Nikki Jean is mostly known for her debut studio album “Pennies in a Jar”. She’s a wonderful singer and songwriter that is fond of experimenting with sounds and their various combinations.
Her music performing is a little “out of the box”. Nikki mixes hip hop, pop, and soul genres in order to create amazing singles. Besides, she succeeded to star in the “On the outs” film playing the role of Malia. Being a multitalented person, Nichole also always impresses by her attractive appearance. She cooperated with Rhymesayers Entertainment, Columbia Records, and S-Curve labels for creating her own music. By the way, Nikki always creates heartfelt singles right from the heart. Let’s get acquainted with the artist closely.
Nicholle Jean Leary or Nikki Jean was born on August 25, 1983, in Minnesota, a midwestern US state. By the way, she managed to attend college early. Before moving to Philadelphia, Nikki had been playing in the Minneapolis theater scene. In a new town, she became the lead singer of the band Nouveau Riche. At the time, she had completely understood that she wants to share her own music with everyone. Thus, achieving success in a music career became the woman's main goal. Soon, the young singer, together with Dice Row, Joe Baldacci, Dominic Angelella, and other members released two EPs. The releases of the first one Nouveau Riche “Longtail” EP and the second one “Free Money” EP were in 2008.
In 2007, Nikki started posting music on social media. Fans' number of the performance of her acoustic songs began to rise swiftly. Moreover, she was discovered by Chris & Drop as a talented artist. The producers introduced the woman to Lupe Fiasco. At the time, Lupe was working on his second album, “The Cool”. As a result, Nikki Jean managed to feature on his viral video single "Hip-Hop Saved My Life", also she wrote the hook on this, as well as Nikkie guest featured on "Little Weapon". Later, when The Cool album was released. Nikki published a video when she opened the CD for the first time. As the video got a lot of traffic, Nikki was invited to an interview with CNN. Thus, the singer had started to raise her popularity. In 2008, Nikki Jean performed at the Glow in the Dark Tour with such famous stars as Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, Rihanna, and N.E.R.D.
Inspired by the music, Nikki decided to create her album. While touring, she met the producer Sam Hollander and together with him, she came up with an idea for a concept album. Being a talented songwriter, Nikki took off one's coat to work. The woman attracted over 30 hall of fame songwriters to create her debut album. Nikki tried to deal with several labels for the album release but eventually signed with Columbia Records. Despite the label liking the concept, they decided not to release it. And, as a result, Nikkie released the album on S-Curve Records/Universal Records in 2011. By the way, her single “My Love” reached №8 on Hot 100 Singles in Japan. While touring worldwide, the artist realized that it was becoming harder to sing. When she turned to Philadelphia, the doctors informed her about the availability of nodules on her thyroid. Of course, this became an obstacle to maintain her vocal training. But, after successful surgery without damaging her vocal cords and associated nerves, she can sing further.
Nikkie wasn’t going to leave her music career. She was inspired even more in creating new incredible lyrics and recording them. Nikki Jean moved to Los Angeles, where she started working on her next project. Also, she featured on several of Lupe Fiasco’s tracks from his new album “Tetsuo & Youth”, there were included "Little Death", "No Scratches", and "Madonna (And Other Mothers in the Hood)". At the same time, she worked on her next EP. On October 22, 2014, the world saw the singer’s Champagne Water EP. Its success was obvious: the EP skyrocketed to the top of the Billboard Magazine Real-Time Charts. A month later, after releasing, it was premiered by Vibe Magazine online. Since 2015, she has started a collaboration with Lupe Fiasco again. Then she wrote and featured 5 songs of his album “Tetsuo & Youth”. In 2017 Nikkie began recording a new project. That year she also signed a deal with the Rhymesayers Entertainment hip hop label.
Currently, this extraordinary artist continues creating new masterpieces of hip hop, soul, and pop music. Nikki Jean shared her 360 VR Upclose with the Ceek platform, where she talked about her music career and the multiple influences in her life. By the singer's words, she can be a hermit and write lyrics all day. Thus, all we can do is wait for Nikki’s new releases.