When success finally arrives and opens up new possibilities, how many can handle the pressure of that stretch? hooke’s law, keiyaA’s second album is a collection of answers and reflections on this question, exploring how life changes and remains the same when one wins over critics, peers, and the world. In her debut for XL Recordings, following her breakthrough with milk thot, the Chicago-based singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist draws on her jazz roots—gained through a parallel education—while remaining part of the hip-hop generation to expand the scope of the R&B and soul she creates, adding auto-tune or jungle breaks to the complex and ambitious equation.
Earlier, her creative drive took her from the American Midwest to the East Coast: after serving as a saxophonist in sessions with emerging artists of the time such as Mick Jenkins, Chance The Rapper, Noname, and Vic Mensa, New York and its vibrant music scene (specifically at the intersections of jazz, rap, and experimental music) empowered her to finally break free in 2020. On Forever, Ya Girl, she sought the respect of producers like Madlib while simultaneously fighting the possibility of being evicted; with an SP-404 and a microKORG in her arsenal, the sound became a concrete vision of the traces that Loop Digga, Erykah Badu, or Solange left in the atmosphere.
While on her albums she surrounds herself primarily with her own work (the exception being rapper RahRah Gabor on “this time”), the community spirit reveals itself in other ways outside of that: she produced three tracks for weight of the world, MIKE’s album, remixed tracks by Nubya Garcia, Nilüfer Yanya, Bartees Strange, or Kokoroko, and added soul to songs by Armand Hammer, Maxo, Loraine James, E L U C I D, or Mount Kimbie. These are inner and outer explorations in avant-garde adventures alongside some of the leading figures in electronic music and less conventional rap from different continents.
The intentional disorientation of the debut album gave way to a certain rigidity (also intentional) on the second full-length: the setup (whether in terms of equipment—Octatrack, modular synthesizers, and Ableton—or lifestyle) shapes the music, and that’s what we hear across the 19 tracks, reminding us that she’s a contemporary of Kelela, Yaya Bey, and Erika de Casier without making us forget who’s speaking to us. Someone who hates landlords (“i h8 u”) or someone who just wants to have fun in good company (“k.i.s.s”), for example. But also someone who has studied and immersed herself in parts of the discographies of Kanye West (from 808s & Heartbreak), Nine Inch Nails, Aaliyah, Brandy, Air, Michael Jackson, or the Brazilian Fernanda Dias.
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