Niykee Heaton

After writing her first song at age 5 and teaching herself to play guitar at 9, Niykee Heaton dedicated her entire childhood and high school years to making music. With her songwriting giving her an outlet and escape from her troubled home life, Niykee spent nearly every moment outside of school creating and sharing original songs that showed off her soulful vocals and powerful lyrics. Fast gaining a massive following after WorldstarHipHop picked up her acoustic-guitar-based rendition of Chief Keef’s “Love Sosa” in December 2012, the 19-year-old Illinois native is set to deliver a debut from Steve Rifkind and Russell Simmons’ All Def Music in partnership with Capitol Records, revealing her timeless sense of songcraft, intuitive grasp of beats, and a lyrical sensibility that fuses poetic finesse with pure emotion.

In her early teens, Niykee began posting pop covers on YouTube while continuing to cultivate her songwriting.

Having promised her sister that she’d make an impact with her songs, Niykee told her parents that she’d put songwriting aside and go to college if her music career hadn’t made any major strides by the time she turned 18. Then, the day before her 18th birthday—and shortly after she’d ditched the pop covers and started posting her acoustic takes on tracks by hip-hop artists like Chief Keef, A$AP Rocky, Lil Wayne and Pusha T—Niykee wound up on WorldstarHipHop and 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 Steve Rifkind and Russell Simmons’ All Def Music and setting to work on her debut EP.

With her personal highlights so far including getting hand-picked by Snoop Dogg to accompany him onstage at the YouTube Brandcast in May 2013, Niykee has kept up a steady songwriting routine despite the whirlwind of recent years. Now a magnet for up-and-coming producers, she constantly combs through beats sent her way and finds that many end up sparking song ideas.

As she continues develop as a lyricist, Niykee notes that the pain of her past serves as an endless source of unlikely inspiration.