Divinity Roxx is a L.A/N.Y based artist full of creativity, that delivers something new in her music which is definitely very interesting and exciting to listen to. From a very young age, she was brought up around sounds of funk, soul and R&B, as her parents were fans of that kind of music. When Hip Hop music started to take over her home town Atlanta, she started making her own rap songs as a way to express herself by rhyming and MCing.
However, it wasn’t until she started her sophomore year in the UC Berkeley College as a journalist student that she found out how the bass guitar really feels like, and yes, it was love at first sight. The next move for Divinity Roxx, was to leave her education in UC Berkeley, to follow her dreams as a bass player.
Around that time, she attended Victor Wooten’s Bass-Nature Camp, which was a quite significant experience for her, as a bass player. When Victor Wooten heard her rhyming and playing the bass guitar at the same time (things that not many bass players can pull off successfully), he immediately asked her if she wanted to join him on tour, and of course her answer was very positive. After all he was her idol.
The next step in her music journey began when she attended an audition to play bass guitar for Beyoncé, and she was chosen, among the many musicians that applied. In that time, Beyoncé created her all-female band The Suga Mamas who accompanied her on her music tours and Divinity was one of them. Later on she also became her musical director.
With Beyoncé, Divinity got to play several gigs around the world, and also got to perform on Oprah and Ellen DeGeneres among others, but one of the most amazing experiences she had at that time, was when she performed with Beyoncé for President Barack Obama in the White House for a state dinner conducted for the president of Mexico, Felipe Colderon.
With all this bass playing experience under her belt, in 2012, she was ready to deliver her second solo album titled The Roxx Boxx Experience, her first album being Ain’t No Other Way. On Roxx Boxx Experience, she was magnificent as a musician, songwriter and singer, with powerful bass guitars, loud drums and rock, hip hop, funk and many other music styles, blending them all together. She also had strong music guests in the album including Grammy Award winners Bootsy Collins and Killer Mike.
A few months ago, on April 19, she released her latest album ImPossible (Pronounced ‘I’m Possible’), and on this record, she is more mature in her music, and is making songs that are powerful and seductive, but also very vulnerable and sweet.
There are a lot of variations of her favorite music styles on this new record, with the instrumental part being a mixture of jazz sounds with strong rhythmical baselines, and in some of them, loose lyrics and chill out atmosphere, while in some others, thought provoking lyrics and expressive attitude.
The first big single on the record “We are”, is a song produced by Grammy Award winner and Black Eyed Peas collaborator Keith Harris (who also played drums on the entire album) and it is just brilliant. The lyrics are inspired by a professor of hers at the college she briefly attended, named June Jordan, who wrote “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for” and as Divinity says for this song, “we are is more than a song, it’s the message I want to give to the world. We are the only ones who can positively effect the change we want to see in this world”.
With her powerful, dynamic, well-written lyrics in every song that she creates, her unique stage performances and her always developing music character, Divinity Roxx is one of the most interesting artists that we want to hear, admire and be passionate about, as she is for her music.
Although sometimes the fun part of the artistic creativity is weakened, she believes in her art, and continues her schedule without quibble over it. The basic motivation in her career is always the audience and the inspiring impact that she wants to leave on all of us, in our everyday life.
Divinity Roxx is a natural artist who has worked all the way up, building her career and making it possible for her to connect directly to all of us through her music. She reminds us not to forget that we all are unique and we can conquer anything that we want to, and at the same time, have fun and just have our revolution started from within! Purchase her latest album ImPossible on iTunes here.
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Words by Nancy Chalkopoulou
