Ravyn Lenae: the future of R&B passes from the past
There are those who called it “a version of Azealia Banks immersed in honey” and those who have uncomfortable artists of the caliber of Billie Holiday and Lauryn Hill. Biosogna go slowly, with certain labels: they risk turning out more cross than delight. Better to let the talent speak: that of Ravyn Lanae, born in 1999, speaks for himself and basically does not need to be stamped, classified. At least for the moment. His “Love Me Not” is among the most delicious things produced by the US R&B scene in recent years and is rightly taking the success he deserves: on Spotify the single, released a year ago, but arrived at the head of the rankings slowly, like a diesel, has come to touch the 200 million streams.
Who is behind his success
The song turned on a lighthouse on the album “Bird’s Eye”, the second engraved by Lenae, released last summer and uncertain by international criticism, executed by Dacoury Dahi Natcheart name Dahinew Guru of US black music, already alongside maximum weights of the genre such as Kendrick Lamar, Steve Lacy and Sza. “Love Me Not” allowed the US singer -songwriter to make her debut in the Billboard 100, the weekly ranking of the most popular singles in the USA. Thanks to an irresistible mix between a pop refrain and decidedly black sounds: «For me, the melody is everything. It is the first thing I feel when I listen to the agreements, and from there the words come, or perhaps just a word, which then associate with a feeling and I build a story ». The song explores the complexities of a confused and chaotic situation, between desire and uncertainty: it tells the paradox of needing someone and at the same time wanting to free themselves of that someone. “I really had to push myself beyond the need to play tidy or perfect. And this is something I am learning, because music is much more fun when you can explore these different colors. And I want to be able to access the rainbow», She explained.
The impact of Janet Jackson
“Love Me Not” became viral on Tiktok at the beginning of this year thanks to a mash-up with Solange’s “Losing You”. But if there is a colleague against whom Lenae recognizes that he has a great artistic debt, well, that is Janet Jackson: «Janet is one of my greatest inspirations; She managed to merge R&B, alternative, rock and pop in the most beautiful and seamless way. I aspire to that my career is like this ». Born in Chicago, Illinois, as a mother originally from Panama (the grandfather was a member of a local doo wop group), Lenae is Raised in the coach Christian Reformed Church, an Ecclesiastical Calvinist Protestant Ecclesiastical Community. The paternal grandfather has been the shepherd of the community for thirty years.
The climb: from the church to the rankings
It is there that the singer -songwriter developed her talent, performing together with the church choir and on the occasion of the functions, to then perfect her studies at the Chicago High School for the Arts, where she took classical music lessons. In the second year of high school He spent 300 dollars for a studio session that would have produced his first single, “Greetings”. His first EP, “Moon Shoes”, was originally published in free download in August 2015, but when the singer -songwriter attracted the attention of Atlantic Records in 2016 he was republished. Major acted as a sounding board on her voice. The turning point came when Ravyn Lanae performed at South by Southwest in 2017, among the most important and prestigious musical fairs of the USA, frequented by a myriad of professionals. Shortly afterwards Rolling Stone USA inserted his name on the list of “10 new artists to know“. Now the challenge will be with herself, to keep your head on your shoulders and feet well planted on the ground:” I have to remain patient, diligent and concentrated: things will start changing for me “.
