From the male perspective, there is no shortage of women in R&B. You see them in videos and hear about them as various male artists croon about love and sex, which to some may be ample enough “representation” for them to be satisfied. The problem with this is that the representation of women in this way is shallow and de-humanizing, training young minds to believe that women are nothing more than bland objects designed for consumption. Even the best of this generation's artists like Frank Ocean can’t single handedly reverse years of misrepresentation, so what is the solution? Not surprisingly, many female R&B artists express an alternative view of women through their songs. A Select few in particular are choosing to do this by telling personal narratives that serve to paint women as people, rather than objects.
Kehlani, Syd, & SZA are all artists who exemplify this growing trend of women taking back the genre through their creative approach to songwriting and storytelling. The three women, all singers in their 20’s, dropped their debut solo albums this year, and while they each have a unique sound, they all provide much needed breath of fresh air and human perspective in the world of contemporary R&B.
A lack of agency, or ability for an individual to make their own choices and think freely, often surrounds women who are the focal point of R&B songs. Stories are one-sided and there is rarely a back and forth between male and female perspectives. While not every single song that does this is a bad song, having an entire genre’s mainstream appeal revolve around this one-sidedness just hurts the style’s potential. Enter Kehlani, an Oakland native who is just as comfortable singing about parties and sex as she is admitting mistakes made in her past relationships. With her debut album, SweetSexySavage, she doubles down on making music that highlights her strengths as a songwriter by shedding light on some of her less than stellar personality traits. Kehlani portrays herself as Kehlani, a young woman who has hurt people and who has been hurt, who has made mistakes and also been made a fool, of someone who loves life but has also tried to take her own. There is a multi-faceted approach to her music because that is just who she is as a person. Take the song ‘Piece Of Mind,’ in which Kehlani recounts experiences with a past lover, a timeless subject for many many songs, and over the course of the song comes to terms with aspects of the relationship that were negative. While an implication of emotional abuse she sings about could be seen as just saddening, it is the acknowledgement of what both sides did right and wrong that she states helped her grow as a person and an artist. While we as listeners may never hear that other party sing their point of view, Kehlani does a good job at depicting them as a person who made choices and had an impact on them, not just as a stepping stone or talking point for a song.
Kehlani also takes a very Winehouse-esque approach on her songs about sex and often write songs in a way the emphasizes a distinction between sex as an intimate act and as a purely physical act. In songs like ‘Distraction’ and ‘Do U Dirty’ Kehlani admits that she wants a one night stand with whoever she is singing too, which is something massive frowned upon unless it is straight men talking about the subject. Her being so open about her sexuality and desires is important not just because it shows women have the same urges as men, but because it allows women to have the most active role in how they control their bodies. Instead of a perception of women and their sexuality being controlled by songs men make, Kehlani has asserted what she wants and how she wants in her own words on her own time. You can disagree with her lifestyle, but you have to accept that it is her portraying herself how she wants to be portrayed. As an artist you should have a certain power over how your image, a power that is often not granted to women in the same fashion.
On the topic of power, Syd’s debut solo album Fin is powerfully testament to the young singer's ability as a songwriter. Syd is most commonly know as a former producer for the rap collective Odd Future and as the frontman for the Internet, a neo-soul/R&B band that excels at writing songs about the complications of young love and the lust for the good life. Fin however is not a part of The Internet’s catalog, but rather her own separate work where she gets to flex her chops as a lyricist. Syd takes a lot of influence from the confident women of 90’s R&B and puts a modern twist on the aesthetic that artists like Aaliyah pioneered. The most interesting part of this process however is that Syd never comes off as intimidating or the baddest chick in the room (much like Aaliyah or Left Eye would), but rather as a earnest musician who wants her slice of the pie. She switches seamlessly between songs like ‘Shake em off’ where she admits that her anxiety sometimes gets the best of her and prevents her from sleeping to bangers like ‘No Complaints,’ a minute-long braggadocious anthem of believing in your own ability. It is through this album that we are given many different lenses with which to view Syd through, but they all contain same core message of a search for power and control. While the album doesn’t explicitly name names or throw shots at other artists, it is nothing less than a declaration of Syd’s potential. She stated she wrote the song in a variety of different lyrical styles just to show people that she could, and that the album serves as neon billboard of Syd’s prowess. This was simultaneously an attempt to convince other artists to see her skill and collaborate with her. In other words, Syd meticulously planned an album around her struggles with life and her dreams, then wrote it in such a way that if other artists want to even touch a similar vibe they have to do it off of the platform she is creating through her music.
