Sabi
Sabi during performance "(Drop Dead) Beautiful" on Femme Fatale Tour in 2011.
Background information
Birth name	Jenice Dena Portlock
Also known as	Sabi
Born	(1988-11-24) November 24, 1988 (age 23) Inglewood, California, USA
Genres	Pop, hip hop, electropop, R&B
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, dancer, actress
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	2008–present
Labels	Warner Bros.
Associated acts	The Bangz, Britney Spears, Cobra Starship, New Boyz, Wale
Website	officialsabi.com

Jenice Dena (Sab-bion) Portlock (born November 24, 1988), also known as Sabi, is an American pop singer-songwriter, dancer and actress of Salvadorian and African American ancestry.^[1] from Los Angeles, California. She was formerly part of the Hip hop girl group The Bangz.^[1] She is currently signed to Warner Bros. Records.^[2][3]

Biography[link]

Early life and career beginnings[link]

As a kid growing up in Inglewood, California, daughter of a Salvadoran mother and African American father , Sabi was raised in a bilingual Spanish and English language household and spent every other weekend watching MTV at her father’s house after her parents divorced.^[4] Her father had cable and her mother didn’t, so she and her sisters were glued to the screen watching music videos all day – she especially loved watching Michael Jackson, Prince, and Sade. That’s when she gained her immense passion for singing and song writing and made the decision that she wanted to be a performer. “I remember watching the Michael Jackson: Moonwalker video over and over and trying to pick up Michael’s moves,” she once said in a interview. Sabi would also choreograph dance routines and marshal her younger sisters into performing them for the family. She graduated in the class of 2005, in the Westchester Senior High School. Her dream was to attend the Debbie Allen Dance Academy in Los Angeles, but her mother couldn’t afford the tuition, so Sabi channeled her desire to entertain into acting. She got involved in theater in middle school and was cast in commercials for ABC Family, Universal Studios, and Pepsi while majoring in communications at California State University, Long Beach, in 2009. In 2008, she also appeared in an independent short film called The Smallest River in Almirante, which was executive produced by actor Shia LaBeouf. All the while, Sabi continued to work on her vocal technique trying to imitate other singers. “No matter who it was, Justin Timberlake, Brandy, or Alicia Keys, I could mimic exactly how they sounded. That’s how I got comfortable with my voice.” She began to write her own songs and record them on a voice recorder, but says that she really learned about the craft of songwriting after working with several producers that she had been introduced to through her then-manager.^[1]

2009–10: The Bangz and group disbandment[link]

In the summer of 2009, Sabi was approached by The Co-Stars, a production team who were looking to launch a female duo. Urban/pop group The Bangz, featuring Sabi and Korttney Ann Elliott (a.k.a. Ella Ann) got signed to the indie recording label VNR, Asylum Records and Warner Bros. Records. With a video that hit almost a million views on YouTube and two singles ("Boys With Tattoos (We Jerkin')" and "Found My Swag" (featuring the New Boyz)) released, the group was starting to get national radio play and MTV exposure. Shortly after, Ella Ann got seriously injured in a drive by a stray bullet and unable to continue, leaving Sabi to go on alone. She tried to continue without her; Sabi even shot a video and did some performances on her own with back-up dancers, but no one felt the Bangz could continue without Ella, not even Sabi herself. The whole experience was an emotional rollercoaster to her.^[1] However, executives at Warner Bros. Records loved Sabi’s talent and energy and wanted to continue the label’s relationship with her as a solo artist.

