REDWOOD’s track “Work,” featuring Brandon Rose, was also In Rotation and one of Jill’s top tracks for May 2021. Nkwelle and Snyder - who goes by REDWOOD, a spot-on family nickname - joined forces long-distance this summer to release their single “Dub” in July 2021, which earned a spot on Vocalo’s In Rotation playlist and Jill Hopkins’ top five favorite tracks for August 2021. With Snyder attending the Manhattan School of Music and Nkwelle at Juilliard, the duo hope to grab hold of any opportunity they have to grow as individuals and musicians during the remainder of their time in school.

Their friendship has since transcended high school drama and surpassed five hundred miles and four years in college to emerge where the two are now - on the precipice of moving to New York City together as jazz-focused grad students. “We liked the music the other made, and that pull became stronger than whatever pushed us away,” Nkwelle explained. Looking back now, at 22 years old, neither can recall what the root of their feud was - maybe their senses of humor were too similar, they speculate - or how exactly it fizzled out, but they think music has something to do with it. Their friendship, however, didn’t fit into place right away the two butted heads and even admitted they didn’t like each other at first. From the ninth grade on, Sequoia Snyder (aka REDWOOD) and Ekep Nkwelle knew they were fated to find one another.Īs freshmen at Washington, D.C.’s Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Snyder and Nkwelle felt their musical styles clicked pretty early on.

Sequoia growing up hip hop