Quotes by Kelela - Page 2

I would say Tracy Chapman was the first time I obsessed over an entire record. I knew every song; I knew the exact amount of seconds between each song. That's the level of obsession that I had.
Kelela /
Amount
First Time
Obsessed
Obsession
Seconds
Tracy
Time Song First Time
Entire
Exact
Record
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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.
Kelela /
Connections
Talk
Complex
Conducive
Hating
Layered
Liking
Purposeful
Relationships
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I know my ticket is vulnerability. Most people point to some emotional experience, some hardship, some high or low when they talk about my music... a time when they need to feel those feelings more.
Kelela /
Hardship
Vulnerability
Time Experience Music
Ticket
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It is very rare that I am just coming up with melodies off the top of my head. I usually am responding to something - it could be chains dragging on the floor - but I am usually responding to something.
Kelela /
Chains
Responding
Rare
Dragging
Floor
Melodies
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Most artists are going into the studio for a fixed period of time, and they say that's their album. I can't relate, because I've never made music in that way. I come from a culture of editing and remixing.
Kelela /
Editing
Fixed
Relate
Time Music Culture
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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.
Kelela /
Disappointing
Literal
Love You
Love Best Moment
Experienced
Simultaneously
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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.
Kelela /
Older Women
Accept
Time Experience Women
Younger
Older
Maybe
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How much closer can I get to the common ear, the mainstream, and how much it can still be from this other world, this other place? That's the line I keep trying to tread but have my wings extend more on both sides.
Kelela /
Both Sides
Sides
Wings
Closer
Ear
Extend
Tread
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When it comes to melodies, production, and sound in pop music, people try to be formulaic and solely concerned with what's resonant in a way that is so cheap and ugly. It actually just devolves culture, ultimately.
Kelela /
Pop Music
Ugly
Music Culture People
Cheap
Melodies
Resonant
Solely
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A lot of white men in the music industry are promoting and participating in black culture in a way that is pretty careless. They want the currency of blackness, but they don't want the brunt that comes along with that.
Kelela /
Blackness
Careless
Currency
Music Industry
Participating
Promoting
Brunt
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Innovating something that is familiar. That's the general approach, and that's what I want to do with the melody as well. It should ring true - you should like every melody sequence without knowing what's happening next.
Kelela /
Approach
Familiar
Melody
Sequence
General
Ring
Happening
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There is this feeling among black artists that you have to be really careful. We're not inclined to talk about this stuff because, if we do, we put ourselves in a position where we're not marketable or where we can't win.
Kelela /
Careful
Inclined
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Music in the U.K. is not racialised in the same way as it is in the U.S. In the U.S.. it's more rigid and conservative. And white people in the U.K. have more close proximity with black people and people of colour in general.
Kelela /
Colour
Conservative
Proximity
General
Music Black People
Close
Close Proximity
Rigid
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'Take Me Apart' doesn't feel cohesive in a singular way but in a varied way. You can fixate on individual songs, and there are references from all over the place: Anita Baker to Bjork. I wanted to show all the facets of myself.
Kelela /
Facets
Myself Me Feel
Myself Me Way
Apart
Baker
Cohesive
References
Singular
Varied
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In the music industry, you can't create success without having to engage a white man. It's just not possible. Whether it's executives, A&Rs, and the people that hold the key to your paper, inevitably, you'll be met with whiteness.
Kelela /
Executives
Music Industry
Whiteness
Engage
Inevitably
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At the end of the day, I would like to have the farthest reach in terms of being able to communicate to as many people as possible. So it's not that I enjoy being obscure; it's that I sonically don't want to be situated here or there.
Kelela /
Communicate
Obscure
End Of The Day Day People
Farthest
Situated
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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 /
Opposite
Category
Me Doing Know
Confines
Pigeonholed
Pushed
Reaction
Stereotypical
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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.
Kelela /
Alone
Assistance
Bedroom
Extraordinary
Extraordinary Things
Influence
Might
Writing
Actually
Conjure
Making
Recording
While
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When I called 'Cut 4 Me' a mixtape, I was thinking about a few elements: One is used instrumentals. The project is more centered around introducing you to an artist; it's not meant to be seminal. It's 'Hi,' 'Hello,' a thing that you first hear.
Kelela /
Elements
Hello
Introducing
Meant To Be
Meant
Centered
Thinking Me More
Cut
Project
Hi
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I remember the day I first heard what Timbaland and Aaliyah did - that intersection of her pretty voice and his weird, resonant production. I remember where I was and what I was doing. It was a major situation. We're trying to continue that legacy.
Kelela /
Legacy
Intersection
Resonant
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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.
Kelela /
All Day
Chapter
Express
Handbook
Nicely
Whoa
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You can never have enough reinforcements, resources for black women to thrive in the world. The topic has been addressed a million times before, but it will never end because what we're up against keeps morphing, and we have to figure out how to beat it.
Kelela /
Thrive
Million Times
Topic
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After it became clear that I was not going to graduate, I had this moment where I was like, 'I need to not sulk. I need to pursue - at least try - to pursue music. But if I don't try, I'm going to be a really bitter middle-aged lady working in a cubicle.'
Kelela /
Bitter
Clear
Middle Aged
Pursue
Became
Graduate
Lady
Least
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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 /
Wrapping
Most Important Thing
Sonic
Wherever
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Most of my friends, growing up, were upper-middle-class white kids, so it was a different reality at home both culturally and linguistically. It created a lot of insecurities for me, but it also did a lot of amazing things that I didn't know were happening at the time.
Kelela /
Amazing Things
Time Home Amazing
Insecurities
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I'm very into familiar things, popular things. I'm into things that no one seems to know about or be into. I'm trying to draw a line between those two things and make it clear... that it all makes sense to me. That it's not disparate. That it's all one thing inside me.
Kelela /
Familiar
Familiar Things
Disparate
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I'm interested in bridging and filling in space that hasn't already been filled, so when it comes to making music, I've just always wanted to be able to reference things that producers in the big pop major label context do, without compromising the entire sound of the record.
Kelela /
Space
Able
Filled
Producers
Sound
Wanted
Music Always Sound
Space Music Always
Interested
Compromising
Context
Entire
Major
Record
Label
Major Label
Reference
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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 /
Assumption
Talent
White
Me People Feel
Accident
Me Talent People
Hit
Bring
Contain
Simply
Raw
Refine
Released
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I'm finding out what part of punk culture or white indie culture I actually still want to hold onto - What are the values? What are the contributions that I actually like? - and it not coming from a place of desperation or wanting to be embraced or wanting approval, essentially.
Kelela /
Approval
Desperation
Punk
Contributions
Embraced
Essentially
Finding
Hold
Indie
Onto
Wanting
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I was in school studying International Studies and Sociology. I was really into what was going on in school. I was affected by the ideas and engaged as a student, but not disciplined or motivated enough to do the work. That was a fear of mine for a while, that nothing was motivating.
Kelela /
Affected
Engaged
Ideas
International
Motivated
Sociology
Disciplined
Student
Mine
Motivating
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Something that I think extends to a lot of African cultures is that the line between performer and audience is blurry. My mom would lead the wedding song regularly, and she isn't a professional singer. Even as an audience member, you're expected to clap and sing the response to the lead.
Kelela /
Wedding
Mom
Audience
Expected
Response
Song
African
Audience Member
Clap
Cultures
Singer
Lead
Line
Member
Performer
Professional
Regularly
Sing
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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.
Kelela /
Strategy
Life Politics Time
Larger
Talked
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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.
Kelela /
Computers
Contributing
Futuristic
Innovative
Instruments
Light
Long Time
Machines
Shed
Spotlight
Wall
Time Great Music
Time Music Great
Deal
Great Deal
Illuminate
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In Maryland, I didn't grow up around poor white people. Where I grew up, the white people were middle class or upper-middle class. It's interesting how screwed up it is in reality, because most people who receive assistance from the government are white, but not in my head or in my experience.
Kelela /
Experience
Government
Assistance
Class
Grew
Interesting
Maryland
Middle
Middle Class
Poor
Reality
White
Around
Grow Up
Head
Receive
Screwed
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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.
Kelela /
Canon
Color
Legacy
Music Industry
Punk
Radical
History Music World
Considered
Embracing
Indie
Praised
Prized
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I want to speak in the tradition of rhythm and blues and soul music, but also push how it's dressed and how it's delivered to the audience. And hopefully that gets embraced by as many people as possible, but the goal isn't necessarily to speak to everyone. The goal is to get it out as exact as it is in my head.
Kelela /
Hopefully
Rhythm
Tradition
Music Soul People
Blues
Delivered
Dressed
Embraced
Exact
Soul Music
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As a black person on the outside, because there's so much black art and so much of black people's work circulating, so many people imitating what black people do, you would think that there'd be more black people on the business side. It didn't cross my mind that every label head, for the most part, is a white guy.
Kelela /
Imitating
Art Work Business
Side
Business Side
Cross
Work Business Art
Head
Label
Outside
So Many People
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The act of me just being robust in the world is so radical - it's so radical for a black woman to think she's going to be a star, because it takes so much to get there. It's still a battle every day, but I feel happy because I feel like I cracked the code and figured out how to work through it. Now I want to give the map to other women.
Kelela /
Happy
Battle
Black
Code
Cracked
Radical
Robust
Work Women World
Act
Woman
Star
Every Day
Figured
Map
She
Takes
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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.
Kelela /
Focus
Forfeit
Heal
Perfect
Remedy
Writing
Cope
Often
Dealing
Simply
Either
Working
Feeling
Involve
Making
Neither
Parts
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Anyone who understands anti-racist work, a white person specifically, understands that it is not black people's responsibility, or any person of color's responsibility, to dismantle the structures that keep white people in positions of power. We do our job to thrive, to survive. To protect ourselves, to sit together and feel better and to heal.
Kelela /
Color
Heal
Protect
Responsibility
Thrive
Work Power Together
Dismantle
Positions
Specifically
Structures
Survive
To Survive
Understands
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Kelela Quotes - Page 2

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