In 4 years, Denisia “Blu June” Andrews and Brittany “Chi” Coney went from co-writing a track Beyoncé was featured on to engaged on greater than half of her newest album.
Higher often called the artistic duo Nova Wav, Blu June and Chi first obtained a co-writing credit score on “Prime Off,” the 2018 DJ Khaled monitor that options Future, Jay-Z and Queen Bey. Extra periods rolled in, and Nova Wav wound up penning 4 songs on Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s collaborative album, All the things Is Love, in addition to Bey’s The Lion King: The Reward, together with the Juneteenth anthem “Black Parade.”
On Renaissance, the celebrity’s daring exploration of dance and home music, Blu June and Chi not solely co-wrote eight of the 16 songs, they co-produced 5 tracks; Chi additionally engineered a number of the songs, and Blu June sings background on “Alien Famous person” and “Pure/Honey.” Now the duo is nominated for 3 Grammy Awards, together with album of the 12 months for Renaissance and greatest R&B track for the viral hit “Cuff It.”
“I’d undoubtedly credit score Bey because the artist who has allowed us to evolve as creators,” Blu June tells THR. “The extent of belief is impeccable. We aren’t who we had been 10 years in the past after we had been sending Beyoncé data, however she might nonetheless see and listen to the potential. We had been at all times given possibilities, and we stepped as much as the plate. All the things is timing, and it’s our time.”
Provides Chi: “Numerous our blessings come from us understanding what it means to be affected person — we play chess and never checkers.”
The songwriter-producers met in 2009 by way of a mutual pal — Blu June was dwelling in her hometown of Tallahassee, Florida, and Chi was primarily based in Atlanta — and labored just about to create music. Blu June ultimately joined Chi by shifting to the A, and the duo earned their first placement with Rihanna’s “Loveeeeeee Tune” from her Grammy-winning 2012 album Unapologetic. However Chi’s title didn’t seem within the songwriting credit. “[Chi] was completely part of that document. We truly created that document collectively. It was just a few trade BS, however we ain’t even going to offer that no power,” Blu June explains.
The track was an album favourite and reached platinum standing though it wasn’t a single, making it clear that Nova Wav had the juice. Extra platinum hits — like Kehlani’s “CRZY,” Nicki Minaj’s “Megatron,” Teyana Taylor’s “Gonna Love Me,” Jazmine Sullivan’s “Decide Up Your Emotions” and DJ Khaled’s “Simply Us” and “You Keep” — poured out of them. In addition they crafted songs for Britney Spears, Ariana Grande, Kelly Clarkson, H.E.R., Zayn, Meek Mill, Saweetie, Jason Derulo, Pop Smoke, Kelly Rowland, Lukas Graham, Ludacris, Keyshia Cole and Monica, whose Nova Wav-produced single, “Dedication,” topped Billboard’s Grownup R&B Songs chart.
The duo — additionally nominated for his or her work on Mary J. Blige’s Good Morning Beautiful, up for album of the 12 months — says they really feel honored to assist inform tales, significantly narratives about points that resonate personally. Says Chi: “We’re speaking about Black ladies moguls. We had been on high of that shit. There’s a degree of belief and degree of respect now we have with them, and it feels actually good. Now you could have Black ladies rising as producers … I feel it was time for a perspective change.”
Girls held solely 3.9 p.c of all producing positions throughout the songs on the 2021 Billboard Sizzling 100 Yr-Finish Charts, in line with a examine by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, and navigating that world hasn’t at all times been simple for Nova Wav, who had been snubbed within the nonclassical producer of the 12 months class at this 12 months’s Grammys (5 males are nominated, and a girl has by no means received the award). “I feel we’ve been marginalized for a really very long time,” says Blu June. “We simply need the development of all ladies in music, and to be trustworthy with you, we form of need to have the ability to drop the truth that we’re ‘ladies’ producers.” “And,” Chi chimes in, “simply be one of many high producers.”
Along with preventing for extra variety in manufacturing, the pair can be working towards honest rights for songwriters. Sometimes, producers (who work on the beat) will earn an advance when engaged on a track, whereas writers (lyrics and melody) receives a commission by way of royalties if the track performs properly or is promoted as a single. Nova Wav says too many instances songwriters produce however don’t get the total credit score. “For essentially the most half, the phrases are 50 p.c and the music is 50 p.c, and that needs to be allotted in another way,” says Chi. “Songwriters needs to be revered far more than what’s occurring.”
tephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis by way of Getty Photos; Kevin Mazur/ Getty Photos ; Bennett Raglin/Getty Photos
To make the enjoying area even, Nova Wav — when engaged on a track as writers not producers — will request a songwriting price. (“Folks haven’t been enthusiastic about it, however I imply, that’s the way in which it needs to be,” Chi provides.)
Navigating the music trade has been a curler coaster, however Chi and Blu June say they really feel deeply shut to one another, a connection they liken to psychic talents. “It’s been very magical,” Blu June says. “It’s the chemistry, the intuitiveness, the togetherness.”
Provides Chi: “Folks speak about loyalty so much, and it’s a phrase that they throw round however don’t perceive. And we actually needed to stand on that. We had been examined so much. Individuals are going to attempt to are available between and divide you and get you to go somehow, however you’ve obtained to remain agency on what you consider in.”
Their bond is stronger than ever, and it’s the third consecutive 12 months that Nova Wav have been nominated for a number of Grammys. Their first nominations got here in 2021, after they had been up for track of the 12 months and greatest R&B track for “Black Parade” and greatest modern Christian music efficiency/track for co-writing Lecrae and Kirk Franklin’s “Sunday Morning.” Final 12 months they competed for album of the 12 months due to their work on Again on My Thoughts by H.E.R. and greatest R&B track for Jazmine Sullivan’s “Decide Up Your Emotions” — the track that received Sullivan her first Grammy in one other class.
“I bear in mind sitting at my job after I was in Tallahassee, and Jazmine had a track with the lyrics, ‘I gotta dream huge/ ‘Trigger when it occurs, it’s gone occur actual fast.’ I actually recognized with that track, and 10 years later to have a track along with her, it’s like, ‘Wow. Full circle second,’” Blu June recollects.
Now, Nova Wav desires to win their first Gramophone, and so they have a robust likelihood since “Cuff It,” which not too long ago cracked the highest 10 on the Billboard Sizzling 100 chart and has had an explosive run on TikTok, is the frontrunner in the very best R&B track class.
“To assist create a document like that in the course of the pandemic when no one was exterior and to make a feel-good document like that mainly out of skinny air — it’s simply God and us placing in lots of work. These are the moments we labored onerous for,” Blu June says. “It truthfully feels the very best as a result of it’s with Bey, the one that actually gave us an actual likelihood.”
Nova Wav has labored with everybody — however they nonetheless aspire for extra. The 2 have a starry want listing of potential collaborators, together with Adele, Drake, Doja Cat, The Weeknd, Metropolis Ladies — and that celebrity singer and upcoming halftime present performer whose subsequent album has been closely anticipated for the reason that 2016 launch of Anti.
“Rihanna, we’re ready on you, woman,” Chi says. “We’re ready so that you can name.”
“We’re going to manifest this Rihanna single,” Blu June says, earlier than Chi jumps in with: “Album! This Rihanna album!”
A model of this story first appeared within the Jan. 27 challenge of The Hollywood Reporter journal. Click on right here to subscribe.
