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" I am your homegirl, at the end of the day, but I also feel very... outside. So if you're finding solace in feeling outside with me, then we're good to go. "
Kelela
Day
I Am
Good
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" The most rewarding thing for someone like me is for someone else to find solace through my music. "
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" I want to empower. "
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" In the music industry, you can't create success without having to engage a white man. It's just not possible. Whether it's executives, A&Rs, and the people that hold the key to your paper, inevitably, you'll be met with whiteness. "
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" I would say Tracy Chapman was the first time I obsessed over an entire record. I knew every song; I knew the exact amount of seconds between each song. That's the level of obsession that I had. "
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" A black woman's handbook in this industry is, 'Whoa.' The chapter on 'Don't go there.' The chapter on 'How to say that nicely,' how to express that you don't like something so that you don't lose the opportunity - which is what we're doing all day long. "
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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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" It's been hard for me to nail visual language and personal style because I like so many different things. "
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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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" 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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Place
White
Values
" I would love to do an album of standards! "
Kelela
Love
Standards
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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. "
Kelela
Just
Say
Lot
" When I was little, my parents would have these gatherings, and it was a common thing for me and my cousins to have to put on, like, shows. "
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Put
Cousins
Parents
" 'Seat at the Table' has expressed real adversity, struggle, and also triumph and joy. "
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Struggle
Triumph
Real
" I think I'm taking risks and putting myself out there. "
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Out
Risks
Myself
" I was in school studying International Studies and Sociology. I was really into what was going on in school. I was affected by the ideas and engaged as a student, but not disciplined or motivated enough to do the work. That was a fear of mine for a while, that nothing was motivating. "
Kelela
Ideas
Enough
School
" 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
Me
You
Over
" 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. "
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Want
Feel
Boy
" Growing up, Missy Elliot and Janet Jackson were definitely major references. "
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Growing
Major
Up
" It definitely feels different to perform to people who know your music. Because people's feedback is not just, 'Oh my God, that was amazing. Who are you?' "
Kelela
You
God
Know
" 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. "
Kelela
Without
Sound
Always
" 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. "
Kelela
Like
Just
Life
" Innovating something that is familiar. That's the general approach, and that's what I want to do with the melody as well. It should ring true - you should like every melody sequence without knowing what's happening next. "
Kelela
Ring
Knowing
You
" That's pretty much how every song of mine works - I start with gibberish and melody and phrasing. I speak it naturally first. And then I think about lyrics that fit into that. "
Kelela
First
Start
Think
" I really do like Solange, sincerely. I'm down for her, and I trust her judgment. "
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Her
Down
Trust
" 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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Think
Us
Music
" I guess the bottom line is I don't make music that is consumed en masse. "
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Bottom
Line
Make
" Sounding like I have agency in a song is important to me. I want to feel empowered by the music. "
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Important
Feel
Me
" I like to try out different methods to get to good songs. "
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Good
Different
Like
" I've grown up feeling very American but being constantly bothered by people - there's internalized racism and feeling weird about being second-generation. "
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American
Feeling
People
" No one is making extraordinary things alone. They might be alone in their bedroom while they're recording or writing, but they didn't actually conjure that thing out of nothing - without influence - without assistance - without anything. "
Kelela
Writing
Out
Nothing