JOYCE WRICE, R&B Singer

Born to a Japanese mother and a Black American father, the R&B songstress embodies the generation of mixed-raced Americans who embrace and celebrate their dual cultural heritage.

She’s been a professional singer for more than 10 years. But Joyce Wrice has been singing all her life. Her fans first discovered her singing covers on YouTube and since then she’s with worked and performed with some of the most respected names in music including Westside Gunn, Free Nationals, Aminé, and more. She has released two EPs and toured and performed in the U.S., Japan, Australia, UK, and other European countries. Joyce was born and raised in San Diego and currently lives in Los Angeles where she continues to record music.

HYUN KIM: It feels as if biracial people are often expected by society to claim one race. Not sure if this is the right way to put it but you seem to have struck a healthy balance of your mother’s Japanese culture and your father’s Black American culture. You have fans in Japan, you’ve toured there, you’ve been invited to speak by Asian American groups on college campuses. Did you ever feel the pull to pick one side?

JOYCE WRICE: I just see myself as a mixture of both. I really have so much gratitude towards my mom. I grew up going…