In this exclusive interview, GRAMMY-winning R&B artist Rae Khalil sits down with us to discuss her creative journey and future musical direction. Known for blending genres and breaking boundaries, Rae shares her approach to music creation—following what feels right and staying true to her artistry. She opens up about making her sophomore album Crybaby, embracing vulnerability and the depth behind its sound. Discover how she plans to continue exploring different genres in her upcoming projects and why authenticity remains at the heart of her work.
Ethan Ijumba: So, going into this right now, your recent album, CRYBABY, has a lot of different themes and elements, and it’s based on a lot of experiences from your own as well as others’ perspectives. It’s a very well-thought, in-depth album that you’ve got going on for yourself to come off with this. With that being said, were there any direct influences or inspirations that you’ve got from this album specifically? Because we see you play around with a lot of different genres and styles from New Age soul, a little bit of pop in there, some raps that you showcase that you’ve got verses in there as well. Was anything direct or indirect that influenced this album for what it became?
Rae Khalil: I think it’s kind of the opposite. Like you said, I wanted to tap into as many of the different multifaceted layers of R&B as possible and explore them. What are the different subgenres that I could explore? There was no album or anything that inspired the project. It was more so I wanted to showcase different varieties of styles of R&B that I could do. I think it turned out really fun.
EI: Going along with that, you’re already so multi-talented at what you do, like how you produce, make verses, rap, sing everything in the whole nine yards, and can dabble with instruments. Do you ever have a clear direction when you make these kinds of projects, or do you tend to let everything sit in at the time and let the moment come to you and go off there? Or is there any specific method or strategy that you have in creating music?
RK: I think the only strategy I would say is if it feels good, keep working on it. Then there’s this weird transition from feeling good to feeling right. Nothing’s ever right cause it’s subjective, but when it feels right, then you can’t let it go. But I think the fun part about making music is that excitement and exploration, discovering what feels right and feels good.
EI: For this album, you said you were trying to be as vulnerable as possible. You wanted to show the depth, layers, feelings, and emotions and wanted people to see that for once. With that being said, was there anything cathartic for you to actually show for yourself, allowing yourself to be vulnerable? Was this something new that you didn’t let yourself do before? Or was it just something you wanted to try differently and experiment with? What was the process with that?
RK: That’s a good question; I feel like it probably felt cathartic towards the end of the project, but while making it, I just felt like I was just so present, and then kind of piggybacking off the last question, I just wanted to make music that felt good to me, Something that I was proud of and I could stand on as being my first major label type of song.
Posted from: https://variancemagazine.com/features/14399-rae-khalil-interview
