Tanya Morgan

Tanya Morgan is a rap group.  More than that, they’re a great rap group as evidenced by the acclaim they’ve received from the likes of Billboard, Vibe, SPIN, XXL Magazine, XLR8R, Los Angeles Times, The Onion, NY Magazine and a bevy of other press outlets who have praised the group throughout the duration of their career.  “Tanya Morgan are like the sons of De La Soul — soulful, stressed, effortlessly smart flows, intricate production, the whole package,” says SPIN Music Editor Charles Aaron.

Hailing from both Brooklyn and Cincinnati, Tanya Morgan formed on the message boards of Okayplayer.com in 2003 when Donwill and Von Pea were solo artists trading demos and beat tapes. The MCs decided to collaborate for a one-off project and settled on the name Tanya Morgan – an inside joke to trick hip-hop crate-diggers and sample-searchers into thinking the record was an old-school soul singer. After their debut album, Moonlighting, was endorsed by the likes of ?uestlove in 2006 and was received enthusiastically by fans, Tanya Morgan decided to keep working together and keep the name.  In the wake of Moonlighting’s critical success, the group released its follow-up, 2009’s Brooklynati which saw the group reach more fans and beguile more journalists as it was widely regarded as one of the year’s best hip hop releases.

Since Brooklynati, the group has continued to tour as Tanya Morgan, supporting the group’s classic material as well as the members’ first solo releases: Donwill’s Don Cusack In High Fidelity and Von Pea’s Pea’s Gotta Have It, both released in 2010. September 24, 2013 saw the release of their third album, Rubber Souls, produced by 6th Sense (B.o.B., Outasight, Talib Kweli, Mickey Factz, Homeboy Sandman, The Lonely Island, etc.). Having recorded the whole project together (as opposed to individually as they have in the past), handing the production reins to an outsider, and adding a stable of musicians with whom to collaborate, Tanya Morgan shook up the entire recording process with Rubber Souls. “This album shows us stepping out of our comfort zone to great results,” explains Von Pea.  “[I]t brought out a new type of chemistry in our music.”  Instrumentally ambitious, Rubber Souls is about expansion. Challenging both artists and musicians, producer 6th Sense gives his interpretation of the Tanya Morgan sound – “[t]he result in an album that will satisfy long time fans and shock non-believers,” adds Donwill.