Laya

Born in Staten Island, vocalist Laya produces lean, atmospheric R&B that draws from 1990s forebears while charting fresh paths. Early dreamy, unhurried singles such as 2020’s “Sailor Moon” secured her a Warner Records contract, which issued the 2022 EP Um, Hello; the more compact Bet That arrived the next year.

Her birth name is Lauren Ayala. While employed as a creative director in the music business, she simultaneously developed her own recording career, issuing independent tracks beginning with 2017’s “Run.” Later, more fully realized pieces like 2020’s “Sailor Moon” and 2021’s “Bitter” featured polished production and a sharper articulation of her ’90s R&B reworking. She channeled her visual-arts and creative-direction experience directly into her output, directing and editing every video herself and maintaining strict control over the visual identity and presentation of each release. In 2020 she supplied backing vocals for Pop Smoke recordings, then signed with Warner Records to release her first extended project, the 2022 EP Um, Hello, which collected prior singles and featured Fivio Foreign on “Brag.” The stand-alone single “Sock It 2 Me” followed later that year. The disco-inflected “F’d Up” appeared in 2023 and was included on the EP Bet That.