Tanya Morgan

Tanya Morgan are proof that the Internet isn't all bad for the music industry; it can be an asset for new artists, too. Tanya Morgan isn't an R&B singer, but an in-joke devised by two Cincinnati rappers, Donwill and Ilyas, and Brooklyn MC/producer Von Pea. The trio met via hip-hop website Okayplayer.com, and used its site connections (Von Pea is an administrator on one of Okayplayer.com's message boards) to build buzz for its 2006 debut, Moonlighting. Though the album didn't sell much -- the group's label, Loud Minority Music, had distribution problems -- it made a huge splash in certain sectors of the online hip-hop community, where Tanya Morgan were embraced as part of a new wave of technology-savvy independent rappers (along with Blu, Fashawn and others). After waiting for their label to reorganize and re-emerge as Interdependent Media, Tanya Morgan returned in 2009 with acclaimed follow-up Brooklynati.