Listening to KeiyaA’s music is like travelling through time, space and psyche: a self-actualising odyssey of sound where anything goes. What lies at the end of the journey is up to you – but with the Chicago-born artist, you couldn’t hope for a better guide to get you there.
Text:Thomas Hobbs
“ENERGY IS DEFINITELY SOMETHING I SUBSCRIBE TO,” says KeiyaA, speaking down a hissing phone line from her home in New York. “But my music isn’t so much about releasing my demons. It’s about facing up to them without fear.”
In March 2020, the singer and multi-instrumentalist producer released her stunning debut, Forever, Ya Girl. Over the course of its 16 tracks, it attempts to transform issues such as heartbreak and anxiety into pearls of wisdom.
The record includes moments of overwhelming vulnerability, which channel both romantic heartbreak and the pain of being subject to America’s deep-rooted systemic racism: “Why won’t you love me? I’m so damn easy to love” are some of the first lyrics you hear on it. Elsewhere, conversational highlight ‘Every N***a Is a Star’ is built around the stirring philosophy: “Long as you respect me, I couldn’t care less if you like me.” Forever, Ya Girl is full of enchanting transitions, as KeiyaA – real name Chakeiya Richmond – walks down the path of self-actualisation.
Created largely in isolation from her Brooklyn apartment, the album, in her own words, is about turning darkness into light – something confirmed in song on ‘Nu World Burdens’, when she angelically coos about “being one” with her “blackest fire”. It’s no surprise that these confessional tracks have provided solace and comfort to so many struggling during lockdown. Among the raft of her vocal supporters is JAY-Z, who added two of the album’s songs to his Tidal ‘Best of 2020’ playlist. ↘ KeiyaA grew up in a Chicago household where you’d hear ghettotech anthems as well as records such as Erykah Badu’s Baduizm and John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme. While studying jazz at college, she played alto saxophone. It makes sense, then, that she has developed an eclectic sound that is difficult to pigeonhole: smooth sailing, Brandy-esque R&B jams disintegrate into pitch-black pockets of sketchy synths. But these shifts in tone lend the 29-year-old’s music an addictive unpredictability.
Her genre-blurring songs manage to feel both anachronistic and future-facing – like neo-soul broadcast from outer space. KeiyaA truly owns her weirdness, resulting in the same magnetic pull of eccentric pop leaders like Badu, Kate Bush, Dr. John and George Clinton. Muc
