In Rotation: Miles Caton

If you sat in a theater last year watching Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, the booming vocal tone coming out of the character Sammie probably rattled your ribs. That was Miles Caton. He played the preacher’s son who traded salvation for a resonator guitar, but the 21-year-old Brooklyn native wasn't entirely acting. He’s gospel royalty—the son of powerhouse vocalist Timiney Figueroa. He’s the twelve-year-old kid whose viral Nina Simone cover ended up sampled on the opening of Jay-Z's "4:44". He was singing background on tour for H.E.R. before he even held a high school diploma. Caton spent the last year sweeping up awards for his film debut and co-writing soundtrack cuts with Ludwig Göransson and Raphael Saadiq. Now that the red carpets are rolled up, he is back to his primary calling. He inked a deal with Columbia Records in March, dropped his major-label debut "Don't Hate Me," and immediately followed it up with a new single called "Lean On." The track is a masterclass in vocal weight. Caton has this piercingly deep delivery that carries the grit of the 1930s Mississippi blues he studied for Coogler, layered over modern alternative R&B production. The bassline hums right beneath his lower register. When the chorus hits, he stacks his own background vocals into a massive, church-hewn choir. We spend a ridiculous amount of time in modern R&B trying to manufacture soul with plugins and vocal fry. When a kid who actually grew up in the pews opens his mouth and just lets it rip, it exposes how thin the rest of the landscape has gotten. Caton sings like he has a mortgage and a lifetime of regrets, which is wild for a guy who just turned 21. The ecosystem is catching up to the pedigree. "Lean On" just slid into Spotify’s YAMS playlist at number 11, and independent radio programmers from Philly’s WKDU to the Twin Cities' KCMP are throwing it into heavy rotation. Good music always finds the light. Hit play below.