In addition to empowering Syd as an artist, her eclectic style and unique narratives again gives more depth to women. Syd has openly come out as gay (an even more underrepresented group in music), and doesn’t shy away from that in her lyrics. There is heartbreak, betrayal, laughs, and the the pursuit of finding something worth lasting, just as in any heterosexual relationships. I am not trying to argue that Syd specifically makes music for the LGBT community, but rather that just by being gay and making such genuine and expressive music we get more positive messages for future women in the industry (and outside of it) to relate and connect to. Power in music is all about influence, who you know, who you work with, who respects you, and who you have inspired, and it appears that Syd will keep creating until the whole world hears her music and respects her name.
A final angle I want to consider is the importance of being vulnerable in your music. Vulnerability is something widely associated with R&B, mostly because that is a genre where men can “get away” with showing more feelings, but is often not explored to the melancholy depths with which it can take its listeners. For it is through something like vulnerability that a good artist can actively connect with their audience. Surely Kehlani and Syd are both well versed in this, but I would like to draw attention to CTRL, The debut album of SZA. SZA is an interesting figure in the modern musical landscape, she is a part of TDE (a predominantly Hip-Hop label that houses such heavy hitters like ScHoolboy Q and Kendrick Lamar), and makes melodic personal music in stark contrast to the broader narratives often penned by her labelmates. There had been a back and forth about the release date of her album for about half a year done, but it finally dropped last month and was filled with heartbreaking narratives about being the “other girl.” It indeed appears that the album revolves around the feeling of not knowing whether or not you are valued by the person you have chosen to give your heart and sexual exclusivity. Songs like ‘The Weekend’ are a tragic tale of only having a partner for the weekend, knowing they share a bed with someone else and are just as happy if not happier with them, coming from an artist who looks like the kind of woman who would be put on a pedestal as a the spitting image of beauty. That seems to be the whole point of the album's story though. SZA is a woman, and by most standards she is very beautiful, and talented as all hell considering the album we are talking about, but that doesn’t save her from herself. The vulnerability that she expresses throughout the album is that of someone who has seemingly failed more than they have succeeded, which has caused her to question herself and her value as a person. When she talks about wanting to be with a man, it feels less like a cry for attention and more like for help, because she may have been in a point where she felt that she could only receive validation through another person. The impact of this is so powerful that even when you as a listener get to ‘Pretty Little Birds,’ a ballad that oozes confidence where SZA seems to finally be willing to try and love herself again, you cannot forget the haunting relatability of the album as a whole.
I think the concept and feelings of this album extend past a woman trying to find love and security in a partner. It becomes a sort of reflection on a time where an artist was potentially at their most human. A type of feeling that is best conveyed through music and given an infinite amount of weight once you factor in just how much SZA’s narrative clashes with the more general view of women in her same genre. Women who are faceless and never given agency could never experience pain the way she does, and could never share that pain with us as beautifully as she did. It is the flaws that she had that created the catalyst for such a piece of art to exist, and these flaws are not specific to her.
Women are flawed creatures who love to enjoy life and at the same time are susceptible to the realities of loneliness and longing, which contrary to popular belief is not that different from their male counterparts. The reason the artists I mentioned are so important for the modern image or R&B and the growth of the genre in the future is because, through their music, they are demanding to be heard and respected as people. They aren’t trying to separate their struggles from men or claim to be better than men, but rather they are aggressively and eloquently telling stories. Stories about what it means to be lost and found then lost again set over lush instrumentals featuring some of the best lyrical song-writing of the year. Stories about what it means to fight for equality when sometimes you don’t even understand yourself. Stories that will encourage future female artists to stand proud after they get knocked down even if it is the millionth time you have been knocked down. Stories that spit in the face of the unfairly objectifying images of women that give them no voice or agency.
These amazing artists are writing songs and telling stories about what it means to be a person.
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