Chika

CHIKA blends R&B and hip-hop as a singer, rapper, and actress, confronting social injustice and body positivity through a vocal delivery that shifts between rapid-fire bursts and a weary tone. The 2020 Industry Games EP earned a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, and she also claimed an NAACP Image Award for Best New Artist. After appearing in Project Power, she issued her third EP, Once Upon a Time, in 2021. Throughout 2023 she dropped original tracks such as "Requiem for a Dream" while joining Freddie Gibbs on the exuberant "Truth or Dare."

Jane Chika Oranika, born in Alabama in 1997 to Nigerian-American parents as the youngest of three sisters, channeled her slam-poetry passion into studies at a Montgomery performing-arts school before leaving the University of South Alabama after one year. Starting in 2016, a series of viral social-media clips established her as a sharp-eyed lyricist and performer; the following year she released the poetry album Full Bloom. Early in 2018 a freestyle that critiqued Kanye West over the beat from his 2004 single "Jesus Walks" accumulated millions of online views. Months later she appeared on "Coulda Told Me," the third single by X Factor alumna and actress Rachel Crow.

A January 2020 trip to Los Angeles intended to last two weeks became a permanent relocation. By April her debut single "No Squares" was out, coinciding with a Coachella set. She later performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at the request of guest host Lena Waithe, using the slot for an unfiltered rap against Alabama’s abortion laws. A Warner deal yielded the June 2019 single "High Rises" and November’s "Can’t Explain It," a collaboration with former Gap Band leader Charlie Wilson. Her largest success arrived as a guest on JoJo’s "Sabotage," a funky, downtempo R&B cut that reached the Top 20 of Billboard’s U.S. R&B Digital Download chart.

March 2020 brought her Warner debut EP, Industry Games, preceded a month earlier by the title track, securing the Grammy nomination. That year she also acted in and contributed a song to the Netflix superhero drama Project Power. March 2021 saw the release of her third EP, Once Upon a Time. She supplied a fiery verse to McClenney’s mellow R&B track "Too Much Sun in LA," then returned in 2023 with "Requiem for a Dream," "Demigod," and the Freddie Gibbs collaboration "Truth or Dare."