The producers-turned-performers are breaking on the scene with their 'Caribbean hip-hop' debut.
You might not know R. City by name, but you’d recognize their resume.
Theron "Uptown AP" and Timothy "A.I." Thomas are behind some of the biggest hip-hop and pop hits of the last few years. The Saint Thomas-born brothers have worked on blockbuster hits by the likes of Sean Kingston ("Take You There"), Miley Cyrus ("We Can’t Stop"), and Nicki Minaj ("Only"), and contributed to GRAMMY-nominated and award-winning albums by Rihanna, Jennifer Hudson, and Ariana Grande.
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Now the duo, who call themselves R. City, are breaking out with their own music, and debuting the video for the first single off their major label debut album, "Locked Away," exclusively on ETonline.
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The song, which was produced by Dr. Luke, is a personal track which draws on the Thomas brothers’ experiences growing up with a father who was in jail for six years during his sons’ childhood. It features vocals from Maroon 5 lead singer Adam Levine (who went totally bald for the video). The brothers hope the single will introduce the world to their innovative sound.
"It’s our own genre," Theron explains. "We call it Caribbean hip-hop. There are elements of rap and the islands. This is the first time most people will really hear us, so we want to come out with something big."
The music video features vignettes of love, loss, poverty, and imprisonment, all set over Levine’s crooned chorus "If I got locked away / and we lost it all today / tell me honestly / would you still love me the same?"
"Will those people who are there when it’s sunny, stick around during the rain? Those are the real topics we like to explore," says Theron.