{"id":292893,"date":"2026-09-24T10:28:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T10:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/292893\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T10:28:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T10:28:14","slug":"pittsburgh-rb-artist-inez-definitely-knows-how-to-hold-a-mic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/292893\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh R&B artist INEZ definitely knows how to hold a mic"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story continues our series and podcast, \u201cTaking the Mic,\u201d about women in Pittsburgh\u2019s music industry. You can subscribe to the podcast on Spotify<\/a> or Apple<\/a> \u2014 and read the stories week by week at wesanews.org<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Click \u201cListen\u201d above to hear INEZ\u2019s interview with series creator Laura Fidalgo \u2014 or find it on Spotify<\/a> or Apple<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Part of INEZ\u2019s story was published in our September 10 series preview. Read it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For Pittsburgh R&B artist INEZ, everything about her formative years pointed toward a career in music. It just took a while for her to take the hint.<\/p>\n

She grew up in a musical family in Pittsburgh\u2019s Homewood neighborhood \u2014 a veritable incubator for Black Pittsburgh musical talent, from legendary jazz composer Billy Strayhorn<\/a> to Broadway\u2019s Billy Porter<\/a> to 91.3 WYEP DJ and musician Clara Kent<\/a>. INEZ’ mother, father and cousins all played instruments, sang and wrote their own music.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talk about nature versus nature,\u201d INEZ explains. She benefited from both. \u201cIt was the environment. It was my genes and my genetics. [Music] literally shaped me.\u201d<\/p>\n

But if you\u2019d asked a younger INEZ what she thought she\u2019d do for the rest of her life, she wouldn\u2019t have said music.<\/p>\n

\"Black<\/p>\n

Kwabena Effah Raymond<\/p>\n

\/<\/p>\n

INEZ<\/p>\n

INEZ performing at Thunderbird Cafe for the show Soon as I Get Home<\/p>\n

First, she wanted to be a chef. She recalls riding the bus through Downtown as a teenager, peering through the windows at Le Cordon Bleu, the French culinary institute that closed in 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would see everybody at Le Cordon Bleu with their pastry containers or smoking a cigarette outside the school,\u201d INEZ recalls. \u201cAnd I was like, \u2018You know what? I\u2019ve always loved food and exploring food and flavors.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, she wanted to be an engineer. In high school, she became very active in the National Society of Black Engineers and resolved to study engineering, enrolling at the University of Pittsburgh to pursue her degree.<\/p>\n

It was at Pitt that it finally dawned on her.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know those times when you\u2019re doing a group project and there\u2019s one person who\u2019s just not pulling their weight?\u201d INEZ says, recalling her Engineering I lab at Pitt.<\/p>\n

Usually, she was a good project mate. But not this time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m holding this group back because I don\u2019t think I\u2019m supposed to be here,\u201d she remembers thinking at the time. \u201c\u200aI’m trying to force this engineering thing, and it doesn’t feel like it’s supposed to happen for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

She realized what she really wanted was to pursue what had been in her and around her since her childhood in Homewood. Music had lived in her margins, but now she knew she wanted to be a musician.<\/p>\n

These days, she\u2019s a self-described \u201cmusical polymath,\u201d with a degree from Berklee College of Music and an impressive range of vocal registers at her disposal. In one track, she can start a fight<\/a>; in another, slip into a memoir of a song<\/a>. She was named WYEP\u2019s Pittsburgh Music Artist of the Year<\/a> in 2020, and, earlier this year, headlined the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust\u2019s America 250 program.<\/p>\n

Artists deal with slights, infantilization and outright misogyny, but they find hope in underground spaces.<\/p>\n

Despite her talent, technical skills and mounting list of awards and credentials, INEZ says she often deals with being underestimated as a woman musician. She recalls one sexist slight before a show several years ago, when a sound tech approached her as she was preparing for a show at Hartwood Acres.<\/p>\n

\u201c[He] was like, \u2018Hey, do you know how to hold a mic?\u2019 And he was serious. It wasn\u2019t a joke,\u201d INEZ says.<\/p>\n

She remembers thinking, \u201cI graduated cum laude from the Berklee College of Music in music production. I think I know how to hold a mic. But if you\u2019re not sure about that, maybe I can show you.\u201d<\/p>\n

She had to tamp down her anger in order to perform.<\/p>\n

INEZ, who is a light-skinned Black woman, says she has also felt frustrated by colorism, which compounds music-scene sexism. While she has booked shows with some of Pittsburgh\u2019s marquee venues and most influential arts organizations, such as the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust<\/a> and Thunderbird Caf\u00e9 and Music Hall, she says it\u2019s a privilege some of her darker-skinned peers do not have.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aThere’s so many people that look like me that should have access to the same things I have access to,\u201d INEZ says.<\/p>\n

But these frustrations don’t dampen INEZ’ creative output \u2014 or her belief in Pittsburgh’s potential as an inclusive, thriving creative community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are capable of creating amazing things outside of just our sports teams,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want Pittsburgh to realize how beautiful Pittsburgh is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

INEZ is working on a new album now, the follow-up to Voicemails and Conversations<\/a>, released in 2019. And on her upcoming record, she\u2019s going back to her roots, writing about the family that nurtured \u2014 and natured \u2014 her musical gifts to begin with. It\u2019s an homage to her grandparents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story continues our series and podcast, \u201cTaking the Mic,\u201d about women in Pittsburgh\u2019s music industry. You can…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-292893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}