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" I've always had this commitment to not being in one thing. "
Kelela
Being
Always
One Thing
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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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Me
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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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Change
Expect
Go
" I'm definitely seeking to challenge tropes. "
Kelela
Challenge
Seeking
Definitely
" It's such a challenging time, and in my small way, I will make it so that other younger women, and maybe older women, will be able to do the things they want to do, and accept themselves and their experience. "
Kelela
Small
Accept
Time
" 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. "
Kelela
Black
Communication
Hair
" 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. "
Kelela
World
You
Women
" 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
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Say
Lot
" Anyone who understands anti-racist work, a white person specifically, understands that it is not black people's responsibility, or any person of color's responsibility, to dismantle the structures that keep white people in positions of power. We do our job to thrive, to survive. To protect ourselves, to sit together and feel better and to heal. "
Kelela
People
Job
Responsibility
" 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. "
Kelela
Way
White
People
" 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. "
Kelela
Culture
Black
Men
" I want to empower. "
Kelela
Want
Empower
" 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. "
Kelela
Mom
Wedding
Think
" 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. "
Kelela
Reality
Government
Experience
" 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
Us
Music
" I'm coming from the zone of Faith Evans, but with weird production. "
Kelela
Production
Zone
Coming
" 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. "
Kelela
Say
Culture
They Say
" Often, I write to feel better and to heal - to cope with things that I'm dealing with. I'm either writing to get out of a feeling or to get into the feeling, to feel it more. Usually it's the perfect remedy, but if it isn't, I focus on other parts of what I'm making that don't involve writing. If neither are working, I simply forfeit the day. "
Kelela
Writing
Perfect
Focus
" 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. "
Kelela
Time
First Time
Obsession
" 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.' "
Kelela
Girl
I Am
Struggle
" 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. "
Kelela
Opportunity
Day
Black
" I want to soundtrack people's layered feelings. "
Kelela
Soundtrack
Feelings
People
" 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. "
Kelela
Up
Growing
Everything
" 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
" We are - as artists, we are racialized through genre and called black - without being called black - through genre. "
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Artists
Without
Through
" 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. "
Kelela
Art
Mind
Business
" 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. "
Kelela
Love
Best
Moment
" 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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Me
You
Over
" It means so much to be able to share myself with the world. "
Kelela
Myself
World
Share
" 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
" 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