With the massive amount of collaborations that occur in the music industry, the “featured” artists are frequently overlooked. Well, only overlooked if their name isn’t Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, T-Pain, Timbaland…. As music fans, it is your duty to bring attention to these worthy unknown artists or say goodbye to unearthing those dime a dozen talents, like singer/songwriter Bruno Mars. Yes, Mr. Mars was behind-the-scenes for some time before catapulting to justified stardom.

On the verge of following in Mars’ footsteps is singer/songwriter Eric Turner, also known as the vocalist in the platinum single, “Written In The Stars”. Turner worked with Tinie Tempah on this track as well as with Lupe Fiasco on “Break The Change”. Turner’s vocal range merges rap and indie rock fans together, eliminating the notion that you are “copping” out as a rock fan when listening to “Written In The Stars” and visa versa. Tempah, Lupe and Turner have teamed up again for “Angels & Stars”, which is the lead single from Turner’s upcoming debut album on Capital Records. Produced by Eshraque “iSHi” Mughal, the song will allow Turner to step in front of the rap curtain.

You can check out the behind-the-scenes footage for the official video for “Angels & Stars, which was shot in Los Angeles by director P.R. Brown (Skylar Grey, John Mayer, Alicia Keys). The video includes clips of Turner filming the street art inspired video, along with appearances by Lupe and Tempah.

Turner’s debut album will drop mid-2012. In preparation for the upcoming release, you Shockya readers should make room in your playlists, right where a rock song switches to a rap track. His tunes will be the perfect transitional sentence, you were never able to grasp in high school.

by Lonnie Nemiroff