Ms KO

Ms KO

Ms KO is a US singer-songwriter, composer, producer, engineer, pianist and singer from Cleveland, Ohio. She sings and arranges music and vocals from the age of eight, and is trained classically in piano, violin and voice from that age. She grows up in a musical family; her father is a jazz musician and introduces his children to music early. She studies on scholarship at the Cleveland Music School Settlement, Interlochen Music Camp and the Murtis H. Taylor Center.

Style and influences

Her work sits in neo-soul, R&B and related forms, with links to hip-hop and underground rhythms. She is influenced by artists and styles including Oscar Peterson, Gene Ammons, Minnie Riperton, Esther Phillips, Nirvana, UGK, Too Short and Chaka Khan.

Career

Ms KO begins her career as a lyricist in the hip-hop group Psycho One alongside Deacon Burns of Kounterclockwise. She then founds the R&B group Blu Bac with her sister L.E.N.S., where she works as a singer, keyboardist and composer. She also plays with several Cleveland-based reggae and Top 40 bands, and later joins the New York-based R&B and hip-hop group Hypnotix as a singer, writer and keyboardist.

Other work

She contributes background vocals to a number of underground Cleveland artists, including Fear No Mob on Conversation Rules the World and Midwest Mafia on Ain't No Sunshine. She also plays keyboards on an album by Brothers of the Struggle.