Imani Coppola

Early life and education

Coppola grew up as the second-youngest of five children in Long Island, New York. Coppola's lower-income family, headed by a black 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 brothers and sisters are musically inclined. She says 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, but during her time at Purchase, she made some demos and passed them on to her older sister Maya, who is a singer-songwriter in the music business. Maya gave them to her boyfriend, music publisher Ross Elliot, who got Coppola together with producer Michael Mangini at Digable Planets. While still in college, Coppola cut three demo tracks with Digable that resulted in a bidding war for the artist among other studios. Coppola accepted a recording contract with Columbia Records in 1997.

Columbia contract

Coppola's debut album, Chupacabra, was released in 1997. The album was critically well-reviewed in The New York Times, where Ann Powers described it as buoyed by "fanciful raps and supple vocals." Among the album's tracks, the song "Legend of a Cowgirl" became a video hit on MTV.

In 1998, 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". "I think she's a good songwriter, at times, and singer. She's boring to watch live, though," said Coppola. " In 2000, she teamed with the Baha Men for the European and Australian Top 10 hit "You All Dat".

Columbia Records dropped her in 2000, subsequently shelving her second studio album, Come and Get Me... What?!. Coppola had been frustrated by the music studio's desire for her to sample other artists when she wanted to compose her music entirely 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.

Independent career

Without a major label behind her, Coppola started recording music at home in 2001; also in 2001, Coppola was part of the band supporting Sandra Bernhard in her off-Broadway production of The Love Machine. She released two albums, Post Traumatic Pop Syndrome and Little Red Fighting Mood the following year through independent distribution. During this time, Coppola also starred in the movie The Singing Biologist playing a smart and witty New York cafe singer looking for something new to bring to her band. 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. According to Coppola, these events were not well-attended, and she hated performing at them.

In 2005, she launched her own website (created by a fan) and also opened an online music store where she released the shelved Come and Get Me... What?! as well as two new albums, Small Thunder and The Vocal Stylings of Imani Coppola. Also in 2005, she wrote and performed the song "Freedom Come" for the independent film On the Outs and co-wrote Maia Sharp's single "Fine Upstanding Citizen". In 2006 she contributed two of her own songs, "Woodstock" and "Fake Is The New Real", and arranged all of the strings for artist Alice Smith's debut album For Lovers, Dreamers and Me. She can also be heard singing back up vocals and playing strings on several songs of the album.

In 2006, she released a free skit album, Audio Blahgs. On May 26, 2006, Coppola performed with Peeping Tom on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Subsequently, she went on tour with the band, providing both vocals and violin. During this tour, Imani has performed songs from her The Black & White Album. 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.

Coppola's eighth studio album, The Black & White Album, was released digitally on January 14, 2007, and released through Ipecac Recordings on October 30, 2007. Bill Braun wrote in Amplifer Magazine in November 2007 that Coppola's The Black and White Album has an organic nature that reflects America's diversity. The Globe and Mail wrote that The Black and White Album is a "brutally honest album that's fun to hear." Bret McCabe wrote in the New York Sun on November 13, 2007, that in The Black and White Album, Coppola mixed musical genres like Brazilian pop wizard Tom Zé.

In November, 2007, Coppola said in interview that she was unsure if she was going to tour to support The Black & White Album, citing financial concerns. She said, "I don’t even have a car. I don’t know, I would love to put together at least one banging show together for this album. Definitely, it deserves that."

In 2011, Imani released a new single, titled "Over It." The song also had an animated, high-budget video and was included on Coppola's 2010 EP Imani's Magic Chicken Soup found on Reverbnation.

In 2012, the first single from "The Glass Wall" was released: a trance-club song titled "State Of The Art."

In 2015, Coppola collaborated with Blackalicious on "The Sun," which The A.V. Club described as "a shimmery, vibrant slice of early ’90s rap-pop that soars on a glowing chorus by Imani Coppola."

On July 21, 2017, Coppola premiered a new single, "Just Feels Good," via Yahoo! Music. The song, which Coppola had originally written for Rachel Platten, was released as the lead single from Hypocrites, Coppola's new album, released on the same day as the single premiered.

Little Jackie

In 2007, Coppola was signed to S-Curve Records as part of the band Little Jackie, with whom she collaborated with producer and multi-instrumentalist Adam Pallin. Coppola sees Little Jackie as an opportunity to get back into pop and also to generate the income she needs to follow her dream of developing artists herself. She indicates that "genre-bending acts" like Gnarls Barkley have enabled her to return to the music industry through this venture.

Speaking in July 2008 to noted UK R&B writer Pete Lewis of the award-winning Blues & Soul, Coppola stated: "Whereas, in my opinion, Imani Coppola is a REAL artist, Little Jackie represents my 'POPULAR artist' side... And to me this is probably my last attempt at becoming a superstar! If it blows up — WONDERFUL! If I become a superstar — FANTASTIC!... And if I don't, I guess I'll stay very happy just being a crazy-lady artist — making art every day and having that be my food!"

The group has released three albums. Their first was The Stoop, which launched the hit single "The World Should Revolve Around Me" and received rave reviews from critics. In 2011, Little Jackie released their second album MADE4TV. Their third album Queen of Prospect Park, released on 30 September 2014, featured music that appeared in I Don't Know How She Does It and Grey's Anatomy.

Songwriting and artistic vision

Coppola says her songwriting is fused through a pop sensibility, within which she exercises her creativity and individuality. She indicates that her tastes and musical influences are diverse, including classical, which she acknowledges can be a problem in an industry that wants its artists to be clearly defined. Coppola decided to write in whatever genre she wanted. She describes her focus on The Black and White Album as "more experimental, more punk, more rock." Coppola also incorporates theater into her performance with her visual creativity, donning different wigs or makeup during performances.

Coppola uses a different process when she is songwriting for herself from when she is songwriting for another artist or writing on speculation. She says, "My brain changes, my thought processes, my body language changes, the way I work changes....; When you do work for other artists, it’s definitely more of a job and it requires a lot of tools."

Among her career goals, she hopes to produce and develop other artists. In 2016, Coppola co-wrote Hailey Knox's debut single, "Geeks," which was praised by Meghan Trainor; Coppola also wrote another of Knox's songs, "Awkward," with Michael Mangini, whom she had previously worked with on her debut album and in Little Jackie.

Personal life

Coppola lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant. A private person, she also admits to struggling with the modern demands for artist accessibility in the music world, with such demands as online interviews and video blogs. In making choices in her own life, she has stated that she is torn between respect and resentment at the legacy left by her parents, explaining, "My parents are both artists and we starved, we went through a lot of difficulty growing up because of their choices in life... When it comes down to making important decisions about my life and my foundation, you know, their artistic side haunts me. Like maybe I should just do what they did."

Albums

Singles

Other

Little Jackie albums

Little Jackie singles