BIGSONG:
Mercurial Savannah, Georgia-based singer/songwriter/musician Kortney “Mali Music” Pollard builds richly detailed, emotionally present neo-soul/hip-hop confections in the vein of Lauryn Hill, D’Angelo, and Bilal, on a foundation of conventional gospel music. Although he began recording in the late 2000s, it wasn’t until 2014 that he broke through to mainstream success with the Grammy-nominated Mali Is…. Pollard’s 2017 follow-up The Transition of Mali added a clutch of further hits to his catalog. Following a Grammy win for “Movin’ On,” his 2020 duet with Jonathan McReynolds, the two musicians released a 2021 EP together. Pollard was born on January 12, 1988 in Phoenix, Arizona. A multi-instrumentalist since the age of five, Pollard, who counts Sam Cooke and Otis Redding as influences, issued the inspirational Coming, his debut album, in 2008. The well-received, bold, narrative-driven 2econd Coming arrived the following year, resulting in a major-label record deal with RCA, who issued the singles “Ready Aim” and “Beautiful” in 2013 in anticipation of his upcoming third long-player, Mali Is…, which dropped in early 2014. It proved to be a breakout release for Pollard, reaching number 16 on the Billboard 200 and earning a Grammy Award nomination for Best Urban Contemporary Album. Although his next album, 2017’s The Transition of Mali, didn’t fare quite as well, it still enjoyed success on multiple charts and yielded some of his most popular tracks including the Jhene Aiko duet “Contradiction” and “Loved By You” featuring Jazmine Sullivan. After switching from RCA to the Provident label, Mali Music released his fifth album, The Book of Mali, in August 2020. That same year he joined Jonathan McReynolds on the single “Movin’ On,” which went on to win a Grammy Award for Best Gospel Performance/Song. The two artists teamed up again in 2021 for the joint EP Jonny x Mali: Live in LA.
