R&B songstress Keri Hilson is back after a hiatus with new music. Here she discusses what she has been up to.
Sure, well actually I’ve been the one that’s been under a rock. I stepped away from music. It’s been like 14 and some months, 14 years and some months.
That’s the last time I have released any new music officially. Of course, there have been leagues, there have been things, you know, all press reports and things like that. But this is the, these are the first official releases.
So I’m really proud, really excited at the momentum. We released, I guess we would call it just some content around the focus single, which is something I want to play for you guys. It’s called Bay, produced by Mellamooz.
I co-wrote the record. It has a sample with Hurricane Chris. Well, not a sample, interpolation of Hurricane Chris.
I think it’s a bop. I think that it is a good way. It feels to me like a great way to reemerge.
And I don’t mean that in a safe way, but I think that it is less avant-garde than songs on my current offering, which is on, it’s called We Need to Talk, and that’s on all DSPs currently, like right now. It’s been just a couple weeks, and I’m really proud of that project. I really don’t know what else I could say about it, other than I’m just super happy to be back in the sphere and to be working with all of you again.
I’ve been in the game for 30 now, 30 years, sometimes as a songwriter, and then as a singer. So I recognize the importance, and I still feel that way. I mean, it’s to me, it’s never, that’s never going to change.
I don’t care how impactful people believe streaming is, radio is radio, the club is the club. I don’t know if this is all radio, but yeah, that’s how I feel. Um, about the environment of the music, like it’s still the driving force.
Everyone that I know, my friends, my family, they’re still riding in their cars, listening to radio. Um, so yeah, that would be it.
Keri gets more in detail of her 3 EP trilogy.It’s called We Need to Talk. It’s the first night. Oh, let me, well, let me tell you about that.
“So, the project is actually split into three projects. I call them scenes. It’s like three albums basically, or three EPs.
And the project is again called We Need to Talk. And that’s like a triple entendre that you can maybe watch an interview to understand that lengthy sort of story. But it is a triple entendre for why I named it We Need to Talk.
And there are three scenes called Love that has released. Drama is next. And that should be around the end of June or early July.
No release date has been set for that just yet. And then Redemption. So Love, Drama, Redemption scenes one, two and three.
And again, Love is already on all DSPs.
Okay. All right. Oh, when can we expect Drama?
And then what’s the name of the third part?
Redemption. Yeah. So all of them will release within like in 2025.
“We’re still strategizing on how and when exactly. Now that the first one’s out the gate, obviously, you know, energy shifts and things change. So we didn’t kind of want to lock ourselves into a date just yet.
We’re actually really close to that. But as of now, we have a lead single. We have a focus record.
We are just really just about to see what we do on this end of things.
Listen, relax.
We got you. I appreciate it.
At home with your new family, we’re going to definitely keep supporting you no matter what you’re doing. But talk to us about Bae. Like how did Bae come about and produce it?
Like what was the concept for that one?
Well, so the concept is funny because it’s the very thing about this record. Well, let me start with, it was produced by Mel and Moose. I co-wrote it with a couple of writers.
“And Trey Ace, Courtney.
Yeah, that’s it there. And a friend of mine gave me this record. He’s like a pseudo A&R.
He found this record for me. He knew, was somewhat familiar with my project. And what I immediately grab, it was not completed yet, but what I gravitated towards was the simplicity.
It was the openness. It was the idea that this is a good love song. This is about, it’s rare now on the radio space from women and men.
To me, it feels a little few and far between where we’re hearing women especially speak about good love, about good, pure, positive love. You know, and so that was one thing I loved. I loved the openness.
I love that you’re hearing me for the first time in a long time without over instrumentation, you know, just very straightforward. That’s really why it made the project. It’s why it’s on the first installment, you know.
It’s why it’s also the reason that we are, you know, wanting to go with it first, because it just feels like a really good way to kind of reemerge to the, you know, the masses ears.