Brick & Lace, Akon's first artists to sign with his label Konvict/Geffen, are set to release their debut album in May 2007 featuring production from Akon, Tony Kelly, Raphael Saadiq, and Will.I.Am.



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Part urban singers and part urbane songstresses, sibling duo Brick & Lace are genre-busters who staunchly defy the 30-second pitch. The amalgamated sound that makes up their 180/Geffen debut, Love Is Wicked, is unique, though also at once very familiar.

Born to a Jamaican father and an American mother and raised predominantly in Kingston, Jamaica, on an opulent musical diet of reggae, R&B, hip hop, pop and country, 26-year-old Nyanda and 24-year-old Nailah Thorbourne couldn’t help but be trans-eclectic. “We are a hybrid,” affirms Nailah in her effortlessly sexy West-Indian lilt. “It’s not fabricated at all; it’s who we are.”

Indeed, who they are is evident in their moniker: “Our mother came up with the name ‘Lace’ and we immediately liked it,” explains the incisively passionate Nyanda. “But we still felt that there was an edge missing, so I came up with ‘Brick.’ It has stuck with us ever since and has evolved with us.”