VanJess Are The Future Of R&B Music

Ivana and Jessica Nwokike, professionally known as VanJess are currently diverting from traditional R&B music to cultivate their own unique sound.

In 2011, the sister two-piece uploaded a cover of Frank Ocean’s Thinkin’ About You and Drake’s Headlines, attracting viral attention with over 3 million views on YouTube. Following the surge of popularity, the duo announced a signing to the RCA joint venture label Keep Cool.

Silk Canvas, the debut album by VanJess was released in 2018. It was met with praise from music critics, with Pitchfork rating it an impressive 7.7 out of 10, naming it a “proclamation of sensuality, musicality, and sisterly love that can hold its own with the best of new-wave R&B.”

At 14 tracks spanning over 50 minutes, the debut release was accompanied by five singles – Easy, Touch The Floor, Through Enough, Control Me and Addicted, with the latter accumulating over 10 million streams.

Amassing almost 30 million streams on Spotify to date, Silk Canvas boasts collaborations from Masego, GoldLink and KAYTRANDA. In 2019, the album was re-released as a 9-track remixes album featuring Ari Lennox, MNEK, Bas and more.

The pair list SWV, Brandy, Janet Jackson, Erykah Badu, En Vogue and TLC as some of their musical inspirations, incorporating similar sounds in to their music where they describe it as a “silky, smooth, sultry, exploration of the ‘90s.”

On September. 3, the two unleashed their brand-new single Come Over to all streaming services, the track is available everywhere.

Written By: Manuel Cav.