Dea Moon
LA based artist Dea Moon may have released a new single this week, but her entire catalogue is worth a listen. Her style highlights her Bahamian-American heritage smooth vocals and island-inspired beats. All three of her songs are engaging, and will easily get stuck in your head for days. Moon’s style is reminiscent of R&B and hip-hop divas of the 1990’s and early 2000’s.
The first single, “Hollywood,” was written in 2019, and recorded in 2021. “Hollywood” was one of Moon’s early attempts at songwriting, and she wrote it in under an hour after the idea came to her in the shower. She was living in the Bahamas, but moved to the US when the pandemic hit and set up her own basic studio at home to record it. “Hollywood” is inspired by Moon’s childhood dream of what it would be like to be famous. Now an adult, Moon matures the lyrics by comparing the glitz and glamor with the reality that becoming famous also means selling your mind and body. She sings, “Hollywood, where it ain’t no good/But it’s the only way I could get up out the hood,” and asks her mother if she is proud of her successes. Dea Moon creates a dreamy feel with slightly muted vocals in the hook, but punctuates the chorus with a more hopeful tone. Moon says this is one of her favorite songs, and she took over a year to find the perfect beat.
After “Hollywood,” Moon released “Work It” in November 2021. As the title implies, the hook samples a bit from Missy Elliot, but the beat is sampled from “Throat” by Gage. The beat reminded Moon of the ballroom scene, and that influence can be clearly heard as she asks the listener to “pose” like Vogue’s cover girls. She effortlessly changes cadences with tight rhymes verses and a laid back hook that you can imagine people jamming out to. These lyrics are empowering, and Moon talks about her power as a musician and how she can command attention when she walks into a room.
Moon’s final single, “Wanna Wanna” was released earlier this week, and it’s a total bop. Once Moon picked the beat, she knew she had a fun and flirty dance track on her hands. The love song features sharper style than the previous two singles, but her back up vocals are still suave. She layers her voice in the hooks, and that adds depth to the track. The original recording of “Wanna Wanna” was deleted, and Moon had to start over with the piece, and almost didn’t re-record. Thankfully for her audience, she did. This song is a slight departure from the earlier ones, but still has Moon’s signature stamp that ties it in with the others. If you’re looking to support women in the R&B and hip-hop space, be sure to keep an eye on Dea Moon.
