Kelela

Black Women Are Bringing The World Into Their Dance Music Universe

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black women in dance music beyonce pinkpantheress kelela
Getty Image/Merle Cooper

Modern Black femme artists are reveling in the spoils of dance music reentering the mainstream, not that it hasn’t been here all along. Staking claim to 1990s house music were vocalists Caron Wheeler, Robin S., Cece Peniston, and Crystal Waters, who often melded gospel tones with club-oriented production. Janet Jackson ruled the dancefloor with energetic choreography, disruptive sounds bespoke to her album-to-album evolution, and lyrics that prioritized her largely queer fanbase. Over time, Black women have seen the futurities of a genre that they shaped and, rightfully, continue to shift.

Breaking new ground for underrepresented dance communities was Beyoncé’s seventh album, Renaissance, which made the music icon the first Black woman to win a Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album. The masterpiece was Beyoncé’s first dalliance with an album concept of escapism, heard throughout its pulsating, 16-track rush. Post-Renaissance, the dance phenomenon has been ongoing, with Black women bringing the underground to the mainstream field on a grand scale.

The movement will only go further as artificial intelligence, techy aesthetics, counterculture parties and the return of true remix albums take the forefront. Renaissance was just the reintroduction, and perhaps a reawakening, for audiences to sit up and take notice of the contemporary Black female artists who’ve been on the dance music moodboard for years.

Perhaps matriarchal of the progressive Black dance culture resurgence, Kelela envisions an underground nirvana that underrepresented and queer communities can thrive in. Introduced to some as an alt-R&B vocalist who had not one but two guest features on Solange’s 2013 Saint Heron compilation, the D.C. native took shape on her cutting-edge debut mixtape, Cut 4 Me, released just one month before.

Kelela kept pushing creativity within her Warp Records collection, whether brief but potent (Hallucinogen), sexily haunting (Take Me Apart), or a masterclass in nightclub liveliness and comedowns (Raven). On the first anniversary of Raven, the LP got a remix edition, Rave:n, the Remixes, a pastiche to Take Me a_Part, the Remixes, because it isn’t a Kelela album rollout without her highlighting top-notch producers. Leading the new dance frontier with seductive vocals and sounds that bend subgenres, Kelela adventurously forms new worlds.

The music of pop and alt-R&B heroine Tinashe became enshrouded in dance-forward grooves after her 2019 split from RCA Records. Although the singer released three albums with the label, including her 2014 debut Aquarius, which featured the smash “2 On,” Tinashe had creative differences with RCA, along with inadequate promotion. Freed from depending on major label support, 2019 marked the year of reinvention for Tinashe, who channeled her early 2010s mixtape run on her first independent album, Songs for You.

The release was a salve from the choppy rollouts of Tinashe’s prior three albums, as she directly reintroduced the vibes to her fanbase, whom she affectionately calls ‘SweeTees.’ Songs like “Stormy Weather,” “Save Room for Us,” “Die a Little Bit” and “Perfect Crime” leaned on candied dance-pop and electronic, making it a hint towards the preternatural and psychedelic 2021 album 333 and the experimental LP BB/Ang3l, which dropped last year.

Embracing the latest technology – Tinashe used VR headsets in her 333 launch – and maintaining a highly-choreographed aesthetic, she recently brought viewers into her visual album and virtual performance, The BB/Angel Experience. Featured on the rapid new single “Zoom” with electronic/IDM producer Machinedrum, Tinashe’s just getting restarted, and we’re all bearing witness to her infallible ride through the dance space.

Dallas-born and raised artist Liv.e expands her radical take on R&B into hints of electronic and drum and bass on her sophomore album, Girl in the Half Pearl. From neo-soul roots (some liken her style to Erykah Badu, pioneer of the subgenre), Liv.e went from SoundCloud beginnings into groundbreaking status, with GITHP teetering between twitchy ballads and unconventional post-breakup cure-alls.

The LP was an aperture to its own electronic remixed version, GITHPREMIXEDITION, entirely produced by fellow Dallas native Ben Hixon, with Liv.e being tapped as a feature on Kelela’s Rave:n, the Remixes. Putting her own spin on dance, Liv.e makes listeners agog to hear what world she’ll bring us into next.

Overseas, noteworthy Black female artists in the UK are making a statement in dance music, essentially, due to the genre connecting to British audiences at the turn of the ‘90s. Nearly three decades later, we’ve met international sensation PinkPantheress, who found her footing on TikTok, where she hybridized garage, drum and bass, and syrupy hyperpop. Racking up fandom for her loosies on the social media platform offered PinkPantheress worldwide recognition. While she topped the charts with Ice Spice (“Boy’s a Liar Pt. 2”), she hasn’t compromised her energetic and quirky appeal.

