Kilo Kish is a left-field pop artist who has recorded with
the Jet Age of Tomorrow,
the Internet,
Vince Staples,
Childish Gambino, and
Chet Faker, among others. In 2012, she issued her first material as a solo artist with the Homeschool EP, with her debut full-length, Reflections in Real Time, following in 2016.
Born Lakisha Robinson in Orlando, Florida, she spent part of her childhood in New Jersey prior to returning to Orlando and was briefly in a pop group called D'Angelz. She moved to New York, attended the Pratt Institute, and worked as a model and waiter. Led by the dreamy "Navy,"
Kilo Kish's first EP, Homeschool, was self-released in April 2012. A couple years later, after assorted collaborative work, she connected with the music wing of French fashion label Kitsuné for Across, another EP of atmospheric, slackened R&B. In 2015, she appeared on
Etienne de Crécy's
Super Discount 3 and
Vince Staples'
Summertime '06. Reflections in Real Time, a sprawling and deeply personal album that flitted between fully developed songs and fragmentary interludes, followed in February 2016. As
Kish's exposure grew, she hopped onto 2017 tracks with
Gorillaz ("Out of Body") and
Staples (on his
Big Fish Theory). Her fourth EP,
mothe, arrived in 2018, featuring the buzzing single "Elegance." In December 2019, another EP materialized, the five-song release
Redux, created in collaboration with producer
Ray Brady. ~ Andy Kellman