Lady Wray - "Melody (feat. Melody Bloom Bacote)" from the 2021 album Piece of Me on Big Crown Records.

Nicole Wray’s musical career is a long and winding one, with a series of highs like collaborating with Missy Elliot and then getting signed to her label, a certified gold single with 1998’s “Make It Hot,” and doing background vocals for The Black Keys and Lee Fields. Her lows, on the other hand, were devastating. A series of re-signings to various labels from Goldmind to Roc-A-Fella to Def Jam to Dame Dash Music Group led to album pushback after album pushback, stalling her career in a massive way. In truth, she should’ve been an R&B superstar.

Thankfully, Wray didn’t give up because her latest record under the name Lady Wray, January’s Piece of Me, is a brilliant blend of soul, R&B and hip hop that feels like an instant classic. Our Song of the Day, “Melody,” is a touching ode to the profound love she’s come to feel from her daughter. A stripped-down guitar ballad, Wray exudes raw emotion over the finger-picked melody. The voice of her daughter sweetly asking, “Is that a star?’ comingles with her sometimes strained, cracked voice for a moment that feels intimate and very real.

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