soul music – MadameNoire

Stephanie Mills had a few choice words for Sam Smith after she learned that the blue-eyed soul singer doesn't like Michael Jackson's music.

At first glance, singer Nikki Leonti looks like the mild-mannered, California church girl she was raised to be. A fan of the Winans family, she was only allowed to listen to gospel music growing up. Rich Velonkis has a bad boy air about him that probably stems from his days as a DJ in New York City. The unlikely pair are the two parts that make up the soulful duo, Nikki & Rich.

Referred to as “the most anticipated new duo in music” by industry heads, the pair combine pop, soul, R&B and classic ’60s sounds to make catchy hits. Leonti and Velonkis first met in Nashville when she was working as a backup singer for Carrie Underwood. Velonkis brought experience having produced tracks for Robin Thicke, Mario and Ludacris while Leonti brought an amazing voice, singing her whole life as a pastor’s daughter and Christian artist.

Needless to say, we were a bit intrigued when we read their bios. Then we heard the music and were sure: these two are definitely bringing something unique to the music world.
Check out what they had to say when we chatted with them:

Madame Noire: How did you both initially meet?
Nikki: It was about two years ago and we met through a mutual friend of ours that worked at my management company at the time, when I was living in Nashville which was the first writing session that I had been set up to do. Rich was producing a lot of artists at the time. So he let me come in on that and do some writing—and that’s how we got started.

MN: Were you writing before you were performing or did they both coincide?
Yea, I was writing for a little while before and really started song writing when I met Rick and more of it came out and developed for this record. Before, I had written a few songs here and there but nothing to this extent.

MN: Rich, how did you get into DJing?
Definitely in New York, when I was 16 to 19, 20. And then I moved out to L.A. and wasn’t DJing, it was a younger thing for me. Then out here I learned the drum machine, the keyboard and just started teaching myself how to make music and produce. DJing really developed my ear to hear which sounds that people responded to. So it was an important tool in terms of me as a producer and musician.

MN: What’s the process of making a song?
Rich: The way we usually work is I do the music, lay the track down. Then Nikki comes, hears that and it inspires her to write the lyrics. Then we sit down and tweak it, sometimes we don’t.

Calling all poetry readers, listeners, and writers…have you ever heard a poem so deep that it gave you chills? Hasn’t the spoken art cut directly into your soul? Weren’t you impacted by its portrayal of love, happiness, and desperation? Music reverberates every emotion there is – even the frustration of putting pen to paper.

We love poets so much that we’ve decided to showcase lyrical geniuses who changed the poetry circuit for good!

Check them out:

It’s been a while since we’ve seen Natalie “Floacist” Stewart formerly of London/Philly soul duo Floetry, but today she has a new album (“Floetic Soul”), a new look and a new tour in the works. Check out what the Floacist told Madame Noire about her single with Musiq, her reason for leaving Floetry and what the heck she’s been up to for the past four years.