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" Even on my most angry song, I'm also still saying, 'Thank you for helping me to learn.' I've always wanted to give voice to that complexity in our experience. "
Kelela
Me
Saying
Experience
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" 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. "
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" I'm just tryna be honest about all the things that I dig in my music. It's not just this over here, it's also that over there. "
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" 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. "
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" Growing up in an Ethiopian household allowed me to feel like I had an audience before I had an audience. "
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" 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. "
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" I know my ticket is vulnerability. Most people point to some emotional experience, some hardship, some high or low when they talk about my music... a time when they need to feel those feelings more. "
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" As a black person on the outside, because there's so much black art and so much of black people's work circulating, so many people imitating what black people do, you would think that there'd be more black people on the business side. It didn't cross my mind that every label head, for the most part, is a white guy. "
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" We are - as artists, we are racialized through genre and called black - without being called black - through genre. "
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" I don't care about the underground, even if that's where I'm currently residing sonically. "
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" I'm quite scrutinous when it comes to who I put myself in the room with. "
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" I have something stupid, like, 12 credits, to graduate. "
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" There are no black women geniuses that are being named in canons. I could name a bunch, but it's not part of common knowledge. It's not how the world is taught to think about black women. "
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" I'm interested in bridging and filling in space that hasn't already been filled, so when it comes to making music, I've just always wanted to be able to reference things that producers in the big pop major label context do, without compromising the entire sound of the record. "
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" 'Seat at the Table' has expressed real adversity, struggle, and also triumph and joy. "
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" I really do like Solange, sincerely. I'm down for her, and I trust her judgment. "
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" 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. "
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" My queer black women peers are the ones who make me not feel crazy. The way we act is so instinctive. "
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" As it pertains to my black womanhood, there's just a lot of ground to cover. There's a lot of stuff to say. "
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" It's gratifying to hear something familiar and challenging at the same time. "
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Familiar
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" To me, the best writing points to something literal or common but is also nuanced: The moment when somebody is telling you they love you while simultaneously disappointing you. Everybody's experienced that. "
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" When I called 'Cut 4 Me' a mixtape, I was thinking about a few elements: One is used instrumentals. The project is more centered around introducing you to an artist; it's not meant to be seminal. It's 'Hi,' 'Hello,' a thing that you first hear. "
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" Growing up, Missy Elliot and Janet Jackson were definitely major references. "
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" 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. "
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" I'm finding out what part of punk culture or white indie culture I actually still want to hold onto - What are the values? What are the contributions that I actually like? - and it not coming from a place of desperation or wanting to be embraced or wanting approval, essentially. "
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" It is very rare that I am just coming up with melodies off the top of my head. I usually am responding to something - it could be chains dragging on the floor - but I am usually responding to something. "
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Off
" 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. "
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" I've always had this commitment to not being in one thing. "
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" As much as we like to pretend we're just getting on stage and whatever, it's like, no, I practiced in front of the mirror my whole life. "
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" I want to speak in the tradition of rhythm and blues and soul music, but also push how it's dressed and how it's delivered to the audience. And hopefully that gets embraced by as many people as possible, but the goal isn't necessarily to speak to everyone. The goal is to get it out as exact as it is in my head. "
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" 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. "
Kelela
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Trying