Curtis Waters' woozy indie electronic productions started appearing on music-sharing sites in 2016. Often working with rappers, he soon started performing his own vocals on genre-crossing, lo-fi electronic pop tracks. His first full-length release, Prom Night 2018, appeared in 2019, but his breakthrough came in 2020 with the social media smash "Stunnin'" featuring Harm Franklin.

Born in Nepal and spending parts of his childhood in India, Germany, Nepal, and Canada, Waters' family settled down in Cary, North Carolina when he was 17. His early, collaborative home recordings (2016's "WastingTime/Roaches" featuring Tapper, the next year's "Hot Boy Anthem" featuring rapper Harm Franklin) checked all the cloud rap boxes with their simple beats, dreamy lo-fi sounds, and quirky detailing. In the meantime, he produced tracks for Harm Franklin and like-minded artists including Fuji Frank.

Finding a modest but reliable streaming audience with his songs, he issued the 12-track Prom Night 2018 in May of 2019. Its guests included Chio, Mileena, and, again, Harm Franklin. Waters continued to share original songs and production work for others on a near-monthly basis until he went viral with May 2020's "Stunnin'," which found traction as a social media video. Also featuring Franklin, it collected tens of millions of plays within weeks. He followed it up with the more aggressive, anti-establishment "System," which appeared on the full-length Pity Party later that year. He returned in early 2021 with the infectious single "Doodooodooo." ~ Marcy Donelson, Rovi