Lorine Chia

Have you ever listened to a cover of a song you like, and the hairs on your neck stand up because it's that good? That's exactly what happened when I heard Lorine Chia put her own touch onto Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit". This song came to the forefront of the hip hop world when the Nina Simone version was sampled by Kanye West on his track "Blood On The Leaves", taken from his hugely successful album Yeezus.

"Strange Fruit" originally started out as a poem written by Abel Meeropel to show the racism going on in America, particularly the south. Billie Holiday then put her touch to it, and now we have a 21st century rendition thanks to the Cleveland native Lorine Chia. The mellow pianos are cut through by Chia's distinct soulful vocals, with a vocal range that'll give you shivers. The song is made all the more eerie by only the use of a piano and vocals with slight glimpses of futuristic sounding synths.

Chia currently has a mixtape available, entitled Lorine, which you can stream and download from her Soundcloud. Lorine's next project is a re-issue of her mixtape entitled Lorine: Redux, which is due out later this year.