Kelela Mizanekristos Quotes
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Often, I write to feel better and to heal - to cope with things that I'm dealing with. I'm either writing to get out of a feeling or to get into the feeling, to feel it more. Usually it's the perfect remedy, but if it isn't, I focus on other parts of what I'm making that don't involve writing. If neither are working, I simply forfeit the day.
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Sounding like I have agency in a song is important to me. I want to feel empowered by the music.
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No one is making extraordinary things alone. They might be alone in their bedroom while they're recording or writing, but they didn't actually conjure that thing out of nothing - without influence - without assistance - without anything.
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I would say there is a zone of R&B that hadn't been quite innovative.
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I'd like to change what people expect. I want to evoke something that's not nameable, for people to go, 'Huh?'
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I like smart rappers who aren't necessarily trying to be deeper than you, like Danny Brown.
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It's such a challenging time, and in my small way, I will make it so that other younger women, and maybe older women, will be able to do the things they want to do, and accept themselves and their experience.
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I've grown up feeling very American but being constantly bothered by people - there's internalized racism and feeling weird about being second-generation.
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I just want to shed light, illuminate and turn the spotlight over to all of the black people who have been being futuristic and innovative since instruments were plugged into a wall. With computers, machines, and music, black people have been contributing to that a great deal for a long time.
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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.
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To me, the best writing points to something literal or common but is also nuanced: The moment when somebody is telling you they love you while simultaneously disappointing you. Everybody's experienced that.
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When I started making songs, some of them read as mixtape-y, and some of them read as album-y.
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I'm pushing back against the white, misogynistic, heterosexual establishment in the music industry. Like, literally, in all its forms.
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I think the Internet is more layered and complex than just hating it or liking it. I find it to be more purposeful to talk about the way that it's conducive for relationships and making connections.
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A black woman's handbook in this industry is, 'Whoa.' The chapter on 'Don't go there.' The chapter on 'How to say that nicely,' how to express that you don't like something so that you don't lose the opportunity - which is what we're doing all day long.
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When I was little, my parents would have these gatherings, and it was a common thing for me and my cousins to have to put on, like, shows.
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The whole thing about 'progressive R&B' blows my mind. Black music has always been progressive.
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I'm just tryna be honest about all the things that I dig in my music. It's not just this over here, it's also that over there.
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A lot of people of color in the music industry are still more interested in embracing things that are considered white canon, and looking radical. Like when people point to punk in the indie world: If you point to the history of punk as what you see as your legacy, that's more prized and praised.
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I'm coming from the zone of Faith Evans, but with weird production.
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I'm just trying to soundtrack your real life. I'm just trying to give you a place to feel safe in all the parts of your experience.
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I've talked about that with friends, about what genre makes sense to choose for each record and the strategy around that... Sometimes it's more about the moment of time, and other times it's more about the sound of the song. Sometimes it's about what's going on in larger life, in politics.
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As it pertains to my black womanhood, there's just a lot of ground to cover. There's a lot of stuff to say.
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We don't want it to be obscure music. We're not trying to be indie. We want to be popular.