"It's about young girls being outside, having a good time, and taking ownership of their youth."
Singer Amaarae spoke to Brut about her hit "Sad Girlz Luv Money," why she moved to Ghana to make music, and her latest album, "Fountain Baby."
Singer Amaarae spoke to Brut about her hit "Sad Girlz Luv Money," why she moved to Ghana to make music, and her latest album, "Fountain Baby."
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00♪ La la, I really like your body, I really like your body, I really wanna- ♪
00:05This is a banger.
00:06I was on my IG live, and I played it, I kid you not, like 30 times.
00:10And you know what, at the time, I was playing other stuff from the album,
00:14and people were gravitating to that more than, like, Sad Girls.
00:17♪ I really like your body, I really like your body, I really wanna- ♪
00:21And I just kept saying, like, it's a hit, it's a hit.
00:23So I might have just manifested that thrill, but I just really believed in the song.
00:27And that beat, that beat is really, that's really the real star.
00:32Like, that beat is just crazy.
00:36I was at a point where I was done with my last album,
00:39and I was just, like, looking for something that I felt like was missing.
00:44I think it was just, like, about embodying what the album kind of meant,
00:48which was just young girls just being outside, having a good time,
00:53and really, like, taking ownership of that.
00:56Taking ownership of their youth, taking ownership of their lives, you know?
01:03I remember she had told me she had wrote it, like, the day before she went in the studio,
01:08cut it, and I come in, and I just hear this freestyle.
01:10I'm like, okay, we have something here.
01:19And I think it was just, for me, it's like, it's also about, you know, Ghana,
01:23and, like, young Africans repping, you know what I mean?
01:36Shout out to Shaq.
01:37Shaq is Kali's manager and creative director, and Shaq was up on Ombrea, like, early.
01:43Like, she was up on it early.
01:44When she came to visit me at the studio, and she was like,
01:47yo, like, what do you want Kali to do?
01:49Do you want her to do anything?
01:50Send me some music for her.
01:51I was like, yeah, okay, bet.
01:53And I sent Sad Girls, and I think, like, a month later, I was chilling, and Shaq was
01:57like, yo, I got something for you, and she just, like, sends me the verse, and I'm like,
02:00all right, now we cooking with gas.
02:02It's on now.
02:08When I got the Kali verse, I was like, I could have just left it and been like, all right,
02:11cool, we can just slot Kali's verse in right here, but I literally went back in the studio,
02:15I recorded new backing vocals, I recorded, like, a new intro to, like, compliment Kali's intro.
02:22I just made sure, like, myself, Kali, and Mali all had, like, equal shine, and, like,
02:28could really bring the record together.
02:30Why did you decide to move to Ghana to pursue your music career?
02:34I was a DJ, too, at that time, so I kind of got to see the evolution of, like, you know,
02:41the Wizz's, and the Stone Boys, and, like, you know, the DeVitos, and Runtown, and that
02:48was, like, literally right when I was leaving college.
02:51And I was like, yo, there's no way you can tell me America is a place that makes sense
02:57for me to make music right now.
02:58Let me go back to Africa.
03:04I think that making music from home and bringing it to the world is a much more authentic way
03:10to tell my story than, you know, to be in Atlanta or L.A., like, there's no real connection,
03:16you know?
03:17As a woman in Ghana, in the music space, like, how has that been, like, for you?
03:25You know, female musicians, especially where we come from, are two things.
03:31Either they have to be super, like, Christian or super raunchy, right?
03:36There really was no space for an artist that is dynamic in their appearance, in their expression,
03:45in their music, so I had a very hard time being taken seriously for, like, a really
03:51long time.
03:52And it wasn't really until I started to do things outside of Ghana, like, you know, play
03:57festivals and it would be, like, tens of thousands of people, or, you know, do fashion collaborations
04:03and this, that, and the third, that people were like, oh, wait a second, like, this is
04:10something worth, you know, championing and supporting.
04:15Throw away your hard drive, your motherf***ing single, your motherf***ing album.
04:19Repent.
04:20Because Fountain Baby's coming home.
04:22How has your sound evolved, and what are you trying to convey on this album versus what
04:27you conveyed on the last one?
04:29Honestly, it's a very ballsy and boisterous album, and I think, like, that comes across.
04:38I think with the age of You Don't Know, everything was much more relaxed and chill and just very
04:43playful and fun.
04:45And I think Fountain Baby is playful, too, but it's, like, playful and, like, a I'm not
04:49here to joke around with you n****s type of vibe.
04:53They already found out?
04:56No, they f***ed around and they found out, and it's only the beginning.
05:01Ah, I see.