2011–present: Solo career[link]

She's in the studio with Benny Blanco, Klas (from the Teady Bears), Diplo, Ammo, Cirkut, The Cataracs and The Co-Stars working on her debut album, due out 2012, which she says will incorporate her love for pop, alternative rock, and urban music, inspired by artists like Lauryn Hill, Bat For Lashes, Florence + the Machine and Lykke Li.^[1] On April 4, 2011, Sabi released her song "Goodnight" on the internet as a buzz single from her debut album. Shortly after, Sabi teased fans with her just-released track "Wild Heart." The Cirkut-produced track is a club banger produced in a dubstep style,also being remixed by dubstep artist Zeds Dead. It was used on Kourtney and Kim Take New York season 2 promos, and later released on iTunes. A music video for the song is in the works. Directed by Mike Mahil, the Inglewood native filmed scenes at a house in downtown Los Angeles last month. “I feel like I was on top of the world. It’s pretty awesome,” said Sabi. The 23-year-old singer is readying her Warner Bros. Records debut for release this year.^[5]

Sabi is also featured on Wale's new music video for the song "Sabotage." She's featured on Britney Spears' song "(Drop Dead) Beautiful" and the Cobra Starship single "You Make Me Feel...," which peaked at #7 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and topped the charts in New Zealand. She is also featured on the New Boyz' song "Tough Kids", from their album Too Cool to Care. Sabi has been featured on a few dates of the Britney Spears' Femme Fatale Tour and is featured on the DVD.

A video for "Wild Heart"' debuted on March 19, 2012.^[6] A brand new Dr. Luke, Cirkut-produced track "Where They Do That At?" featuring Wale premiered unexpectedly on April 17, 2012 on Spotify.^[7] The video for the song, directed by Tim Cruz, debuted on April 19, 2012, along with a behind-the-scenes video.^[8]

Discography[link]

Singles[link]

Featured singles[link]

Other appearances[link]

Music videos[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Sabi on Myspace
• Sabi on Twitter
• Sabi on Facebook
• Sabi at the Internet Movie Database
• Sabi (singer) at Allmusic
• Works by or about Sabi in libraries (WorldCat Catalog)

Cobra Starship
Cobra Starship performing at Warped Tour on June 20, 2008.
Background information
Origin	New York City, USA
Genres	Synthpop, pop punk, alternative dance, alternative rock
Years active	2003–present
Labels	Decaydance, Fueled by Ramen
Associated acts	Leighton Meester, Midtown, Sabi, Humble Beginnings, This Is Ivy League, Gym Class Heroes, Fall Out Boy, The Academy Is..., Gabilliam, Panic! at the Disco, B.o.B.
Website	www.cobrastarship.com
Members
Gabe Saporta Ryland Blackinton Victoria Asher Nate Novarro Alex Suarez
Past members
Elisa Schwartz (Elisa Jordana)

Cobra Starship is an American synthpop band created by former Midtown bassist and lead vocalist Gabe Saporta in 2003 in New York City, New York. After writing and recording the band's debut album While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets as a solo project, Saporta enlisted guitarist Ryland Blackinton, bassist Alex Suarez, drummer Nate Novarro, and keytarist Victoria Asher, all of whom provide backing vocals.

The group released its debut album, While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets in 2006, which contained the single "Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)". In 2007, ¡Viva la Cobra! was released, which served as the band's first record featuring the complete lineup. Hot Mess followed in 2009, reaching commercial success due to the single "Good Girls Go Bad". The band's fourth studio album, Night Shades was released August 29, 2011 featuring the first single "You Make Me Feel...".

History[link]

[edit] While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets (2006–2007)

Cobra Starship was formed in 2005 after Midtown bassist Gabe Saporta took a trip to the deserts of Arizona. During this time, Saporta went on a "vision quest", spending time with Native American tribes and smoking peyote.^[1] He began to create his vision for a new band, a melodic style of music heavily influenced by synthpop and hip-hop.^[1] Upon returning home, Saporta rented a house in the Catskill Mountains and began writing what would become the band's debut album, While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets. He posted a parody response to Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" titled "Hollaback Boy" on Myspace. The song gained Saporta notoriety on the internet and he eventually signed to Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz's label, Decaydance Records.^[2]

Midtown's management company soon set Saporta up with an opportunity to record a song for the soundtrack to the 2006 Snakes on a Plane. Along with members of The Academy Is..., Gym Class Heroes, and The Sounds, Saporta recorded "Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)", which became a minor hit.^[3] During the recording of While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets, Saporta began recruiting new members to complete the group's lineup. He first enlisted drummer Nate Novarro, whom he met on tour while Novarro sold merchandise for fellow touring act Hidden in Plain View.^[1] After seeing Saporta in Entertainment Weekly, guitarist Ryland Blackinton and bassist Alex Suarez, who lived in the same apartment building as Midtown drummer Rob Hitt, emailed Saporta asking to join the group. The lineup was completed by keytarist Elisa Schwartz, who was later replaced by Victoria Asher.^[4] While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets, was released October 10, 2006. It featured the single "Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)", of which a video had been featured during the closing credits of the film Snakes on a Plane earlier that summer.

