Amanda Perez

If you looked at her first, the last thing you'd expect to hear from "Lady Thug" Amanda Perez is "Candy Kisses," a sticky R&B jam that layers aw-shucks lyrics, syrupy melodies and screwed vocals over a backing track that sounds like a music box. The 29-year-old Perez prefers wearing baggy jeans, gold chains and baseball caps, but her breakthrough singles, Angel, a mournful ode to a cousin who died from heart problems, and I Pray, a low-tempo, piano-driven tearjerker, are more sweet than street.

A Mexican-American raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Perez learned to play the drums, piano, guitar and bass as a kid before developing her vocal chops as a member of Tejano group Sombra Chicana USA. She now has three albums under her belt – Where You At, Angel, I Pray – and although she may not have mega-charting singles like former unknowns Hurricane Chris and Down aka Kilo, the popularity of the homebrew "Candy Kisses" video on YouTube points to a huge underground following which could sweep her into the mainstream.

see: myspace.com/ theoneandonlyamandaperez