Rap-rock quintet 2 Mile Hill may be from Barbados like our beloved RiRi, but that’s not where the comparisons stop. On their latest EP Uncovered (out June 24), songs such as “Billion Dollars” and “It's Over” are power anthems. The five-song set is electric, sexy and dancey.

The group, made up of André (keyboardist), Chadd (drummer), Kris (bassist),Mahalia (lead vocalist) and Russell (guitarist) describe their sound thus: “[It has a] hip-hop foundation with driving guitars and a Caribbean influence, revealing lyrics and catchy, infectious hooks.” It’s a pretty spot on description, and having honed their live sets during performances with Wyclef Jean, Erykah Badu, Angie Stone and Damian Marley, the band just keeps leveling up. Today Myspace is excited to give you a first listen of the EP. Stream Uncovered and get to know 2 Mile Hill a little better below.

Hometown and homebase: Beautiful Bridgetown, Barbados. Although we do a lot of traveling, when we’re not on tour we get to come back home to the beautiful beaches of Barbados.

How did you all meet?

We met along the way over our school days, from secondary school to university and became friends in that time. Most of us actually started our relationships with music in church bands and choirs at a pretty young age. We decided to get together and jam for fun over the summer at university and we realized the vibe was just right. So we made it official.

Who’ve been your biggest musical influences?

We’ve got a lot of people who influenced us through the years, but the biggest influences would have to be Lauryn Hill and The Fugees, Usher, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jill Scott.

Your changed your name from NexCyx to 2 Mile Hill. Why?

When people ask us this, the first thing we do is ask them to spell Nexcyx (laughs). They always fail!! It’s a really hard name to say, to search for and remember. That’s been proven.

What does 2 Mile Hill mean?

We did a lot of brainstorming over finding a new name, and the idea to use the name of a place from Barbados our home came up. We started throwing a bunch of names of streets and neighborhoods in Barbados out there, and 2 Mile Hill kept popping up. We all thought it sounded really cool and decided to run with it.

Tell us about Uncovered and what you guys were thinking when making the album.

The name is a summary of what the songs are made up of. The lyrics and subject matter are based on actual personal experiences that we’ve had on our journey. It’s a look into our thoughts and feelings about these experiences that we wouldn’t have really shared with anyone but each other before now.

Does being from Barbados influence your music?

Our Caribbean heritage finds it’s way into our music in percussive rhythms and vocal phrasing. It lends well to recreating the music for our live shows where we can infuse reggae and other Caribbean genres.

Who would you love to collaborate with?

We would love to work with some of the international stars like Rihanna, J Cole, Anderson Paak and Busta Rhymes and then there are some sick artists from our region like Konshens, Chronixx and Machel Montano.

What do you do for fun?

We love liming (hanging out) together and having a drink. We watch and argue about sports. We like to make everything into a competition because someone has to win and be the best. Ultimately the loser has to take a shot of alcohol.

What's the craziest thing that’s happened to 2 Mile Hill as a band?

We played a concert in Jost Van Dyke in the Virgin Islands for Old Year’s Night (New Years Eve) and it got so wild that half the crowd got up on stage while we were performing. There was flashing and even complete nudity everywhere you turned. We had to stop performing to try to get the crowd off the stage because it was a safety issue.

If you were a hashtag, what would you be?

#SquadGoals