ON THE RISE
Emerging hip-hop artist Queen Diamond knows there’s no time like the present to get to it. Her latest single, “Money Wave/It’s Going Down,” pays homage to the grind, reminding listeners that Queen Diamond knows her worth—and you should, too.
Blending stories with beats, Queen Diamond tunes into her eternal confidence to deliver songs full of emotion and life lessons. From a young age, she was immersed in music, starting with her local “praise and worship” team choir. “We also had a library across the street from my house where my friends used to go over to breakdance and sing. I was singing, and they were breakdancing. I loved to do that growing up,” Queen Diamond adds.
It wasn’t until a major medical scare that Queen Diamond refocused on her primary love: music. According to the artist, her life focus changed after a brush with cancer and a separate hospital incident that caused her to lose sight in both eyes. “After something like that, I wanted to do everything I could do that I didn’t do growing up. Life happens—you try to make it through life and put things aside you love to do. This is me coming back to it.”
Growing up, Queen Diamond would frequently write in journals and listen to her grandmother’s jukebox. “Recently, I was messing around with music, and one of my friends said I could do it. I kept saying, ‘I’m too old,’ but then I joined my husband who raps and loves music, too. I really started getting interested in music again,” explains Queen Diamond of her return to music.
Together, she and her husband recorded a single, “We Got Us,” which inspired Queen Diamond to go out and create her solo project.
Creating music isn’t just a solo project for Queen Diamond—it’s a full-blown family affair. “What’s so fun is every time I go into the studio to write a song, my kids support me. I always kept my children in music—they all sing and dance and rap. They motivate me so much more. My son also coaches me like ‘add this’ or ‘that’s fire.’ I want to do a song together someday,” shares the proud mother of three.
When it comes to writing music, Queen Diamond first finds inspiration, then writes her songs, and, finally, searches for the perfect beat to wrap it all together. “When I hear the right beat, I match my songs to the beats. Then I look at how I’m going to do the song and go into the studio and record it,” she shares of the process.
“Money Wave” was born from a natural inclination. As Queen Diamond explains it, “I do a lot of business—I’m an entrepreneur and I do public speaking. People are always coming to me on ways to make money or set up a business. I just started having these thoughts in my head and wrote it down. These are the things I do and share with other people on being successful in business and life. They want to know how to make money, so why not write a song about it?”
“‘It’s about to go down’ means me coming out in rare form. They always see me as that business woman and mother, but I’m more than that. It’s about to go down and I’m a show you how,” adds Queen Diamond.
The song was so intuitive, it came together quickly—in all of 18 minutes while she was waiting for the sound engineer to set up her recording session for three other songs. It was a serendipitous creation, too. “The night before, I was listening to beats thinking I love this beat but have nothing to go with it. Then the song came out of the blue while I was waiting for the engineer.”
It all adds up. After all, “Money Wave” is a motivational, inspiring, go-get-it anthem. “It’s upbeat and inspiring people to go out and get it,” quips Queen Diamond. “People need to live in freedom every day. Whatever you want to do in life, do it. It doesn’t matter how old you are, what obstacles might be in the way. Live in freedom every day.”
Queen Diamond insists that “we can’t control other people’s actions, but we can create doors for ourselves, tables for ourselves. We don’t have to wait for someone to ask us to sit at their table.” And no truer words have been spoken.
In addition to “Money Wave,” listeners can look forward to two more singles by Queen Diamond, “It’s My Birthday” and “Pleasure and Pain.”
Make sure to stay connected to Queen Diamond on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.
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ON THE RISE
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LOS ANGELES — Damion Seraglio Bond and Hannah Leyla are turning up the heat with “Pina in Your Colada,” a playful tropical duet built around flirtation, humor and the kind of chorus that practically demands a room full of people sing along.
Featured as the opening track on Tropical Vacay, “Pina in Your Colada” drops listeners directly into vacation mode. Tiki lights are glowing, steel drums are playing, drinks are flowing and Hannah and Damion are trading lines back and forth like two people who have decided subtlety can wait until after the trip.
That exaggerated approach was intentional.
“I worried that if I hewed too closely to a serious sexual expression, today’s rather Me-Too sensitive folks might misinterpret the point of the song,” songwriter and creator Lloyd Eric Cotsen said. “By keeping it light-hearted and even cheesy over the top, it’s clearly aiming for fun.”
Cotsen envisioned the track as the kind of local favorite heard at a packed tropical bar, where vacationers already know every word and become part of the performance. That idea shaped the song’s crowd vocals and call-and-response structure, including Hannah’s equally confident answers to Damion’s advances.
Creating that chemistry, however, became one of the biggest challenges behind the track.
Cotsen used AI music platform Suno to develop the recording, but directing the male and female vocals proved considerably harder than expected. He ultimately worked through more than 160 versions while trying to get the exchanges right, eventually bringing elements from separate versions to a sound engineer to create the final result.
That persistence helped produce one of the song's defining elements: a performance that feels less like a conventional studio recording and more like stumbling into a beach bar where the entire crowd already knows the chorus.
“Recreating the vibe of a live performance in a bar with a crowd finishing the lines of a song they know and love was something I would have bet Suno couldn’t do,” Cotsen said. “It did it masterfully.”
That atmosphere also made “Pina in Your Colada” a natural opener for Tropical Vacay. Cotsen wanted the album to function almost like a vacation soundtrack, maintaining a tropical atmosphere while moving between comedy, romance and more reflective moments.
“It seemed like the most fun, captured the tropical spirit of the album best,” he said of choosing the song as its first track.
The project continues Cotsen’s genre-hopping approach to songwriting. His work has moved through folk-country, blues, soul, gospel and dance, while Tropical Vacay gives him room to explore Trop Rock and the stories that emerge when people temporarily leave their everyday lives behind.
For Hannah and Damion, that means a relationship that is flirtatious, competitive and occasionally more complicated than the beach-bar antics suggest. Cotsen describes the pair as having a “playfully combative romantic relationship,” with Hannah written as a confident character who can give Damion every bit as much as she gets.
And the fictional duo may eventually move beyond the digital world. Cotsen plans to host a concert with live singers performing selections from his catalog within the next year while continuing work on several additional albums.
For now, “Pina in Your Colada” offers a simpler invitation: turn it up, embrace the ridiculousness and pretend the nearest drink comes with a tiny umbrella.
“Pina in Your Colada” is available now on Spotify as part of Tropical Vacay.
