Tamara Colletta Brown, better known as Tamar-kali, is an American rock singer-songwriter and composer born, raised and based in Brooklyn, New York. A second-generation musician through her father, who was a band leader and played bass and drums in local funk and soul bands, Tamar-kali developed a deep appreciation for her Gullah roots, a mixture of Indigenous Southern U.S. and West African customs and languages due to spending the summers of her childhood with her mother's family on St. Helena Island, South Carolina.

Raised Catholic, Tamar-kali attended Catholic school for 13 years, which she credits for her rebellious nature and sound. She grew up with an eclectic appreciation for music with influences from home and choral classical training at school. While in high school, she studied choral singing and music theory. She learned to play guitar and bass, and was mostly self-taught. Her musical inspirations include PJ Harvey, Grace Jones, The Mars Volta, Deftones, Betty Davis, Patti Smith, Archie Bell and the Drells, Ray, Goodman & Brown, Crown Heights Affair, Prince and Quicksand.

The "kali" in her performing name is inspired by the Hindu goddess Kali. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.