The Foreign Exchange

The Foreign Exchange originated after Little Brother rapper Phonte discovered a track by Dutch producer Nicolay on Okayplayer.com and requested permission to add vocals. Nicolay consented, resulting in the song "Light It Up," which surfaced soon afterward as the B-side of Little Brother's 2002 single "Whatever You Say." The pair sustained their partnership exclusively through instant messaging and email, with Nicolay forwarding beats for Phonte to vocalize and return, ultimately yielding sufficient material for an album. Throughout the creation of their 2004 debut Connected, the duo never communicated by telephone or met face to face.

Nicolay relocated to the United States amid growing production demands, enabling the recording of Leave It All Behind, the second Foreign Exchange album, which leaned more toward R&B than its predecessor. Issued in 2008 and accompanied by several striking videos, its lead single "Daykeeper" earned a 2010 Grammy nomination for Best Urban/Alternative Performance, ultimately losing to India.Arie's "Pearls." Following production assistance on albums by associates YahZarah (The Ballad of Purple St. James) and Zo! (SunStorm), the group delivered Authenticity, with all three projects appearing in 2010 on The Foreign Exchange Music. A DVD/CD package, Dear Friends: An Evening with the Foreign Exchange (2011), and the two-disc collection of remixes and new material titled The Reworks (2013) came before the fourth studio album, Love in Flying Colors (also 2013). Subsequent to a world tour and the release of Nicolay's City Lights, Vol. 3: Soweto—an album shaped by the group's performances in South Africa—the Foreign Exchange issued Tales from the Land of Milk and Honey (2015), a varied effort co-produced by Zo! that blended throwback house, Latin jazz, and a lighthearted reference to funk legends Slave.