The first glimpse of Ravyn Lenae’s debut album HYPNOS may have confused her fans—which is exactly what she wanted. Lead single “Skin Tight” felt like a radio signal from another galaxy compared to the pink-sequined electro-funk created with Steve Lacy for 2018’s EP Crush. Instead of a voluptuous melody, we’re confronted with melancholic guitars backed by the sound of static. “That visual kind of threw my fans off a little bit, but that’s what I wanted,” she says about the accompanying music video, a voyeuristic 3D animation by London artist Zongbo Jiang that depicts multiple Ravyns either dancing or laying in pink clouds. “He took that song and made it into this weird, otherworldly kind of freaky…” she tells me over Zoom, her thought cut short by laughter. “When he sent me the initial sketches, I was like, ‘This makes me feel really uncomfortable and that’s what I want other people to feel too.’”
For four years, Lenae dropped off planet Earth to find new shadows and hues to work into her music, with “Skin Tight” welcoming us into the dark and surreal world that she cultivated for HYPNOS. “I try not to fall into the space of people knowing what I’m going to do next and being predictable in that way,” she says. Opening with the chorus, the track’s first line is an eerie nod to Lenae’s emotional clairvoyance. “Hope you understand, we won’t go as planned,” she sings. It’s as if she caught a glimpse into the future, gently delivering the news to her partner. Despite the romance’s ill-fated outcome, Lenae turns to a sensual embrace as acceptance. “Hold me while you can,” she beckons. Still, even when she’s trying to catch her listeners off guard, there’s no mistaking that satiny voice and empathetic, mystical perspective.
After Crush, which seemingly found her at her best, Lenae wasn’t immediately ready to release the anticipated follow-up. “I knew I wasn't ready yet,” she tells me. “And I knew I needed time to grow up and to learn and experience.” She explains that her creative process is based on inspired rushes that come from patience. “The temperature has to be right and all the stars have to align for me to feel good about making music,” she says. “Moments of stillness are really important for me. I’m a person who has to sit in my thoughts a little bit and go outside and get inspiration that way.”
“The temperature has to be right and all the stars have to align for me to feel good about making music. Moments of stillness are really important for me. I’m a person who has to sit in my thoughts a little bit and go outside and get inspiration that way.”
Seeking out that inspiration, Lenae moved to Los Angeles from Chicago in the thick of the pandemic in 2020. If moving away from home wasn’t already a huge stress, maneuvering doubt amidst a crisis that left many creatives alarmed by their sudden lack of financial livelihoods further complicated the process of writing HYPNOS. “I took an even longer time than I normally have to figure out where I wanted to go musically beyond the four walls in my bedroom. This album took a lot of different forms throughout the process,” Lenae explains. “Going through peaks and valleys of feeling rejuvenated and refreshed and also feeling not inspired and not wanting to do music at all, almost depressed, during lockdown… That was a time where all of us questioned our identity and our career paths. How much value we bring to music and the world in general.”
Lenae incorporated astrological, surreal imagery into her first EP, 2016’s Moon Shoes. Dreams, the moon, and nighttime are consistent themes that continued to appear on her subsequent projects Midnight Moonlight and Crush, while her debut full-length takes those motifs a step further into abstraction. HYPNOS is named after the Greek god of sleep, who was able to deceive Zeus twice by lulling him into some beauty rest. “I read the story and I resonated with it,” Lenae explains. “I feel like [making] music can be very enchanting in that way, luring people into my world.” The personification of sleep seemed like the perfect inspiration for someone who’s always been a “little obsessed with dreams and in unearthly things.”
