• Celebrity
    • Of The Essence
    • Celebrity News
    • If Not For My Girls
    • The State Of R&B
    • Time Of Essence
  • Fashion
    • 2023 Best In Black Fashion Awards
    • 2023 Fashion House
    • Red Carpet
    • Fashion News
    • Accessories
  • Beauty
    • Girls United: Beautiful Possibilities
    • 2023 Best In Black Beauty
    • Skin
    • Makeup
    • Nails
    • Hair
  • Lifestyle
    • Love
    • Parenting
    • Relationships
    • Bridal Bliss
    • Lifestyle News
    • Health & Wellness
    • ESSENCE Eats
    • Travel
    • Food & Drink
  • Entrepreneurship
    • Money & Career
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Paint The Polls Black
    • Culture
    • Politics
  • Shopping
  • Video
  • Events
    • 2023 Fashion House
    • 2023 ESSENCE Festival Of Culture
    • 2023 Wellness House
    • 2023 Black Women In Hollywood
    • 2023 ESSENCE Film Festival
    • 2023 HOLLYWOOD HOUSE
  • Studios
  • Girls United

WHERE BLACK CULTURE, COMMUNITY AND CONSCIOUSNESS MEET

Sign up for ESSENCE Newsletters the keep the Black women at the forefront of conversation.

Your email is required.
Your email is in invalid format.
Confirm email is required.
Email did not match.
Select the newsletters you'd like to receive:
Please select at least one option.
By clicking Subscribe Now, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Skip to content
SUBSCRIBE
  • MAGAZINE
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Celebrity
    • Of The Essence
    • Celebrity News
    • If Not For My Girls
    • The State Of R&B
    • Time Of Essence
  • Fashion
    • 2023 Best In Black Fashion Awards
    • 2023 Fashion House
    • Red Carpet
    • Fashion News
    • Accessories
  • Beauty
    • Girls United: Beautiful Possibilities
    • 2023 Best In Black Beauty
    • Skin
    • Makeup
    • Nails
    • Hair
      • Hair News
      • Natural
      • Relaxed
      • Transitioning
      • Weave
      • 4C
  • Lifestyle
    • Love
    • Parenting
    • Relationships
    • Bridal Bliss
    • Lifestyle News
    • Health & Wellness
    • ESSENCE Eats
    • Travel
    • Food & Drink
  • Entrepreneurship
    • Money & Career
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Paint The Polls Black
    • Culture
    • Politics
  • Shopping
  • Video
  • Events
    • 2023 Fashion House
    • 2023 ESSENCE Festival Of Culture
    • 2023 Wellness House
    • 2023 Black Women In Hollywood
    • 2023 ESSENCE Film Festival
    • 2023 HOLLYWOOD HOUSE
  • Studios
  • Girls United
Home · Entertainment

New & Next: Troi Irons Is Making Music For Girls Who Look Like Her

Influenced by an eclectic mix of artists, Troi is blending genres to create her own lane in music.
New & Next: Troi Irons Is Making Music For Girls Who Look Like Her
Def Jam
By Sydney Scott · Updated October 26, 2020

If you were a teen during the early 00s, then you probably remember how insane music was. 

The early-00s featured a myriad of genres and unexpected hit singles racing up the charts. Groups like B2K dropped seductive bangers, Timbaland and Nelly Furtado’s “Promiscuous” was in everyone’s head, and rock and indie bands were everywhere.

Unfortunately, if you were a fan of the latter, Black artists in mainstream rock and indie music were nearly non-existent. TV on the Radio and Lenny Kravitz had hits, and Kimya Dawson and Fefe Dobson had very brief moments. Thankfully, today that’s changed as Black artists like Brittany Howard of the Alabama Shakes, Gary Clark Jr., and Bayli, Reef, and Kaya McKeithan of New York’s The Skins become more and more popular.

Troi Irons is the latest addition. Like artists in other genres — Lil Uzi Vert, Kelela, NAO — Troi has blended influences to create her own sound. 

Speaking with ESSENCE, the singer rattles off bands and artists like Evanescence, System of a Down, and Sufjan Stevens as influences, recognizing one issue, “No one looked like me.”

And, like any Black person who doesn’t fit stereotypical ideas of blackness, Troi regularly dealt with comments like, “Oh, you’re so white.”

“They were just ignorant. But there’s a level of not knowing, like, yeah, Lenny Kravitz, you know. Jimi Hendrix, the founder of distortion, before the Beatles used distortion. The Beatles covered a lot of Chuck Berry’s songs. I’m not listening to white music and doing white things. There’s a cross pollination. It’s just an ignorant, a lack of knowledge, on influences.”

You can hear those influences in Troi’s latest EP Turbulence, which includes the track “Today.”

“I was in a crap mood when I wrote the song. I was talking to another artist about this, but the way that you see your own work transforms with time. Your song is like a year ahead of you because it’s like REM, when you’re in REM and you’re dreaming, writing the songs is the same way for me. I reach something that I haven’t reached in my conscious yet. Then a year later, I figure out what it means.”

So, a year later, Troi dropped a video for the single, which includes butterflies and transformation. 

“I realized that it wasn’t much just me moping. It was about transformation and me actually venting this, exercising this stuff so that I could get to the other side.”

Up next for the singer is a video for her song “Call Me” and, hopefully, a chance to hit the road. 

“I feel like now is the time for me to really go on the road and engage with people one-on-one because I feel like a lot of people online have heard the project. We’ve really only played seven, eight shows at this point. I’m trying to play 100 at least. My plan is to go on the road and then release another single that’s not on the EP, release a new song in maybe three months, then gauge around that. Maybe drop a new song in three months. Then release the album.”

She adds about performing, “It’s fun for me because being in the middle of music is really the only thing that matters.”

TOPICS:  New and Next
COMPANY INFORMATION
  • Our Company
  • Customer Service
  • Essence Ventures
  • Change Your Address
  • Contact Us
  • Job Opportunities
  • Internships
  • Media Kit
  • tag
SUBSCRIBE
  • Newsletters
  • Give a Gift of ESSENCE
  • Magazine Tablet Edition
FOLLOW US
MORE ON ESSENCE
  • Home
  • Love
  • Celebrity
  • Beauty
  • Hair
  • Fashion
  • ESSENCE festival

ESSENCE.com is part of ESSENCE Communications, Inc.

Essence may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.

©2023 ESSENCE Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Essence.com Advertising Terms

Get The ESSENCE Newsletter and
Special Offers delivered to your inbox

By clicking Sign Up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Get The ESSENCE Magazine
by subscribing below
subscribe now