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Photo: Micaiah Carter

One of the industry’s greatest fumbles is not giving Leikeli47 her due flowers. No longer extending her grace period, she’s taking them herself.

Lei Keli ft. 47 / For Promotional Use Only is the Virginia native’s first complete offering since 2022’s Shape Up, accompanied by a highly anticipated face reveal. Her unwavering anonymity defined much of her artistic identity thus far. With the mask off comes a new era and harsher bite, shattering the boundary that was less so protecting her and more so protecting us.

There’s an immense amount of color on this project, maintaining the very grit that has always separated her from her peers. The confidence in her aggression is accompanied by wit and vulnerability, neither at the expense of the other. One of the most skilled lyricists of the new age, she wears remnants of Missy Elliot and Bahamadia, yet her sound feels a few millenniums beyond us. It’s rap you can vogue to, dance music that honors the true roots of hip-hop.

“passenger 47” is completely alive, setting a vibrant tonal palette for the project. It’s infectious and moving, a through-line you can follow in its 11 tracks. Songs like “queen” and “problems” are most certainly for the girls, while “starlight” and “stella’s groove” are abrasively masculine. She’s always done well at marrying both energies, blurring lines that should have never been there in the first place. “hnic” is a brilliant reworking of Curtis Mayfield’s “Pusherman,” closing the project just as strongly as she opened it.

Lei Keli ft. 47 / For Promotional Use Only plays with the multitude of identity. It is only when we divide ourselves into pieces that we can begin to understand who we are holistically. As executive producer, this album is a true extension of Leikeli47. She is completely certain of who she is and the power that she holds. She is everything at once, never for sale, and the sole source of her validation. 

For leikeli47, the mask once met freedom. Now, being seen is her true liberation.

Listen to Lei Keli ft. 47 / For Promotional Use Only below: