The Girl Next Door: Ravyn Lenae

With a mic in hand in the middle of a party, she begins to bob.

She’s bright-eyed with pigtails, swaying side to side and belting every word of Beyonce’s “Baby Boy” with an unadulterated passion. Each confident “ooooh” she hits under the camcorder’s light makes one thing pretty clear despite the grainy, early 2000s footage—even at a tender elementary school age, this kid really feels the music and kindly demands that you join her in feeling it, too.

Over a decade later, an identical scene plays out on a New York stage. Bodies are crammed into muggy S.O.B’s on a rainy December night. Those lucky enough to see the stage stand firm in their places, while others contour their bodies behind inconveniently placed pillars to best catch a glimpse of that same Bey-belting Chicago wonder, Ravyn Lenae.

She saunters towards the light, flanked by bandmates and a giant sign with her name in case anyone dares to forget who is here to command your attention this evening. Hundreds of necks crane, iPhones ceremoniously rise to the occasion, and toes ache from the wait—but smiles stay put on the faces of fans finally able to catch a glimpse of Lenae, who before their eyes, is wrapping up the biggest year of her career. This time it isn’t a “Baby Boy” cover in the middle of the party, though. The 20-year-old Lenae sweetly sings through her own vulnerabilities—all in a powerful voice she’s been warming up for years.

While her name may be new to many, Lenae—born and raised in Chicago—has dedicated much of her life to preparing for the stage.

“My grandma got me a guitar for my birthday when I was 8 or so. That was the first time I was introduced to music in that way, and realized I could do it myself,” Lenae explained over the phone. She soon after found her way to a piano after the guidance of a teacher and innate curiosity, before eventually moving on to the songstress we know today.

In the midst of her stint at Chicago High School for the Arts where she was classically trained, 10th-grade Lenae did what one does after feeling restless from the confines of her training: post an original song, (in this case, “Greetings”), to Soundcloud. It was a song that Lenae spent her very first hard-earned check on to book a recording session at Classick Studios in Humboldt Park, Chicago and the response was encouraging enough to keep her going.

Many people’s first introduction to Lenae happened shortly after a collaboration on fellow Chicagoan, Noname’s debut, Telefone. But under the mentorship of producer Monte Booker, rapper Smino and studio owner, Chris Classick, Lenae found her vibe. With their support, Lenae released a handful of small projects which led her to a record deal with Atlantic and touring with SZA. An increased national attention towards Chicago’s music renaissance brought new ears into the fold. Today, she looks at those milestones as practice.

“I always have to describe it as a baby first learning how to talk. It may be a little jumbled or all over the place [at first],” Lenae said. “I feel like it was just me experimenting and learning who to write for the first time and spilling it out.” All that learning, inevitable for anyone making music as a teenager, ultimately made space for the big splash that was her breakout EP, Crush.

“With Crush, I feel like there was more cohesion because I was in a very secure [place in] my life,” she continued.

Much of the project is rooted in exploring strong feelings of security and assuredness—themes we are only just beginning to grasp at the age of 16, which is when Lenae dropped her first project, the Moon Shoes EP. That stability shows, not only in the confidence of her voice, but in the concise message that plays throughout the 5 song EP. It’s thanks in part to her stellar collaboration with the masterful Steve Lacy, who helped shape the project and forced Lenae to work outside of her comfort zone.

“I think the ideal situation is for you to connect hard with whoever you’re making music with, and I can’t really do it if I don’t feel a deep friendship or connection with you,” Lenae said as she broke down the decision to create away from her Chicago collaborators and work with fellow 20-year-old, Lacy. “This was my first time ever collaborating this intentionally. Because Steve is also a singer and songwriter, he’s co-writing and helping me with melodies —and I had never had that to this extent before.”

While someone like Grammy-award winning Lacy may be the perfect clutch to bounce creative ideas off of, many of the themes from the EP came from her experience with falling in love for the first time. “During that time I met a guy and fell in love and all that good stuff,” she said, explaining the self-proclaimed ‘cheesy’ themes threaded through the project.

But beyond romance being a running theme throughout her recent work, Lenae clearly leans into a reservoir of strength and grace that comes with growing up in this world as a black woman.

“I got really into my feminine energy which I didn’t think was translated in a lot of my earlier music, so a lot of lyrics are super feminine,” she said. “I felt really beautiful during that time and wanted to share that feeling and make sure I was translating those emotions through music with this project,” she explains.

“The Night Song”—an anthem for black and brown girls—is a clear example of that specific intention of owning you, as you are. It’s as much a bop as it is a list of mantras for women to recite in the name of self-care, something Lenae doesn’t take lightly, particularly as a 20-year-old in the industry.

“It’s very rare that I think about the age differences, but it’s important to think about because sometimes you expect so much from yourself and you have to realize, these people have 10 years on you,” she said, explaining the competitive element of the industry and the effects of self-pressure and constant comparison.

“I think sometimes being a woman in the industry and being young—you get overlooked a lot. Having to deal with that has been a struggle when you feel like you’re always the underdog or always in the shadow. As a woman, we’ve all felt like that before,” she explained. “We’ve gone the extra mile to be bigger and better all the time when you shouldn’t have to be, you shouldn’t feel like that.”

“Sometimes I feel like I drown in the sunken place,” Lenae laughed, “where I feel sorry for myself or super emotional, but really I should try to think positively all the time and make sure I’m developing healthy habits, mentally and physically.”

In the same way Lenae embraces all her emotions—she uses fashion to honor whatever she feels like that day. “I think I’m different people at different times. It really [depends] on when you catch me,” she said. “Sometimes I like to feel more sleek and other times I like to feel more oversized and funky and colorful and big. Getting older you get more comfortable with your body shape. More form fitting things, more sexy things.” Though one thing is consistent throughout her style evolution: color.

“That will never change. If I look at my style five years ago, there was still color in my wardrobe,” she said.

To Lenae, fashion seems to be a natural meeting of her many feels and an exploration of what it means to be a force of feminine energy. But while it is a part of her self-care, so is taking time to do self check-ins and moments of reflection to see how she’s feeling about any pressures or things beyond her control. That willingness to get messy and confront those feelings are the crux of the music Lenae is making, too.

“In a way, touring showed me that music is mostly a feeling rather than people liking your songs just for the lyrics,” she said, explaining how seeing fans from around the world respond to her music — and connecting to her own feelings — helps amplify the feelings she hopes to capture in her future music.

Whatever those future sounds may be, Lenae knows this: things have definitely changed.

“Before, I was thinking in very small windows. Thinking of the now and what would happen with the projects, in very small increments of time,” she said. Her thoughts are shifting, along with other things—from her way of thinking in bigger windows to the way she’s owning the idea of people coming out to see her perform.

2018 may have been the most successful year for her, but it will pale in comparison to the future. If 2018 was the year of new things — music, opening slots on tours, fresh collaborations — then 2019 will be the year the garden she’s been sowing will finally bloom.