By Staff
2 JUNE 2022 (NEW YORK, NY) – There comes a time in every person’s life when they have to take a step back. So begins the story of the reemergence of Neycha.
For every artist determined to honor their personal convictions above all else, there is a price to pay. Whether Lauryn Hill, Kayne West or Nina and Prince before them, they paid to the tune of being misunderstood, cast out and even dubbed crazy. For Neycha, an artist tasked with bearing the trauma of the sudden death of four close friends in two years, and a subsequent health crisis that left her in burnout, the cost was to risk fading into obscurity.
When asked how she felt about this sudden hiatus, Neycha shared, “I realized in our current social media clout-culture – where ongoing presence was/is deemed the most valuable currency, that for me to have dared to retreat, no matter the reason, could be seen as self-defeating. But I didn’t care. I knew that stepping away, whether for three months or three years, that if I didn’t take care of me first, I would end up having nothing to offer to others, to myself, to my purpose. So I disappeared.”
Since that time, almost five years ago, Neycha has come full circle cultivating perhaps the most ambitious synthesis of her work to date, Music as Sanctuary (MAS) – a formal framework that combines her work as a singer/songwriter/producer and transformational counselor and envisions “music as the sanctuary” we enter to soothe, inquire, invoke, escape and ultimately transcend what haunts us.
Neycha’s newest single, “Rise Up” does just this. It places us inside the complex structure of living while black in America and offers a powerful rock and roll protest anthem that is as much a document of black resilience as it is an unnerving portrait of the heinous violence acted upon black and brown bodies. Both the song and music video conjure and probe black rage and raise the question of what to do when justice can not be expected?
NEYCHA says about the track, “We have all grown exhausted of carrying the weight of so much grief, so much rage. Who but us can measure the consequence of holding all of this, all of the time, in our bodies that are constantly over-policed, constantly under attack, and continually murdered. This song offered me a way to evict the suffocating anger and re-center myself in the demonstrated capacity of black folks to overcome time and time again – because make no mistake about it, despite all kinds of odds, we continue to rise. I am excited for others to experience and remember just how badass we really are.”
ABOUT NEYCHA
Called “a new American badass” by Time Out New York, Neycha is an artist, author, content creator, and celebrity coach with 20+ years of unique experience in the fields of personal growth and wellness, music and entertainment. Her work has appeared on nationally syndicated radio and in and on numerous media outlets including The Huffington Post, Essence.com, Ebony Magazine, Ebony.com, Allure, OWN, The Washington Post, The Root, ABC News, BETher (formerly Centric) etc.
A celebrated indie-artist, who has shared the stage with Burnt Sugar, 24-7 Spyz, The Veldt and others, Neycha was named “one of the seven best bands” in Time Out New York’s “Annual Round up of BEST NYC Bands”. Her genre defiant CDs the dirty side up and White Noise along with the acid hip-hop dusted soul anthems for which Neycha is perhaps best known are what she calls “instinct music – from the gut out.”
Presave on #spotify today https://ampl.ink/NGxY2. // Teaser for music video “Rise Up” performed by Neycha, Lil’ John Roberts, Brandon A. Thomas and Hayato Nakao.
“Rise Up” was written by Neycha along with Hayato Nakao, John Cabán, Kevin “Kwiz” Ryan and Lil’ John Roberts who along with Neycha produced the track. The song will be available on June 3 on all digital streaming platforms via Lucy Kool Records. The official music video for “Rise Up” will be available on youtube.
For more info, visit www.neycha.com
Connect with Neycha on Social Media
https://www.youtube.com/user/LucyKoolRecords
Spotify
