electronic

DRAMA

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Chicago duo pairing Via Rosa's aching vocals with Na'el Shehade's production — dance music built for heartbreak rather than euphoria.

Via Rosa was born in Austin, Texas, and raised on an Indian reservation in northern California, touring as a child with her parents' reggae band. She began writing poetry as a teenager and later paired it with beats of her own making. After a stint at culinary school in Hollywood, she moved to Chicago in 2010, joined the hip-hop collective THEMPeople, and released solo material for several years before meeting Shehade.

Na'el Shehade grew up in Chicago, DJing at clothing shops and record stores as a teenager and absorbing the city's house and electronic scenes before he started producing music of his own. Early credits included work with Chance the Rapper, Kanye West, Chief Keef and Vic Mensa. Nicolas Jaar later encouraged him to release music under his own name rather than only producing for others.

The two were introduced in 2013 by singer Jean Deaux and began collaborating informally before forming Drama proper. Their debut single, Hopes Up, appeared in 2015, followed by Forever's Gone; the debut EP Gallows arrived in November 2016, its title borrowed from gallows humor and its songs reflecting on painful experiences with a certain lightness.

Drama followed with the Lies After Love EP in 2018, built around the affirmations and lies people tell themselves to get over heartbreak, and released its debut full-length album, Dance Without Me, in February 2020. Later EPs and albums have kept the pairing of Rosa's confessional writing with Shehade's house-leaning, R&B-inflected production.

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electronic