Karma

Karma-Ann Swanepoel first rose to national acclaim as part of Henry Ate, a South African band whose 1997 release, Slap in the Face, became one of the biggest South African releases of the late 1990s. Following a change in record companies, however, Swanepoel decided to drop the band's name to reflect the fact that such releases were, by and large, her solo work. Retaining only guitarist Julian Sun from the original lineup of Henry Ate, she recorded and released her second album -- which doubled as her first solo album under the "Karma" moniker -- in 1998. Entitled One Day Soon, the album was a South African success, thanks largely to the popularity of the title track. A second solo release, Torn & Tattered, followed two years later. Karma left South Africa in 2003 and resettled in America, opting to pursue her solo career while based in Los Angeles. Although her music was largely inspired by folk and rock, hip-hop fans took notice in 2008 when Karma sued Lil Wayne over his unlicensed sampling of her music.