* En anglais uniquement
Carlitta Durand is a progressive R&B singer and songwriter who established her career in the latter half of the 2000s as an affiliate of fellow North Carolinians
Little Brother. Her two solo albums, I'll Be Gorgeous When I Die (2015) and Kismet Green (2020), have synthesized modern soul and downtempo electronica with a dreamlike sound belying
Durand's down-to-earth lyricism.
Born in Minneapolis the year city native
Prince released
Purple Rain,
Durand cites the sounds of that blockbuster album as one of her earliest musical memories. She started singing during early childhood. In her early teens -- following a move to Durham, North Carolina -- she was in a church choir with her parents and siblings. While she was in the process of earning a bachelor's degree in theatre performance from North Carolina Central University, she met
Phonte and Big Pooh of
Little Brother when the duo needed a hook for "Life of the Party," a track that appeared on the 2006 compilation The Hall of Justus: Soldiers of Fortune. This led to more studio time with
Little Brother. Additionally, she was in the NCCU hip-hop class taught by group founding member
9th Wonder. By the turn of the decade,
Durand had appeared on numerous
Little Brother and
9th Wonder projects, plus songs by the likes of
Tanya Morgan,
Skyzoo, and
Nicolay and
Zo!, the latter two being among
Phonte's closest associates.
Durand also teamed with Vaughn Garcia for The Doug and Patty EP.
Well into the next decade,
Durand continued her affiliation with the
Justus League collective. Moreover, she made regular contributions to albums by
Zo!,
Phonte, and
the Foreign Exchange, the group led by
Phonte and
Nicolay. After
Durand was featured on the Foreign Exchange Music releases
SunStorm,
Charity Starts at Home, and
ManMade, she made her solo full-length debut in 2015 with the self-released I'll Be Gorgeous When I Die. Later in the year,
the Foreign Exchange issued their second album with
Durand's involvement,
Tales from the Land of Milk and Honey.
Durand then took a lengthy hiatus from music and returned in 2020 with Kismet Green, her second album as an independent solo artist. ~ Andy Kellman