I love you.
Let’s be stronger than our fathers
Free ourselves and please our mothers
Can’t you see we can’t be governed
If we choose love?
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When @jonbatiste popped onto my screen this morning, smiling, my ancestors just knew he was going to deliver some beautiful news. I couldn’t be happier that the first time my soul’s work/play has been recognized by the @recordingacademy is on @angeliquekidjo’s album, “Mother Nature.” This album is so close to my being, because of what and who it stands for, and I’m honored to have written and vocal produced on four songs, to have engineered on three, and to be a featured artist on two.
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Love to everybody who was nominated today, to everybody onstage and behind the scenes who wasn’t (because good is good, music is music, and worth is worth with or without awards), to Angelique, Eli, and all people and fellow Africans involved in the making and sharing of “Mother Nature,” including my song brother @synematik. We are more than global music — we are music for the globe. 💛 🇿🇼
Life’s taken me many fine places
And I never know how to share it
I like to keep good memories for me
Especially my joy, when I wear it
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Life’s taken me many fine places
And I rarely stop to record it
Put me outside with a friend and the trees
And when my phone rings, I’ll ignore it
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Life’s taken me many fine places
But most of them, I didn’t pay for
How can I boast, is it my life to post
If it’s owned by the boss of my labor?
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Life’s taken me many fine places
But photos cannot do them justice
The laughing, the crying, the joy between grief
The stars in the sky and the sunsets
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Life’s taken me many fine places
But most, I won’t share in the open
I know what it’s like to be somewhere not “fine”
Go online, and then end up more broken
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Yes, I’ve seen a lot of nice places
I’ll show you, but first clarify:
Life’s taken me many fine places
But fine places are not my life
Tell me what you cry for
Tell me what you’d die for
Tell me what you’d lie for
I’ll tell you the truth
Whatever you’re fond of
Whatever you want, love
Whatever you’re looking for
Is looking for you too
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Swipe for a message of hope and certainty for your day and dreams, my sweet friend. 📷: @oprahtheactress
LA friends — there’s been a time change for tomorrow’s show (10/5) with @chiiild at @moroccanlounge! I’m equally excited and nervous to see you because nothing feels weirder than a bunch of people you know watching you do something. At the same time, nothing feels safer and warmer. I can’t wait to have a moment and make a memory together. Wednesday’s show will carry on at its original sinful hour. 💛
It’s only a matter of days before we get to see each other! Come feed your soul, and so that your smile can help me through the nerves of my first proper solo shows ever opening for @chiiild! I don’t know what I’m doing. I’ll never know what I’m doing. But fuck it, let’s do it! Link to tix in my bio.
The side of my face, a face made out of weird sand that I’ve kept generally intact for two-and-a-half years and through moving house, standard garden harvest texts from my father, I love indoor flower bouquets but hate the idea of them dying without fulfilling their desires to share their pollen, a 100-pound dog fetus, my favorite lamp, hemp flower (CBD) is great for people like me who love weed but hate getting high (thanks @lolalangusta & @shopstonedfox), I put my head next to his head and transmit love, life with Raynaud’s syndrome (it’s not a big deal, just annoying), remember when women used fans to hide their faces in order to flirt with their eyes? Try to think of masks like that, only less sexist because now we all get to do it and be super classically sultry (or not) in the process.
I remember the day I was born. The feeling of being pulled away from my mother and this lifetime, and then the feeling of coming back via this great force working in the opposite direction. And even though my eyes couldn’t yet see perfectly in a medical sense, I have a clear-as-day vision of watching a needle being pricked into my foot — which is what the doctors used to see if my brain could recognize pain even though I was unresponsive. Curling my toes was my way of saying, “I’m alive!”
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Thank you to the women who named, raised and saved me, to the women who named, raised and saved them, to the women who named, raised and saved them, and so on and so forth through my ancestral infinity. And much gratitude to the good men, reformed men and sperm donors in my lineage. (ESPECIALLY the reformed men who broke out of cyclical patriarchal, ancestral and systemic trauma and stereotypes to become gentle, vulnerable and loving with themselves and others.) My mother taught me that anything is possible. She went to battle with my sick, sad and rebellious sides that constantly wanted to give up and fail, and didn’t stop fighting until I believed in myself with as much consistency and conviction as she believed in me. My father speaks in poems and epics. I wouldn’t be the artist I am today if not for the childhood I spent listening to, and learning from, his captivating voice.
