Imani Coppola

Imani Francesca Coppola (born April 6, 1978) is an American singer-songwriter and violinist. Her debut single "Legend of a Cowgirl" reached the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart in 1997. Her debut album, Chupacabra, released by Columbia Records, was praised by critics and appeared on the US Heatseekers Albums chart. In 2001, Coppola appeared as a guest artist on the Baha Men single "You All Dat", which broke the top 10 in Australia and gave Coppola her second entry on the Billboard Hot 100 to date. Coppola released several independently recorded albums in the early 2000s and starred in the musical film The Singing Biologist, for which she also wrote the music. In 2007, she was signed to Ipecac Records, and the same year released The Black & White Album, which received favorable reviews from music critics and marked a comeback for Coppola. The following year, she formed the pop/R&B duo Little Jackie with programmer Adam Pallin. Their debut single, "The World Should Revolve Around Me", reached the top 40 in the United Kingdom and Ireland, was used as the theme for the VH1 reality TV series New York Goes to Hollywood, and peaked at number 90 on the Billboard Pop 100 airplay chart. The duo's debut album, The Stoop, was released by S-Curve in 2008, but peaked outside of the top 100 in the United Kingdom, and the duo were dropped from the label. Following The Stoop, Coppola released two more solo records: The Glass Wall, in 2012, and Hypocrites, in 2017. In addition to her solo work, Coppola has recorded two further albums as part of Little Jackie: Made4TV, in 2011, and Queen of Prospect Park, in 2014. Coppola grew up as the second-youngest of five children on Long Island, New York. Coppola's lower-income family, headed by an African-American mother and Italian father, did not fit in, and she and her family were picked on. Her circumstances encouraged her independence and also her creativity, as her family, who received welfare, had little money to pay for entertainment. Her mother, a teacher, was the primary income earner, while her carpenter father was often out of work and refused to earn an income from his art. Coppola grew up surrounded by music, as her father is a jazz musician, her mother plays bass, and all of her siblings are musicians as well. She recalled, in an interview with Amplifier magazine, that her first musical memory is of her father, who was her biggest musical influence, playing the song "Bessie's Blues" "on a severely out of tune piano". She began playing violin at the age of six, eventually studying studio composition at the State University of New York at Purchase. She was not happy and left after one year. During her time at college, Coppola made some demos and played them to music publisher Ross Elliot, the boyfriend of her older sister Maya. Elliot connected Coppola with producer Michael Mangini, known for his work with Digable Planets. While still in college, Coppola cut three demo tracks with Digable Planets that resulted in a bidding war for the artist among other labels. Coppola accepted a recording contract with Columbia Records in 1997. In 1997, Coppola released her debut single, "Legend of a Cowgirl". The song entered the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 within weeks of its release, eventually peaking at number 36 and spending a total of 20 weeks in the top 100. The single also achieved some success internationally, peaking within the top 40 in New Zealand and the United Kingdom and also charting in Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands. The song's accompanying music video became a hit as well, going into rotation on MTV and earning a nomination at the 1998 Billboard Music Video Awards, in the category of Best New Artist Clip: Pop. (The video eventually lost to Natalie Imbrulia's "Torn".) Coppola's debut album, Chupacabra, was released in October 1997. The album elicited rave reviews from music critics, who favorably compared Coppola's music to that of De La Soul and Neneh Cherry. The album achieved a peak of number 47 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart dated January 17, 1998, three months after the album's release. it spent a total of one week on the chart. The album also charted in the UK, where it peaked at number 138 on the UK Albums Chart. The album spawned a second single, "I'm a Tree", which samples The Doors' "Soul Kitchen". The song was unsuccessful, peaking only in Australia, where it reached number 201. That year, Coppola played Lilith Fair, although she was vocal about her opinion of Lilith founder Sarah McLachlan before the tour, indicating that she felt McLachlan was "boring to watch live". Coppola remarked that "I think she's a good songwriter, at times, and singer. She's boring to watch live, though." Columbia Records dropped her in 2000, subsequently shelving her second studio album, Come and Get Me... What?! Coppola had been frustrated that the label wanted her to sample other artists when she wanted to compose her music entirely by herself. Then 22, Coppola felt she needed to learn considerably more about music and art. Never having performed beyond high school musical theater, Coppola felt she had achieved success too easily, without truly working for it. In 2001, she was featured on a single by the Baha Men, titled "You All Dat". The song, which was produced by Michael Mangini (who had previously produced Coppola's debut album), was successful upon its release, becoming a top 10 hit in Australia, where it peaked at number 8, giving Coppola her first top 10 hit in that region; it achieved a peak of 21 in New Zealand. In the United States, the song entered the Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at number 94. It became Coppola's last US chart entry as a solo artist. The single also achieved success throughout Europe: it became a top 40 hit on the UK Singles Chart, where it achieved a peak of number 14, and on the Irish Singles Chart, on which it peaked at number 26. The song also charted in Austria, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland. Without a major label behind her, Coppola started recording music at home in 2001; that same year, Coppola was part of the band supporting Sandra Bernhard in her off-Broadway production of The Love Machine. During this time, Coppola also starred in a movie, The Singing Biologist, playing Rose, the titular character. In 2004, Coppola released Afrodite, a neo-funk record that Vibe retrospectively deemed "excellent". By 2004, Coppola was playing acoustic guitar in small clubs like Forum in New York City with her drummer Alex Elana, in the Two Shadow Posse. These performances were not well-attended, and Coppola hated performing them. During this time period, Coppola fell into poverty and was forced to move to Staten Island. In 2005, she launched her own website and opened an online music store where she sold her independent albums; she decorated and packaged each copy of the album by hand. In that year, she also co-wrote the title track on Maia Sharp's Fine Upstanding Citizen, which Out Magazine deemed the album's strongest track. The following year, she contributed a song, titled "Woodstock", to American vocalist Alice Russell's debut album, For Lovers, Dreamers, and Me. In May of that year, Coppola performed with Peeping Tom on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Subsequently, she went on tour with the band. In an interview with Erin Broadley in November 2007, Coppola indicated that she had enjoyed the experience of working with Patton and other artists, which she found artistically open. In 2007, Coppola was signed to Ipecac Recordings, which was started by Faith No More frontman Mike Patton. In November of that year, the label released Coppola's eighth studio album, The Black & White Album, her first "easily available release" since her debut album, released a decade before, according to AllMusic. Upon its release, the album received favorable reviews from music critics, earning a score of 75 out of 100 on review aggregate site Album of the Year.