Sounding like I have agency in a song is important to me. I want to feel empowered by the music. Kelela Read Quote
I’d like to change what people expect. I want to evoke something that’s not nameable, for people to go, ‘Huh?’ Kelela Read Quote
I try to make it a sonic experience so that when you put your earbuds in or when you’re in your room, it sounds like an enveloping feeling. I think that is the most important thing, that wherever you are, it is wrapping you up and making you feel safe and comfortable. Kelela Read Quote
There are no black women geniuses that are being named in canons. I could name a bunch, but it’s not part of common knowledge. It’s not how the world is taught to think about black women. Kelela Read Quote
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. Kelela Read Quote
We are – as artists, we are racialized through genre and called black – without being called black – through genre. Kelela Read Quote
When I started making songs, some of them read as mixtape-y, and some of them read as album-y. Kelela Read Quote
The assumption is simply that I hit on all the things I’ve hit on so far by accident, that my talent is just this raw thing that pours out of me, and then white people feel like they have to come in and contain it, refine it, and bring it to the place where it can been released. Kelela Read Quote
My first reaction to being pigeonholed or pushed into certain confines is to be like, ‘No, I’m the opposite,’ you know? Like, don’t put me in a stereotypical black-girl category, because I’m not like that; I’m doing this thing over here. Kelela Read Quote