Although HYPNOS incorporates elements of sci-fi and Afrofuturism, Lenae also infuses old-school influences into her original take on R&B. With tender, self-reflective tracks like “Inside Out,” it’s clear that Lenae took influence from the genre’s late-’90s and early-aughts era. On that track, nylon acoustic guitars are bolstered by chimes, and a lush string arrangement as she sings about loving herself unconditionally. “I listened to a lot of Brandy during this album, specifically Full Moon,” she shares. “I love that album because it has elements of traditional R&B, but then the production has this kind of metallicky edge to it that feels very in-your-face and futuristic and dreamy. I wanted to paint a similar picture in my own way of traditional R&B as we know it with a Ravyn flair.”
“I listened to a lot of Brandy during this album, specifically Full Moon. I wanted to paint a similar picture in my own way of traditional R&B as we know it with a Ravyn flair.”
On HYPNOS she creates a world that’s sensual, self-reflective, and magical. On “Deep in the World,” which she describes as “fictional” and “Disney-like,” she sings about breathing underwater and living forever as a bionic girl falling deeper into the world. Her vocals are gossamer wisps of silk, stitching together the overwhelming awe of a world that won’t stop turning. “Help me leave a mark on this orbit,” she sings, searching alongside a tinny, motorik drumbeat. Meanwhile, “Inside Out” highlights a different kind of magical quality in her music: “I made it in a very vulnerable time,” she says, citing it as her current favorite from the album. “It was when the pandemic first started, and I was feeling really down and unsure of myself, and it almost served as a pick-me-up or a message that there’s light at the end of this. I’d never written a song to myself in that way of encouragement and empowerment.”
A key part of Ravyn's flair comes from integrating her Chicago creative community into her music. “I’ve been to a lot of places, and I don’t think that sense of community is as strong anywhere else,” she says of the city. She tells me she tried to do the “LA thing” by studio hopping and working with a variety of producers, but she found herself back in familiar company—including producers Monte Booker and Phoelix and rapper Smino. But even in LA it wasn’t hard to tap into that Chicago energy. “The essence of what we built in Chicago feels similar because all of us are here,” she says. “To be able to have cultivated this sound with my brothers and sisters from Chicago, and now be here and seeing everyone doing everything separately in their own right and being successful, is really inspiring.”
Voice memos of family members describing their ideal world also add dimension to Lenae’s creative planet across the album, actualizing an entire galaxy. “My world would look like a place where people take good care of creation and look out for the wellbeing of others perfectly,” Lenae’s mother states on one track. “Their energy will derive from God's love in their hearts.” It’s a pure answer from a parent who supported their child’s creative dreams from the beginning. Without her, Lenae explains, “I wouldn't be where I am today—or have been able to dream as big as I did—if a Debbie Downer was in my corner. Being so supportive, my mom being who she is, I think has made me feel as comfortable and competent as I do as an artist.”
“To be able to have cultivated this sound with my brothers and sisters from Chicago, and now be in LA and seeing everyone doing everything separately in their own right and being successful, is really inspiring.”
Later, on the lighthearted Monte Booker–produced “Higher,” another voice note closes out the song: her kid sister depicts her dream world ruled by “half-moon and half-sun.” “I love talking to kids, because their mental boundaries are non-existent,” Ravyn shares. “They think about things differently and more purely and innocently than adults. We put up these barriers in our brains that shouldn’t exist. So I get a lot of inspiration by talking to her and kids her age.” Getting that vision from her sister was special, especially since it mirrored a duality that’s prevalent in Lenae’s own musical world.
HYPNOS doesn’t only illustrate Ravyn Lenae’s love for the cosmos, but her craft illustrates her capacity for magical empathy. Her world-building comes from the voices of loved ones, blending generations and timelines—she looks back as much as she looks forward. On the soulful closer “Wish,” she reflects on her younger self. “It almost feels like this sense of longing for something or someone that hasn’t been fulfilled,” she says. “It feels like a love song, but a love letter to myself and to this album, and to me as an artist, of being on this constant journey of finding myself. It almost feels like I was talking to little Ravyn to dream big and always look internally for those answers and for the path, the road I want to take.” HYPNOS is only the beginning of Ravyn Lenae turning her desires into reality. FL
