Nataal’s Ghana editor sits down with Amaarae to talk about the girl fire that powers her debut album
While the world was crashing and burning, musician and songwriter Amaarae created a sonic masterpiece that would bring some magic into our now morbid world. The warrior princess born and raised between Ghana, London and the US, has shifted what we know as Ghanaian music with her debut album, ‘The Angel You Don’t Know’. Her mellow, siren-like voice combined with lyrical musings of love, affairs, confidence and heartbreak make this one of our generation’s best creations. I spoke to her on exploring fearlessness, confidence, femininity and the power of collaboration.
Benewaah: Your album is out! How are you feeling?
Amaarae: Tired. I’ve been working on this for months! But it’s nice to see the reception that the project is getting and seeing how people are really accepting what I think is quite a different energy in terms of African music.
Benewaah: How did you come up with the title?
Amaarae: It’s something my dad likes saying; “The Devil you know is better than the Angel you don’t know”. As I was working on my project, I started to explore different themes and different sounds. I was talking to one of the producers who said, “Yo, the way that you’re going in so many directions, it’s like you are putting all of your personalities in one space and just slapping everyone with it.” Then ‘The Angel You Don’t Know’ started to become a thing just because of the different dimensions of the music, the project and the content.
Benewaah: Which personalities shine on the project?
Amaarae: I think of confidence. I think of audacity. I think of vulnerability. Even on the most aggressive tracks there’s still vulnerability there because my voice is really soft. And the theme of love just takes on its own personality throughout. One minute it’s an inquisitive kind of love, the next it’s overly sexual love. One minute it’s more sensual, and then other times it’s just really sweet, you know? And other times it’s really nasty! There’s also anger, angst and craziness. There’s a lot going on.
Benewaah: You said before it came out that this project is for bad bitches.
Amaarae: Yes. This project completely defies traditional concepts around what women want or how we should behave. Even in the way that it toys with gender roles, gender fluidity and fluidity in terms of sexuality. I think African women, well at least the ones in our generation, don’t really give a fuck anymore. We’ve all reached a breaking point; we are basically desensitised to men’s behaviour. So we’re just going to do what we want to do. I think the world is better when women are in control. Women have a better sense of what the future looks like. Right now, there are so many women behind the scenes in African music, so that’s why it’s going so well.
Benewaah: One thing I’ve noticed for this rollout is that you are really embracing femininity.
Amaarae: It’s true yeah. I have a very balanced masculine and feminine side but in my music I always tended to lean towards my masculine side. With this project I was working out, I was eating well and my body was changing. I was just getting more in touch with my sexy side. Also, I turned 26 and I just felt more womanly. I felt like I wanted to convey that in the visuals as much as I also wanted to maintain the androgyny and still have this kickass energy.
Benewaah: My friend who just turned 26 says it’s the year that we step into our femininity.
Amaarae: Yeah, absolutely. Do you know what? 2020 is the year that I’ve seen a lot of black women come full circle. From career to motherhood, to growth and understanding of our communal and individual spaces. I’ve seen a lot of black women do incredible things in what is unarguably the shittiest year in the history of the world. People always say that black women are the strongest because they have to carry the world on their backs under the shittiest conditions. It’s literally what this year has been. Black women have been the superheroes of 2020.
Benewaah: Let’s talk about the album’s cover art and all its weirdness.
Amaarae: The cover art is done by Nhyahan and Toyosi. If you’ve ever seen their art, you know they are insane. This version of the cover art is actually the least intense illustration they came up with. They are daring and they pushed me a lot.
Benewaah: What inspired the cover art?
Amaarae: We wanted to make sure that we paid respect to cover art from the past, especially in the 1970s, artists like Osibisa, Fleetwood Mac and all that LSD-type trippy stuff. Then the next thing that we wanted to do was discuss the idea of women as gods. We wanted to talk about the transformation of going from girlhood to womanhood so you can see a bunch of little girls worshipping this sort of deity. The eyes and nose rings are an ode to punk rock. It’s a really layered piece but I think that in its core, it’s about always pushing yourself and defying the odds.
Benewaah: The songs are almost mixed together, what is the arc of the album?
Amaarae: Initially, we were going to have batches of songs that make sense together - afro or trap, or pop. But as time went on, I got the idea to take listeners on a journey. It’s supposed to be a constant ‘Okay I’m not expecting this’ but then it comes and it still makes sense to the overall theme.
The first track “D*A*N*G*E*R*O*U*S” is just a bunch of girls screaming “Fuck it up sis. Fuck it up!” That was a big risk that I took. I wanted to challenge listeners a little bit. The story is one of fearlessness. It’s also one of human emotion and imperfection, because if you listen closely through the tracks it’s like someone going through it - to going heavy on these drugs, to being a toxic lover, to being the person that is heartbroken at a party. There’s never really a sober moment. There’s always a new visceral experience.
Benewaah: I love how you create opportunities for other people. On your first project, you put on Camidoh and on this one, you introduced Moliy and Princess Adjua.
Amaarae: I spend a lot of my time on the internet looking for dope artists. If I find someone who is within my reach, I don’t hesitate to hit them up because they are bringing me freshness. I’m not the type of person to take all your sauce and not credit you for it. I’m not intimidated by anyone and what they have to offer. It’s a blessing.
With Moliy and Princess Adjua, her sister; I heard Moliy’s mixtape and sent her beats that I was struggling to write but I knew could be fire songs. And she killed it, especially ‘Sad Gurlz Luv Money’ – when I heart it I was like, “Oh shit! This girl washed me. Let me just do the last verse and go!” She’s incredible! Her and Mel (Princess Adjua) also get a madness on ‘Feel A Way’ – Mel knows how to start a song.
Cruelsantino and I have great chemistry. Same thing with Odunsi (the Engine) who always challenges me. And with Kojey, we always have a great time when we collaborate. I’m not afraid to open up my space for other artists to shine. I love it and I learn so much from working with other artists. To me, it’s a rite of passage. Once you have certain opportunities, you have to bring other people up.
Benewaah: What legacy do you want Amaarae to leave behind?
Amaarae: I think for sure it’s always going to be about how different I am and how different the type of energy that I brought to the West African scene. I just want the kids to say, “This was that punk rock chick that was doing the wildest stuff in the middle of everyone else doing what everyone else is doing.” That’s the path I want.
I think about Missy Elliott and how she had so many musical babies. Lil Wayne is one of her musical babies. That’s what I want to do. I just want to create a bunch of musical babies. And the one thing I want them to take away from me is the fearlessness and the power to always push the genre forward. I feel like African music as a whole can have such a huge global impact but we have to keep experimenting with new things.
Benewaah: What scares you most about the future?
Amaarae: I think that 2020 has taught me a lot of lessons. One is that with the unpredictability of life you just have to understand that no matter what you do, you can’t choose what happens. The future used to scare me but it doesn’t anymore. I find every new day exciting irrespective of the fact that what can happen can be terrible or fantastic or somewhere in between, you know? I think as a person I’m just ready for whatever.
The Angel You Don’t Know by Amaarae is out now. Find it here.
Read our interview with Amaarae from Nataal issue two here.