Guilt Junkie
Vinia Mojica
12″ Single, 2003
Vinia Mojica is the unsung Queen of Hip Hop Melody. If you don’t know that you know her…you know her. De La Soul’s “A Roller Skating Jam Named “Saturdays’” is probably her best known guest spot (”five days of work, one whole day to play…”) although it’s far from her best. She has appeared on about 30 albums over the last 15 years, many of which are listed on her myspace page. Her two duets with Mos Def (”Climb” from Mos’ Black on Both Sides album and “Get Ta Steppin’” from Hi-Tek’s Hi-Teknology album) are my two favorites. I didn’t post those because they’re readily available (please seek them out!). This track is similarly dark (great late-night listening) but is much lesser known and is — and I could totally be wrong about this — the only solo track she’s ever released (there’s a B Side as well). I’ve read that she had a record deal with Warner Brothers in the 90’s that never yielded an album - if someone has some of those tracks - let me know!
>> songs are available for two weeks [5.5 MB]
June 19th, 2006 at 1:19 pm
She totally should have put on an album. I was hoping for a Europe/Asia only release, but not even that happened. Perhaps the timing wasn’t right, although artists like India.Arie, Badu, Jill Scott, Angie Stone, and Amel Larrieux, have all succeeded in getting themselves out there.
June 22nd, 2006 at 4:40 pm
re: “getting themselves out there” — i am a firm believer in people being responsible for the successes and failures (or at least that being the best way to approach your work/life) but after working at a major label, i know that luck and bad politics are a bigger part of getting an album out than most people imagine and i don’t blame her for not playing the game (if that’s what happened). i do wish she put out an album independently though!