When Steve Lacy, known for his work as part of the Internet and for composing one of the best beats on Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. using only his iPhone, was offered an opportunity to produce an EP for Chicago R&B upstart Ravyn Lenae, he went for it. “She’s so young and she’s not locked into a certain style or vocal range, so anything I’d give her, she’s like, ‘I got you.’” he told Beats 1 late last year. He looks at his relationship with Lenae as his Pharrell-Kelis or Timbaland-Aaliyah moment.
Those are bold comparisons, but Lenae and Lacy’s alchemy on Crush bears them out. When Lacy works with artists like Kendrick or Tyler, the Creator, he often pushes them to change their style to adapt to his own delicate style of soul and funk. With Lenae, they’re exploring together, and “Sticky,” the EP’s irresistibly catchy single, makes it clear they’ve found something special. On the song, Lenae’s not just proffering lyrics about a crummy relationship—she slips and slides through cadences over Lacy’s unconventional riffs, and her “woo-hoo-hoo”-ing is as muscular as the bass. She’s got the range to take on Lacy’s contemporary SoCal soul.
The 19-year-old singer’s past work—including stints touring with Noname and SZA—suggested an artist who doesn’t just want to be famous, but who wants to build herself a new musical world. Her first two EPs, produced by Chicago’s Monte Booker in 2016 and 2017, paired her soul-inspired vocals with his signature off-kilter beats. Their artistic success hinged on Lenae’s ability to find herself in the music, adapting her supple and versatile voice to the producer’s idiosyncratic palette.
The same ability makes her an ideal partner for Lacy. He gives Lenae a psychedelic guitar backdrop to coo and sing falsetto over on “Closer.” “Computer Luv” is a buoyant duet sung from in front of screens on separate sides of the world. Lenae and Lacy sing the hook in unison: “I shed a tear down/My face, drip and drown/My feelings into this one text/I wonder what is next/Will I catch real feelings for you?” People have been falling in love on the internet since it came on a free AOL diskette, and in 2018, meeting online is mundane. Even so, the pining is still real, and “Computer Luv” captures that longing in the interplay between Lenae’s and Lacy’s vocals.
That strikingly personal tone persists throughout Crush, which makes sense: If you spend your summer vacation on tour with SZA, the current queen of expressing the many shades of heartache, you might well come home a more detailed lyricist. Even when Lenae is singing about something as ordinary as getting ready to go out on “The Night Song,” it’s not about looking hot, it’s about loving yourself: “I wanna be no one but me/I give a thang ‘bout what you say or think.” She makes pre-party primping sound more meditative than superficial—and as with nearly every song on this remarkable EP, she sounds utterly self-assured as she does it. It’s the sound of a promising young talent maturing into her own signature style.
