Ilham

Ilham delivers gentle vocals as a modern R&B performer whose focus rests on deeply felt, emotionally direct ballads that she has always co-authored. She surfaced near the close of the 2010s via the album 41-10 in 2018 and has sustained her ascent through the EPs With Time in 2019 and the Def Jam-issued Ilham in 2022.

A native of New York City, Ilham Moumou spent her formative years inside the Queensbridge housing development. An early desire to work in music led her to gather insight by studying interviews with established artists. She traded original songs for studio access and expanded her industry knowledge during a Capitol internship that followed her graduation from Cornell University. Inside the Capitol Records offices in Los Angeles she met her eventual manager, which opened the door to the 740 Project, a Capitol-linked marketing company and label. Her first project, 41-10, arrived in 2018 after she wrote its material with a tight circle of collaborators; the Dave East-assisted “Last Night” and the Arin Ray feature “Cycle of Games” both performed strongly, while “None of Your Friends Business” was placed in an episode of Insecure. With Time followed in 2019, an EP of comparable construction that she likewise co-wrote. In 2020 she issued the singles “Misunderstood” and the hard-edged “Uh Huh,” the same year she signed with Def Jam. Her label debut came in October 2021 with the pained “Gang Signs,” the opening track of her self-titled EP that reached stores the following September.