Nao

Nao is one of the most distinctive modern R&B singers, a jazz-trained soprano whose hallmark fluttering upper register is complemented with a sneaky-smooth lower register. She was content to remain in the background and teach singing until the mid-2010s, when she and fellow producers such as GRADES, LOXE, and A.K. Paul began to cook up a mix of airy ballads and off-center grooves that sounded progressive and accessible yet willfully out of step with commercial sounds. Terming her hybrid sound "wonky funk," she gained a foothold in 2015 with a pair of well-received EPs and a fe...