“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. Donwill, Ilyas Nashid and Von Pea met over okayplayer.com message boards in 2003, and Tanya Morgan was born. The three MCs settled on the name as “an inside joke to trick hip-hop crate-diggers and sample-searchers into thinking the record was an old school soul singer,” according to the group’s bio. The name stuck and so did the music — though the group has evolved considerably over the past decade.
Tanya Morgan released its third album, Rubber Souls, without Nashid, who moved on to pursue solo material in 2009. Donwill and Von Pea continue to tour and collaborate with talented and like-minded musicians. The duo performs with rapper Big Pooh, of the hip-hop group Little Brother, at Asheville Music Hall Saturday March 8 at 8 p.m.
Colston n’ Friends, Free The Optimus, Big Dave, Noctuo and DJ Jet also perform. $8/$12. ashevillemusichall.com.
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