Julianne Escobedo Shepherd

Seventeen-year-old 'round-the-way-girl Teairra Mari's airy but rock-solid soprano and wanton girl-next-door charm have earned her the title "Princess of the Roc" and landed her a spot in Jay-Z's Midas whip. And for that she can thank her lyricist dudes: They've got teen-anxiety zeitgeist down. Teairra tears through juicy jilted-girl anthems...

Everybody loves a good epic musical performance. Unfortunately, there are usually two problems with Broadway-scale productions: 1) They're normally held in arenas, which carry high ticket prices; and 2) highfalutin productions are often employed by acts whose music is the equivalent of slow torture. The Epoxies, however, defy the paradigm...