Niykee Heaton Offers Bad Intentions

BAD INTENTIONS, NIYKEE HEATON’S DEBUT EP, IS OUT TODAY ON STEVE RIFKIND & RUSSELL SIMMONS’ ALL DEF MUSIC IN PARTNERSHIP WITH CAPITOL RECORDS

LYRIC VIDEO FOR “BAD INTENTIONS” HAS NEARLY 2 MILLION VIEWS WHILE HEATON’S TOTAL YOUTUBE VIEWS EXCEED 21 MILLION

Bad Intentions, the debut EP from 19-year-old Niykee Heaton, is out today on All Def Music in partnership with Capitol Records and available on iTunes now. The EP, which features six tracks penned by Heaton, had its world premiere yesterday on Complex.com. The smoldering focus track, “Bad Intentions,” was recently the “Single of the Week” on the ADD52 X Milk Music platform and the accompanying lyric video already has nearly two million views.

All Def Music is the label created by Russell Simmons and Steve Rifkind to sign, develop and promote artists on YouTube. Heaton began writing music as a way of dealing with the pain of her past and childhood. She and her longtime manager had been shopping for a record label and – after discussions with Rifkind – decided All Def Music was the right fit.

Heaton was born and raised in Chicago, IL, although she spent part of her youth in South Africa, where her mother is originally from. Niykee wrote her first song at age five and had taught herself to play guitar by the time she was nine. Since her family couldn’t financially support her musical education, Niykee gave herself vocal training by singing along to a Diana Ross greatest-hits CD. Heaton spent nearly every moment outside of school creating and sharing original songs that showed off her soulful vocals and powerful lyrics plus numerous cover songs – and built a staggering social media presence in the process. Heaton’s videos have more than 21 million cumulative views on YouTube and she has a substantial following on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Tumblr. Snoop Dogg hand-picked Niykee to accompany him onstage at the May 2013 YouTube Brandcast, BuzzFeed called her “your new YouTube crush” and Complex said, “If you don’t follow Niykee Heaton on Instagram you probably should.”

“I realized early on that the only way to make my voice heard and say what I wanted to was through music,” says Niykee, who struggled with bullying throughout her school years. “It was less like a hobby for me and more like a means of survival.”

She attributes her natural sense of rhythm to her South African roots and passion for hip-hop, yet also drew inspiration from the bare-bones authenticity of singer-songwriters like Bob Dylan and Tom Waits (two artists beloved by her sister and older brother). On the day before her 18th birthday – shortly after she’d ditched the pop covers and started posting her acoustic takes on tracks by hip-hop artists that she loved – WorldstarHipHop picked up Heaton’s acoustic-guitar-based rendition of Chief Keef’s “Love Sosa” and Niykee soon found herself fielding interest from a flood of record labels. Instead of aligning herself with a label right away, she graduated high school six months early and self-financed the recording of a host of her own songs, eventually signing with All Def Music.

To learn more about Niykee Heaton, visit
www.alldefdigital.com
www.youtube.com/niykeeheaton
www.facebook.com/niykeeheaton
www.instagram.com/niykeeheaton
www.twitter.com/niykeeheaton