Lila’s star-studded virtual ‘ExPerience’

Social distancing didn’t stop Lila Ike from gathering thousands of fans, along with some of the top names in the music game, to her Instagram Live event, preceding the release of her debut project, The ExPerience. Settled in the hillside ‘Habitat’, the In.Digg.Nation’s home base, the singer virtually invited her fans in to listen and rock to the previewed new tunes.

The fanfare heralding The ExPerience carried on for a little over an hour, pulling tens of thousands of viewers. Among them were some celebrity guests like the recently trimmed dancehall star Popcaan, a well-dressed Tessellated, Grammy Kid Koffee sporting sky blue headphones, the In.Digg.Nation leader Protoje and international hip-hop producer and art aficionado Swizz Beatz.

The seven-track EP, released via RCA Records in conjunction with Six Course Records and In.Digg.Nation Collective, features previously released singles Where I’m Coming From, produced by Kasadie ‘Caspa’ Jones, and Second Chance, on a reinvented version of Dennis Brown’s Promised Land, produced by Alfred Simpson. Also part of the collection is the recently released I Spy, produced by Izy Beats.

VERSATILITY

Recalling these previous releases, reggae and reggaeton sounds come to mind immediately. However, The ExPerience offers a soundscape that makes room for much more. With tracks like Solitude, produced by Ziah, JLL and Iotosh, and Forget Me, produced by Winta James, Lila shows off her versatility as she dips into soulful slurs coloured by sultry R&B tones.

According to Lila, this debut project “is an experience of me, showing my versatility and the different tones, values and vibes of a woman. This is a mixture of songs influenced by reggae, but it does not define the sound. It has trap dancehall on Where I’m Coming From, and soulful vibes on Forget Me. It is a beautiful time for this kind of music to come from Jamaica. We are showing people there is no linear way of anything.”

kimberley.small@gleanerjm.com