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" I'm definitely seeking to challenge tropes. "
Kelela
Challenge
Seeking
Definitely
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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'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. "
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" When I started making songs, some of them read as mixtape-y, and some of them read as album-y. "
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" I want to empower. "
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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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" 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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" I just want to live in a world where I can tell a guy, 'This is the deal: I really want this. I really want you. But it's also not that deep.' "
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" Fog and one blue light is all I need in life at the club. Just a dark room and loud music. I'm into that. "
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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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" 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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" 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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Head
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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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" I've talked about that with friends, about what genre makes sense to choose for each record and the strategy around that... Sometimes it's more about the moment of time, and other times it's more about the sound of the song. Sometimes it's about what's going on in larger life, in politics. "
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" I really do like Solange, sincerely. I'm down for her, and I trust her judgment. "
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Down
Trust
" We are - as artists, we are racialized through genre and called black - without being called black - through genre. "
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" When I was growing up... I'm not going to say I listened to everything, but when it comes to vocals, I was really adamant about imitating all kinds of voices. "
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" I would love to do an album of standards! "
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" The goal is to blow the audience's mind. "
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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 whole thing about 'progressive R&B' blows my mind. Black music has always been progressive. "
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Mind
" I am not carefree. I'm just not. I experience an immense amount of joy, a crazy amount of joy through sadness and so much struggle. There's something problematic about 'carefree black girl.' "
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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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" 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 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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" 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. "
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" Something that I think extends to a lot of African cultures is that the line between performer and audience is blurry. My mom would lead the wedding song regularly, and she isn't a professional singer. Even as an audience member, you're expected to clap and sing the response to the lead. "
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" I like to try out different methods to get to good songs. "
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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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Think
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