Indie Music Universe

Nive Nielsen is an Inuit singer/songwriter from Greenland. Yup, North Pole! She is currently mixing her debut album "Nive Sings – as played by Nive Nielsen & The Deer Children." The result is nothing short of amazing, both in scope and vision. It's not every day we hear a record from the High North, let alone one with an all-star cast of indie music contributors including John Parish (who also produced the majority of the album), Howe Gelb & Giant Sand, Ralph Carney, and musicians from Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Evangelista, Clues/Unicorns, Black Keys, Eric Matthews and many others. Influences are as broad as Bessie Smith, Arthur Russell, Americana, old dusty 78s, Cat Power and Townes Van Zandt.  Arctic folk? Snow songs? Ukulele-wielding Eskimos? All of that and more. Do check it out!

Nive:

"I never aimed at making a record, let alone having other people hear my songs. I just got bored, my boyfriend gave me a uke, and songs started spilling out. They're very personal songs, heartfelt and simple and honest and basically just me. To actually record them, that was just a game, nothing serious at first. Just fun, yknow. Then we got into it, into the actual recording process. Jan started to focus on arranging what I was playing and singing -and things started to move, it became actual songs. And now, all of sudden, people are writing to me, asking for a record, wanting me to perform… it's real cool, but also kinda surreal. I 'm really really happy with the record – it took a while, cause we did everything ourselves, with no financial support -but it's here, and it's really good!

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Popularity: 18% [?]

Born into poverty to a single mother in Jamaica, Dwayne Whyte and his family moved to the Bronx, NY at the tender age of two in search of a better life.  With no father figure in his household, Dwayne witnessed his mother manage working excessive hours at multiple jobs to provide for his family.  In 1994, Dwayne and his mother moved to Baltimore, MD.  He found the mean streets at an early age, and became consumed by the life.  While his mother worked at night, he was roaming the street corners selling drugs and hustling anything he could get his hands on.  Once Dwayne's mother became aware of his new found hobby, she decided to move her family back to the Bronx to keep him from the Baltimore street life.

Turbulence

While back in the Bronx, Dwayne became even more drawn to the streets; this is where he found rap. What started out as free-styling for fun would eventually become the ground work for the artist now known as Graffix. Although his talents were unmistakable, Graffix did not take his craft seriously at first. In fact, Graffix did not start writing rhymes until his then favorite artist, 2pac was killed.  He felt that the hip hop scene was becoming too much of a cliché with gimmick songs being mistaken for real hip hop masterpieces.  At this point Graffix knew exactly what he wanted to do with his talent.  Unluckily for him, he faced another obstacle in life.  Graffix and his family became homeless and were forced to move from shelter to shelter in New York City.

At the age of eighteen, Graffix moved back to Baltimore on his own, to begin a new life.  He started working a regular 9 to 5 job and also began making music.  While Graffix juggled with work and rap, he still remained drawn to the streets.  As a result, he was arrested numerous times, although he managed to escape long term imprisonment.  Around the same period Graffix was introduced to Sluggerz Entertainment, LLC by a close friend.  He was asked to audition on the spot.  After he finished spitting some of his verses and freestyles, he was offered a contract the same day.

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Popularity: 20% [?]

We’ve just become the sister site of CD Universe, a major online retailer of music, movies, and games.  We’re planning for many exciting and significant developments over the next few months that will benefit both indie music fans and indie music artists/bands.  Our focus will still remain primarily on the fans, but we’ll also have many great opportunities for artists and bands to get major exposure and recognition.

We’ll keep you informed as things develop here at Indie Music Universe.  As usual, your feedback and suggestions are greatly appreciated and really do matter.  If there’s some feature or section you’d like to see on the site, let us know and we’ll explore the possibility.

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Popularity: 17% [?]