Dawn Richard has woven her way through hip hop, bounce, contemporary soul, and electronic music to develop her own feisty and innovative sound, all the while remaining firmly rooted in Crescent City vibes. The New Orleans native grew up in the Lower Ninth Ward and comes by her vocal and production gifts naturally; her father, Frank Richard, was the lead singer for the seminal 1970s funk/soul band Chocolate Milk, and her mother was a dancer.
An audition for MTV's Making the Band 3 in 2004 led to her becoming a founding member of Danity Kane, under the auspices of Sean "Diddy" Combs's Bad Boy Records. She later formed the trio Diddy–Dirty Money with Combs and R&B singer Kalenna Harper.
After departing Bad Boy Records, Richard reinvented herself as a solo artist performing under the name DAWN, releasing a celebrated trilogy — Goldenheart (2013), Blackheart (2015), and Redemption (2016) — that experimented with alternative dance and electronic influences, but her New Orleans roots prevail, as evidenced with her sixth album, the 2021 Second Line, where she pays tribute to the city’s street music as well as to bounce pioneers like Big Freedia. In addition to her robust musical career, she juggles a sparkling activities calendar, including working as an animator for Adult Swim, cheerleader for the New Orleans Hornets NBA franchise, a martial arts expert, and the owner-operator of a pop-up vegan food truck.
