By Chris McPherson

Pop is one of my favorite music genres, but every now and then, a hip hop or R&B tune dramatically grasps my attention and takes over my iPod, a.k.a. my life, then I just can’t get enough. One week, all I could do was rap 2Chainz’ verse to Young Jeezy’s R.I.P.  There are still random moments where I uncontrollably yell, Got a pocket full of dead bread, attached to your girl like a jpeg. Coincidentally, a 2Chainz song has done it again, but this time just his feature to Veronica’s What Happened to Us.

I didn’t know who Veronica was before her music video popped up on a blog I follow. I was surprised to see her snag a verse from 2Chainz on her song. And with a name that’s solely “Veronica”, searching her can be a rather inundated task. All that I could find was that she may or may not be on Young Money Cash Money Billionaires (YMCMB).

What Happened to Us originally came across as just any other R&B/Hip-Hop debut by another nameless voice that happens to dance seductively to heavily choreographed twerk rhythms. After the first couple of listens, she seemed like a Kelly Rowland reject, which I’m sure many others would perceive her as. As Jessie J is to Katy Perry, and Karmin are to Nicki Minaj, Veronica seemed doomed to live in the shadows of Rowland. The thought of that is quite chuckling, given the fact that Rowland has recently managed to climb from the depths of Queen Bey’s shadow. Would that make Veronica Beyonce’s grand-shadow? Great- shadow? Great grand shadow? Ahh well, moving on…

After almost 24 hours of dozens of on/off listens, I’m hooked to this hood jam. Although I’m a bit turned off by the cliché shower scene of V, the producers and audio engineers for this song did an amazing job of basting her riffs and runs with some down-n-dirty auto tune goodness. Veronica sings Do you love me now?  in the chorus and my body surged with the need to get up and bust a move. And then by the end of the chorus she belts What happened to all the love baby?  where the baby managed to run on for days.

To me, Veronica seems like a product of what a Brandy/ Kelly Rowland hybrid would be. If Brandy’s distinct vocal timbre sat next to Rowland’s attitude and sex appeal on a long bus ride then hopped off the bus as BFFs, it would be called Veronica. It’s been a day since I first heard Veronica, and I hope to see and hear more from her.

Check out the music video and Veronica’s Twitter page @veronicaymcmb