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What is your first musical memory?

My dad was a rapper, so I grew up in a very musical household. I don’t ever remember music not being there. In middle school, my dad first played Donny Hathaway for me. That’s an important memory.

How would you describe the difference between the sound of your first two projects—‘The Many Alter Egos of Trill’eta Brown’ (2016) and ‘This Too… (2019)’—and the music that you’re making now? You’re older and newer work is even labeled differently on Apple Music: neo-soul versus R&B/soul. 

I’m more confident now and you can hear it in my music. I’m more decisive and empowered. Where I might have dabbled in something previously, I’m more committed to my ideas now.

You wrote your track ‘Ratchet Rhonda’ on ‘The Many Alter Egos of Trill’eta Brown’ from the perspective of the character of Yvette (played by Taraji P. Henson) from the 2001 film ‘Baby Boy’. As someone who is a writer first, how did you take familiar stories like this and modernize them?

My ex-husband produced a lot of that album. I was kind of confined by his sound, which is very different to mine. My dad produced ‘Ratched Rhonda’. Working with him gave me the permission to be more creative, bolder. I grew up on hip-hop, which is explicit and references things that have meaning to me. Leaning on things that have more cultural significance lends itself to better writing.

While ‘Madison Tapes’ uses audio recordings to tie together its narrative, your album ‘Remember Your North Star’ (2022) uses poetry…

The poems are there to help move the album along. They express the little nuances that the songs don’t quite say, and help to craft the story.

‘big daddy ya’ and ‘mama love her son’, two tracks on ‘Remember Your North Star’ feel like companion pieces in a lot of ways. They both analyze misogyny, but from different vantage points. How do both of those songs work in tandem with the album’s theme, while also speaking to your own lived experience? 

Men are always at the center of everything, all the time [laughs]. Our relationship to men is always what’s defining us. I’m at a point in my life where I’m just trying to give myself permission to be who I came here to be, regardless of my relationship to a man.

I had this conversation with a friend of mine years ago. She said that her mother taught her not to trust women. As a result, she also learnt not to trust herself. I was raised by a very misogynistic woman. I’ve experienced a lot of misogyny from men and women. I don’t really want to be angry at anyone about it, I just want to be okay, and find my own way to feel safe again. I have to be able to trust life, my own discernment, and the ability of myself and others to heal. I need to have faith in an alternate reality to the one I’ve experienced and, as a writer, I have to be able to write about that.