A Brooklyn band that mixed soulful vocals with reggae rhythms before tragedy cut their story short.
For a sense of their sound, try 'Always On My Mind' or 'My Grade', they're the kind of songs that feel lived-in, not just performed.
Da'Ville's music holds up because it's a specific, late-2000s New York sound, R&B smoothed out with reggae basslines and earnest lyrics about love. Songs like 'Always On My Mind' and 'My Grade' have a straightforward, heartfelt quality that still connects. Their story, marked by a label drop and a sudden loss, gives those tracks a quieter weight.
They formed in Brooklyn in 2003 and put out two albums, 'Da'Ville' in 2005 and 'Back to the Future' in 2008. After Def Jam dropped them in 2007, members drifted away, and the band broke up in 2010. A reunion with a different lineup in 2012 ended after co-founder Benny Ashburne was killed in Atlanta in 2014.
Keep it compact: a lyric you come back to, a live memory, or the part of the catalog you would point someone toward first.
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