Rochelle Jordan

Rochelle Jordan, recognized as a progressive R&B performer, integrates her adaptable vocals with equal ease across throbbing slow-tempo numbers and glowing dancefloor cuts. Operating from Los Angeles while drawing on early ties to London and Toronto, her output across time has maintained that borderless character by pulling from hip-hop soul, Missy Elliott and Timbaland’s work alongside Aaliyah, U.K. garage, and additional strains extending from the new jack swing era onward.

Following a series of independent solo releases issued in the first half of the 2010s, she aligned with TOKiMONSTA’s Young Art imprint to deliver the 2021 album Play with the Changes, after which emotive singles aimed at the dancefloor paired her with Snakehips, Keys N Krates, and TOKiMONSTA.

Jordan entered the world in London before her family relocated to Toronto during her earliest years, a setting where exposure to soul, reggae, contemporary gospel, and underground dance music shaped her listening. Covers of ’90s R&B tracks posted on YouTube attracted the interest of longtime collaborator KLSH, prompting the pair to assemble a catalog through an annual sequence of projects spanning 2011 to 2014: ROJO, Pressure, Origins, and 1021. During those years Drake, another Torontonian, referenced her on “Club Paradise,” she supplied co-writing and vocals to Childish Gambino’s “Telegraph Ave.,” and Paul Woolford sampled their material for the Special Request track “Soundboy Killer.”

She continued to issue occasional singles while contributing vocals more regularly to recordings by Cyril Hahn, Sepalcure, Machinedrum, Jimmy Edgar, Jacques Greene, and the JETS duo formed by Machinedrum and Edgar.

After stepping away from a constraining solo label and management contract, Jordan signed with the artist-oriented Young Art and returned in April 2021 with her most expansive recording, Play with the Changes. Produced by KLSH, Machinedrum, and Jimmy Edgar, the album wove together atmospheric house, spangly garage, and rapid drum’n’bass. A set of remixes featuring Soul Clap, Kaytranada, and Byron the Aquarius appeared the following year. In 2023 she joined Snakehips for “Sumthin Crazy,” Keys N Krates for “What You Done,” and TOKiMONSTA for “Eats the Tale.”