A brown-eyed Pennsylvanian singing blue-eyed soul, Kevin Garrett has put a refined and contemporary spin on classic R&B with Mellow Drama (2015) and False Hope (2017), EPs released before and after he significantly raised his profile as the co-writer and co-producer of Beyoncé's "Pray You Catch Me." Growing up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Kevin Garrett played the violin, idolized Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, and Sam Cooke, and, after graduating from New York University, signed a publishing deal with Jay-Z's Roc Nation. With an angelic voice and rapturous warmth, he sang of love and loss on his aptly titled 2015 EP, Mellow Drama, which included the singles "Coloring" and "Control." Like Sam Smith, his voice conveyed a damaged vulnerability, but his sensibilities and sparse, hip-hop-inspired production were more similar to some of Frank Ocean's or Jack Garratt's work. In 2016, Garrett -- who is also a multi-instrumentalist -- reached a larger audience as the co-writer and co-producer of "Pray You Catch Me," the first track on Beyoncé's Lemonade album. By the end of the year, he released the single "Precious." A second EP of ballads, False Hope, followed in 2017. A collaboration with Brad Cook yielded "In Case I Don't Feel" in 2018. ~ Neil Z. Yeung