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Singer/songwriter Karina Nistal is known to align herself with diverse and solid collaborations to showcase her extensive range. Her work consists of emotive jazz vocals on downtempo tracks, rapping in Spanish for the worldly sounds of reggaeton, or fusing soulful Latin vocals with lively dance music. But most significantly, it is a vibrant charisma that carries over her poetic musings in either English or Spanish, or her matter of fact delivery of self-assured flirtatious rhymes. There's a very fine line between poetry and rap, but it's one that only Karina interconnects with finesse.
Music captivated the native Houstonian at an early age. Karina indulged in old school hip hop, rhythm & blues, soul and jazz. But it was Karina's mixed Hispanic heritage (Mexican and Cuban) that spotlighted Latin styles-traditional mariachi folk music and the Afro-Cuban beats of salsa. After taking piano lessons, ballet and tap dance, these creative elements would contribute to Karina's true aspirations of singing, songwriting and recording.
By the late 98’, Karina seriously took on singing and got busy with projects on StarlightBeats, Rebel Crew's Joe B. and Lion808, Elliott Ness and on numerous other ventures. The following year, Starlight's production team added Karina onto their roster and helped give her more depth as a developing artist. She also doubled as a Starlight dancer, embellishing their live showcases with fly dance moves.
Her first production and vocals were featured on a single, "Saturday Night," off Traxx from the Waxx, Vol. 1 (Starlight), a CD compilation of hip, urban musicians. In 2002, U.K. dance duo Red Moon released "Beautiful/La Corrella," which features Karina's vocals over a tech-house tune. In 2003, she collaborated with dance music producer DJ Hal on "Sabrosura" and various other remixes including "Determination."
Released in 2004, Goodbye, an EP on Extensive Research, features the self-titled cut produced by OHNO, which features Karina with Wildchild of LootPack and Medaphoar. The flip gives you "Dependency"-a downtempo cut produced by DJ Still Wil-and the exclusive "Livin' It Up"-a disco/hip hop groover produced by DJ Zegon. In 2005, her breakout track was the hot remix version of Lady Saw's "I've got your Man" which Karina translated and recorded as "Tengo A Tu Hombre."
In late 2006 she released her full-length debut and bilingual album Nistyle on Starlightbeats which introduced the term "Reggaetron" (Electro-Reggaeton). Nistyle gives a fresh face to the growing "hurban" dance scene and earned Karina various career accomplishments in 2007. Last spring, Rock River Music pushed two singles off Nistyle, "Viviendo" and "Solido" that were used as Dodge Avenger promotions. “Viviendo” was featured at the 2007 Latin Billboards Music Conference while “Solido” is shown on various sites online as a commercial sponsored by Barrio 305.
Karina also earned the Houston Press Local Rap/Hip Hop Award for 2007 and the Best Latin Contemporary Award for 2008. Karina and her collective, Rebel Crew also toured the Middle East with Armed Forces Entertainment (AFE) in the Fall of 2007 to give morale and support the troops. Meanwhile, Karina stays on the grind, performing with her 8-piece live band of musicians at several festivals and cities all over Texas. She continues freestyling over many DJ's sets at local clubs, recording music and videos, collaborating with various top producers in the studio and hosting the Starbucks Mixed Media Museum parties. She has already started on her sophomore album, Nistalgia.  With seemingly a lot on her plate, the sultry, multi-faceted vocalist admits, "I want to do so much more!"