The singer born Ai Carina Uemura blends explosive American R&B and rap with the infectious energy of Japanese pop, thanks to an upbringing where she split her time between Kagoshima and Los Angeles. The grooves of both countries have had a profound influence on her, and produced a musical range as vast as the Pacific Ocean: she's able to pull off uplifting, emotional torch songs one moment and shift into Missy Elliott-inspired hip-hop the next.