Cuando Seas Grande" -- from a performance at La Voz -- along with Gloria Trevi and Los Tigres del Norte. In May, he released the single "Bobo," produced by Pharrell Williams, who also appeared on the track along with Mosty and Bia. It topped the Latin songs chart. The full-length, Energia, was produced by Sky and featured additional contributions from Bull Nene, Daddy Yankee, Fuego, Yandel, and Juanes.

I sing songs for the heart, not for your opinion.

Life’s best surprises often come from unlikely places. Twista knows this better than most. 
The pioneering platinum rapper put Chicago on the rap map and made the double-time rap style a rap staple. Despite selling millions of albums and popularizing a delivery incorporated by everyone from Jay-Z to Eminem, the Windy City rapper remains largedly unheralded by the uninformed. That’s why he’s named his new album The Dark Horse.
“Knowing my personality, that I’m laid-back and low-key and there’s not a lot of rah-rah, I’m usually the one that people least expect to stand out,” he says. “I’m not just talking about being on a track. I’m talking about when I’m in a room with the big dogs. I’m usually the last person expected to do something. My name also gets left off the Top MCs list, so I took on the mentality of where feel like I’m looked at as a dark horse in the industry. I like to just come out unexpectedly and shine on them.” 
Twista does just that on The Dark Horse selections “For Me And You” and “Scale The Wall.” Produced by longtime sonic partner The Legendary Traxster (Do Or Die, Mariah Carey), these two songs add new installments to the pair’s classic collaborations. “I think those two songs in particular are going to make people feel like, ‘Damn, this boy ain’t lost a step. This sounds just like ‘Adrenaline Rush’ or ‘Death Before Dishonor’ Twista,’” Twista explains. “The people that want to hear that dark, bass-hitting Twista sound with me snapping, I’m definitely going to satisfy them.” 
The same can be said for the Tech N9ne collaboration “Psycho.” Although the pair has worked together over the years, this song showcases a new, dramatic dimension to their material. “It’s done in the way that I envisioned a song that Tech N9ne and I would do,” Twista says. “Sometimes we’ve done songs where I haven’t really hit that style that I want to hit with him. There’s a certain type of vibe that I wanted to hit. By me being the one that picked the beat and being able to tell him how I want to go in on it, it’s exactly how I wanted a Tech N9ne and Twista song to sound. We’re going in so hard and in such a way that people can see that we’re pretty much the top ones doing it.”
Twista shifts gears on “Throwin My Money.” The future strip club anthem features Twista freaking fast and slow flows and sharing the mic with fellow Chi-Town musical titan R. Kelly. “It’s got that Twista swing to it,” Twista says. “When I let R. Kelly hear the song, he thought it was a monster once he heard the hook and the vibe of the song. When I heard the finished product, I was like, ‘We’ve got to throw this out there.’ Songwise and vibewise, I felt like it’s a good song and people will rock to it.” 
Then there’s “Next To You” with crooner Jeremih. The soulful selection features Twista adopting a suave approach and delivering his raps in a distinctive way. “It doesn’t feel like a normal song,” he says. “It has a tripped out cadence to it to where I’m doing the Twista style, but it’s not in the average way where everybody can bite it like they usually do.”
Elsewhere, pays homage to rap elder statesmen Run-DMC with the stylish “a.d.i.d.a.s.” He got the idea for the song when he and his friends were vibing and listening to beats. “It put me in a Run-DMC mindstate,” Twista says. “That’s what made me be like, ‘Let me go ahead and do this.’” 
From the first time Twista rapped, people wanted to hear him do this. He broke through in the early 1990s as Tung Twista, earning acclaim as the fastest rapper in the world, even holding the Guinness World Record title for the distinction.
But it would take a while for people to catch up to Twista’s trailblazing rap abilities. When he reemerged in 1996 with Do Or Die on the landmark “Po Pimp” single, the rechristened Twista amazed fans and critics alike with his remarkably smooth rapid-fire raps. Twista then became a rap king with the release of Adrenaline Rush, his 1997 album. The collection’s mind-bending vocal performances, terrific storytelling and supreme lyricism placed Twista among rap’s premier artists. 
“I think I helped offer in a new vibe, a new style to what we already had in hip-hop and rap music,” he explains. “Even though you had a few people dabbling in it, the level that I took the double time style to helped contribute to there being another style that you could do your music.”
Twista became even more popular in 2003 and 2004 when he teamed with fellow Chicagoan Kanye West and Jamie Foxx for the smash single “Slow Jamz.” Twista’s 2004 album, Kamikaze, earned him his first platinum plaque. Since then, Twista has remained one of rap’s premier practitioners and in-demand collaborators. He’s appeared on albums from Mariah Carey, Pitbull and Jay-Z, among others, and released a string of acclaimed albums and mixtapes.
Beyond music, he’s spread his wings as a pitchman. One of his newest ventures is his partnership with Tease Vodka.
But for Twista, it all comes down to the music. It’s the reason he’s remained one of rap’s top talents for two decades. “It’s the love of the music,” he says. “I do other things and I have other business ventures that I do, but my love is really with the music. I keep doing it and staying in it because I love music. I still get excited every time I hear a beat or think of a different flow.”
Now with The Dark Horse, Twista brings new life into his music by recreating his classic style and building upon it, too. “I try not to break what I know is already cool or what people want from me,” he says. “People want to just hear that fierce Twista stuff that they know and love. The main thing I’m doing with this album is staying true to what people know that I do.”


Tracey Holokahi-Monterde is following