The First Single from her Upcoming Debut Album
Warp Records will release Kelela’s debut album, Take Me Apart, on October 6. Preorder it here.
Kelela is a first-generation Ethiopian-American, born in Washington, D.C. Like Def Jam recording artist, Logic, she grew up in Gaithersburg, Maryland; then in 2001 graduated from Magruder High School. After transferring from Montgomery Community College to American University, the songstress began soiling her roots in jazz ballets at cafés. She’s been living in Los Angeles since 2010.
After moving to Los Angeles, the DMV artist connected with Teengirl Fantasy and contributed to the group’s 2013 album Tracer on the song “EFX”, which led her to meet Prince William from the label Fade to Mind.[*] William introduced her to the sound of the record label and its sister imprint from London, Night Slugs. Spin Magazine has described the label as “one of the most distinctive sounds in U.K. dance music, a mutable hybrid of grime, house, electro, R&B, techno, hip hop, and dubstep.”[*] In October 2013, Kelela released her mixtape Cut 4 Me for free.[*] Harriet Gisbone of The Guardian expressed the album as “an experiment for the production team, the first time the production crew had used vocals on their club tracks.”[*] Her track “Go All Night” was included on Saint Heron, a multi-artist compilation album released by Solange Knowles.
Kelela announced the forthcoming release of her Hallucinogen EP on March 3, 2015, along with the release of the music video of its lead single “A Message”, produced by Arca.[*] The second single, “Rewind” was released in September 2. Hallucinogen was released in October 9.[*] The EP covers the beginning, middle, and end of a relationship in reverse chronological order.[*]
In February 2017, Kelela took part in Red Bull Sound Select’s 3 Days Miami among artists GoldLink, and many others.[*] Kelela, along with rapper Danny Brown, appeared on the track “Submission” from the Gorillaz‘ album Humanz. She also provided uncredited guest vocals on the track “Busted and Blue” from the same album.
On July 14, 2017, Kelela announced her upcoming debut studio album, Take Me Apart.[*] On August 1, the album was made available for pre-order along with the release of its lead single, “LMK”. The album is scheduled for release on October 6, 2017.