Let’s go to a ball and then eat hot wings and then watch movies about aliens colonizing other aliens’ land and act like that’s not what’s happening on Earth because their blood isn’t red.
@chiiild’s debut album, “Hope For Sale” is out now! It’s a masterpiece from top to bottom, and it was nothing short of magical, or rather, something more than magical, creating “Eventually,” “The Best Ain’t Happened Yet,” “Weightless” and “Sleepwalking” alongside my brilliant and golden-hearted friends. Swipe for previews and for tour dates, where I’ll be opening in some of the cities!
Going on tour with my soul siblings! See you so soon! Tickets available everywhere on Friday, at 10 a.m. local time. Catch me opening for the incomparable @chiiild & friends🧚🏽
I’m changing
And I don’t know
What it means
Hope it’s more human
And not more machine
“Lucky” is out now, alongside an entire @kuumusic EP — “How To Change Your Mind.” @alexmetricmusic and @ritontime are two of the most free-spirited musicians I know, and I’ve never not smiled when we’ve made art together. We started and finished this EP on two sides of the world, together and apart, and are so happy to finally be sharing it with you. Love to @vitoaeroplane for his musical contributions on “Voices.” So much more to come!
Had the loveliest chat about life and mathematics and happiness and also songwriting with @nilerodgers on #DeepHiddenMeaningRadio. Check it out now on @applemusic, where you’ll also get to hear from @stargatemusic and @jacksavoretti. 💛
I am so grateful to be on this planet, in this lifetime, at the same time as you. I used to look at photos of myself and, even through my smiles, see the sadness in my eyes. Now I see hope, love and a little something mischievous, but in a good way. Like a, let’s change the fucking world way. Thank you to everyone who has shown me kindness — from my friends and family to strangers who have smiled at me on lonely walks and reminded me of the wonder and beauty of being alive at the same time. You make me less afraid of being seen. You make me want to be a better person, to myself and others. You make life oh so wonderful. 💛
Watch me be a human sandwich in the “Already free” visual — out now! This song and video have many personal meanings to me, but I hope — irregardless of who you are, where you’re from, or what internal or external barriers you face in life — it inspires you to believe in your potential to be all of the beautiful things you want to be, and let NOBODY, including your own fears, tell you you can’t.
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“Already free” is the only song on my debut album, “I’m not a mother, but I have children,” that I didn’t write the lyrics and melodies totally alone on. When I got stuck, I knew exactly who to call. Thank you to my brilliant, alien brother @johntheblind for coming through for this song and album (he also co-produced “Good thing I’m not god” with me), for being down to have the layered conversations it took in order to do so, and for always showing up with an immeasurably open and loving heart.
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Song written by: me & @johntheblind
Song produced by: me & @johntheblind
Song mixed by: @michaelfreeman12
Special thanks to my Zimbabwean sis @tkaymaidza for adding her phenomenal voice and spirit to the backgrounds
Visual directed by: me & @oprahtheactress
Visual shot and edited by: @oprahtheactress
Another special thanks to Joe Maginni at @hipgnosisstudios for being such a wonderful advocate for this song, and for my music in general.
Woke up to this dream come true on @billboardcharts! Thank you to everyone who is giving “It’s a good day (to fight the system)” life on their stations. And to everyone who supports their local Triple A station and keeps this beautiful way of discovering new music alive. Lastly, to my team, whose belief in my music makes me feel so safe and so strong — I wish I could hug all of you. The days may change, but this dream come true will remain a dream come true forever. 💛
My debut album, “I’m not a mother, but I have children” comes out on Friday and I couldn’t be more excited and grateful to every person who has helped make this dream of my ancestors and mine come true, including some of my wonderful old and new friends in America, Italy and Zimbabwe. Swipe for the tracklist and credits, and pre-save the album via the link in my bio. 💛
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Photos by my father, @oprahtheactress and @yazzalali. Special shout out to @lorenzoluppii for his amazing string compositions alongside his father, @danieleluppi, on “The world can’t change for you, but you can change the world”
An everlasting note to self.
