“Kari Faux’s profile has been steadily rising since she posted her debut EP to Soundcloud three years ago” – Vogue
“In L.A., Kari ingested the spirit of L.A.’s G-Funk sound, combining it with sunny, jazzy, vocals and embellishments, channeling this recipe into her her debut album Lost En Los Angeles. The album, which was produced and recorded in Kari’s bedroom—and put out by Kari on Soundcloud and other streaming services by Kari herself, independently—became a kind of under the radar hit, attracting attention from critics and musicians alike for it’s wide eyed, optimistic yet realistic view of the joys and stress of living, working, and dreaming in Los Angeles as a young person.” – Forbes
“Low key and restrained, Lost En Los Angeles depicts Kari Faux’s life in the city as a bummer fantasia, a quietly surreal trip through sounds dripped in jazz, 70s funk, and psychedelia, a sound courtesy of go-to collaborator Black Party.” – Noisey
Kari Faux is done with the bullshit. She’s done suffering at the hands of men and done with society’s expectations of how a woman should think and act. With her EP CRY 4 HELP, featured on NPR First Listen, Kari reclaims her agency, taking back control of her career and her life. Far from defeated, Kari radiates with defiance–she makes her message to abusers very clear on the project’s cover art.
Created after a lengthy period of recovery following a failed relationship and an assault, CRY 4 HELP EP is a deeply personal and revealing project. Throughout the EP, Kari details her mental health struggles, betrayal of close friends and confidants, and her changing life in the wake of her artistic success. “I’m so good at picking bad friends,” she chants at the end of album opening track “Medicated.” Though the subject matter is heavy, the music is rich and engrossing, as Kari alternates her soft singing voice with plainspoken rhymes, fully inhabiting each instrumental and walking the line between rap and R&B. CRY 4 HELP reaches an emotional climax with the closing track “Latch Key,” a devastating account of Kari’s recent and distant history that provides some context for her two-year absence from music. The EP also features an appearance from Curren$y on the track “In The Air.”
“I felt like I was kind of spiraling,” Faux tells NPR Music. “These past traumas were just coming up that, I guess, I hadn’t realized I hadn’t dealt with. I’ve always felt like I was never able to put my real, real life into my music, so this was kind of like a test for me to see like, ‘OK, can you write about the s*** [that] has actually happened to you?’.”
The new EP hosts the lead single “Leave Me Alone,” a slinky piece of future R&B that finds Kari pining for total isolation. In its inventive music video, released in late February, Kari unsuccessfully tries to shut herself off from the world, until she grows fed up and smashes her phone with a baseball bat. Like the rest of the EP, “Leave Me Alone” walks a fine line between the personal and the universal, as Kari relays an empathetic and emotional account of her new and old problems.
Buy/Stream CRY 4 HELP: https://karifaux.lnk.to/CRY4HELP_EP
Watch “Leave Me Alone”: https://youtu.be/BqRNV21MV14
Check out the feature on NPR First Listen: https://www.npr.org/2019/03/04/699131864/kari-faux-processes-her-pain-on-cry-4-help-ep
RSVP for Kari Faux’s EP Release Exhibition in Los Angeles: https://bit.ly/2EVxzza
Buy/Stream “Leave Me Alone”:
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/music-video/leave-me-alone/1453588933
Tidal: https://tidal.com/video/104407224
CRY 4 HELP EP tracklist:
1. Medicated
2. Leave Me Alone
3. In The Air ft. Curren$y
4. Night Time
5. Latch Key
Please contact Michelle or Kierra if interested in talking with Kari Faux.
Kari Faux is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Los Angeles by way of Little Rock, Arkansas. Although her experimentation with a musical career started back in 2012, Faux has undergone a metamorphosis, shaking the scene with her 2014 mixtape Laugh Now, Die Later – a mixtape that would catapult her musical career, catching the attention of Donald Glover who remixed her hit “No Small Talk.” Her unique style of rhyming, unchainable confidence, and dashes of sultry vocal harmonizing make her a force to look out for. Her presence in the music industry marks a resurgence of fearless, outspoken female voices in Hip Hop; an attitude Faux exudes in all mediums of creative work. Her first studio album, Lost En Los Angeles (2015) and her most recent EP Primary (2017) are testaments to her continual evolution as a recording artist and while she explores the limitations of her creative abilities, music is not her only skill set. Over the last few years, Faux has added modeling, DJing, and producing under her creative belt. Kari’s established herself an asset and profitable partner, DJing for numerable companies including Puma, Hennessy For Complexcon and Depop. Not only has Kari’s music been featured in all three seasons of HBO’s hit series Insecure, but she also landed a noteworthy gig modeling for Pyer Moss, winner of the 2018 CFDA Vogue Fashion Fund, in his FW ’18 NYFW Show. With her intentions set of releasing three projects in the coming year, Faux looking to dominate the music festival circuit and recently supported Mick Jenkins on his Pieces of a Man Tour.
twitter | instagram | youtube | soundcloud | spotify
CRY 4 HELP: https://karifaux.lnk.to/CRY4HELP_EP
“Leave Me Alone”: https://karifaux.lnk.to/leavemealone // https://youtu.be/BqRNV21MV14