Priscilla Renea: Pop With Soul
By Janee Bolden
With her debut album Jukebox due out in a week, 21-year-old Priscilla Renea is on top of the world–and why wouldn’t she be? It’s been less than a year since the Vero Beach, FL native who learned to play guitar online signed a deal with Capitol Records, and the budding pop star hasn’t wasted a single moment. In addition to rocking Lollapalooza this August, Priscilla is also one of four new artists chosen to represent for Baby Phat’s Sole Series (alongside Def Jam’s Electrik Red and Kristinia Debarge and SoSoDef singer Dondria), and her first single “Dollhouse” is already in frequent rotation on MTV.
“This is happening all so quickly, especially since two years ago I was sitting in my mom’s living room doing videos on YouTube because I was bored,” Priscilla tells SoulSummer. “It’s just crazy how far you can come.”
While all signs point to her impending stardom, Priscilla remains remarkably grounded. After years of singing in church and local musical theater, Priscilla got her first taste of fame two years ago–singing the first five pages of the dictionary landed her on the front page of YouTube. The following month, another one of Priscilla’s videos was picked up by MTV’s “Say What? Karaoke,”and before long the inquiries began pouring in on MySpace.
“This guy Rico Collins did his research and found my number, he was the only one who called me. I had another manager at the time, he was lying to me, saying he worked with Beyonce, and was a Junior VP at Sony, come to find out he was an intern,” Priscilla recalls. “Rico was the one that helped me expose that. He flew me to Atlanta and introduced me to (Power/rewoP Entertainment founder) Kenny Kold. He dropped me off and I was there for a week recording.”
Having grown up with three brothers, Priscilla felt at ease with the largely male Power Entertainment family, which includes producers The Honorable C.N.O.T.E., Blaq Smurph (who is also Dwele’s Music Director) and Tha Produsirz, particularly since they embraced her sound, which she admits is pop-leaning, but sung with soul.
“R&B is very sexy and grown up and I’m not comfortable doing that,” Priscilla explains. “I’m very comfortable being funny and cute, so I can very much do that with the whimsical pop stuff, the lane that I fell into.”
After Priscilla returned home, Kold decided to pay her a visit in Florida to convince her family to allow her to move to Atlanta to sign with Power/rewoP Entertainment. They agreed, and in March 2008 Priscilla relocated and started work on her first album, Jukebox. With the exception of “Mr. Worker Bee” and “Dollhouse,” which were co-written, the album was written entirely by Priscilla, who also plays piano and guitar. While the songs on Jukebox tackle serious subject matter like premarital sex, infidelity, and even life after the death of a loved one, they do so in the upbeat whimsical tone that’s become signature for Priscilla Renea, who charms her audience with analogies like dolls (“Dollhouse”) and nursery rhymes (“Rockabye Baby”). “At first listen you’ll be pulled in because it makes you feel good, “ she warns, “but when you go back you’ll be like “Dang, Priscilla was talking about some stuff right there.”
Jukebox will be available in stores and online December 1st via rewoP/Capitol Records.
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