Idol Chatter & Voice Views

His audition: Malik Davage, 23, of Washington, D.C., auditioned with “Sure Thing” by Miguel. His hip-hop vibe prompted a pretty quick chair turn from Adam Levine, but none of the other coaches followed.

His background: Malik grew up in a rough part of D.C. “As a kid, it just made me want to get out,” he said. Complicating matters, his father has been in prison since Malik was 2 years old. Malik says to him, “singing is life.” Since “it’s not easy to make it in music,” he also works as a sales associate at a clothing store. He also has a young daughter and said his blind audition was the first time she saw him perform on stage.

What the show didn’t show:

* Malik’s bio on The Voice website says his brother, classmates and teachers encouraged him to pursue singing at a young age. He was named to the all-city honors choir in middle school.

* He’s already released a pair of singles, “Love You Now” from 2015 and “All Night Long” from last year. You can check out both below.

* You can listen to more of Malik’s music on his Soundcloud page, which includes covers of Chris Brown’s “Liquor” and Def Loaf’s “Me, U and Patron.”

* On Facebook, he lists his major influences as 1990s R&B and neo soul music.

* Malik appeared on BET’s 106 & Park and won their Wild Out Wednesdays competition in 2013. You can check out some of those performances on his YouTube channel.

* Malik said other major musical accomplishments include opening for Monica (Brown) in 2015 and performing at halfime at a Washington Wizards NBA game.

* Malik said he was quite content to land on Team Adam via a one-chair turn. “Adam is one of the guys who I listened to growing up,” he said. “And knowing that he’s worked with so many different artists that I’ve listened to, it’s just one of those situations where I can say, ‘Okay, well he turned his chair. And if I don’t get another chair to turn, well this is one of my best options.”

Keeping up with Malik:
Twitter: @MalikDavage
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube

All Night Long (original single) — Explicit lyric warning

Love You Now (original single) — Explicit lyric warning