Ray BLK has said that she’s taking her time with her long-awaited debut album – but she plans for it to feature ‘timeless, classic songs of female empowerment’. Watch our video interview above.
After collaborating with the likes of Stormzy and Wretch 32 before being crowned as the winner of the BBC Sound Of 2017 poll, the rising, soulful hip-hop star found herself at the BRIT Awards 2017 – where we asked her about her sudden boost in popularity.
“I’ve definitely been surprised,” she told NME. “I was literally just finding out about my listenership and found out that it’s like 18-35 or so and it’s like 50/50 male/female so that’s been incredible to see that men are feeling these like female empowerment songs.”
Asked if her newfound audience had influenced her songwriting, she replied: “Not necessarily, I’ve always really had one goal for my album when I put it out which is just really for it to sound timeless, just for it to be good man. I love music so just good quality, timeless music that can live on.
As for progress on the record, Ray BLK continued: “It’s a slow process; I’m working on it. It’s a slow process because I like to take my time with everything and I’m very picky about stuff so I don’t know when it will be out but when it will be it will be the best I could’ve done.”
Speaking of the sound and feel of the album, she added: “I think it’ll make it a bit more refined really. I think so far in my career I’ve just been finding myself and finding what it is I like and now I know how I want everything to sound, so I think it’ll have more of a classic feel.”
Ray BLK’s mini album ‘Durt’ is out now