Life often presents us with tests and trials just to bring us full circle to meet our destiny. It is within these tests and trials that we form our testimony and discover our life’s purpose. 23-year-old Cameroonian-born, Atlanta-based singer/ rapper/ songwriter Lorine Chia may have taken the long and winding road to her luminous destiny. But soon the world will know her name upon the release of her eclectic and highly anticipated EP Sweet Noise, produced by Rami Beatz (Kid Cudi, Big Sean, Juicy J). Her deep, velveteen vocals have been praised by the likes of Complex, Fader, and Billboard, while Pitchfork describes her as “plucked straight from a different era, but…ultra-contemporary. It’s apparent that before all’s said and done, Lorine Chia will be one of the most vaunted artists of 2016. Born in the West African country of Cameroon, Lorine Chia was reared in an environment that instilled the importance of survival skills early on. “Being a child there, you’re raised so much quicker,” she recalls. “Because the main focus is survival and making sure you’re independent. Every morning, you’d have to get up and walk two miles to school.” Spending her early years in Cameroon informed Lorine with a strong sense of self sufficiency and determination that would prove integral in her future. Lorine discovered her love for music through artists such as Coldplay, John Legend, The Cool Kids, and Kanye West. They inspired her to pick up her guitar at 15. In teaching herself to play, she unlocked another door to her creative genius. “That right there started everything,” she reveals. “When I started paying guitar, I found a way to piece together my music. That’s when I started writing actual songs because I found some type of sound to go along with those words I had been writing all along. Then on top of that people actually loved what I’d put together.” With the overwhelmingly positive response to her performance, Lorine had gained the confidence to move full speed ahead with her nascent musical inclinations. Lorine soon began recording rough drafts of songs and posting them to her various social media platforms, using the positive feedback as affirmation that she was indeed on the right track. Entering her first recording studio at the age of 17, she recorded a trio of tunes that further confirmed that she was headed in the right direction. “People were blown,” she gleams. “I recorded like three songs that summer. They were a mixture of singing and rapping. It was another way of getting out my thoughts and everybody thought it was so cool.” And even when Lorine entered college, music was always at the forefront of her agenda. It was there where she’d recorded a song that would enable her to form an alliance with a producer in Cleveland. The result was her breathtaking debut album Lorine. Released in 2012, Lorine was an 11 track introduction of a musical ingénue on the cusp of spreading her wings. “That was me going through a rough point in life where I was trying to figure out what I was going to do,” she reveals. “It was full of things that I was feeling at the time. I was heartbroken, I didn’t believe in promises, I was shattered, I felt like I was falling down. But as the year went on, I found that music was very therapeutic.” In response to her debut, Complex remarked that Lorine possessed a “very unique voice that reminds many of Amy Winehouse and makes her project a great listen.” And while the album’s inception was rooted in the aforementioned trials, it yielded gems of affirmation and encouragement that set her light years apart from her peers. “It was a new sound,” Lorine clarifies. “No one had ever heard that much positivity from a young Black woman from my generation.” Amidst the glowing reviews and bountiful press surrounding the album, Lorine also found herself at the center of a fervent major label bidding war. Interestingly enough, a monster release by one of hip-hop’s most influential figures also had most people thinking she’d landed the guest feature of a lifetime. “Blood On The Leaves,” a track from Kanye West’s genre-bending 2013 opus Yeezus, featured a Nina Simone sample that bore a resemblance to Lorine’s unique vocal style and texture. Though Lorine didn’t collaborate with West, the case of mistaken identity segued into a windfall of attention for Naked Truth. Fader Magazine wrote a sparkling feature story on Lorine in their issue 90, remarking that they were “so hooked on” Naked Truth. That same year, Lorine was dubbed Artist Of The Week by Coca-Cola. Describing her as “sassy and soulful” and “as star for the future,” she was the subject of a feature story on Coca-Cola’s website. In 2015, Lorine landed a placement with Def Jam recording artist Jeezy. The song, “Sweet Life” ended up being his second single featuring Janelle Monae. Lorine was later seen on CBS’ The Late Late Show singing side the tune alongside Jeezy. As the New Year sets in her sights are set on converting her past tribulations into triumph, starting with her new Album titled “Sweet Noise.” While she’s aware of the rivers she’s had to cross and the struggles she’s overcome, she has gained clarity about their divine purpose and inherent value. And now more than ever, she understands that they’re responsible for the radiant star she’s bound to evolve into. “God has only put me through it to get me here and get me prepared,” she notes. “My experiences gave me the ability to keep it real all the time. That’s how my music is. There’s nothing but honesty. I’ve had people tell me that when they listen to my songs, it feels like someone understands them. Or that my words changed the