Rina
As we've written before, Milwaukee doesn't have much of a recent R&B tradition. Excluding Rico Love, an expat whose ties to the city are pretty thin these days, the city has never produced a true contemporary R&B star, and for a good stretch of the '90s and '00, the scene didn't show much interest all in R&B music. That may be changing, though, as Milwaukee audiences (like audiences on the whole) seem to be growing more open minded. In the last year or two we've already seen singers like Zed Kenzo and Lex Allen break out, establishing themselves not only as supporting acts but destination headliners. Though she's still an upstart, with just two singles to her name, it's not hard to imagine the Milwaukee alt-R&B singer Rina finding an audience of her own, too.
Today Rina released her second single, "I Tried," a slinky, chilled-out number with plenty of Erykah Badu in its DNA. It follows last fall's "Temptation," a more overly arty, FKA Twigs-style number that's racked up more than 200,000 spins on Soundcloud. I like this one even better. It's smoother, sadder and more graceful, and it better plays up the soft, conversational tones in Rina's voice.
You can stream it below.
