Larisha Paul
Contact Larisha Paul on X View all posts by Larisha Paul March 25, 2026
Andy Jackson* Two years ago, in May 2024, Ravyn Lenae spent a warm evening playing to a sizable crowd at UC Davis. The campus performance fell on the same day that she released the dreamy R&B single “Love Me Not” as the introduction to her second studio album, Bird’s Eye. “Obviously nobody knew the song,” Lenae, 27, recalls. “And as soon as the drums came in, I saw the crowd completely shift.”
When she thinks of it now, the performance calls to mind an ancient relic that surfaced a few months later: a video of MGMT playing an early version of “Kids” to a small but mighty crowd at Wesleyan University in 2003, two years before its official release. “That’s one of my favorite videos ever,” Lenae says. “Seeing a crowd have a physical reaction to something without being told to is such a human and raw experience that we don’t really get to have anymore.” As she watched the audience react to her set, she thought to herself, “There’s something really special about ‘Love Me Not.’”
Lenae’s instincts were right. In April 2025, nearly a full year after that college show, “Love Me Not” broke through at Number 81 on the Billboard Hot 100, and by last summer, it had jumped all the way to Number Five. (It’s also been used in millions of posts on TikTok.) “When we finished that song, I knew it was a big song — there’s something about it that strikes every chord, at least for me,” she says. “It was just a matter of time.”
In fact, her breakthrough wasn’t mere months in the making, but years. Lenae signed to Atlantic Records in 2016 as a bright-eyed 17-year-old following the independent release of her debut EP, Moon Shoes. That deal felt like a confirmation that everything was going according to plan, as she always figured it would. “You’re chasing that high of being on the brink — and that can happen multiple times a year, that can happen once every 10 years,” Lenae says. “But that’s the feeling you want to recapture and put in a bottle.”
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She’s spent most of the past year reflecting on that young, whimsical perspective as Bird’s Eye whisked her away on the road for months — including a primetime hometown performance at Lollapolloza in Chicago. “We planned a homecoming type of week leading up to the festival,” Lenae says. “It forced me back into that mindframe of coming home and remembering where I was, what I was thinking, who I was hanging out with, what I was listening to.”
She hosted a signing at Reckless Records, the local shop where she’d browse the vinyl racks as a teenager hooked on Kendrick Lamar and Janet Jackson. She also went back to Chicago High School for the Arts, the place that shaped her into a classically trained musician. “Those markers of time were important for me to feel, especially during that time,” she says. “Even moving forward, having those moments to check in and remember. Fifteen-year-old me would have been so excited and patient and grateful for where I’m at.”
Lenae had little experience with navigating the music industry when she was thrown into it. “That’s grounds for falling into situations that maybe were preventable, or you wish you didn’t,” she says. “But I think all of it, as a whole, teaches me something. It’s made me the woman I’m growing into, and I can be proud of that and keep going.” She really just wants to make music that means something to her. “I know that there is a purpose for all of this,” Lenae says. “That’s the thing that keeps me going. I feel like there’s like this rope attached to me, and I’m just pulling it. I don’t know where it’s taking me, but this is my rope.”
Now, as she puts the finishing touches on her upcoming third studio album, she’s feeling drawn toward a new direction. “I feel like I’m on the brink of something else, and that’s what keeps you infatuated with music and the process of it,” she says. “The need for that feeling doesn’t change.” Still, Lenae can’t rush the process if she wants to get it right. “It has to be something I can live with forever,” she adds. “This is the most I’ve gotten in the weeds of every part of the album.” The record is “nearing the end,” but Lenae is holding her cards close. “The thing that people can expect from me every time is I’m going to try something different, even if I’m just twisting the knob slightly to the left,” she says. “Every single time, I’m going to challenge the last thing.”
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At 27, Lenae is the most confident she’s ever been in her opinions and her voice. The clarity of her perspective is evident as she speaks, balancing hard-earned wisdom and eager curiosity. Her self-assurance has kept her armored against the backlash and backhanded compliments that have surfaced in some online discourse surrounding her music. “There was some stupid tweet that said, ‘She gives token Black girl, or Black girl in the white friend group,’” Lenae says. It was one thing when people assumed “Love Me Not” was performed by a white artist, which she chewed over privately with her family, friends, and team. But this was something else entirely.
“I felt like that was the perfect opportunity to really address what this type of mindset is and where it comes from,” she says. “Not so much to defend myself — I know who I am.” She just wanted to understand why she was being picked apart. In a TikTok post, Lenae addressed the comments, noting that her creative aesthetic is directly inspired by the likes of Chaka Khan, Minnie Riperton, and Diana Ross. “It’s really a disservice to Black women to think that we have to be one way or the other,” she continues. “It’s a really boring take and it also diminishes our history and what we come from.”
Like clockwork, Olivia Dean — another Black woman making music outside the parameters of what might be expected of her — was subjected to the same tired discourse just weeks after Lenae. “I didn’t like seeing that about Olivia,” Lenae says. “She knows who she is, so I’m not worried about her. But I think it’s a thing that we gotta keep talking about and keep challenging.” In the meantime, Lenae is surrounding herself with joy. She’s been spotted passionately soaking in performances from Jazmine Sullivan and Doechii with the fervor of a real music fan. She’s also appeared on projects from PinkPantheress, Charlie Puth, Kali Uchis, and more in recent months. Her circle of collaborators has also included Kaytranda, Childish Gambino, and Steve Lacy.
Over the years, Lenae has won the devotion of an audience that hears the future in her music. Simply put, they don’t play when it comes to her. “I have real soldiers supporting me who see it for me, the way I see it for myself,” Lenae says. “I feel lucky to have people who feel like they know me and have grown up with me.”