Deconstructed club, alt-pop, and grime darling Shygirl opened the doors to Club Shy, her latest EP, where the South Londoner brought the masses into her saucily warped universe. Months before Shygirl unveiled the project, she caught the attention of Beyoncé, who gave her a spot as an opener on a London stop of the Renaissance World Tour. Apart from her Tinashe-assisted single “Heaven,” Shygirl was also on Rave:n, the Remixes, laying claim to the JD. Reid remix of “Holier,” where she traded rhapsodic notes with Kelela.

Skilled junglist, music producer, DJ, and vocalist Nia Archives touches upon drum and bass, and dancehall in her fearless works. She deejayed and freely danced alongside Jorja Smith last year when she dropped her since-viral take on Smith’s “Little Things,” and she’s kept us partying for the last five years. Since giving us a masterclass on breakbeats and global flair on EPs Headz Gone West, Forbidden Feelingz, and Sunrise Bang Ur Head Against Tha Wall, she’ll explore deeper dance terrain on her debut album Silence Is Loud, due next month.

Black women in all scopes of dance music — we’d be remiss not to mention amapiano, industrial, and Jersey club — are elevating it past its outdated boundaries. Motion in the wide-ranging genre will persist as long as we welcome diverse perspectives because the rise in Black femme-forward dance isn’t a reclamation; the space has always been ours.

Kelela Applies The Pressure In Her New Video For ‘Enough For Love’

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Still hot off the release of her sophomore album, Raven, Kelela has shared a new music video. Her latest visual accompanies “Enough For Love.”

On this song, she seeks to permeate her man’s ego, and challenge him to invite the feelings of love in. She repeatedly asks, “Are you tough enough for love” in the song’s chorus.

In the video, she is seen dancing in her home, alongside her partner. The walls then come down, and she is floating on a mattress in the middle of the ocean. In other scenes, she whispers in the man’s ear, asking “are you tough enough for love.”

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Kelela revealed that the inspiration for the album wasn’t found within one singular person. However, she understands why some people might come to that conclusion, given how ingrained archaic masculinity is in the male mind.

“Male behavior is so patterned that it will have you thinking that each song is about the same person,” she said. “I had to tell somebody, ‘When you hear the record, you’re going to think that the songs are about this situation, but that’s how patterned y’all’s behavior be.’”

You can watch the “Enough For Love” video above.

Kelela Shined Bright In A Performance Of ‘Enough For Love’ On ‘Fallon’

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At long last, Kelela‘s sophomore album, Raven is upon us. Yesterday, she finally released Raven nearly six years after her critically-acclaimed debut, Take Me Apart. To celebrate this milestone, Kelela paid a visit to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where she performed a Raven album cut, “Enough For Love.”

On the song itself, Kelela addresses the hypermasculine tendency for men to reject affection and softness. However, she reiterates that the toughest thing anyone can do is to welcome and invite in love.

“‘You forgot about us / But you’re not alone, not alone / Are you tough enough for love? / Give it up /But you forgot about us / No, you’re not alone, not alone / Are you tough enough for love? / You’re tough enough, not enough for love,” she sings on the song’s chorus.

During the performance, she wore shimmering make-up, with her hair styled up in a platinum-blonde bob. Though she was not joined by a backing band, her soft, silky vocals carried the performance, as she sang against a backdrop depicting a beautiful sunrise.

In a recent interview with New York Times, Kelela revealed the healing process behind crafting the melodies and lyrics for Raven.

While she didn’t set out to create a specific theme for the record, she wanted to write lyrics to “help Black femmes heal,” she said. “It’s gotta be a lyric that Black and brown women and nonbinary people, marginalized people, can scream in their cars on the way to work a job that they actually don’t want to do.”

You can watch the full performance above.

Raven is out now via Warp. You can stream it here.

Kelela Shares ‘Washed Away,’ Her First New Song In Five Years

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At long last, Kelela has returned with new music. Her new single, “Washed Away” is her first release in five years, on which, she sings with her signature calming, silky vocals over a hypnotic instrumental.

“I love a banger, but for the first point of contact out of my hiatus, it felt more honest to lead with an ambient heart-check,” Kelela said in a statement.

On the song, she sings, “The mist, the light, the dust that settles, the night / The hope, the longing, fade away, blurry-eyed / Riding out on metal waves / Moving on, a change of pace.”

The song is accompanied by a music video, which was directed by Yasser Abubeke, in which Kelela is seen in the Danakil Depression in Ethiopia, standing in solitude as she feels the sun beaming onto her. Elsewhere in the video, she swims in the Danakil waters.

“I specifically want to speak to marginalized Black folk and highlight the work we do to find renewal in a world that’s built to make us feel inadequate,” She said. “This song is the soundtrack to the relief we find after going inward.”

While this song is more of a downtempo track, Kelela took to Twitter upon the song’s release to assure fans “the bangers are on the way.”

Check out “Washed Away” above.