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" I like to try out different methods to get to good songs. "
Kelela
Good
Different
Like
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" I've always had this commitment to not being in one thing. "
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" I spent a lot of time in college. I was just being academic and discovering myself through reason and analysis. "
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" 'Take Me Apart' doesn't feel cohesive in a singular way but in a varied way. You can fixate on individual songs, and there are references from all over the place: Anita Baker to Bjork. I wanted to show all the facets of myself. "
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" How much closer can I get to the common ear, the mainstream, and how much it can still be from this other world, this other place? That's the line I keep trying to tread but have my wings extend more on both sides. "
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" I think my worst enemy was myself. It's like I've been in my own way more than anybody else has been. "
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" 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. "
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" 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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" The assumption is simply that I hit on all the things I've hit on so far by accident, that my talent is just this raw thing that pours out of me, and then white people feel like they have to come in and contain it, refine it, and bring it to the place where it can been released. "
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" Popular music was this abstraction - an abstraction that I was relating to immensely but was ultimately far away. "
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" I guess the bottom line is I don't make music that is consumed en masse. "
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" 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. "
Kelela
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Boy
" My music sounds like one synergised thing, one message. "
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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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" 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. "
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Black
Control
Trying
" Sometimes I learn by someone giving me warnings and giving me advice about what to do next. And other times, a lot of times, I have to put my hand into the fire. "
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" Music in the U.K. is not racialised in the same way as it is in the U.S. In the U.S.. it's more rigid and conservative. And white people in the U.K. have more close proximity with black people and people of colour in general. "
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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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Goal
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" I would say there is a zone of R&B that hadn't been quite innovative. "
Kelela
Quite
Would
Zone
" 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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" I'd like to change what people expect. I want to evoke something that's not nameable, for people to go, 'Huh?' "
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" 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. "
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" 'Seat at the Table' has expressed real adversity, struggle, and also triumph and joy. "
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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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" It means so much to be able to share myself with the world. "
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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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" 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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World
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" Sounding like I have agency in a song is important to me. I want to feel empowered by the music. "
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" Most artists are going into the studio for a fixed period of time, and they say that's their album. I can't relate, because I've never made music in that way. I come from a culture of editing and remixing. "
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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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