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"One of my goals for the newest project Break of Dawn was to be more uninhabited," Goapele says. After taking off six years from recording, Goapele has returned to the forefront of the music scene with Break of Dawn, a collection of sophisticated songs dealing with love, loss and all the life in between. While Rolling Stone magazine once called Goapele the "spiritual love child of Sade and D'Angelo," her searing voice can be both sensuous and serious, often on the same song. "Establishing Skyblaze allowed me to have a more direct connection with my business as well as the music."
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"I like being more hands on when it comes to my music," Goapele says of the family owned independent label. Not content to be merely another singer lost in the machine, Goapele's follow-up recordings Even Closer (2002) and Change It All (2005) were released through majors in conjunction with her own independent label Skyblaze. Yet, while the Oakland native and former Berklee College of Music student has continued to grow as artist and live performer in the eleven years since her debut, Goapele is also known as a savvy businesswoman. Embraced from the beginning by critics and fans alike, Goapele craved the perfect niche for herself as she created music that fused jazz, soul and hip-hop with her own beautiful poetry. Seamlessly blending genres while refusing to be limited by the "neo-soul" tag, the eloquent singer/songwriter completed her first release Closer in 2001 and never looked back. Singer/songwriter Goapele broke out of Bay Area at the beginning of the last decade determined to make a difference in the world of music. She returned to the studio in 2002 to begin work on her second record. After finishing the record, she toured North America with Spearhead. In the summer of 2001, Goapele was signed to Skyblaze Recordings and completed her debut album. She also began developing her songwriting skills during her post-secondary education. Upon high school graduation, she attended the Berklee School of Music in Boston, where she studied music theory. In high school, Goapele sang in the Oakland Youth Choir and became part of a semi-professional music group called Vocal Motion. It would be these extroverted activities that assisted her singing career as she would also sing at community functions. She also became involved in various groups and organizations that combated racism and sexism. At an early age, Goapele attended the Berkeley Arts Magnet School where she led a pre-teen peer support group. Her mother married South African political exile Douglas Mohlabane while studying in Nairobi, Kenya. Born Goapele Mohlabane in Oakland, CA, this singer grew up in a socially conscious and politically active family.