by Vrinda Jagota for NPR Music –
Since releasing her debut mixtape, CUT 4 ME, in 2013, the singer Kelela has always innovated at the crossroads of left-field R&B and forward-thinking electronic music. After six years away, she returns to a pop-music landscape that is focused on honoring the Black queer artists who invented house music as a refuge and established the clubs where the music was played as safe havens, spaces to celebrate, grieve and build community all at once. Beyoncé’s Renaissance, Dua Saleh’s Crossover and Shygirl’s work with Arca and the late SOPHIE are just some examples of contemporary music existing at the intersection Kelela inhabits. Events like Hood Rave and Papi Juice similarly continue to celebrate the dancefloor as a place of freedom and safety for queer people of color. In this context, Kelela is less a pioneer than an elder now, someone with nothing to prove, who is making music for and about herself —and her communities.
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