Written By: Mary Brady

Kelese recently dropped three parts of her emotionally vulnerable EP series Roundtrip. The songs ebb and flow as Kelese explores themes of romantic relationships with her soothing voice over rhythmic, bouncing beats. She also recently dropped her first-ever music video for the song “Krazy + Complicated.”

Kelese’s decision to get into music was influenced by her dad who is a rapper. He encouraged her to take music more seriously. She eventually committed, dropped out of school, and thought, “alright, fuck it, I’ma just do it,” as she mentioned in her exclusive interview with us.

“I feel like I’ve had a pretty rough life, and I feel like music has really helped me to not have to deal with stuff. It helps to not have to constantly think about the stuff that’s happening or the stuff that’s going on around me. And it kinda sucks too because I’m a hopeless romantic. I’m a terrible hopeless romantic, so I feel like that’s why I make a lot of love songs or I might talk about a break up. [...] I feel like, when you are a pretty person, you often deal with men who just might want to deal with you in a way that you might not want to deal with them, so I feel like I have a lot of experience in that and I feel like a lot of other females really feel the same way and have experienced the same things and I really want to relate to [that]”

The East Coast, West Coast, and the South each have a very distinct sound in hip-hop and R&B. Except for Chicago, however, the Midwest does not really have a defined sound. Kelese believes that being from Minnesota gives her the freedom to establish her own sound because she is not boxed in a geographical sound. She is not expected to sound like a certain standard in the genre based on the sound of her region and her talent is not measured by her ability to do so. Although she is compared to other artists, there is no expectation for what she should sound like, which allows her to create and define her own individual sound. When we listen to Kelese we don’t recognize her as another East or West Coast artist, but as an individual. She sounds like Kelese.

“Child, at first I was a lost puppy. I didn’t know to sit, stay or do whatever,” Kelese explained about her first dive into making music. Although she was scared to sing and write when she first began her career, she notes that with the help of her team she has gained confidence in sharing her music. She also discussed how, as she gains experience, she has also become more confident to try new things creatively. Her music now is very much a reflection of that. Although she expresses a lot of personal emotion in all of her music, in her more recent releases she shifts from a happier, upbeat sound to a deeper expression of pain - “not so much like a vibe, but [...] more of like wow she’s really hurt about something or she’s really talking about some sort of pain.” 

We can expect to see more of Kelese’s relatable, honest expression as she plans to continue to release a lot of upcoming music. Perhaps eventually we will even hear some work with Mariah the Scientist, her dream collaboration.