Carlitta Durand is a progressive R&B singer and songwriter who established her career in 2006 as an affiliate of fellow North Carolinians Little Brother. Her two self-released albums, I'll Be Gorgeous When I Die (2015) and Kismet Green (2020), have synthesized modern soul and downtempo electronica with a dreamlike sound belying Durand's down-to-earth lyricism. Born in Minneapolis the year Prince released Purple Rain, Durand cites the sounds of that album as one of her earliest musical memories. She started singing in her early teens, following a move to Durham,NC. While she was attending NCCU she met Phonte and Big Pooh of Little Brother when the duo needed a hook for "Life of
the Party," a track that appeared on the 2006 compilation The Hall of Justus: Soldiers of Fortune.

 

Well into the next decade, Durand continued her affiliation with the Justus League collective. She made regular contributions to albums by Nicolay, Zo!, Phonte, and The Foreign Exchange. Durand was featured on the Foreign Exchange Music releases City Lights Vol. 2: Shibuya, SunStorm, Charity Starts at Home, Love in Flying colors, and ManMade. Durand released her latest EP Make Me Stay on the FE Music label in 2024. Described by the singer as the story of a summer fling that “starts off great and goes really bad really fast,” the 6 song-set was helmed entirely by DC-based production team Anikan and Vader.