L'Rain

Cheek was born and raised in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where she lived with her mother, father, and grandparents. The stage name L'Rain is an homage to Porter, who died before the release of the self-titled debut. She transferred to the American Studies program, where her major included a concentration in visual, audio, literary, and performance cultures; in 2011, she completed her Bachelor of Arts degree with distinction. While at Yale she worked as music director of radio station WYBC and booked shows. == Career ==

After graduation, Cheek returned to New York, where she resumed playing in Brooklyn bands including Throw Vision, who released their debut in 2013 and an EP in 2015. In 2017, Cheek released the self-titled ''L'Rain on New York City-based label Astro Nautico. L'Rain also features Alex Goldberg, Jeremy Powell, Kyp Malone (of TV on the Radio), and Andrew Lappin, who co-produced the album with Cheek. The release, Bring Down The Walls'', raised money for Critical Resistance, an organization dedicated to ending the prison–industrial complex. L'Rain's second album, Fatigue, was released on Mexican Summer in 2021. included among the year's best by Pitchfork, and met with wide acclaim from outlets including NPR. In August 2023, L'Rain announced a third album, I Killed Your Dog, released in October 2023; the album was co-produced by Cheek with Lappin and Chapoteau-Katz, who perform alongside L'Rain bandmates Zachary Levine-Caleb, Justin Felton, and Timothy Angulo. The album was met with best-of accolades from Pitchfork, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Bandcamp Daily, and many other outlets. L'Rain has toured with bands including Black Midi (2021), Animal Collective (2022), Sharon Van Etten (2022), Big Thief (2023), and LCD Soundsystem (2023). Curatorial work and public programming In 2011, Cheek began working with arts nonprofit Creative Time; in 2014, as site manager for an exhibit co-presented with the Weeksville Heritage Center, Cheek installed and ran a pop-up radio station from a pink Cadillac parked outside the Utica Avenue A/C subway station.) The same year, Cheek––along with Ariana Allensworth, Salome Asega, Sable Elyse Smith, and Nadia Williams––co-organized "The Kara Walker Experience: WE ARE HERE", a public gathering of people of color at the Domino Sugar Refinery for Kara Walker's installation A Subtlety. In 2015, Cheek's work as Curatorial Assistant for High Line Art included helping to organize an installation and performance by Kevin Beasley. In 2016, Cheek joined the curatorial team at contemporary art institution MoMA PS1; the same year, she also opened the basement of her Brooklyn apartment to experimental music events under the name 49 Shade (initially co-organized with Max Alper, Dann Lawrence, and Matteo Liberatore and Otomo Yoshihide, and Bartees Strange credits the space as introducing him to many of his collaborators. At PS1, Cheek co-organized Sunday Sessions and the Warm Up series through 2021; Warm Up lineups receiving extensive media coverage included a 2017 event with Cardi B, A$AP Ferg, and YATTA (of artist collective PTP); a 2018 show pairing Lizzo with experimentalists Gang Gang Dance; 2019's season opener, with Queens local duendita and Freddie Gibbs; 2020's livestream edition, with Eartheater and KeiyaA; and a limited-capacity 2021 event with Baby Tate and Patia's Fantasy World. As of July 2022, Cheek was listed as "former Associate Curator" at PS1. In 2023, Cheek was announced as the first artist curator for BRIC's Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival. In 2024, Cheek was appointed artistic director of Performance Space New York. ==Musical style==

L'Rain often layers and loops her vocals, and her work frequently features samples from her collection of hundreds of field recordings, some pitch-shifted or otherwise manipulated beyond recognition. values illegibility, Pitchfork described her 2021 album Fatigue as "painterly and methodical, daubing vocal loops over clattering percussion, sweeping strings, and resonant synths to create a shapeshifting strain of experimental pop." dance; R&B and avant-garde rock; and soul, drone, avant-pop, and musique concrète. While Cheek is the sole fixed figure in L'Rain recordings and performances, she says the project follows a "more nuanced and collective [model]" than that of the "lone genius or creator": "I'm trying to find a way to nurture my own voice and singular vision, especially as a Black woman musician, while also acknowledging that I work collaboratively with a team that is essential to the project." Andrew Lappin and Ben Chapoteau-Katz are credited as Cheek's closest collaborators and co-producers of L'Rain's second and third albums; as of 2023, the band's members are Cheek, Lappin, and Chapoteau-Katz with Zachary Levine-Caleb, Justin Felton, and Timothy Angulo. == Discography==