Ravyn Lenae was glowing when I met the Chicago singer at her hometown eatery, Nini’s Deli, on an unusually warm day in January. It might’ve been because she had just returned from a vacation in Thailand—she was looking rather sunkissed, too—or because she just celebrated her 19th birthday. It also could’ve been because she recently announced that her collaborative EP with guitarist, producer, and vocalist Steve Lacy, titled Crush, is dropping on February 9. As we sat in the lively deli, discussing the birth of her career, Ravyn seemed more self-assured and confident — different from the wistful teen she presented on her early releases.

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Many fans were first introduced to Ravyn in 2017, through her feature on Noname’s Telefone album cut “Forever.” The guest appearance led to a series of high-profile opening slots: first, on Noname's tour, and then on the Ctrl Tour with SZA. But, for those who’ve had their ears to Chicago’s innovative R&B scene, Ravyn’s rise was only a matter of time.

Ravyn grew up on Chicago’s south side in West Pullman Park. She sang in choirs as a child, but, while trying to decide what high school to attend, she started asking herself, What am I good at? She ended up enrolling in The Chicago High School for the Arts. “If I didn’t go to that school, I don’t think I would’ve been as strong an artist as I am now,” she said. “I don’t think I would’ve even thought about doing music that way.” Though her grandfather was in a doo-wop group called The Dominos in Panama, and her cousin is a well-known musical theater singer there, the rest of Ravyn’s family isn’t particularly musically inclined. Still, she’s always had a proclivity for the arts: “I grew up having an ear for what was hot and was not,” she remembered, “What sounds good in music and what doesn’t.”

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Her artistic breakthrough came in 2015, when — after recording at Classick Studios for the first time — owner Chris Classick, producer Monte Booker, and rapper Smino took Ravyn under their collective wing. In just a few months, she recorded and released her debut project Moon Shoes, pairing her candied voice with Booker’s trademark idiosyncratic beats. After signing with Atlantic Records in 2016, she released her second project, Midnight Moonlight, at the beginning of 2017. The project, half-produced by Booker, was an extension of her sound from Moon Shoes, but approached from a more worldly point-of-view, and darker in tone.

With “Sticky,” the Lacy-produced lead single from Crush, Ravyn taps into deeper level of her artistry, fully making the connection between her personal growth and the evolving sound of her music. Ahead of the release of her project, I sat down with Ravyn Lenae in a booth at Nini’s Deli, to learn more about what it was like to make music at such a young age, how she was able to approach and connect with a new sound, and why the color red is so essential to her artistry.

