Over two years ago, Niykee Heaton was just about to graduate from high school, working a job at Ace Hardware, and in her spare time, she was spending hours recording her acoustic covers of hip-hop's biggest songs from her Chi-town bedroom. Everything changed after her "Love Sosa" cover video hit WorldStarHipHop. We interviewed her immediately afterwards, right before one of her shifts at the store, but these days, she's working on her debut album and signed to Steve Rifkind and Russell Simmons’ All Def Music in partnership with Capitol Records.
She just released her debut EP Bad Intentions last week and the day it dropped, she stopped by Complex to detail the project, moving from cover songs to writing original hits, and working with both Simmons and Rifkind. She also explained her fascination with WorldStarHipHop and how to set the perfect thirst trap—if you haven't checked out her Instagram, you're missing out.
