keiyaA Delivers a Dizzying Dose of Jazz and Psychedelic R&B in "take it!"
Photo: Jessica Foley
One of the industry’s most promising emerging talents, keiyaA confines herself to no mold. She is nothing but the liberation of primal sound, a faucet of expression that is both primitive and unbound.
Her first rumblings since 2020’s Forever, Ya Girl, a sonically brave feat fusing R&B with electronic and soul, hooke’s Law is scheduled for release October 31. A five-year follow-up, this sophomore effort is already proving to be a massive artistic upleveling. KeiyaA succumbed to no conveyor belt, taking her time and letting life give her something to talk about.
“take it!” is the second single to emerge from hooke’s Law, building out an immersive sonic landscape that feels like a love letter to jazz and psychedelia. While “stupid prizes” felt much more bare and confessional, “take it!” is a proclamation, a reinstallation of power. Dizzying drums and an abrupt beat change have become her artistic signatures, as if you could reach into the music and be swallowed whole.
keiyaA presents hooke's law as “an album about the journey of self love, from an angle that isn’t all affirmations and capitalistic self-care. It’s not a linear story with a moral at the end. It's more of a cycle, a spiral - it’s Hooke's law. With this work I aim to interrogate and embrace anger and conflict, disappointment and dissatisfaction, about not being docile and about rejecting mammyism and traditional expectations of fat black, brown, and dark skinned women in our communities. I speak about desire + longing, about examining maladaptive tendencies, conflict avoidance - the eternal relationship with the self.”
The single is accompanied by a blue-hued visual directed by Caity Arthur that showcases the battle between human and performer, shadow and star. Immersed in a sea of Black and queer people, keiyaA dazzles as the enchantress.
Set to open to Ravyn Lenae in the fall, the world is about to witness KeiyaA’s explosion as Neo-Soul’s new pioneer, and they could never be prepared.
Watch the "take it!" video below:
