Mapei

Mapei, born Jaqueline Cummings in Providence, Rhode Island, emerged as a Swedish-American left-field pop artist whose eclectic sound and online following prompted comparisons to M.I.A. and Amanda Blank. Her initial underground breakthrough arrived via the 2008 track “Video Vixens,” whose unconventional clip circulated widely enough on YouTube to become a modest sensation. Downtown signed her in 2009, releasing the EP The Cocoa Butter Diaries the same year. Early sessions with the French house group Justice were later abandoned, after which Mapei spent several years journeying across multiple continents. She resurfaced in 2013 with the single “Don’t Wait,” a track that gained traction after Frankie Knuckles supplied a remix; a new version featuring Chance the Rapper followed in 2014. Later that year she issued the album Hey Hey, most of which was produced by Magnus Lidehäll, a frequent collaborator of Sky Ferreira and Katy Perry.