[edit] ¡Viva La Cobra! (2007–2008)

Cobra Starship performing in 2008

With the group's lineup solidified, Cobra Starship began touring across the United States. While on the 2007 Honda Civic Tour, the group began writing music together for the first time. The members recorded their individual parts on their laptops in the band's bus.^[5] By the time Cobra Starship entered the studio to work on a new album, much of the material was already written.^[1] Recorded in twenty days at Mission Sound Studios in Brooklyn, New York, ¡Viva La Cobra! was released on October 23, 2007.^[5] It was produced by Patrick Stump, who was also credited as singing some backup vocals.^[6] The album has been described as "11 tracks of unabashed party jams, full of big hooky electropop, super-produced guitar crunch and the occasional T-Pain-style vocoder thrown in for good measure."^[7]

The album has been toured heavily worldwide. Cobra headlined the Really Really Ridiculously Good Looking Tour with guests Metro Station, The Cab, and We The Kings from January to March, 2008. They also played on Warped Tour 2008 and headlined the SassyBack tour, which toured from October 7 through November 30, 2008, with guests Forever the Sickest Kids, Hit the Lights, and Sing It Loud.

The album art for the ¡Viva La Cobra! album was used to promote the fourth generation Apple iPod nano in purple.

Gabe Saporta performing on November 28, 2009.

[edit] Hot Mess (2009–2010)

Following the success of Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl", Cobra Starship recorded their own cover version, "I Kissed a Boy", in summer 2008. The song was released on August 25, 2008, on Fall Out Boy's Citizens For Our Betterment mixtape Welcome To The New Administration. Cobra Starship is one of 9 artists who participated in thetruth.com’s Remix Project, where they remixed the Sunny Side song "Magical Amount".

Cobra Starship also began the Believers Never Die Tour Part Deux tour in the beginning of April, opening for Fall Out Boy, with other bands All Time Low, Metro Station, and Hey Monday. They spent time performing many shows in the US mostly all in April and the beginning of May, however they also played a few shows in the UK at the end of May 2009, supported by Sing It Loud, Cash Cash, and UK band Mimi Soya.

In 2009, the band went to a cabin in Pennsylvania, in an attempt to produce new material. They broadcast live throughout their stay on the live camera feed site Stickam, thus creating the Shelf Kids. After their stay, a new album was announced with a tentative release in the summer. The band worked with Kara DioGuardi, Kevin Rudolf, KarateE! Mouse, S*A*M and Sluggo, and song-writers Benny Blanco and Patrick Stump on Hot Mess.^[8] Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester is featured on the song "Good Girls Go Bad", which is produced by Kevin Rudolf and co-written by Rudolf and Kara DioGuardi.^[9] The song is the album's first single, and was added on iTunes on May 11 and available to listen to on the band's official MySpace page. Other songs include "Pete Wentz Is the Only Reason We're Famous", which has been released on their YouTube channel^[10] and Vevo page. On May 8, the album title was confirmed as Hot Mess, with a release date of August 11. It debuted on the US Billboard 200 at number four, becoming the band's highest charting album. Guitarist Ryland Blackinton said of Hot Mess, "We just wanted to make music that was fun and kinda make people just forget about whatever shitty problem they might be having during the week."^[11]

The band began its tour to promote the new album on August 3. The tour, called Hot Mess Across The US Tour, has 21 stops and features guests such as Friday Night Boys and DJ Skeet Skeet. After Plasticines dropped off the tour, Cobra Starship listed a number of candidate bands for the fans to vote for online in a blog; The Audition won.^[12] On their official video podcast (CobraCam.tv), the band released humorous tentative titles for the album (which parodies several other notable albums) "Griller", "Tha Ryland III", and variations of their ¡Viva La Cobra! album.

