Kelela

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.'”

“I want to soundtrack people's layered feelings.”

“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.”

“The act of me just being robust in the world is so radical - it's so radical for a black woman to think she's going to be a star, because it takes so much to get there. It's still a battle every day, but I feel happy because I feel like I cracked the code and figured out how to work through it. Now I want to give the map to other women.”

“Even on my most angry song, I'm also still saying, 'Thank you for helping me to learn.' I've always wanted to give voice to that complexity in our experience.”

“Most of my friends, growing up, were upper-middle-class white kids, so it was a different reality at home both culturally and linguistically. It created a lot of insecurities for me, but it also did a lot of amazing things that I didn't know were happening at the time.”

“It's gratifying to hear something familiar and challenging at the same time.”

“I really do like Solange, sincerely. I'm down for her, and I trust her judgment.”

“The whole thing about 'progressive R&B' blows my mind. Black music has always been progressive.”

“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.”

“I spent a lot of time in college. I was just being academic and discovering myself through reason and analysis.”

“I think my worst enemy was myself. It's like I've been in my own way more than anybody else has been.”

“Self-care is a requirement.”

“Sounding like I have agency in a song is important to me. I want to feel empowered by the music.”

“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.”

“I've grown up feeling very American but being constantly bothered by people - there's internalized racism and feeling weird about being second-generation.”

“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.”