Singer, songwriter, producer, and musician Leven Kali makes upbeat music informed by funk, hip-hop, and R&B. He’s collaborated with the likes of R&B singer Snoh Aalegra and rapper Playboi Carti. • Kali was born in the Netherlands to musician parents and raised in Santa Monica, California, where he drummed in jazz bands and played competitive golf. • Starting in late 2015, Leven Kali began posting songs online. Noteworthy tracks like “Joy” and “Smile” followed, showcasing an artist influenced by funk and electro-pop. • He cowrote and coproduced singer Sno Aalegra’s 2017 song “Time,” which Drake sampled for 2017’s “Do Not Disturb.” Also in 2017, Kali guested on Playboi Carti’s “Flex.” • In 2017, Kali signed with Interscope Records. In 2019, after a series of singles and two-packs, he dropped his debut album, Leven Kali: Low Tide. The streaming hit “Do U Wrong” features Syd. • Leven’s mother, Vida Simon, sings background on 2016’s “Mine” and 2019’s “Joy,” and she cowrote “Vida’s Song (Stillness),” off Kali’s 2020 album HIGHTIDE. Leven’s father, Jerry “Wyzard” Seay, bassist for the Atlanta funk-rock band Mother’s Finest, plays on the HIGHTIDE track “MADE 4 U.” • Leven often gets guitar help from “Uncle Ricky,” aka Ricardo Rouse, a musician that Dr. Dre used throughout his Death Row Records heyday.