According to the Grammys, K. Flay is a rock artist: Her song “Blood in the Cut” is up for Best Rock Song at this year’s awards, and its guitar-driven sound and melodic vocals, along with heavy beats, put it right alongside modern alternative rock. But according to the Billboard charts, Flay might be a hip-hop artist: Her 2014 debut full-length album Life as a Dog hit No. 14 on the Rap Albums chart, and before that she started her career with underground hip-hop mixtapes. The truth is that, like many great artists, Flay won’t let herself be confined to a single genre. Flay has toured with artists ranging from Awolnation to Third Eye Blind, and has been touted by the likes of superstar Taylor Swift (on social media), alt-pop group Imagine Dragons (as a signee to the band’s label) and EDM titan Kaskade (collaborating on the single “Promise”). “I feel like in rap right now people are doing really weird things—in a great way—and in rock, that spirit, doesn’t feel like quite as urgent,” Flay told Billboard ahead of the release of her latest album Every Where Is Some Where. Regardless of how she’s classified, Flay brings that original spirit to everything she does.
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