VersatileCee: From the 757, With Heart

Some artists pick a stage name to sound hard. Cierra picked hers to stay free. VersatileCee, because she thinks of herself as “differently random,” an artist whose music refuses to sit inside one genre. The point of the name is the point of the work: she wants to show the world she can do any and everything.

She comes from the DMV, Virginia, the 757, and she carries it with her. A 27-year-old Old Dominion University graduate, she has been singing since she was a little girl, but only started making her own music in 2023. In a short time, she has turned that late start into a steady habit of dropping songs that are unmistakably hers.

It Started With “Barely Breathe”

VersatileCee's first release, “Barely Breathe,” was written for her grandmother, who passed away before the song existed. She is, in Cierra's words, the inspiration behind making music at all, someone who had complete faith that Cierra would become a successful person, and whose belief still drives the work today.

“Music is my escape from reality. Music is my peace.”

That is not a tagline, it is how the songs get made. When she is going through something, she finds a beat and starts writing. Everything you hear in a VersatileCee record is true: what she has lived, what she has lost, and what she is still working through. The vulnerability is the product.

Why Rhythm & Rise Live

Rhythm & Rise Live was built for artists like VersatileCee, independent, honest, and still early in a story worth following. The 12-hour live event put 33 of Austin's R&B and Hip-Hop artists on one unified stage and streamed it free to the world from a private production studio in Austin. No paywall. No ticket. Just the music and the people who showed up for it.

For Cierra, the goal is simple and big at the same time: gain more listeners and supporters, get more time on stage, and grow into more than she is today. She is praying that happens in due time, and R&RL is one more step toward it.

The Quick Read

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The Topic Is: VersatileCee

VersatileCee pulls up to The Topic Is for a conversation with Mr. Durite about versatility, the many sounds in her music, and the story behind the name.

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The Topic Is · with Mr. Durite  ·  All interviews →