Cobra Starship played^[13] at a September 11, 2009 MTV Video Music Awards weekend competition and pre-party at The Fillmore at Irving Plaza. The competition was for The MTV "VMA Best Breakout New York City Artist Award", and took place before MTV Video Music Awards performers and in between performances from MTV Video Music Awards artists.^[14]

Cobra Starship appeared at "Los Premios MTV Latinoamérica 2009" along with Mexican star Paulina Rubio performing "Good Girls Go Bad" and "Ni Rosas Ni Juguetes". Cobra Starship and Paulina won an MTV Award for "Best Performance", for "Good Girls Go Bad" and "Ni Rosas Ni Juguetes" at the Los Premios MTV Latinoamérica 2009, voted by the public, beating other artist such as Shakira, Nelly Furtado, and Wisin & Yandel.

On February 4, 2010, Cobra Starship embarked on their first ever European tour named 'Hot Mess Across The EU-Niverse', which included the UK, Ireland, Germany, France and the Netherlands. When the tour ended on February 21, the band then traveled to Japan for a few shows, then onto Australia and New Zealand for the 'Wet Hot Australian Summer' Tour. The group also toured in Germany with I Heart Sharks and One Night Stand!. On February 5, 2010 it was announced that Cobra Starship and 3OH!3 would be embarking on a co-headlining tour called The Too Fast For Love Tour with opening acts Travis McCoy, The Lazarus Project and I Fight Dragons. The tour ran from April 28 in Milwaukee, WI, until June 13 in Asbury Park, NJ.

Along 2010 the band collaborated with the UK singer Alexandra Burke in one of the songs of her debut album's Deluxe Edition, "Overcome". The song is called "What Happens On The Dancefloor", and keeps the vibe of their previous single "Good Girls Go Bad".

[edit] Night Shades (2011–present)

Cobra Starship canceled their 2011 Australian tour to finish up their fourth album, which they have been working on with Ryan Tedder and Kara DioGuardi. Gabe Saporta released a song off of the album, "Don't Blame the World, It's the DJ's Fault", on his Tumblr. A video was released of an eggplant with sunglasses and headphones getting made into eggplant Parmesan. The video is supposed to represent the album title. Gabe later announced via Twitter that the new album will be called Night Shades. The first single, "You Make Me Feel...", was released on May 10, 2011. The song features American singer/songwriter and rapper Sabi and was written and arranged by Kyle Howard. The music video premiered on Tuesday, June 28 on MTV. The band's official Twitter and Tumblr announced that the album will be out on August 30, 2011.^[15]

The group released Itunes Session - EP on August 23, containing four acoustic songs and an alternative version of "Fold Your Hands Child".

In promotion of the album, the band performed "You Make Me Feel..." on the MTV Video Music Awards pre-show with Sabi on August 28, 2011.

Night Shades was released on August 29, 2011 with the lead single "You Make Me Feel..."^[16] and also the three promotional singles. The first promotional single "#1Nite (One Night)" was released on July 26, 2011, The second promotional single "Fool Like Me (Feat. Plastiscines)" was released on August 9, 2011 and the third and final promotional single "Middle Finger (feat. Mac Miller)" was released on August 23, 2011.

Cobra Starship has recently contributed a cover of Buddy Holly's "Peggy Sue" for the Buddy Holly tribute album, Listen to Me: Buddy Holly (2011).

On September 9, 2011, Cobra Starship headlined the Fueled by Ramen 15th Anniversary show in New York's Terminal 5, with VersaEmerge, The Academy Is... and A Rocket to the Moon in support.^{[dated info]} In March 2012, Cobra Starship featured in the Australian touring rock festival Soundwave.

Discography[link]

• While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets (2006)
• ¡Viva la Cobra! (2007)
• Hot Mess (2009)
• Night Shades (2011)

Album appearances[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Spanish website