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Chai Tulani calls it "soul hop."/ "Sonic Soul"
Influenced by the style and swagger of hip-hop as well as the soulfulness of R&B and singer-songwriters like Bob Marley and Tracy Chapman, soul hop is a new genre of music unlike any you've heard before.
But soul hop as a genre is fairly new and Tulani, who began working full time as a musician five years ago, had a long journey toward the sense of purpose he now feels in his work.
Tulani was born in Kenya and came to the United States at age 4. His mother is Kenyan but his father is from Chicago, so his family eventually moved here. Tulani grew up in the Roseland neighborhood before moving to the south suburbs at 15
Music has been a passion of Tulani's for most of his life. His father is a percussionist and Tulani largely grew up listening to music from the Congo. Tulani's parents wanted him to play piano to acquire a variety of music-making skills beyond guitar or voice. Tulani took the leap to a full-time music career in 2014 at age 19, after receiving approval from his parents. He's now 25. "I hate doing the same thing every day, but I do like the adventure of being an artist,' he said. His diverse musical and cultural background led Tulani to create soul hop, a name that came to him a year into his career.
"I would often get the question, 'How would you describe your music?' And I had the hardest time describing to people what it was," Tulani said. "It made me want to make up a name for it instead of having that generic answer in which I kind of rap or kind of sing." He calls it Sonic Soul.
