A Family Reunion, And The Start of a Highly Anticipated Album Rollout
Notes from Cyanca's KATINA listening party in Charlotte.
As Cyanca emerged from the back room of Gallery Bar in Uptown Charlotte on Thursday, the din of the packed room fell to a murmur. She made her way in front a giant canvas print from her newest music video, “Jesse Jackson,” the initial single from her new project released this past Sunday.
Clearing her throat, she thanked the crowd for coming to hear the first public listening of her album, KATINA. “I’ve been trying to learn things about my mother. I lost my mother when I was two years old,” she explained of the title, which bears her mother’s name. “So, I came up with this concept: if Katina was alive, what would her sound be?”
The crowded bar swayed along with the eight tracks that explored her interpretation of her mother’s sound. As the album played uninterrupted, Cyanca remained in the center of the room, rapping and singing along with the lyrics off-mic.
As they sipped on cocktails with names like “Foreignese” and “Ruff Ryder” — each matched to a track on the album — listeners were encouraged to rate each song through a QR code attached to the Gallery Bar menus. “I’m an Aries. I can take it,” Cyanca joked as she encouraged her audience to be honest in their appraisal of the new music.