Jimetta Rose

The possessor of a voice radiating warmth, wisdom, and spirituality, Jimetta Rose has been involved with a remarkable quantity of progressive R&B and rap recordings that have flowed out of Los Angeles since the late 2000s. A singer and songwriter, as well as an arranger and producer, she easily adapts to her surroundings and can fuse a multitude of genres and styles, including gospel, jazz, soul, hip-hop. Rose’s highlights as a collaborator include Sa-Ra’s “Love Czars,” Shafiq Husayn’s “Lost & Found” and “On Our Way Home,” House Shoes’ “Castles (The Sky Is Ours),” the Decoders’ “Reasons,” and MED + Blu’s “Burgundy Whip.” Rose’s extensive solo discography includes The Barber’s Daughter (2010), The Light Bearer (2016), and The Gift: Around the Way Queen (2022), as well as How Good It Is (2022), a gospel-rooted set made with a community choir she assembled and directs.
A South Central Los Angeles native, Rose came up in the church and started singing in choirs at a young age. While studying at Los Angeles Southwest College, she joined Naturez Dezign, later known as Hoodie Smith, and performed with that hip-hop group for a few years before she played out with a band of her own. Rose established herself recording-wise during the latter half of the 2000s. She produced Dudley Perkins’ “Wassup World” for Stones Throw’s Chrome Children compilation, was featured on albums such as Georgia Anne Muldrow’s Ms. One, Sa-Ra’s Nuclear Evolution: The Age of Love, and Sa-Ra member Shafiq Husayn’s Shafiq En' A Free Ka, and cut the 2007 solo 12” America, produced and released by Muldrow. Rose and kindred spirit Muldrow had met at Sketchbook, an L.A. club night that preceded the more widely known Low End Theory in catalyzing the city’s beat scene.
Although Rose wouldn’t release another solo full-length for several years, her credits multiplied throughout the intervening period. Two of her most significant efforts were related to Jovan Coleman, a drummer and producer alternately known as J-1 and the Deer. She fronted Coleman’s 2011 single “Mellow Yellow,” and the next year, in response to Coleman’s death, teamed with House Shoes for “Castles (The Sky Is Ours),” a tribute to their friend that appeared on Shoes’ album Let It Go. Other Rose highlights during the first half of the 2010s included the Decoders’ version of Minnie Riperton’s “Reasons,” MED + Blu’s Madlib-produced “Burgundy Whip,” and other efforts with Visioneers, Mayer Hawthorne, Coultrain, and Quelle Chris, among others. Rose was even more active from 2015 to 2019. Most importantly, she and Georgia Anne Muldrow put together her second album, The Light Bearer, issued in 2016. The LP arrived after Rose led a dubbed-out update of Nirvana’s “Lithium” (for Tru Thoughts Covers 2), and was followed by strong roles on Josef Leimberg’s Astral Progressions, Dexter Story’s Bahir, and Shafiq Husayn’s The Loop.
Among myriad other recordings on which Rose appeared before the dawn of the 2020s was Derty Dan’s Cheap Thrills, a beat tape by producer Dert. The project was issued on House Shoes’ Street Corner Music, a label that built its reputation with The Gift, a series of beat tapes — available on actual cassette, as well as vinyl — by producers such as Dert, Denmark Vessey, Tuamie, and Shoes himself. Following its tenth volume, Rose and Shoes picked material from the series as the basis of another SCM offering. Although Rose wrote the lyrics and recorded the vocals for The Gift: Around the Way Queen before she released The Light Bearer, the project didn’t reach fruition in February 2022, after it had been abandoned due to a mixing issue, and eventually resolved by engineer Matt "Magnetic" Oleksiak. While Around the Way Queen was on the back burner, Rose assembled the Voices of Creation, comprising singers of varied experience and a shared objective to promote healing. Rose drew from her time as a director for a youth choir, and also brought in a handful of musicians with assistance from musical director Jack Maeby and producers Mario and Samantha Caldato. They cut How Good It Is, a spirited mix of gospel, jazz, and funk with inspirations ranging from obscure one-album group the Sons and Daughters of Lite to Funkadelic. The set was released on the Day Dreamer label in August 2022. Only three months later, she was back with the solo single “Ebb & Flow,” produced by Quelle Chris and Chris Keys. ~ Andy Kellman