Kinnie Starr was not being groomed for stardom as a toddler or teen. There were no talent shows, no girl groups, and certainly no record contracts by age 16.... no, as a child Kinnie Starr was being raised to think for herself. In 1991, Starr began writing songs and teaching herself guitar, yet years earlier, she had fallen in love with her brother's drum kit. She later formed BKLounge (an ode to 'de la soul is dead'), her first fledgling band, in Victoria, BC, but local success encouraged Starr to take her visual and musical skills to the nearest urban center; Vancouver, BC. Her writing began leaning hard on the poetry and hip-hop side. Though the hip-hop and spoken word scene was not nearly as developed as the nuyorican east coast scene, Starr began performing as a solo act regularly. She is "... an artist with vision and something really important to say... [she is] hypnotic and entrancing, with serious rhyming skills, boundless amounts of creativity, intellect, originality and powerful poetry." (rock 'n roll reporter, Philadelphia).
In 1996 Starr released her debut CD, 'Tidy...'. The success of the release led to Starr's signing with Mercury Records. After signing with Mercury, Starr recorded 'Mending' while touring England, Germany, Canada, NYC, San Francisco, Washington and LA. Meanwhile, Mercury was merging into Universal/Island/Defjam. The new infrastructure was in a precarious state of transition and the label was in no position to develop a trilingual artist. Neither black nor white, not hip-hop or folk or rock, Kinnie had made a trilingual, genre-defying album that Island/Defjam simply did not get. Frustrated by the company's ever-hesitant climate, Starr asked to be released from her contract and the label obliged. Starr later released her second CD, 'Tune-Up', which landed her record contracts in Japan, and later, Australia. 'Sun Again', Starr's third CD and first all-English album, was released in March, 2003.
Indican Pictures
