Muhsinah

Muhsinah
Performing in San Francisco, May 2009 Performing in San Francisco, May 2009
Background information
Birth name	Muhsinah Abdul-Karim
Also known as	The Golden Girl
Born	July 20, 1983 (1983-07-20) (age 28)
Origin	Washington, D.C., US
Genres	Urban Suburban / Indie Pop
Occupations	Singer/Songwriter, Composer, Arranger, Record Producer, Vocal Producer
Instruments	Vocals, Piano, Synthesizers
Years active	2006-Present
Labels	Unsigned/Rxlngr Distribution
Associated acts	Common, Flying Lotus, Noisettes, Georgia Anne Muldrow
Website	www.muhsinah.com
Notable instruments
Moog Little Phatty, Moog Vogager, Novation X-Station

Muhsinah (pronounced Mu•see•na) is an independent singer/songwriter, producer, composer and arranger.

She cites Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones, Nirvana and Chopin as among her influences.

Musical career

A graduate of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts and of Howard University, Muhsinah's self-produced EP day.break 2.0 (2008) was described by XLR8R^[1] magazine as "a beautiful smack in the face of mainstream hip-hop and R&B convention".

Though a small scale independent release, it attracted the attention of rappers Common as well as Phonte of Little Brother/The Foreign Exchange, both of whom she later recorded with, appearing on Common's Universal Mind Control and The Foreign Exchange's Leave It All Behind.

The Washington Post has written of her as being "part of a new breed of young soul rebels who seamlessly meld electronic beats with layers of jazzy arrangements and unorthodox song structure", and as "equally at home chopping loops and tapping pads on an Akai MPC as she is behind a piano keyboard".

Muhsinah was acknowledged by Radiohead frontman, Thom Yorke, on their website Dead Air Space on March 15, 2010 ^[2] when he listed the song, "Lose My Fuse (Produced By Flying Lotus)" among his favorites at the time the post was published.

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Result
2009	Grammy Awards	Best Urban/Alternative Performance	Nominated

Discography

Extended plays

Year	Album Title	Label
2007	"day.break" (US) / "pre.lude" (JP)	Rxlngr / Circulations
2008	"The Oscillations: Sine"	Rxlngr - (Digital Only)
2009	"The Oscillations: Triangle"	Rxlngr - (Digital Only)

Production

• Ruff Drafts Volume 1 (Track: 3) - JapaNUBIA Musik 2006
• Getback (Track: 6/7 Interlude ) - ABB 2007
• day.break (Tracks: All) - Rxlngr 2007
• pre.lude (Tracks: All) - Circulations 2008
• Higher Ground (Track: 3) - Quiet Power Productions 2008
• The Awakening (Track: 3) - JapaNUBIA Musik 2008
• Border Breaker (Tracks: 1,3,5) - Ghetto Falsetto 2009
• The Oscillations:Sine (Tracks: All) - Rxlngr 2009
• The Oscillations:Triangle (Tracks: All except 2,4,5 & 7) - Rxlngr 2009

Guest Appearances

• Ruff Drafts Volume 1 (Tracks: 3) - JapaNUBIA Musik 2006
• I Predict A Riot (Tracks: 1 & 18) - Soulspasm Records, Inc. 2007
• Cuba After Market (Tracks: 3 & 13 ) - Humble Monarch Music/Rawkus 50 2007
• Producer No. 1 (Track: 7) - Fat City Records 2007
• Suite903 No.15 (CD#2 Track: 16) - Fader Label 2007
• Blunt Park Sessions (413) (Track: 2 ) - Rude Squire/Rawkus 50 2007
• Higher Ground (Track: 3) - Quiet Power Productions 2008
• Leave It All Behind (Tracks: 1, 5 & 10) - Hard Boiled 2008
• Down To You 12" (Track: B1) - Planetgroove 2008
• Universal Mind Control (Track: 7) - G.O.O.D/Geffen 2008
• Arale 01 (Are In Be) - Arale.tv 2009
• Odd Summer EP (Track: 8) - Oddisee Music 2009
• Adroit Adventures 12" (Track: A2) - Ubiquity 2009
• Kilawatt: V2 (Track: 1) - Kilawatt Music Limited 2010

References

1. ^ Rico Washington, "Muhsinah: Defying R&B" XLR8R, May 1, 2008|
2. ^ www.radiohead.com

• www.muhsinah.com
• Benji B, BBC 1Xtra, April 11, 2008.
• Devin Barrett. "Half Hip Hop, Half Amazing", Issue #83, TRACE, August 2008.
• Fritz Hahn, Rhome Anderson and David Malitz. "Nightlife Agenda", Washington Post, November 15, 2007.
• Jalylah Burrell. "Muhsinah Creates Homemade Physics", Issue #3, FADER/F2, August 2008.

External links

• Official website
• Muhsinah on Facebook
• Muhsinah on Twitter
• Muhsinah on Myspace
• "Construction", official Muhsinah video on Rxlngr Incorporated' channel @ vimeo.com]
• "Daykeeper" with The Foreign Exchange, video @ muhsinah.com]
• Radiohead

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Date of birth	July 20, 1983
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