Jourden

Drawing equally from Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill, Jourden refreshes the neo-soul/hip-hop fusion approach of the 1990s for contemporary listeners. Jourden Cox, raised in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood within a West Indian family, first studied piano at home and moved from reproducing songs by ear to creating her own material. In 2016 the Recording Academy’s Grammy U program for teens and young adults singled out her original composition “Tides.” The following year she issued her debut single “State of the Union,” moving without effort between singing and rapping. Her most substantial early project, the 2020 EP It Only Took the End of the World, appeared while she completed a performing arts degree at New Orleans-based Loyola University. Momentum arrived in 2023 via the paired tracks “Flow,” a rapid-fire stream-of-consciousness piece, and the sassy trap-soul number “Coulda Been.” “Flow” later surfaced as a bonus cut on the RCA-released EP Straight, No Chase, which also spotlighted “Tryin’ to Play Me” and “D-Boy.”