Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" A lot of white men in the music industry are promoting and participating in black culture in a way that is pretty careless. They want the currency of blackness, but they don't want the brunt that comes along with that. "

Related Quotes:

" At the end of the day, I would like to have the farthest reach in terms of being able to communicate to as many people as possible. So it's not that I enjoy being obscure; it's that I sonically don't want to be situated here or there. "

Kelela

End

End Of The Day

People

" It means so much to be able to share myself with the world. "

Kelela

Myself

World

" When I started making songs, some of them read as mixtape-y, and some of them read as album-y. "

" I'm coming from the zone of Faith Evans, but with weird production. "

" I'm just trying to soundtrack your real life. I'm just trying to give you a place to feel safe in all the parts of your experience. "

" Most of my friends, growing up, were upper-middle-class white kids, so it was a different reality at home both culturally and linguistically. It created a lot of insecurities for me, but it also did a lot of amazing things that I didn't know were happening at the time. "

" In Maryland, I didn't grow up around poor white people. Where I grew up, the white people were middle class or upper-middle class. It's interesting how screwed up it is in reality, because most people who receive assistance from the government are white, but not in my head or in my experience. "

" I would love to do an album of standards! "

" We are - as artists, we are racialized through genre and called black - without being called black - through genre. "

" Growing up, Missy Elliot and Janet Jackson were definitely major references. "

Kelela

Growing

Major

" You can never have enough reinforcements, resources for black women to thrive in the world. The topic has been addressed a million times before, but it will never end because what we're up against keeps morphing, and we have to figure out how to beat it. "

" I think the Internet is more layered and complex than just hating it or liking it. I find it to be more purposeful to talk about the way that it's conducive for relationships and making connections. "

" I spent a lot of time in college. I was just being academic and discovering myself through reason and analysis. "

" I don't want you to feel defeated, like, 'Oh boy, why do you do this to me?' We have too many of those songs. "

" As a black woman, there's so much pride and communication through hair. It's naturally something that you are excited to embellish on and be creative about. "

" I'd like to change what people expect. I want to evoke something that's not nameable, for people to go, 'Huh?' "

Kelela

Change

Expect

" When it comes to melodies, production, and sound in pop music, people try to be formulaic and solely concerned with what's resonant in a way that is so cheap and ugly. It actually just devolves culture, ultimately. "

" I just want to shed light, illuminate and turn the spotlight over to all of the black people who have been being futuristic and innovative since instruments were plugged into a wall. With computers, machines, and music, black people have been contributing to that a great deal for a long time. "

" For those of us who make music together, I think it's important to realize that generosity on both sides is actually going to produce the biggest possibility. "

Kelela

Think

Music

" I do like things the way that I like them. But I'm trying not to be - I don't wanna be that way. I'm not a control freak; I wanna protect my agency. It's a weird question as a black woman. "

" There is this feeling among black artists that you have to be really careful. We're not inclined to talk about this stuff because, if we do, we put ourselves in a position where we're not marketable or where we can't win. "

" My first reaction to being pigeonholed or pushed into certain confines is to be like, 'No, I'm the opposite,' you know? Like, don't put me in a stereotypical black-girl category, because I'm not like that; I'm doing this thing over here. "

Kelela

You

Over

" I like smart rappers who aren't necessarily trying to be deeper than you, like Danny Brown. "

Kelela

Trying

Smart

" It's gratifying to hear something familiar and challenging at the same time. "

" Growing up in an Ethiopian household allowed me to feel like I had an audience before I had an audience. "

Kelela

Feel

Growing Up

" As it pertains to my black womanhood, there's just a lot of ground to cover. There's a lot of stuff to say. "

" I remember the day I first heard what Timbaland and Aaliyah did - that intersection of her pretty voice and his weird, resonant production. I remember where I was and what I was doing. It was a major situation. We're trying to continue that legacy. "

" I know deep down I'm a star. "

" I'm very into familiar things, popular things. I'm into things that no one seems to know about or be into. I'm trying to draw a line between those two things and make it clear... that it all makes sense to me. That it's not disparate. That it's all one thing inside me. "

" Before I collaborate, it's important that I have a conversation about what I care about before we make anything, so that it's very clear. "